January 2017

The days are still short

Birding at Jericho Beach

Jericho beach isn't far from my house and has free parking in the winter. If you are looking for a quick drive and see sea birds, for me it is closer and easier than Stanley Park. There is a nice pier into the water and worst case, you can still see the bunnies hopping around.

There was a cormorant fishing in the shallow water the the pier. The angle was such that you could see him under the water a lot of the time which made it fun to watch. He did get a fish in the end but he surfaced with the fish further away.

Skating At Robson Square Ice Rink

Nara's grade one class is going skating. Two years ago she decided she didn't want to do skating any more so she hasn't been on the ice for two years. We wanted to be sure that Nara could get around a little on her own. Claira hasn't really been on ice and was excited. We packed the car on Sunday morning and went downtown to the skating rink.

Nara did really well. Claira did really well.

Nara gave up the box in a few minutes - she seemed to remember her earlier skating lessons. Claira built a lot of confidence in an hour or two, but she needs more practice.

Boat Show

We have been to the Boat Show for a few years and so far the kids have wanted to go back every year. We start at Granville Island, touring the big boats at the dock. We then ride the ferry (included with the Adult Admission) to BC Place and hit the kids zone. Finally, if there is time, we go see a few boats.

Favorite number one is the hand driven paddle boats. Nara really has the hang of it, but Claira is coming along too. After their re-oriented themselves with the operations, they did some bumper boat and some racing.

Next up is the crafts table. Each year seam different. Two years ago, it was make your own boat on a Styrofoam wedge. Last year it was colouring, but the Vancouver Aquarium was there with their ocean touching program where you can feel skins and shells. This year they had trays full of beads the kids made themselves some really nice brackets that they got to keep.

If that wasn't enough, they also got to bounce in the bouncy castle, at least until another kid had a pee accident. New this year for us, we actually went on some of the boats and talked about pricing. Nara gets sea sick looking at the ocean and I'm not much better so it's unlikely we will ever buy a boat, but the kids did enjoy learning about them.

Mom picks us up downtown and we go home in time for lunch. Great day!

Mark is in Town

Mark is in Japan working for EA. EA had a global franchise get together in Burnaby so Mark flew for work. We caught him on evening for dinner with his parents at Rocky Mountain Flatbread.

We had four families (including Mark's) and filled a table. We might have filled half the restaurant if everyone had been available.

Chinatown Parade

There is a bit of joke about people in Vancouver only visiting Chinatown for the New Years parade. Our kids have class in Chinatown so we visit pretty much every week, but we also like the parade! The weather looked a little iffy but it wasn't actually raining so we decided to risk it and hope the crowds stayed away.

Parking is a challenge so we parked a few blocks away and walked in. We arrive early and watched while a lot of parade groups walked down the street to the staging area. The lack of crowds made for nice views.

There is an election coming up in BC (May) and there were a lot of famous people in the parade. We spotted Gregor Robertson (Mayer), Christy Clark (Premier of BC) and Justin Trudeau (PM of Canada) within minutes of each other. My kids were really happy with the red packets. I was happy to see the dancing lions and dragons.