back in time
Filed Under Places | August 9, 2011
No matter how hard we try to keep calm and carry on, life with wee ones is often hectic and fraught with chaos. As we’ve mentioned a few times, one of our favourite ways to escape is to jump in our car to get away from it all by playing tourist in our own region, and the summer is perfect for these explorations. Recently, we hopped onto the Trans Canada and wheeled our way to Abbotsford to visit Clayburn Village.
Clayburn Village is located at the foot of Sumas Mountain just outside of downtown Abbotsford. Founded in 1905, it was BC’s first ‘company town’ and it supported three stores, a bank, a school and a church. Today Clayburn remains a secluded little village, reminiscent of a turn-of-the-century England, with brick buildings, neat gardens and white picket fences. We rather felt as if we’d been transported to the Secret Garden.
The Clayburn Village Store is tiny little country store that is half tea room and half specialty food and candy store. We dined on some of the flakiest scones we had ever had the pleasure of eating (smothered, of course, with Devonshire Cream) and sipped glorious Italian coffee. Then we perused jar upon jar of penny candy, British treats and delightful sweets. The whole atmosphere is kid-friendly, but be prepared to watch little fingers as they dive into the penny candy jars, and it may be best to leave rambunctious two-year olds at home.
Not far from the Clayburn Village Store is Clayburn Comforts, a soap and body works shop surrounded by beautiful cottage gardens that specializes in natural and organic face and body products. We love that their products are paraben-free and made here in BC and we couldn’t resist stocking up on creams and soaps.
On our drive home we were tempted by myriad fruit stands (Abbotsford is the home of many of BC’s most productive farms) stocked with local raspberries. And The Village itself is very close to downtown Abbotsford, which is chock full of family-friendly activities and adventures for everyone from the outdoor enthusiast to the farm fancier to the foodie, far too many for us to mention. So many, in fact, that the next time we ‘daytrip’ out to Abbotsford we’re making a weekend of it.
Clayburn Village: www.clayburnvillage.com
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Let us know what you think or share your great finds with us so we can share them with other Vancouver mothers!
Great discovery! Thanks for sharing.