August 2015
And some clever quip...
Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment
We had an appointment at 11am to have Dim
Sum with family. In that kind of scenario, you want tired
out kids in advance so they are nice and quite when you want to
have an actual conversation. Terra Nova Adventure Playground
is a great way to achieve that goal!
The park has a wide variety of climbing you don't find in other
small playgrounds. Nara's favorite at the moment is the
beach style log jumble, but climbind trees and nets is also high
on the list of fun activities.
The kids like everything, but really their favorite is the
ziplines. There are two so the line-up is often really
short. The zipline is definitly moving slower than the start
of the summer - perhaps the equipitment is wearing in or perhaps
they tuned it down - I don't really know. The kids still
enjoyed it.
Picnic at VanDusen
The kids really enjoy a picnic. If
dinner happens to be portable, nothing beats a little Al Fresco
dining. We have a favorite spot near the Cypress Pond where
the kids can watch the dragonflies and turtles do summer afternoon
things.
Locarno Beach
Vancouver has lots of beaches so we
decided to try out a new beach - Locarno Beach! I have a
soft spot for the Spanish Bank - long beaches with warm sand and a
view of the city and freighters in the background. This is the
first time I've stopped this far east of the beaches - the bank
doesn't go out as far but the beach has fewer rocks here.
We really lucked out with the timing - the sand bank was already
exposed and the tide was going out farther. Nara likes to
start with a swim and then do sand castles. Claira tries to
do whatever her sister is doing.
It's amazing how fast time flies when you are at the beach - it
didn't take much and an hour and half had already gone by.
Claira had a good nap that day!
Graffiti Photo Walk
Photography Master Bob runs the photo club
at work and he sometimes does field trips to impart gifts of his
knowledge. Bob picked "graffiti" as the theme for this
months' photowalk and he had a whole evening in mind starting with
the artist collective at 1000 Parker Place.
1000 Parker place is a little overwhelming - lots of walls are
covered with murals. As you get further from the artist
building the murals turn to more tagging with less form.
After the easy introduction, we went downtown to experience
grafitti in the downtown east side. We chose to walk around
gastown. Gastown has a really strong juxtaposition - water
street is full of tourists and stores - one block North is rail
line, one block South is a very smelly alley.
Claira's Gymnastics Class
Claira has been in gymnastics class over
the summer and she quite enjoys it. The second to last class
is photo day so I brought my camera to record some of her
skills. They set the gym up in a circuit and Claira moves
station to station doing each activity independently or with
supervision. She is getting quite good at the upper body
stations - she can hold on to rings and bars for quite a
while. Her favorite is still the trampoline.
Spanish Banks (Again)
Helen's coworkers organized a beach
potluck picnic and the timing worked that we could go between
gymnastics classes. Of course you can't take the kids to a
lunch at the beach and not go in the water! It was a brief
trip but the kids still had fun - they have figured out if you mix
sea weed in with the sand when you make sand castles, the castles
stand up much better!
A nice lunch and we off again - I was dropped off the Nara and
Claira went home with Mom to get a much needed nap in.
Members Morning at VanDusen
VanDusen sent an e-mail reminder of their
Member morning - early admission at 7am for members. I had
never been to one so decided to get up early on Sunday to go while
the rest of the family enjoyed a sleep in. I was hoping to
see birds that you don't normally see because of the crowd or
perhaps take advantage of the morning light to get a landscape
shot that doesn't normally have punch.
There were a few surprises. I arrived at 6:50 and there was
already a photoclub there waiting to get in. Turns out they
invited all of the people that like to find the birds in the park
so we all rushed in to find something unique and headed to the
exact same places.
The lighting wasn't bad, but the tall trees and sunrise being more
than an hour early made the golden light a little elusive.
That said, the quite was a real treat - the city noise was nearly
gone and we were spread out enough you usually had some time
alone. Another surprise - when you did see people, everyone
said hello. I guess everyone was local and if you are
interested enough to get up early to see a garden you have already
seen a dozen times, you are probably there because you want to
be. It was a good morning!
Nara's Gymnastics Class
Nara is also in
Gymanastics (same gym as Claira, four hours later on the same
day). Unlike Claira's class, Nara's class is drop off - no
parenting help required. The window to take photos is much
smaller - on the last days we got about 5 minutes to take photos
before the class broke up. Turns out that was all we needed
for Nara to show me some of her favorite things to do in the gym.
Claira's favorite activity is jumping - she spends the most time on
the trampoline. Nara seems to really enjoy the upper body
stuff - I couldn't get her on the trampoline even when it was
free. Nara isn't built light so I'm pretty impressed she has
the strength to pull herself up on bars and rings.
Tags: gymnastics(10), graffiti(9), Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment(8), VanDusen(7), beach(6), Vancouver(3)
People: Claira(14), Nara(12), Helen(2), Janet(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > August 2015
Last Modified Sunday, January 29th, 2023 at 12:26:00 Edit
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