Last weekend, the warm weather summoned us to be outdoors, and given that we were sick and tired of waiting for our second born to pop out soon, we decided to explore some new places nearby. In the mood for some South Asian cuisine, we decided to head to Surrey and also make a visit to the Historic Stewart Farm, situated in a large park called the Elgin Heritage Park.

The Stewart Farm is the only intact farm complex from the late nineteenth century remaining in Surrey. Unlike Burnaby Village Museum, the Stewart Farm does not have any fancy exhibits, but the main  two storey wood-frame farmhouse is quite an interesting visit! Outside of the main building, there are  seven other farm buildings: root cellar, wood shed, pole barn, bunkhouse, machine shed, threshing machine shed and garage. They aren't proper "exhibits" but its still nice to see the number of different structures in the farm complex. 

The main attraction, the two story house, is a fully furnished home, that demonstrates how a farming family lived. While the farmhouse is quite elaborate by today’s standards, it was not the largest or most lavish in local Victorian times. 

This farmhouse was the home of  John and Annie Stewart. John, who was from Scotland married Quebecois Annie Davidson in Nanaimo in 1884 and moved to Surrey to make a home here. Not alot is known about the two, but it has been pieced together from various sources. The Stewart were, however, certainly part of the growing community. With just two sons - a small family for the times - they would have rallied friends and nearby work crews to harvest their fields. The Stewarts owned 440 acres of land, including what visitors see now, as well as land across the river where the Stewarts had two additional barns.

We also saw some lanterns and remembered how we still use these in Pakistan in the rural areas, and used them all our lives growing up too.

The tour of the farmhouse took us less than an hour and we had a really nice tour guide tell us about everything about the family. Once we were done with that, we took a nice stroll in the park which overlooks the Nicomekl River. Interestingly, the river is tidal and sternwheeler boats originally travelled up the river to collect produce from the local farms. In the 1950-1970s era, the Ward family created a small boat launching marina and boat repair area. The wharf, boat moorage and launching ramp for non-motorized vessels have now been reconstructed.

 In case you are wondering what to do on a rainy day, you could check out many of the museums that UBC has to offer, from the Museum of Anthropology to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The latter had a great Groupon deal which we grabbed to check out what the Museum was all about. Its probably not worth the full price so definitely go if there is a discount on the tickets.

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is a natural history museum which first opened to the public in 2010. It isn't an enormous museum, so expect to spend an hour there unless you want to really review each and every collection. 

As soon as you enter the museum, you'll see the museum's most prominent display - a 25-metre (82-foot) skeleton of a female blue whale buried in Tignish, Prince Edward Island, which is suspended over the ramp leading to the main collections. This is Canada's largest blue whale skeleton.

Among the places to visit in Vancouver, the Vancouver Police Museum is not when that usually comes to mind. However, I saw that it popped up on Groupon and thought why not? We ended up going for it on a rainy day and it did not disappoint.

The Vancouver Police Museum (formerly called the Vancouver Police Centennial Museum) was started way back in 1986 by Joe Swan, a former police sergeant and amateur historian. Swan wrote the department's official history book, which was published by the Vancouver Historical Society in 1986, entitled, A Century of Service: The Vancouver Police, 1886-1986.

The museum and is housed in a old brick “heritage” building which, only six years before, was the Coroner’s Court and autopsy facilities. The morgue has since been turned into part of the museum and can be toured. The area the building is in, is in the Hastings area, which houses many homeless and drug addicts, FYI.

You can also check it out on Family Day in February, when entrance is free and there are also activities planned. When we went, we also did a scavenger hunt to search for letters hidden all around the Museum, and it was a fun activity.

The other rooms have wall exhibits so there's less interactive stuff. There are lots of photographs and images and text so you can peruse at your own leisure. Since the museum itself is small, it is worth it to read through the exhibits.

Definitely though, the creepiest part of the museum is the morgue where they do the autopsies and they have specimens of body parts as well. Our daughter delighted in it, but mind I say, it was CREEPY.

This image below is actually organs and some other fairly intense anatomical specimens left over from crime analysis!

Just note that it is a small museum and could take maybe half an hour or an hour to see all of it. However, while the tickets are around $12, there are many days in the year when the museum is free (family day) and there are also lots of Groupons that one can avail to get a good deal.

 The museum is located on Cordova Street, which is one block north of Hastings. There is extensive metered parking in the blocks surrounding the museum, costing $1 per hour

I was shocked by how Boston had so many underground places to keep warm as did Chicago. Well, turns out Vancouver has its own underground secrets in Gastown, which was actually the original townsite from which Vancouver grew in the 1870s. 

Gastown was named for "Gassy" Jack Deighton, a Yorkshire seaman, steamboat captain and barkeep who arrived in 1867 to open the area's first saloon. He was famous for his habit of talking at length (or "gassing") and the area around his saloon came to be known as "Gassy's town," a nickname that evolved to "Gastown."

The town soon prospered as the site of Hastings Mill sawmill, seaport, and quickly became a general centre of trade and commerce on Burrard Inlet as well as a rough-and-rowdy resort for off-work loggers and fishermen as well as the crews and captains of the many sailing ships which came to Gastown or Moodyville, which was on the north side of the inlet. The Canadian Pacific Railway terminated on piles on the shore parallel to Water Street in 1886. 

Gastown is home to a series of steam pipes connected to a generating plant run under Georgia and Beatty Streets. The system provides heat to most of the downtown core, and provides the steam for the whistles of the famous Gastown steam clock. Despite seeming like a remnant of the Victorian era and being located in Gastown, the Steam Clock is actually from a hundred years later, built in 1977.

Saying the clock is “steam-powered” is factually incorrect, because the clockworks itself is powered by descending weights. The mini-steam engine at the base of the clock case takes up the role of the human “winder” by raising a series of ball weights and delivering the weights to the clock drive train. But the steam engine is connected by a rubber belt to an electric motor hidden from view - much more reliable than steam power. Every quarter-hour, the two-ton Steam Clock shows off a bit, whistling and shooting steam from its five whistles in its version of the Westminster Chime. On the hour it marks each hour with a toot from each whistle. 

There are six other working “Steam” Clocks in the world. The lesson was learned, though – only the whistles are steam and the clockworks are electric. The clock is a key tourists destination in Vancouver. It’s also the near the start and a finish line of the Gastown Grand Prix, a single-day cycling race.