August 2019
Summer Fun!
I've heard Vancouver described as a great place for kids - just
not so good for adults. There is a Rock and Gem show at
Kitsilano Arena (not far from our house) so we decided to bike
over and check it out!
Rock shows have an interesting mix of
things. Every vendors seems to be trying to find a diferent
market - jewelry, or "make jewelry" market, casual home
decorations or Crystals affect your life, kids activites or adult
level gems. The show had 80 vendors so the kids had fun
finding things.
The next day, we took a bike + scooter ride down to Granville
Island. There is often something to do down there if you
look for it.
The kids were reminded of the water park at Granville Island so
the next week we came down with bathing suits to play on the slide
and in the spray park:
The kids complained it was cold.
Grandma kindly offered to take the kids
for a few days this summer. When the kids were gone, Helen
and I could try out some summer activities! Close to my
work, the plaza in front of the art gallery hosts a summer
movie. We grabbed dinner and then watched a movie outside on
the big screen. The city as your theatre is a bit strange -
the sirens of emergency vehicles can kind of clash with the film
and it never really gets quite, but it was still a fun "try it
out" activity.
Rockhounding Agate near Boston Bar
The kids were still over at my Mom's house
so Helen and I had a free weekend. I thought it would be fun
to drive up near Boston Bar and try to find some agate listed in a
BC Rock guide book. The directions in the book weren't
supper clear and I couldn't find anything else on the internet,
but hey why not try?
The directions are basically "Turn on
Ainslie Road North, follow the markers until you get to about km
36". It seems really good for the first 15km or so as you
watch prominent km markers slide by. As you get further in,
you find more forks in the road and the km markers become less
frequent and eventually become markers for other roads. We
went by odometer in the car and did get to roughly where I figured
it would be. The view was great but finding agates was
tricky. I eventually found some part of a roadside cutting
that had been worked. We must be in the right place.
The book suggested another stop a few km further down the
road. Again, the road markers are gone, but we did
eventually find a road side rock face that had veins of
Agate. Some large areas had been mined out, but we found
some areas that could still be broken into. Helen isn't so
much into breaking rocks but she was able to find rocks lying
around that we thought might work in the rock tumbler.
This isn't the exciting agate you see online
- the material is basically white without bands of color, patterns
or gradients. Helen found a dropped sphere than had crystals
inside, but the crystals were all the same color and very plain.
Almost 40km from the highway, it's good to remember you really are
in wild BC. We had been mining for about an hour when Helen
spotted a mother bear and two babies feeding at the side of the
road. The bears apparently didn't see us - when we closed
the truck of the car, the startled and headed in the other
direction. There were lots of insects and road side flowers
to see as well.
We set a "we are missing" time of 7pm with family because there is
no cell phone coverage up here and I really didn't want to spend
the night and the next day walking to the highway to get
help. We turned around and were back to civilization by
6:30.
Summer Playgrounds
We had some time between picking the kids
up at the ferry and going out to dinner with family so we stopped
in at the Richmond Nature Park for a bit of play.
Richmond Nature Park put in a bunch of new playground
equipment. The trend right now is to use a lot of natural
elements (wood and stone) and let the kids make up their own
games. Nara likes photos of her flying so she jumped off the log
again and again asking me to take photos.
Terra Nova Adventure Playground
When the weather is nice out, it's hard to
not to get outside. I had a day with the kids (Helen was
working) so we started the morning with a trip to Terra Nova
Adventure Playground. Of course this playground gets busy as
the day goes on so we try to arrive early to get the quickest turn
around on the zip line.
Ice Cream!
At the Terra Nova Adventure playground you will sometimes see an
ice-creme truck. The ice creme is generally the same kinds
of treats you get at convenience stores - basically frozen sugar
water. The kids wanted ice creme and it was time to go so we
went to find a place in Richond that had decent - also know as
"craft" - ice-cream. We wound up trying I.ce Queen - a small
shop in a mall. The mix your ingredients with cream and
freeze it on a metal pan. They then scrape the frozen cream
into rolls and make your desert.
Richmond Night Market
The Richmond Night Market is a lot of fun once
you have the expectations set correctly. For us, a visit looks
like: $25 for a 6 pack of admission tickets (of which we will use
2). Kids will do two activities at $10 each. Snacks are
about $8 each. Expect about $100 for the night. Bring
cash.
New this year, we found these inflatable spheres where the kids go
for a run on a pond. The kids were really excited about this
activity so we did it first.
Each kid is loaded and
a leaf blower makes the ball full. The kids are sealed in with
a waterproof zipper. The kids have five minutes to run around
and fall down. Both kids came out with big smiles.
Next up -
snack! We had already eaten dinner because eating dinner at
the night market would set back retirement by a year. The kids
of course wanted sweet things. Helen found a cracker with
seafood.
For the second activity, the kids picked a cool net climbing
space. Using prety heavy cord, there was a large space setup
for climbing. The walls were folded over so there was climbing
space between the outside and the center area. The cord was
large enough that it didn't really snag fingers or toes.
Of course we got home late with tired but happy kids.
Tags: playground(7), Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment(6), Granville Island(6), Richmond Night Market(6), water park(5), biking(3)
People: Claira(15), Nara(15), Helen(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > August 2019
Last Modified Sunday, January 22nd, 2023 at 00:05:36 Edit
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