We arrived in the town of Chilliwack and D had booked the Hotel Morada, which is a newer boutique hotel in what they call District 1881 – cute area with some newer restaurants/shops. The hotel had an interesting business model in that they don’t have any front desk (or even other staff) on location. Prior to arrival you get a code for the front door then they have a kiosk where you enter your information on a touchpad which opens up a slot that has both your room key fob as well as the front door fob. The room was small but very nice and had some good amenities associated with it. The downside of the bathroom was that the lighting was set for motion detection – this was a negative because when I got up in middle of night to go, the light would turn on (even if you turned it off, you had to be very still otherwise it would switch back on).
The 1881 District had tons of decorations and lights up for the holiday season and since we arrived on a Sunday night it was super crowded (luckily wasn’t that crazy the next day/night).
One perk from the hotel was that they partnered with some local establishments and had coupons for free stuff. Across the walkway was a Mexican restaurant and the coupon was for 2 free margaritas (so I guess it worked since we went there that first night). We ended up getting the chips and guacamole and D had the steak burrito and I had the enchiladas with verde sauce. The chips and guac were decent. The burrito was “okay” but not really Mexican and the biggest miss was the enchiladas. They had used taquitos for their enchilada and covered it in sauce. It was fine to eat but not really what I’d consider Mexican or even Tex-Mex type food.
Afterwards we walked around a little bit and then turned in for the night after a long day of travel.
The next day we had plans to meet up with my friend and see her workplace. This was a little further east in the small town of Agassiz. We had some time in the morning so drove south into the Sardis neighborhood to grab some breakfast but also to scope out some of the local vibe. D found a great little spot called Little Beetle and we both enjoyed some delicious fare.
Afterward we checked out a small drug store and then drove even further south toward the neighborhood of Vedder and went to their supermarket (Sav-On Market). In this area they’re experiencing significant growth so there was tons of new construction of large condo complexes.
We then headed through a bunch of farmland (Chilliwack and the surrounding area is known for their agriculture – cows, chickens, crops) and first stopped at Bridal Veil Falls before Agassiz.
After a nice visit with her and also receiving an awesome care package, we continued our exploration of the area.
D had read about something called the Spirit Trail and we went on a short 30 minute walk through the woods. This area was just incredible and definitely felt like some forest bathing. One of the big draws to the area was the amount of nature and greenery.
Just north of Agassiz is the town of Harrison Hot Springs. Since we were visiting in December, the whole town appeared to be dead. There is a large lake that we stopped at to take a quick look. You could see the snow covered tops of the Mount Cheam.
We also drove over to the town of Hope that sat along the Fraser River (which is the river that ends in Vancouver). We grabbed a late lunch at another local establishment in the 1881 District at Bow and Stern. It was happy hour which was nice and we enjoyed some NA cocktails and small bites since we had dinner with my friends (also in the same area).
Dinner was at The Offy and was also wonderful and good to just hang out with some friends enjoying some food and drink.
StewsCat 