That’s the reaction we get when we tell people we are living part-time in Squamish. How did that happen? Read our Squamish story.
We are Dutch and living in the Netherlands for most of the time and when in Holland I’m dreaming of Squamish. Like today, a rainy day. My friend let me down for a nine-hole golf round because of the rain. In Squamish nobody thinks rain is a reason not to go outside!
But let’s start at the beginning. I have an older brother who is Canadian for almost 50 years. Most of his time in Canada he lived with his family near Toronto. I’m sorry to have to confess that he didn’t get many family members to visit them. After moving to Vancouver we visited him there and fell in love with this part of the world. From 2003 my husband and I practically went to Vancouver and BC every year for longer and shorter visits in different seasons.
That made us think about our own place there, but not in Vancouver. Somewhere between Vancouver and Whistler. And no surprise, Squamish is in the middle. To be sure, we liked Squamish; we rented a house in Garibaldi Highlands, one time in summer and another year in spring.
The very rainy springtime was a big surprise for us. We weren’t stuck in the house, as would have happened in Holland, but went out all the time. In Alice Park we saw that even young parents with their baby’s still went out for a stroll in the rain. They are not made of sugar…
So we found our dream house, downtown Squamish with a magnificent view of the Chief and the estuary. We love the estuary because of all the birds, from our deck we enjoyed short eared owls and nighthawks and more colorful creatures. Further away we see the sails of the kite surfers. Once we hope to see the dolphins and/or orcas like happened this spring (I was so sorry that we were in Holland).
Of course we climbed the Chief together, but not used to mountains, it took me several days afterwards to be able to climb the stairs without a lot of grunges.
Up there we saw our place and were so happy to live in Squamish for a certain time every season.
— Anneke Wegman
