where have you never been in the lower mainland?

SpongeG · #1 Posted **Oct 11, 2016, 5:35 AM**

i was driving around the coquitlam centre area the other day and was looking at the skytrain and thinking how many people will come ride out here who have never ever been to the area before in person.

which made me think how often people get around the LM, I've always gone everywhere in the decades i've lived here, i think its nothing to drive from burquitlam to tswassen mills for example, no plan needed just go. Or go to white rock for fish and chips or steveston for fish and chips etc, drive along zero avenue on a boring afternoon, take backroads in langley whatever.

anyway then i know people i worked with in the past who have never gone anywhere other then where they live or work, like i had a number of coworkers who lived in richmond and the office was in new west and when we moved to burnaby they were all freaked out cause they had never been to burnaby before which was such a foreign concept to me, and the idea of going to downtown vancouver to them was like crazy why would they go down there.

so is there anywhere you haven't gone in the LM? or do you regularly traverse the land for no specific reason?

me and an old roommate used to on a whim jump in the car at midnight and go shopping at the grocery store in bellingham (pre 9-11) once or twice a month

RichmondOval · #2 Posted **Oct 11, 2016, 6:50 AM**

I mostly travel between Burnaby, Richmond, and Vancouver. I also rarely go to the North Shore. Other than that, I do not think I have ever travelled to any other municipality in the lower mainland, albeit maybe once or twice at most to the one's unmentioned.

Pinion · #3 Posted **Oct 11, 2016, 8:25 AM**

I can't name an area that I haven't been to. Maybe Belcarra? I don't know if that counts when I lived in Deep Cove and could see it every day. Suburbs need some sort of nice hiking trail or destination shopping for me to go there more than once every few years though.

In the summer we'll drive all over. This year we went to Fort Langley, White Rock, Steveston, Horseshoe Bay, Deep Cove, Spanish Banks, UBC, Richmond night market etc etc... we anywhere where you can go on a nice walk. Did some work training in Cloverdale, picked up a TV in Coquitlam Centre, went to Richmond Centre to check out PSVR... probably the one area that I want to explore more is the Port Moody waterfront. My uncle used to live in PoCo but I don't know if I've done more than just drive through Port Moody. West Van is my main "out of town" destination, would live there if I could. Going to Tsawassen Mills soon, assuming it's not under water with this big storm coming.

I take pride in almost never needing GPS to go anywhere, just tell me a major cross street and I'll almost always know - at least north of Fraser. Richmond/Surrey/Langley is not my forte.

Our natural setting is one of the few truly great things about Vancouver, I can't imagine not taking advantage of it.

BobLoblawsLawBlog · #4 Posted **Oct 22, 2016, 6:15 PM**

I've never been to downtown Coquitlam, but I have been around the tri city area.
Also the only places I've been to in Surrey are Whalley and South Surrey/White Rock. Otherwise the rest of the city is completely unknown to me. The same goes for West Van, I've only gone through the highway.

Klazu · #5 Posted **Oct 22, 2016, 6:49 PM**

I have been living here almost five years and there are very few places I have not been to. Few coming to mind are Alouette Lake and Stave Lake area and then the area between White Rock and Aldergrove. Also Tilbury Island and Michell Island are small pieces of land I have never driven through.

All of them are on my todo list, so the list is getting shorter and shorter.

scryer · #6 Posted **Oct 22, 2016, 8:07 PM**

Port Moody and Coquitlam for me, along with Belcarra. I hope to change two of those this year when that lovely Evergreen extension opens.

trofirhen · #7 Posted **Oct 22, 2016, 11:08 PM**

Never been to Cloverdale. What's it like?

BobLoblawsLawBlog · #8 Posted **Oct 23, 2016, 3:26 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Never been to Cloverdale. What's it like?

I imagine it's like a mini Alberta

Pinion · #9 Posted **Oct 23, 2016, 5:35 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobLoblawsLawBlog

I imagine it's like a mini Alberta

I've been to Cloverdale but not Alberta and that sounds right to me too. Maybe more East Indians though.

SpongeG · #10 Posted **Oct 23, 2016, 5:36 AM**

cloverdale is kinda quaint, they used its downtown in smallville.

but its been taken over by strip malls in recent years. The casino is nothing exciting. it kinda does look like alberta lol

supermanhomepage.com

whatnext · #11 Posted **Nov 29, 2016, 1:34 AM**

Anmore or Belcarra.

Jebby · #12 Posted **Nov 29, 2016, 4:14 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatnext

Anmore or Belcarra.

Probably those two as well for me. Unless you consider sailing up the Indian Arm and passing along Belcarra's waters as visiting it.

trofirhen · #13 Posted **Nov 29, 2016, 4:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jebby

Probably those two as well for me. Unless you consider sailing up the Indian Arm and passing along Belcarra's waters as visiting it.

Funny you mentioned that. Before opening this thread, I was going to say "I've never been up Indian Arm." Only as far as Deep Cove. Indian Arm seems a true fjord! (any pictures?

)

GlassCity · #14 Posted **Nov 29, 2016, 7:48 PM**

Pretty funny to hear people's lack of experience with Surrey, like Cloverdale for instance. Living in Ladner, Langley has traditionally been the go-to big box centre for my family so I've travelled through Cloverdale a million times.

I'm looking at the map right now, and I don't think there are many places I've actually never been to. Deep Cove, Belcarra/Anmore and Port Coquitlam are probably the only ones. I've travelled through Port Moody on the bus but never got off, but I'll probably do that once I go check out the Evergreen Extension in a few weeks.

Places I've been to but go very rarely are the North Shore, Maple Ridge, North Burnaby and the Tri-Cities. I travel around fairly extensively around the region because I play rugby and I go to a different suburb almost every weekend for games. My parents are like Pinion too, and will easily go from Abbotsford to the North Shore and back in a day, so when I tag along I get to see a lot of places I normally wouldn't have.

Another thing that's interesting to me is that Pinion implies that he knows Coquitlam very well, but not Richmond or Surrey. It's understandable, but growing up in Richmond/South Delta, Coquitlam has always been the first place that comes to mind when I think of "a place that's fucking far." Probably why I've been perplexed on these forums when some people say the Evergreen Line should've been built before the Canada Line.

Jebby · #15 Posted **Nov 29, 2016, 10:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Funny you mentioned that. Before opening this thread, I was going to say "I've never been up Indian Arm." Only as far as Deep Cove. Indian Arm seems a true fjord! (any pictures?

)

We owned a boat when I was a kid and used to go up Indian Arm occasionally.

I always loved this power station. Such a beautiful building in a spectacular location. It reminded me so much of my school (St. George's)

Interesting note, the power station was designed by the same man who designed the Vancouver Court House, Empress Hotel, and British Columbia Parliament Buildings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Rattenbury

Conrad Yablonski · #16 Posted **Nov 30, 2016, 1:52 AM**

• Video Link

nname · #17 Posted **Nov 30, 2016, 2:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlassCity

Another thing that's interesting to me is that Pinion implies that he knows Coquitlam very well, but not Richmond or Surrey. It's understandable, but growing up in Richmond/South Delta, Coquitlam has always been the first place that comes to mind when I think of "a place that's fucking far." Probably why I've been perplexed on these forums when some people say the Evergreen Line should've been built before the Canada Line.

Grew up in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, we think the same for Richmond/South Delta

GlassCity · #18 Posted **Nov 30, 2016, 3:10 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by nname

Grew up in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, we think the same for Richmond/South Delta

People in Richmond think South Delta's far

Pinion · #19 Posted **Nov 30, 2016, 4:09 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by GlassCity

Another thing that's interesting to me is that Pinion implies that he knows Coquitlam very well, but not Richmond or Surrey. It's understandable, but growing up in Richmond/South Delta, Coquitlam has always been the first place that comes to mind when I think of "a place that's fucking far." Probably why I've been perplexed on these forums when some people say the Evergreen Line should've been built before the Canada Line.

My uncle (the same one who later moved to PoCo) lived in Coquitlam and I went to elementary school for one year at Cape Horn with my cousins when I first moved back to Canada. I go to Richmond/Steveston more often these days, but Coquitlam Centre has long been my favourite of the eastern suburbs and where I saw myself moving if the north shore ever priced me out.

Also go to IKEA Coquitlam a lot more than I'd like to admit, which is way faster than Richmond due to the highway.