Life Is a Highway ...the Fraser Highway, that is, to the Honeybee Place and back!

 Wednesday was supposed to be the coolest day of the next few, so I figured I should take Breehy out to see some more of our pretty little world. We haven't rolled over all of Surrey's roads yet - at least, not from one end to the other, so we headed up the Hydro line greenway to Fraser Highway, and this time we had a rather simple destination in mind, so I was pretty sure we wouldn't get lost.

Some people who know the area would wonder why I rode way up King George Boulevard to Fraser Highway when I could have just sailed down 132 Street and took a little path there. Well, sometimes I wonder why I do certain things too. It only added a couple of miles to my journey, but I figured that since I will probably never cycle to the end of Fraser Highway, I could at least start at the beginning of it. 

I haven't ridden enough this summer for my leg muscles to agree with my choice of adventure, so it wasn't long before they were protesting. However, it was either pedal or walk, because the rest of me was adamant we were going somewhere.

And this is about the time when I realized I had forgotten my water bottle, so I was glad to see a Petro station across the road. Unlike a lot of service stations, this one had a bike rack, so Breehy was safe while I picked up some water. I also bought a BLT salad and a yogurt parfait for my lunch. Their choice of dressings was rather poor - ranch (yech), Ceasar (fine for Caesar salad, but a BLT one? Really?) or Balsamic Vinegar (yech.) I chose what I figured was the best of the three, the Balsamic one. I was hoping to come across a picnic area/park on the way where I could sit beneath a tree and relax.

It wasn't long before we got to the Green Timber Park area, and I was lucky enough to be on the bike lane on the shady side of the road. Even on hot still days, these beautiful trees create a cooling breeze. I could have just stopped here and had my picnic if there was a picnic table handy, but there wasn't.

 

I wouldn't think this road was paved way back in 1875, but it's pretty cool to know that there have been wheels travelling here for almost 140 years.

 

The old growth forests are chock full of just about every shade of green in the world, and they smell sweet, too.

However, it's obvious every one isn't as careful on the road as I am. Of course, I was in a dedicated bike lane, and I never noticed any dedicated squirrel lanes.

 I imagine the rest of this little fellow is checking out the retail stores this week.

This route soon led us to Fleetwood which has tons of stores, businesses, and fast-food restaurants. Not so many trees.

Would you consider this a good place to have your business cards printed? I woodn't.

As I was walking Breehy we came to the Prairie Cafe, and I really did consider going in and ordering some food, even though I had provisions in Breehy's basket. At first glance, I thought it was a classic diner, but on closer inspection I saw it was a kinda Asian cafe. Oh well. All day Breakfast was probably classic diner food, but since there was no place to tie up Breehy, we walked on by.

Surrey is such a bike-friendly city, with lots of bike lanes and greenway paths, but it is sorely lacking in bike racks, which is not good, as Surrey is also a bike-thief-infested city, like everywhere else here. 

We didn't get very far when the road in the distance disappeared. Now this isn't a good thing, because that means there is a downhill coming up. You may think a downhill is a good thing, and it would be if our house were at the bottom of it. But the only thing at the bottom was the way up again, and that is called an uphill. Oh well.

Actually at the bottom of one of the longest hills in history, there is the Serpentine River. I can't imagine being lucky enough to own land on each side of a river. I'd have my own personal park there, cabin and all. Even a gazebo.

The Serpentine isn't a very wide river, is it? But it is an important link in the salmon-spawning cycle, so is probably an interesting place to watch in late September.

And, finally, at the intersection of Highway 15 and Fraser Highway, a mere 12.6 kilometers away from home, the Honeybee Centre

Of course the first thing was to walk around the building looking for a place to tie on the bike. We met a Honey Bear ....

 ... a garden with lots of lilies ....

 ... a bumble bee chair ...

 ... some pretty white flowers and gigantic leaves ...

 ... but no bike rack. So we walked to the perimeter and tied her to the lower leg of a signpost. Poor Breehy. But at least she was in the shade, so her seat wouldn't be hoarding the heat of the sun while I explored inside.

The entrance led to a beautiful place, bright and airy and chock full of honey and honey-related items. This is definitely the place to come if you want jars of honey, sticks of honey, medicinal honey, honey chocolate bars, throat lozenges .. you name it. There's also a lot of info about bees, and guided tours, which I would have loved to explore (you have to book them, of course.)

 See the two tiny beehive candles on the next-to-bottom shelf? I bought them!

And there's a Tea Hive Cafe if you want a honey-related snack. I had my lunch warming in Breehy's basket, though, so I settled for a piece of Apple Pie with honey, but minus the ice-cream, in a take-away box.

So, bag packed with honey chocolate, jar of honey and apple pie with honey drizzle, I went out and freed Breehy - for some reason, even though there were tons of parking spaces, someone had parked their van right in front of her, and my suspicious mind wanted her in plain sight. We moved over to a picnic table for lunch, and sat down in front of these beautiful blossoms.

Did you notice too? All these flowers dancing around a big old honeybee shop, but not one honey bee in sight. Hmmm. 

However, time for lunch. I drizzled a tiny wee bit of Balsamic Vinegar over the lettuce, just to help it slide down.  However, this is when I discovered I LOVE Balsamic Vinegar. So let it pour.

The Strawberry Parfait wasn't the greatest. The fruit and yogurt parfaits I absolutely love have small pieces of fruit or small berries all mixed in the yogurt. When I take the cover of this one, there were 5 big strawberry halves on top ... but when I went to get a spoonful, my spoon hit bottom real quick. That's because the strawberries were in their very own little container that sat on top. Now, I pulled at the sides trying to dislodge this, getting yogurt all over my fingers, until I realized that it was just placed on top of the yogurt and all I had to do was lift it off. Okay. But then ... try cutting these big strawberry pieces with a plastic spoon. Can't do it. 

So my desert was big strawberries dipped in yogurt. And I didn't like the yogurt brand enough to finish the fruitless stuff that was left after the berries were gone.

Thankfully, I was just about finished lunch when I heard the back-up beeping from this packed bus.

The long journey home begins. I knew we had to start with that long long uphill. The only plus was it travelled beside a beautifully landscaped golf course, complete with duck pond. Yes, there was a line of ducks swimming here, but because of the security netting, I couldn't get a zoom-in shot of them.

Part way up the hill, I found these. Does anyone know what they are? They were a bit high in the tree, so I zoomed in on them, therefore they do appear a big bigger than in reality.

What a beautiful old tree. As I was taking the picture I realized there was an above-ground swimming pool to the side of it, with at least one person in it, and music playing in the background. I figured I should move on before I got charged with voyeurism.

I thought it was time for a look back at how far I had come, and this was only about half way up the hill. You can see the roof of the Honeybee Centre just left of the road. Whew. This is where I started thinking about making a will.

However, we soon came to the business area again ... when I passed this sign, I totally agreed with the sentiment. I felt like yelling - My legs hurt. I'm too hot. I need more water. My feet hurt. I'm getting sunburned. All the shade is on the other side of the road.

In advertising, it's important to have something that catches the eye. Unfortunately the first thing that caught my eye here was COLON COUTURE. Of course, on closer inspection, it is Salon Couture.

And on the sign beside that building, Jerusalem Grill, which was just a little way up the road from the ...

Messiah car dealer. This must be an Old Testamenty part of town.

Now, since the sun blocked out the viewing screen while I was taking the picture, I didn't get the name of this business. See if you can guess what it is?

However, the most tempting business of all was this one - it was all I could do not to ride Breehy through.