12 Days of Family Road Trip: Part 6

 July 30

Activities: Capilano Suspension Bridge, meeting an old friend

After spending so much money in the US, it was hard to believe I had to spend another $197 to visit the rainforest at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.


The last time I visited this place was probably more than two decades ago if not three. I couldn't recall if it had many forest boardwalks, Treetop Adventures, or souvenir shops back then. Regardless, I was surprised this was such a popular tourist landmark where you needed to pick a time slot for your visit when purchasing the ticket. Indeed, there were a lot of visitors. I'm so glad I found a parking spot. 


The lineup to walk on the suspension bridge was long. Good thing there were staff controlling the bridge's traffic or else I feared the bridge could break.

 


It was worth the wait. We got to see these tall, magnificent trees in a rainforest.

    



This tree's diameter was six times my son's tip-to-tip arm span.  


We spent much of the day exploring the area. My kids even finished the scavenger hunt activities.




It was enjoyable to walk above ground






If I lived in Vancouver, I would definitely get an annual pass so that I could come visit often.


Later that day, we met with my old friend, Andy. I used to volunteer with him while studying at the University of Alberta.



Of course, we had to end the day with ice cream. 

Rain or Shine Ice Cream

'
Mural Beside the Ice Cream Shop 

July 31

Activities: Meeting a friend for lunch, Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment, Aberdeen Mall

This was the last day we explored the Vancouver area before heading back to Calgary, and I was super excited to meet with my friend Charmane, who I hadn't seen for 13 years. 


She booked a table at the 1931 Gallery Bistro in downtown Vancouver, While parking was tricky, it was a lovely, fancy place to have lunch. The weather was sunny, and we got to eat at the patio.





Excellent Thick Salmon Burger 😋

The time to catch up with my long-lost friends was short and precious. Who knows when we meet again! 

After lunch, I took Charmane's advice to bring the kids to Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment. It may sound odd to spend time at a playground during vacation, but hey, kids need to enjoy it, too! 

While my kids were playing in the park with other kids, I walked around and explored the surroundings. 


To complete our Vancouver tour as a 'true' Chinese, we went to the Aberdeen Center. Notably, Diso was renamed to Oomomo. Unfortunately, everything was so expensive we ended up mostly window shopping. I supposed it was a good thing because I didn't want more stuff in the house.  



As much as I wanted to save money, we got to have sushi before leaving Vancouver.

Next
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Casio Pro Trek Battery Replace

Summer time again, and I am about to head to Banff for some extreme biking riding. I remember that I have a watch Casio Pro Trek model PRT 40 that I brought in 1998 and I want to use it because the watch has: 1. digit compass 2. Altimeter 3. Thermometer It will be cool to see how elavation I ride up the on the Rocky Montian. However, I needed to replace the battery. I rememer that there are 2 batteries in my watch. I "assumed" that one of the battery (which has a red cover) is for maintaining the data while the other one is for display, so I decided just to get buy one for now, and I will get new battery when I go back to HK (i.e. it is very cheap to get battery in HK's Women Market) Tonight, I went to SuperStore, brought a button battery model 395 and I try to replace the battery. I remembered that once the battery is replace, I have to do a special procedue to restart the watch by contacting the negative of the battery to somewhere inside the watch. Damn, I forgot whic...
Read more

ESCORT (Garmin) C550 Review

Image
Finally, it is time to try out new. I just bought the ESCORT C550. There is a hot deal $150 off from Future Shop this week.  So, I decided to buy it and test it out. In the worst case, I will refund it within 30 days Here is the picture of the box 2. Here is what you get. The GPS navigator unit Window mount Car power adaptor Regular USB Data Cable Protective bag for the GPS unit Sticker (if you decide not to use the window mount) Garmin Lock instruction Manual GPS Navigator manual Features: Preloaded City Navigator North American v8 Bluetooth connection for pairing with your cell phone Plays Mp3 music SD Card slot of loading other maps and mp3 Text to Speech, the GPS can read the street's name for you Come with 1 year manufacture warranty Notice that the company is call ESCORT. It is a sister company of Garmin. I didn't see much a different between ESCORT c550 and the Garmin StreetPilot c550. It is a bit thicker than the Garmin Nuvi. From the side, it has ...
Read more

12 Days of Family Road Trip: Part 5

Image
July 29 Trip: Tsawwassen to Seatle Activities: Seatle Space Needle, Artistic at Play Playground If we wanted to visit the US, this would be the day because the rest of the trip was already planned. This justified my effort to turn back home for the passports on day 1. Driving to the US border was about 35 min, but the estimated wait time was 90 minutes. By the time we reached the end of the lineup, it was already 10 o’clock. Doing my math, it would be 1 p.m. when we arrive at the Space Needle. I contemplated abandoning the US trip. Seeing how slow the line moves, I convinced Charlotte, the only one adamant about going to the US, that we should turn around and spend our time on other fun activities.  Instead of turning left and doing a U-turn, I turned right onto Beach Road because it looked more scenic on Google Maps. Unexpectedly, that road was blocked, and the only way was to drive to the Peace Arch Duty Shop parking lot, so I did. After using its washroom and wanting to exit...
Read more