Archive for April 6th, 2008
Not for the faint of heart, I still prefer it to the expensive Capilano Suspension Bridge ($26.95 for an adult as of this writing, and there’s no family rate!). Lynn Canyon is quieter, it’s still impressive, and better yet — it’s FREE! (No gift shops, either.) I took this with my cameraphone this afternoon, I’ll post better photos later.
My visit was supposed to be a surprise for the kids, but the older three managed to find out I was here, anyway! I had an early appointment on Saturday morning for a haircut by my regular hairstylist in Vancouver (she works from home), and I asked Allan to pick me up from there with the kids because it was on the way into the city.
I found a good hairdresser in Toronto, but Hisako’s been cutting it for years and I prefer the way she layers it. It’s been chopped and straightened in this photo.
A little knock on the door revealed a shy Melissa, who didn’t look at all surprised to see me but was curious to see what was going on around me. We finished up my hair, and I went out to the van to see if the twins were surprised. Lots of squealing indicated they were!
The weather was on the iffy side, so I thought the best thing was a mixed indoor/outdoor recreational place where we could duck inside if the weather turned sour. Plus, I hadn’t been on Granville Island for ages — it was my old stomping ground for a long time. I lived across the water for nearly seven years and I used to take the kids there frequently, since they were babies.
Once we arrived at the Kids Market, Allan and Michael wanted to check out the arcade, so I bought passes to the Adventure Zone for the four girls so we could have in/out privileges. It’s four levels of playground, the ultimate in caged mayhem for kids. They could run amok to their heart’s content, and still be contained!
When Adventure Zone began filling up, I got everyone back together again to head outside to the outdoor playground, which wasn’t as busy. It didn’t actually rain — merely idle threats by dark clouds — so we ate our lunch outside, too. Then the wind picked up and it started to get chilly so the girls and I returned to the Adventure Zone for one more round while Allan and Michael checked out the arts supply stores. (Granville Island is owned by CMHC, the federal government, and is home to the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. The island is designated mostly an arts and culture development.)
The girls raced around the Adventure Zone, but the twins were so pooped that they fell asleep in one of its tunnels! I had to send Maddy and Melissa to go wake them up, and somewhere along the way both Megan and Maribeth lost their socks. I had to send them all back in to search for them, but I didn’t hold out much hope finding tiny socks in the ball rooms. Eventually, Melissa fished out one sock of each pair from who-knows-where, we called it a day before dinner and I drove the whole gang home, where *I* promptly fell asleep!
Uploaded pics from Granville Island can be viewed as a full-screen Flickr slideshow, thumbnails, or in the autoplay slideshow below:
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