the best place on earth...

My family and I recently returned from a week spent exploring parts of British Columbia. Specifically the southern parts from Vancouver to Cranbrook and back. With over 2000 km to travel and only a week to do it, the trip was an ambitious one from the start. Never mind the fact that our Ford Focus, overstuffed with kids, bikes and gear left us wondering more than a few times whether or not we would actually make it to the top of that next summit along the way.

Never-the-less, we were excited about the trip and despite the rush and some of the challenges faced along the way, we still managed to see some really great places and were provided with many reasons as to why BC should be considered as "the Best Place on Earth!"


One of the main reasons for this particular route was so that we could visit some of our friends that had recently moved away from the Vancouver area. It seems like lately more and more of our friends are pulling up roots and replanting themselves in parts scattered across the province, sad perhaps but a great reason for a road trip! This time around the plan was to hit Lac Le Jeune, Kamloops, and Cranbrook with various stops in between, most important for me was a stop at Panorama Ski Resort outside of Invermere for a couple of days of mountain biking.

Because of all the places that we had to be and the time that we had to get there we ended up spending a lot of time on the road, staring longingly at majestic mountain vistas, lakes, pristine rivers and vast forests (sadly more than a few devastated by the beetle) through the windshield of our belaboured Focus wagon. Still, we did manage a few key stops at places like the last spike in the transcontinental railroad, Rogers Pass, the Hope slide and other significant points of Canadian and British Columbia history, just to keep the trip educational for our boys. Of equal importance, we were able to glimpse a few areas of the province that we would like to see more of and so are better able to plan our next trip into parts of ...the best place on Earth!

Which brings me to my final point, if there's to be a point in this particular story at all. During the trip I often found myself caught up in our surroundings, from the devastating results of the Pine Beetle in the Kamloops area, to the Shushwap, to the rugged mountain passes around Revelstoke, Golden and Invermere, to the deer on the street in front of the house we were staying at in Cranbrook, to the desert of Osoyoos (you get the picture). This trip, for whatever reason extended my sense of community from our little piece of Vancouver-Hastings to the greater community of British Columbia. Maybe its because of all the people we now know in these places, I don't know but this trip made me realize what a great place we are a part of.

There has been a certain amount of objection and negative comment to the BC governments decision to identify our province as "the best place on earth". Many of the negative comments identify the narrow mindedness of such a label and point out equally fantastic parts of others places in the world. Others point out some of the challenges to living in BC and, more specifically Vancouver as a result of high housing prices and so on. While I understand these challenges and also accept that I have seen some great things in the places I've been, places like Germany, Mexico, Fiji, Australia, I point out that I (and many of us) have always returned to BC. For me, and for most of us that live here, British Columbia is the best place on Earth and I think thats the point to the governments message. Perhaps more of us should stop and take a look at what we have for a minute instead of always finding ways to point out what we don't have or what we should have, or what is owed to us.

If you are a British Columbian, BC really should be the best place on Earth!