A yummy cookbook, indeed!

That's my friend Sylvia.

She owns Fairholme Manor in Victoria, BC and wrote a cookbook.

That's why she's on the cover and I'm not.

OK, I did edit the cookbook, which is the most appetizing array of yummy recipes for breakfasts and brunches, accompanied by fabulous photos.

A lot of people asked me if editing the cookbook meant I had to make all the recipes.

Nope.

I merely played with the words to make sure it all made sense. I also wrote all the copy for the jacket and the foreword to the book that begins

As a travel writer, I sleep around a lot.

It was a fun gig!

You can order the book from Fairholme Manor's website, or if you're in western Canada it's available in many kitchen shops and bookstores.

On Whidbey Island, stop by Moonraker Books in Langley.

It makes the perfect hostess gift!

Discover Victoria's Chinatown on foot

One of my favorite ways to see a city is by going on a walking tour.

But the tours are only as good as the guides, and John Adams of Discover the Past in Victoria is one of the best.

The historian knows his stuff, but also presents it in an entertaining and engaging way.

His walking tour menu includes ghostly walks, neighbourhood walks and Chinatown.

I went on the 90-minute Chinatown tour and learned a lot about this provincial capital.

Did you know that Victoria's Chinatown is the oldest Chinatown in Canada?

And if you do take the tour, make sure you save time to have lunch at one of the restaurants in Chinatown.

John will steer you in the right direction.

John Adams gives walking tours of Chinatown.
Photo by Sue Frause.

A new stage in town - For eats, not theater

I'd just spent four hours on a bus from Courtenay to Victoria on Vancouver Island, so when my innkeeper friend Sylvia Main picked me up I was ready for a table, chair, food and wine.

We went to a new restaurant in the Fernwood neighborhood of this capital city.

Stage is owned by George and Linda Szasz, the same couple that has Paprika Bistro. Located near The Belfry Theatre, it specializes in small plates and wine.

It tasted mighty fine.

Stage in Victoria. Photo by Sue Frause.

Go green with Fairmont

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is making green the color for summer.

Now through September 3, overnight guests with hybrid vehicles can park for free at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel and her sister properties The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, The Fairmont Waterfront, The Fairmont Empress in Victoria and the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

Guests will enjoy an average savings of $60 USD on a two-night stay, making it a true economic advantage.

Rare Titanic passenger list at Royal BC Museum

The Royal BC Museum’s Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition is two artifacts richer today.

Bowen Island's Don Marshall, 76, whose mother and grandmother survived the sinking of the Titanic, searched his home for the items this spring, after the museum put out a call for BC connections to the ship and its passengers.

Today, Marshall presented the pair of family treasures – a second-class passenger list and an essay titled A Personal Experience on the Titanic, written by his mother in 1914 – to the Royal BC Museum, then watched as conservators installed the valuable items in a display case in the BC Connections gallery.

“I and my family have chosen to loan these artifacts to the museum's exhibit because we believe that our mother would have wanted this,” said the retired dentist. “She was proud of the fact that she and her mother had survived the sinking of the Titanic and participated in many interviews over her lifetime.”

In 1912, Elizabeth (“Bessie”) Watt and her 12-year-old daughter Bertha were aboard the Titanic, en route from Scotland to Oregon to join Mr. James Watt, when the ship struck the iceberg that sent it to the ocean floor. Mother and daughter escaped in Lifeboat 9 with only the clothes on their backs – the second-class passenger list happened to be in the pocket of Bessie’s overcoat.

Two years later, Bertha (Marshall’s mother) wrote an essay about her ordeal for her high school yearbook. “About 2 o’clock, we heard the boilers burst and then (the ship) broke in two and slid into the water, leaving nothing to be seen,” she wrote. “We were then left entirely alone in the dark, except for the stars.”

Last week, a first-class passenger list sold at a Christie’s New York auction for $48,000 US. An eight-page, handwritten description of the sinking by a 16-year-old survivor earned $16,800 US at the same auction.

Created by Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions Inc., Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition features 281 artifacts recovered from Titanic’s undersea resting place in a series of galleries that trace the life of the “unsinkable” ship. RMS Titanic Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc., is the only company in the world authorized to recover artifacts from the Titanic wreck site.

Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition will be at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria until Oct. 14, 2007.