Playtime!

A long-planned highlight of our spring was our visit to Beth and Jon’s family in Vancouver, BC. Planned in two parts, it exceeded our already high expectations. We had a wonderful time!

The first part of our visit was a weekend joint camping trip to Alice Lake Provincial Park. We arranged for two adjacent campsites so that we would all be together. An idea that we haven’t seen in US parks is to have a subset of campsites set up as pairs, and reservable only as a pair. It makes family camp outs much easier to arrange.

Our plan was that Kasper and Nyssa sleep with us in the RV, and Jon and Beth would be in their tent. They had primarily camped in the summer before; we all found out that late April was not quite the same. EVERYONE ended up sleeping in the camper, to stay warm!

Nicely spaced out wooded sites.
What is a camp out without s-mores???!!!
A family stroll on the beach
If there is a log across a stream, well… Ya just gotta!
Sing it with us: “Anything you can do, I can do…”

After our stay at Alice Lake, we all went back to Vancouver; we stayed at the only campground actually in Vancouver proper, just north of the wonderful Stanley Park, and about 20 minutes from Beth and Jon’s apartment via Vancouver’s excellent public transportation system. (We were not about to try to drive our truck, Scarlett, in Vancouver!)

Note to selves: Do NOT put your transit card, loose, in the same pocket with your phone in a sticky Otter case. We each lost a card when we pulled our phone out.

In addition to a huge fleet of buses and an extensive light rail system, Vancouver has an inlet (“False Creek”) intruding into the heavily populated area, so it has a fleet of small (10 – 12 passengers) ferries.

Going for a (short) cruise!

One of the things that we missed living on the coast of Maine was a variety of cuisines, particularly Asian. Vancouver has plenty! We had Japanese (Sushi) (twice!), Afghani, and several others. Unfortunately, we ran out of nights before we could make a dent in the variety.

Sushi in the Pacific Northwest and Canadian southwest is hard to beat!
… as witnessed by THIS smile!

Kasper and Nyssa spent two more nights with us while in Vancouver. For those who don’t already know it, one of a grandparent’s most important duties is spoiling the grandkids. We take our duties seriously! What better way to do it than by having chocolate ice cream for breakfast!

Breakfast of… champions?

We played a lot of board and card games during the week, including The Mind (you can’t talk), Pandemic, Hanabi (you’re the only one who can’t see your cards), Camel Up, Welcome to, King Domino, Go Fish, and Memory!

Among MANY others!

Memory with Grandma Lobster. What could be better?

Kasper and Grandpa also shared some good time together, working on K’s first book of logic puzzles, e.g., “Rita married Joe, but not on Wednesday. Carla was married on Sunday on the village green. Who did Tess marry?” The major learning from this was that Grandpa needs to (re-)start doing these as well! I loved these as a kid, but I’ve lost the knack. We also worked on ways to present data… How to graph seven different aspects of each of 12 chapters in Roald Dahl’s “Danny the Champion of the World.”

Multi-color line graph anyone?

We visited Science World, a must-stop on each of our visits. Their current featured exhibit is a hall of mirrors… No, you can’t just walk straight ahead in the picture below!

Anyhting but straight!

And Kasper got to be part of the presentation team in a chemistry demonstration!

Shake, shake, shake! What is going to happen?

Vancouver also has many playgrounds scattered around the city…

The young sometimes need (want) help on the swings.
(As do—sometimes—the old(er))
While others do just fine by themselves!
Do you remember your adventures on the monkey bars? I sure do! Mine weren’t this fancy…

Kasper had a birthday very near our visit, and Grandma had a VERY special birthday present ready for him. A handmade robot quilt!

We won’t count the hours…
Happy, and happy!

One of the (many) highlights of our visit was being able to attend Beth’s concert. Celebrating the director’s twenty years with the choir, it was titled simply, “Donna’s Favorites.”

In a surprise ending, a sextet from the choir gave the premiere performance of a commission using Emily Dickinson’s poem, “It’s All I Have to Bring Today” as the text. Set to music by Donna’s favorite composer, Larry Nickel, it is dedicated to Donna Brown.

Our visit ended all too soon; it was time to head to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.

But we’ll be back for Christmas! Yea!

8 thoughts on “Playtime!”

  1. Haven’t been making comments but have been enjoying reading your log. I especially enjoyed learning about dry camping in Q; we never had the nerve to try it. Be safe. Ellen

  2. Wow, what a wonderful experience all around, except maybe trying to sleep in a tent on a cold night. All of you sleeping in the camper seemed like the right answer.

    All those games!!! What a wonderful thing to see in today’s device-driven play world. The quilt looks perfect and I’m sure it will be an heirloom for Kasper.

    Thanks again for taking the time to write about and post photos of your year on the road. I look forward to each segment of your adventure.

  3. How wonderful to experience such delicious time with grandkids. Canada truly is family friendly. We loved the campgrounds in their Provincial Parks. We stayed in one in New Brunswick, Mackdequack. . Spelling is wrong, but if you get there you will enjoy it for sure. Loved their cooking and eating shelters. It sounds like you have a whole new life before you. You look great in the photos.

  4. Canada has beautiful parks that are well managed and I think well funded. Who doesn’t love Canada and all there is to see and do there? Saw our first aurora borealis there …. Enjoy!

  5. Kathe, the quilt you made for Kasper is just amazing!! Wow! What a work of love!
    Always enjoy reading about your adventures, and always love seeing pics of the grandkids!

  6. Margaret and I visited Stanley Park in May 2017 while in Vancouver for a few days visit. Lovely place, but a challenge for me to drive in during a marathon that was going on that May.
    Spoiling the grandkids is always a treat and I see your treat was ice cream for breakfast!

  7. Wow, what a wonderful time you had. Terrific pictures and very treasured times. Have fun in Washington snd Olympic. It is a beautiful place.

  8. When we were there..Kasper was so young and Nyssa was not yet born..Thanks for the pictures!!Love you!!

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