Breakfast, books, and historic battles: An afternoon in Chilliwack

There are few problems that polish sausages and a lavender latte can’t fix.

That’s one of the many things I learned when I became a tourist in Chilliwack for a day. I arrived cold and hungry. But exploring the downtown area—its coffee shops, restaurants, shops and bookstores (especially the bookstore) turned the day around pretty quickly.

New town

I found parking easily in the Save-On Foods parking lot. There’s street parking in the area, too. I dug in the back of my car for a sweater, grateful now for the laziness that had kept it there for weeks. The rain was clearing up, but the afternoon wasn’t warm. [Editor note: technically that parking lot is only reserved for customers of the Salish Park plaza, so if you follow Grace’s lead here, you risk having your car ticketed or towed.]

Hungry (it was 2pm, and I hadn’t eaten lunch yet) I walked to the first place I saw (by virtue of its massive sign) when I drove through the famous Five Corners intersection: The Offy, a new café-ish restaurant on the corner of Yale Road and Young Road that was recommended by a reader. I ordered a Breaky Plate (the classic diner-style breakfast, but a little classier: two eggs, polish sausage, arugula salad, potato rösti instead of hasbrowns). I truly believe that breakfast food is suitable for any time of day, and The Offy serves brunch until 4pm.

A fairly recent addition to downtown Chilliwack, The Offy is fancy in the way a glass of rose wine is fancy. It might not be timeless, but it’s stylish and cool. A patio full of flowers waits outside for better weather. Teenage girls took selfies destined for their Instagram pages in front of it as I ordered.

My breakfast came with a fun European-esque twist (polish farmer’s sausage, potato rosti, arugula). Brunch meals range from $10 to $28; dinner runs up to $38.

The Offy is on one corner of District 1881, the rejuvenated centre of Chilliwack’s downtown core. A few of the finished, pedestrian-focused streets split off from the intersection. They’re whimsical and cute. I felt like I just stepped into Diagon Alley (the shopping district in Harry Potter). I was slightly disappointed when the shops along the road sell stationary and fancy soap instead of wands and owls.

The Fort-Langley-like plaza is currently still under construction. Much of what will become the trendy district is still bare wood.

Walking around District 1881, I had the strange sensation of watching someone put their makeup on. She was almost ready, but at the moment she’s still in her pajamas and gluing her eyelashes on in the mirror.

I visited Smoking Gun Coffee Roasters, a highly recommended coffee shop also in the development, for an afternoon caffeine fix. The barista recommended their lavender latte, so I tried it. It’s a faintly spicy, sweet concoction in a tiny mug. I sipped it while wandering around the finished parts of the new development.

Old Town

I walked back across Five Corners and down Wellington Avenue.

I stopped by the Chilliwack Military Museum, where I was welcomed by a small crowd of older men who had gathered chatting at the desk by the door. I peered at computers and switchboards from World War 2 in glass cabinets. Some of the artifacts I’m allowed to touch, a volunteer in a backwards baseball cap told me. Together, we poked at a wetsuit made of mysteriously squishy material and a scary-looking diving mask from the 1940s. I also saw a gas mask made for dogs, and it made me sad.

Leaving the museum, I walked next door to a place I’ve wanted to visit ever since I heard about it: The Bookman.

When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was how busy the bookstore was. The aisles are narrow and stacked with books. In many, I needed to turn sideways to avoid people—a boy sprinting towards a display of books about dragons, a woman examining a stack of philosophical titles. It was a Friday afternoon. I wasn’t sure where all the people were coming from.

A young woman stood behind a little desk at the door, ready to hunt a title out of the shop’s digital archive and point me to the right aisle. A store cat twined itself between my legs as I examined rows of novels. I realized that I might have missed my true calling in life (working at a bookstore that has its own cats) because I never wanted to leave.

Leave, though, I did. I still had one more thing to see before heading home.

On the outskirts of Chilliwack is another new addition: the Little Mountain Stairs. The staircase shoots up a big hill along Yale Road, carrying hikers to a viewpoint from which, on a clear day, they might see the whole valley.

Alas, I wasn’t there on a clear day. But I pulled on my rain jacket and started climbing. Even on an overcast day, the view was nice—the city spread out below the fog that was rolling in off the mountains. Though the stairs were nice, they were weirdly spaced for my short legs and hard to climb. More trails spiderweb out from the top of the stairs, and I explored a little way further, but it had started to rain again.

I clambered back down to the car and joined the long snake of highway traffic that I had just watched form from the top of the stairs.