Stewarts Farm, White Rock and Langley Fort

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Tuesday June 25th

This morning Greg's friends Randy and Delores came and picked us all up and took us on an adventure. Mary and Alan enjoyed catching up with them. Randy had visited NZ and spent Christmas with them when the boys were little and came back again a few years later with his new wife Delores. (Message to Hamish and Craig: Randy is still wearing his fireman's belt, even though he is now retired!)

Well when you go out with Randy it is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you will get. So everyone climbed into his seven seater and we came to Stewarts Farm. British Columbia was settled at the same time as NZ so the lovely old farm house there was very like a NZ colonial house. It was quite large and had been restored to look as it would have at the time. The grounds had been planted with cottage and kitchen gardens and went right down to the rivers edge. The river had been a great source of crabs and oysters but they are no longer a commercial operation. This charming farm was about a 20 min drive from where Greg and Randy grew up but they had never been there. 

 This is the whole cast on the porch of the Stewart Farm homestead.

Alan, Randy, Mary, Kathleen holding me, Ted, Delores and Greg.  Please note this is an international cast.

Back into the van and onto the coast to Cresent Beach where bachs and cribs now share space with mansions. These charming little seaside villages were where you once went for a stroll along the pier to remind you of the mother land. 

At White Rock beach, the pier is still there and so is the white rock. Over the years the white rock suffered from a lot of graffiti damage. It all got too much when overnight someone painted it black with a skull and cross bones on it. The authorites decided to paint it white! Of course it still gets tagged and they still keep painting it. They even had to move it to put the railway line in, and it is not a small rock. But it is important as the place takes it name from it. Looking straight across the beach was the USA. We were right on the border. 

THE white rock at White Rock.

Randy decided to drive along Avenue 0 where the houses on the right were in the USA and the ones on the left were in Canada. There was a huge queue of trucks lined up at the border crossing. Randy eventually turned off as we weren't going to the Niagara Falls as that would have taken days.

The lunch stop was at Otter Coop in the outskirts of Aldergrove. It was like a huge general store but it had a small cafe set amonst the clothes and shoes. Mary did not get time to check out the shoes which were all on sale.:-(

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Fort Langley was founded in 1827 as a fur trading post. The furs were sent back to England to make fur coats and beaver top hats. 

 Making some new friends.

 They also made barrels at the cooperage on site to transport salted salmon and cranberries. There was only one original building left on site, the rest been very realistic reproductions. In the Big House, which is now a reproduction, British Columbia was proclaimed a colony at a ceremony in November 19th 1858. 

 Alan getting into character with an appropriate costume.

The whole site was originally surrounded by a palisade wall. A small section has been reproduced with towers. 

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