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Vancouver Maritime Museum surprises!

April 1, 2009 | Tips from Us > Vancouver, Museums
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I had the opportunity to be toured around the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vanier Park this morning.  I have to admit that it had been awhile since I had been through the museum.  I fully expected to be awed by the size and historic significance of the RCMP Arctic Schooner, St. Roch and I knew I would be fondly reminded of the educational richness of the exhibits featuring shipwrecks, fireboats, pirates, deep-sea exploration, the old CP steam liners...and I was....but what I didn't realize is that the current Vancouver Maritime Museum is much more than a look at our maritime past - it is very much about learning from our past as we look forward to our future.  The newest exhibit is called Melt Down and it is a look at how oceans react to global warming.  Visitors learn about changing marine ecosystems, the uncertain future of salmon stocks, CO2 emissions, carbon footprints and various concepts about sustainability.  I was very impressed and wished I had hours to digest all the great information contained within this fascinating building.  The picture in this blog shows the difference in size of the Arctic summer ice in 1997 (all the white bit) and then the Arctic summer ice in 2007 (smaller bit of white outlined). 

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Posted by Kathleen, Vancouver at 06:09 PM

Revelstoke Nickelodeon Museum

April 20, 2008 | Tips from Us > Revelstoke, Museums
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 On a recent trip to the newly opened Revelstoke Mountain Resort, I had the opportunity to spend an hour at the Revelstoke Nickelodeon Museum in the heart of the town centre.   Once you make it past the amazing gift shop packed with unusual musical knick-knacks, antique and modern mechanical music machines, the room opens to reveal hundreds of beautiful mechanical instruments from the 18th Century to the 1950s.  This museum is the only mechanical music museum in western Canada and is operated by a charming couple that between the two of them know more about this sort of stuff than one could imagine.  Make sure to enjoy their one hour guided tour to learn about the musical instruments, Victorian music boxes, player pianos, pipe organs and colourful juke boxes.

The highlight for me (beyond the cheerful music) was the RCA/Mills Panoram Video Jukebox (circa 1940) which is basically a wooden box that contains what is essentially the first music video, only the films shown were called "soundies".  According to the written description on the machine, over 1850 different soundies were produced in the early 1940s with musical styles ranging from Country and Western to Big Band. 

So, when the sking day is done, head on downtown to this unique and enjoyable museum.  You are sure to learn something, and be grandly entertained along the way.

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Posted by Kathleen, Vancouver at 08:34 PM

More Than A Railway Museum

March 19, 2008 | Tips from Us > Osoyoos, Museums

 My colleague and I had an extra hour before our meetings in Osoyoos began and the road signs pointing us to the Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad were so darn easy to follow, we thought, "what the heck, lets go check it out".  Off we went.  This attraction is a 5 minute drive from the Osoyoos Visitor Centre, tucked in behind an array of industrial buildings. From the outside, it appears to be a large shed, and truthfully, our expectations were modest.  But what a surprise we got once we made our way through the giftshop, up a set of stairs and through a set of double doors!  While there most certainly is a model railroad incorporated into this miniature village, it is so much more....3000 feet more including 8000 little painted people (painted by members of the family that operate the attraction), a working Ferris wheel, a ski hill complete with an operational gondola system, Euopean style houses and buildings, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, running cars, even a brothel!  In fact, the model railroad, impressive as it is, was a secondary experience to just trying to take in all the detail of the village.

While we were there, a man in his twenties asked the owner if he could take his picture because "visiting this place was in the top 5 highlights of his life".  My colleague and I planned to spend about 30 minutes...we could have stayed most of a day.  At a modest $6 entrance fee ($4 for children) this is a must-see while in Osoyoos.  You can even buy some of the little painted people and start your own village at home!  The Gift Shop is well supplied with unique stuff including some great kids toys; the attraction is wheelchair accessible, easy to find, well maintained and well cared for.  I will be back.

 

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Posted by Kathleen, Vancouver at 10:09 AM