Vancouver… almost halfway
We left for Vancouver on a cold morning and a short 2 hour drive down the sea to sky highway and we found ourselves staring at the water that leads to the OCEAN!… The kids couldn’t wait to dip their toes in the other coastal waters since they had their toes in the Atlantic ocean in previous trips.
Capilano RV Park
As it turns out there is an RV park right smack in the middle of the city. Ok.. in Capilano. The RV park is wedged on a tiny piece of land immediately adjacent to the north end of the Lions Gate Bridge. We were wedged in by business buildings, a shopping mall and the Lions Gate Bridge, but oddly enough it was a fantastic location. Our site was one of the smallest we’ve been in, once neighbours pulled in on either side, you were really close for comfort! The RV park had a pool, hot tub, laundry facilities, great playground which was mere metres from our site.
Salmon Hatchery
After a quick setup, we headed to the Capilano Salmon Hatchery just north of Vancouver. Located just immediately north of the Capilano Suspension bridge attraction, it’s a bit of a pain to get to as you have to go through all the traffic headed towards the suspension bridge.
Once at the Hatchery, it’s quiet and serene and located in the middle of the forest.
The hatchery is free to visit! There is an interpretive center where they take you through the lifecycle of the salmon and the importance of the hatchery to help with maintaining the river stocks. The excitement for the kids was watching the fish climb the ‘ladder’. Within the center are windows that look out on the ‘ladder’ and if you come at the right time you can literally witness the salmon jump up from one level to another as they climb the ladder.
Ambleside Beach
A short drive from our campground… was the highlight of Vancouver for the kids. They wanted to see the ocean, and while technically it’s the Strait of Georgia that is an arm of the ocean, for the purposes of the kids we had reached the west coast of Canada and therefore the ocean.
The beach is easily located northwest of the Lion’s Gate Bridge. Lots of parking and lots of space for everyone to spread out. We packed some snacks and had ourselves a nice relaxing afternoon.
UBC Greenheart Treewalk
While Vancouver is known for it’s many well traversed tourist attractions, we opted for some of the lesser known and more importantly, not as crazy busy.
A quiet hidden gem right in the city is the UBC Greenwalk Treewalk. It’s a suspended walkway through the tree canopy. And since the trees are in the UBC Botanical Garden, there are variety of trees see and learn about. There are plaques along the way to tell you a little bit about the trees and an even higher viewing platform you can climb if you dare! The walkway is about 300 m long and about 20 m above the forest floor but it’s enclosed with wire mesh to the height of the handrails so perfectly safe for even the smaller ones. Since it was very quiet with only a handful of visitors and a single summer camp class, my kids decided to torment me with many round trips through the walkway. Let’s just say, as I get older my nerves of steel of yesteryear have waned a little.
On our many trips through the walkway, we kept running by a man who was midway through the path. We chatted with him and found out he was the owner of Greenheart, the organization responsible for the walkway. Greenheart’s treewalk is a unique ‘tree-hugging’ system that doesn’t damage the trees. The walk suspends itself using a mesh that effectively hugs the tree. Greenheart has projects around the world including their newest a giant zipline in Costa Rica…. hmmm…. gives us ideas for future travel
Science World
While finding places that are off the beaten path, sometimes you just have to suck it up and do the main popular attractions, cause after all, they’re visited for a reason. And seeing as my kids want to visit every science center known to man, of course our Vancouver trip had to include a trip to Science World.
I will say it again, with a decent budget, it’s amazing what science centers can be! Science World is sponsored by Telus and it certainly did not disappoint! We even went back twice since admission was included already in our Ontario Science Centre membership.
There are the requisite kiddie areas within science world as well as other exhibit areas geared to all ages. A big hit was the Innovation Lab by the Dyson Foundation. It was home to a myriad of interactive exhibits which showed kids cause and effect and the mechanics of how things work.
Terra Nova Play Environment
Another gem within the city is the Terra Nova Play Environment. Located in Richmond, BC right on the coast looking out over the Strait of Georgia. Tucked in amongst a residential neighbourhood, it is the site of a previous farm and has been re-created into two zones: the Paddock with ziplines, swings, rolling hills, slide and maze and the Homestead with a 10 m tall ‘playhouse/slide’, log jam climbing structure, spinning climber and rope walkway amongst other play areas.
The playground was empty when we arrived shortly after 9 am. There are a lot of trees in the homestead area which provide for shelter from wind and sun. The Paddock area is out in the open with the sun warming the area on the cooler morning that we arrived.
The ground was covered in the quick drain/dry squishy tiles and there’s even public bathrooms across the road…bonus!
This was by far one of the coolest playgrounds we had visited in our Canadian travels.
Granville Island
We also made a pitstop in Granville Island. The kids and I enjoyed a lunch from the Public Market and discovered the waterplay area. Complete with a waterslide it was the perfect way to blow off some energy while waiting for daddy to get done work.
Public Transport
Ofcourse, what trip to a major city would be complete without Public Transportation? We boarded the Skytrain a few times and enjoyed the view of Vancouver it afforded us. Quick transportation while scenic… what could be better?
