Harrison Anniversary Weekend

Sean and I celebrated our 2nd annibirdsary at Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa last weekend. It was the purr-fect getaway. It normally takes about 90 minutes to drive to Harrison, but we left Vancouver during rush hour and we got there after 2 hours.

The ride out on Highway 7 proved interesting. We were heading into “the valley” or deep into the suburbs. We were trekking in foreign lands it seemed.

On our drive through Abbotsford and Chilliwack, we came across quirky highway signs like:

* whole hog BBQ here! – as a non-meat eater, I was kinda offended.

* pick-a-part! – where you can buy pieces for your car a la carte. Bumper anyone?

* ditch mowing! – Sean and I both had to do a double take as we could’ve sworn it said BITCH mowing.

As well, lots of political campaign signs screaming out pro-life, pro-adoption! Elect so-and-so. Why yes, it was quite obvious that we were passing through the conservative side of BC.

We drove through the little town called Agassiz, which reminded us of our Twin Peaks trip to Snoqualmie, Washington. But without the luxurious Salish Lodge and Spa. This rural town has only 6,000 residents. There is no movie theatre and no big box stores. But they do have Tugboat Junction Adventure Park. With Sasquatch caves!

We arrived at Harrison Resort and checked into our hotel room in the main building. Our basic room overlooked the 2 hot spring pools. But before we jumped into the pool, we went to find some nosh.

A few minutes drive from the resort was a Japanese restaurant called Katami Sushi. The sushi was on the pricey side, but tasty.

We hit the hot springs at 10pm. That’s when it’s bye bye to the kiddies and it’s adult only. Now I’m not the kinda girl that likes saunas or whirlpools or steam rooms. I find them too uncomfortably hot. But I found that I like hot springs, especially when the night air is cool and crisp.

Now I understand the appeal of why crazy Icelanders disrobe in the dead of winter to relax in hot springs. Sign me up. I’m a convert. The mineral waters felt so nice. One pool was like warm bath water, while the other pool was significantly hotter.

We also hit the indoor mineral swimming pool and whirlpool before closing. After all the steam action, we pretty much floated back up to the room. And the sleep was good and deep.

Saturday was a breezy day. We had breakfast in Agassiz and drove around to take pictures of dilapidated barns, silos, furry beasts and geo-mystical native art. We weren’t interested in the scenic. We wanted weird.

But of course, we had to take pictures of Harrison Lake right in front of the resort. Just beautiful. I can only imagine it in the summer when you can charter boats for cruising around.

And the highlight of the day? Harrison Resort serves complimentary afternoon tea in the lobby for resort guests. Nice! Had my cup of black tea and a white chocolate chip cookie.

Course, no hotel stay would be complete without ordering room service. For dinner, we opted in and ordered steak for Sean and a salmon burger for me. And creme brulee and lemon cheesecake with strawberry topping. Dinner in bed, watching tv. The evening was leisurely, reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer graphic novels whilst waiting for 10pm.

Hot springs time! And even better, super moon while hot springing. I couldn’t think of a better way to catch the super moon. A lovely way to finish off the night.

I would totally recommend Harrison Resort for a couples weekend, family outing, girls getaway. We came back totally relaxed and re-invigorated.

And lucky for me, it turned out to be a hat trick of a weekend: anniversary, getaway and super moon.

View more photos of our Harrison getaway on my Flickr album.