In part one of this post, I shared with you how some of the amazing qualities we love about Prince George can surprise the outsider. This city has some fabulous attributes that everyone should know about – making it a wonderful place to live or visit! In addition to our arts and culture scene, and our amazing local beverage options, there are two other sides to PG that may surprise people.
Food
It’s so hard for me to write anything about our city without including something to do with food! But it’s for good reason, and not just because I love food! Prince George has a very wide variety of locally owned restaurants that are passionate about sharing great food with us. Not only do many of them try hard to support our local providers and include local meat and produce in their menus, but the food they create is just plain delicious. The part that tends to surprise people is the fact that the restaurant scene here is so varied. Of course we have everything you’d expect from the typical chain restaurants (and there are some great ones in this category too), but the locally owned venues include everything from Indian to Japanese, Persian to Thai, Italian to Vietnamese, barbecue houses to trendy eateries and unique pubs. Going out for a meal in Prince George definitely does not get boring!
Seasonal activities
Yes, we have four distinct seasons in Prince George – it’s not winter all the time! We have just wrapped up a great, hot summer, and the opportunities to get outside during summer months are endless. I love our fantastic walking trails all over the city (Cranbrook Hill Greenway, Cottonwood Park, LC Gunn Park, to name a few) and there are wilderness hikes in every direction, whether you want to drive 45 minutes (e.g. Fort George Canyon, Teapot Mountain) or go a bit further (e.g. Raven Lake), go for a day or even overnight it! And if you’d rather be in or on the water, we have lakes for days! I’m partial to taking my kayak out for an afternoon to a small local lake and once in awhile taking the ski boat to a bigger lake to swim and go tubing. There are lots of people who take advantage of our many rivers too (mainly the Fraser and the Nechako) and go jet boating, and of course being a region full of rivers and lakes, there is great fishing to be had as well. Prince George also welcomes many special events and festivals during the summer too, like the Downtown Summerfest food festival, the PG Symphony Orchestra’s POPS in the Park, weekly free yoga in the park, and more!
While it’s pretty obvious we have a winter, the fun fact about this season is that we don’t spend the whole winter hiding in our houses – we embrace it and get outside. There’s so much to do: skiing and snowboarding at one of four local hills, cross-country skiing at Otway, ice skating at the outdoor oval at CN Centre, snowshoeing on so many amazing trails found both in city limits or out (but some still as close as 15 minutes away from downtown!), taking in local Spruce Kings or Cougars hockey…the list goes on!
What other great, but surprising facts about Prince George do people need to know? Keep the conversation going and find me on Twitter at @jessicaleequinn.
