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All righty, friends. We are coming to you from Fernie, BC. This week, we are exploring this beautiful mountain town here in the Canadian Rockies. Couldn't be happier to be back in my home province of British Columbia and exploring one of the most iconic small towns (Fernie British Columbia) you can visit in the entire province. We've wanted to come here for a long time. We finally made it happen and we couldn't be more excited. There's going to be so many fun things to do here. Even the baby's excited. Even baby's excited. We're going to show you what you can do in the town and how you can enjoy nature as well. Exactly.
You can think of this as your mini little Fernie travel guide. All righty, guys. Freshly arrived here in Fernie. We got here right at lunchtime. So, we found a restaurant right away. We were so hungry. We opted for Mexican. This place is called Luchador and they had burritos. Baby is having her fruit puree. Very happy about it. And yes, we are just going to chow down before we start exploring. I've arrived in my home province with an appetite. Yes. So, I ended up going for the beef. Take a look at that. Absolutely loaded. Oh, yeah. That is good. Delicious beef. And it comes also with rice,
cabbage, really nice texture, really tasty. And um yeah, this is the fuel that's going to allow me to explore downtown Fernie this afternoon. I got the fish one. They had so many different options. It was really hard to choose. But well, fish and beans looks pretty good to me. It's cod, fried cod. That's really nice. That would make really good fish and chips as well. Getting the ground running. Just basically parked the vehicle. Let's go eat, then let's go sightsee. Okay, so we just finished visiting the museum here in Fernie, British Columbia. This is a
must visit spot if you want to learn a little bit about the history of the town, the origins of the town most importantly. So Sam and I went around reading the different info boards they have. And I actually took notes on my phone because I found the history fascinating. They've had so many different tragedies in Fernie and they've had to reinvent themselves over and over again. It's kind of shocking how resilient they've had to be. So, let me just read you some of the bullet points of like the things that stood out to me. So, first, 1902, they had a coal mining disaster that killed
130 people. This was a big mining town. Then, just 2 years later in 1904, they have a huge fire that burns down 65 buildings in the town at a cost of half a million dollars, which was huge money back then. Then a few years later, 1908, the great fire destroys the entire town in just 90 minutes. Like in an hour and a half, everything was burnt down. They had to rebuild everything here. Then 1923, the Home Bank of Canada was involved in some rather fishy illegal activities. So again, people lost huge amounts of money. And then we fast forward to 1986 when the last underground
mine was closed. Um, so many people depended from the mining industry, their main source of income. So that was quite devastating. And then in the 1990s, Fernie decided to reinvent itself as a tourism destination. So I mean, the place is spectacular. You are surrounded by mountains, lakes, forests. They've now got resorts and ski hills, that sort of thing. So it's a big tourist destination here in BC and they have continued with the mining but modern mining and that started up in 2013 I believe. So yeah that's just a little bit of history of what Fernie is about
its origins what they're up to today. And we found the museum really fascinating. Sam's also going to share some of his thoughts. Well I thought Audrey's history lesson was very complete. So, I don't have that much to add. One thing that I'll say is that the admission was by donation. So, it can be free or as much as you'd like to donate. I love that type of system. Just allows anyone to visit. Another interesting little tidbit of history about Fernie is that it was an ideal rumrunner location nearby the Alberta border and also the US border during the prohibition era. So,
all kinds of history here. And unlike the town I grew up in BC in the 90s where when the industry left the town was devastated, Fernie has picked up the ball and is now one of the premier locations in this part of British Columbia, Canada for skiing, for bicycling, for hiking, for basically everything outdoors. And uh kudos to them for being this resilient and forward thinking as well. babies enjoying the flowers and the butterflies. Look at this. All righty. So, first up, we've just enjoyed the loveliest walk here around City Hall. The gardens are in bloom. It is full of bees, butterflies, vibrant colors. It was really, really nice. And
aside from that, I also wanted to show you guys I picked up a brochure while we were at the museum. This is a Fernie Heritage Walk. And if you open up the brochure, they've got 16 different historic buildings that are scattered across town that you can visit. So far, we've hit up the library. We've seen the city hall. We've walked down the miner's path. And there's a cathedral just up ahead. This little town is just charming so far. So walkable, so family friendly, and baby's liking it, too. She's being rocked as to sleep at the moment. I think she's going to fall asleep any minute.
Yeah. But so far, first impressions of Fernie are very favorable. We're loving being here. We're loving the laidback, chill BC, small town vibe, and that is a very unique thing, friends. Good morning. Well, good morning. Welcome to day two of our trip to Fernie. So, yeah, yesterday was all about kind of getting orientated in the town, walking around on foot, checking out the historic buildings. Today's going to be a very different day. We're going to be exploring the nature side of Fernie. And I think that's what most people come here to do. They come here to get
on the trails, to explore the lakes, to see all the natural beauty that this place has to offer. So, we're going to be doing that. But first off, we need to eat. So, we are going to an absolute institution of a place here. It's a special bagel shop, Big Bang Bagels. They have a huge selection of bagels. Yes, we did research this place. We're going to go over and have a gourmet breakfast. Well, we got banged, as the locals would say, at the at that bagel shop. Big bang bagel. We had bagels for breakfast, guys. It was good. I got the Avalanche which had avocado,
cheddar cheese, cream cheese, red onions, and also like a herb and I think it was a herb and mayo added to the mix. So really, really nice. Really filling. What did you get? I got the smoked salmon variety with some red onions, cream cheese, alfalfa. It was really tasty, really filling. One thing I'll mention about the place, it had good indoor and outdoor seating, and we also noticed a lot of people just grabbing coffees and bagels to go. So, lots of options in terms of how you want to have it. So, yeah, really good. And let's go. Let's go do something now.
Well, we are ready to tackle Creek. We bought this backpack for the baby for this exact type of occasion. We're going to go see waterfalls and it's just gorgeous outside today. We have the sun coming through. Yesterday it was so hazy. It was so hard to see anything. Today we've got a little more visibility of the mountains. Perfect temperature, beautiful weather. Girl's got her sun hat on. Yes, she does. She's ready to go. So am I. So, let's go. Uh let's go see what this trail is all about. We are officially on the trail. We parked the car at the visitor center and we are doing Fairy Creek Falls. We've got Baby Relly in the
hiking backpack, so we'll see how long it actually takes. It says 1 to 2 hours, but we are carrying a heavy little chunky monkey. I just wanted to say how good of an information center that place is. Very clean and spacious bathrooms, nice interactive displays, and really friendly staff. Yesterday when we arrived into town, we picked up a map about all the trails here in Fernie. So, it's a great place to stop when you're first coming into town as well and also the best place to stop when you're going to do this hike. Indeed. Well, lead away, my friend. Oh,
also I was concerned about bear activity since we do have the baby with us this time around, but they said that no bears have been spotted in a couple of weeks. We should be okay. We're going to make plenty of noise. There's also a lot of people on the trail today. Lots of vehicles parked here, meaning that um we're not the only people out here. We're going to spook them. Yeah, we'll keep our voices loud and uh yeah, we didn't bring bear spray, but uh we're not hoping to meet one. Hi. Hello. How's our cutie pie doing? Oh, I'm getting tickle.
This is Sam's workout today. baby on a backpack. That's right. And she's sleeping. She's enjoying the sedan ride. And here I am sweating like a mule. So, let's keep going. Avalanche terrain. Look who woke up just in time for the waterfall. For the fairy, the fairy creek falls. Woo! So cute, baby. Nothing. No. Oh, learning about plants that look like raspberries, girl. We're learning about our natural environment out here in the wilderness of British Columbia. Does it get
any better than this girl? Papa's home province, I think. So, hola. Hello, out India. Wow. Welcome to Fernie Brewing Company. Yes, France. Did we ever earn that beer after our hike this morning? We sure did. So, yeah, I got the Ridgewalk Red Ale and um I'm so thirsty after that hike. It sure got hot near the end. So, awesome beer here. This is great. We for some reason thought we were going to be able to grab food here as well, but it is just a place to grab a pint and some snacks. They have things like potato
chips and pretzels. So, this is an appetizer before our lunch, but um a very welcome stop. Wow, look at this. Look at the view. Look at the chairs. Look at the chairs down there. Look at the whole day. There are chairs down at the lake. So, we are at Island Lake Lodge. Unbelievable place. Unbelievable. The highlight of the day. The highlight of the trip. Honestly, I didn't even know that you could stay here. There's accommodations here at the Island Lake Lodge. We completely missed out. Next time we will be
coming back. Oh yeah, but yeah, we just enjoyed lunch at their beastro. I believe it's called the Bear Beastro. I had the most unbelievable bowl of ramen. It was like traveling back to Japan. Yeah. And Sam's burger. And my burger was fantastic. It felt like Shake Shack inspired. I felt like I was getting the Double Smoke Shack or something. It was so good. Just like just gourmet bun, just beautiful patties, the smashed burger, the two smashed burgers, so much cheese. And the food was so good. We got dessert. I got an ice cream sandwich. Yeah. Salted caramel ice cream,
chocolate chip cookies. I got the Jo Louie, which was kind of like a decadent chocolate cake with a bit of marshmallow filling. Yeah. Um, so good. We actually shared everything. We're like, "Oh my gosh, you got to try this." It's like we were like competing to uh we were both competing to try each other's thing, but we were also very happy to share with one another. Yeah. So, yeah, just a phenomenal meal. And the nicest thing about being here at the lodge, taking the effort to drive here. It was 30 minutes, right? Yeah. So, we spent 30 minutes to drive here. Now,
we have some beautiful hiking trails. So, we've already done quite a bit of hiking. We're not going to do a lot, but there's a path down here to the lake. Down to the lake. We're going to do a bit of the lake trail. Also, baby did amazing. She slept the whole time we were eating. So, we had a really nice, quiet, peaceful meal. And now she's awake, ready to hike. Baby is like the ultimate traveler. I know you shouldn't brag too much about your own kids, but like she's just been so good on this trip. It's been so amazing. So, thank you, baby. Wow. And here we are. Lead us there. Lead us down this beautiful path. Yeah, many
Wow. Girl, that a healthy dose of wow. I'll also mention you can go canoeing here. It's a little bit late in the day, so sun's going down. We don't have enough time to make it happen this time around. But next time we come back here because we have to come back here maybe, I don't know, summer, autumn, I would love to take a canoe out on the lake and in winter. I'd love to come here after a snowstorm and just get stuck here for like, you know, 3 days. Look, we need to plan it. You know, drive out here right before a big dump. Whoops. Oops. Whoops.
We'll be requiring accommodations a few nights longer. Yes. Willing to do dishes. So, we are ending our day here at Island Lake Lodge. It is time to drive back to our accommodations. Tomorrow, we continue with our road trip. So, how about some final thoughts? Oh, man. Fernie really exceeded my expectations. I knew it was a popular small town in BC. I've heard this is a place that Kiwis and Aussies flock to work at both during the summer and in the winter for the ski season. But it's just incredible. There are so many trails here. There's so much natural beauty that with just 2 days, we really, really,
really just barely scratched the surface. Even Baby thinks that, too. She's like, "Baby wants to come back." So, we don't live far from here. So, this will not be our last time coming here. Not by a long shot. I think this is what BC is all about. This is what the most beautiful province in Canada is all about. Small towns like this that just have so much to offer in terms of outdoor adventures, in terms of really nice hospitality and good tourism. Doesn't feel overwhelming here. Doesn't feel run over. Like this is not B. This is a much quieter alternative than going to somewhere like Banff. So if you're if you're
road tripping in BC or you're near the Alberta border in the southern part of the province, head over to BC. Head over to Fernie, British Columbia and you're going to have a great time.
