Looking back now, our time in Vancouver is a little bit of a blur. We were there for two nights, and the afternoon we arrived it was raining pretty hard. We tried to rally and hang out at a playground in Stanley Park so the kiddos could burn off some energy from the drive, but it was kind of depressing to stand in the rain, and it was getting colder by the second.
We decided to go to Granville Island to walk around, and after exploring the market long enough to wish we had a kitchen in Vancouver to cook some of its decadent offerings, we found a spot to have a late dinner. 
The next morning, Father’s Day, we woke to overcast skies, but no rain. We went to Slickety Jim’s Chat n’ Chew for breakfast (chosen as much for its amusingly-named menu items as its reputation for good food) and then, appropriately, to a toy store where Andrew delighted in watching the kids pick out a toy to buy with their spending money. 

As the morning mist burned off, we drove out to Lynn Canyon, a less trafficked suspension bridge (we’d read that the crowds at Capilano could be a pain) just outside the city. Maybe because it was a Sunday, or maybe because it was Father’s Day, Lynn Canyon was still pretty crowded. But we enjoyed the suspension bridge and the beautiful park on the other side, showcasing old growth pines and ferns, and even a few plant fossils in rocks, if you looked closely enough. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon gathering shells on the shores of Stanley Park while Andrew went for a run and to explore the park on his own. 

The sun broke through later in the day, and before walking to dinner, Andrew and I watched the kids roll down the grassy knolls bordering the bay, where there were seven massive container ships at harbor. 

We loved the diversity and complexity of Vancouver. 52% of its inhabitants speak English as their second language. The streets are filled with multi-cultural restaurants and loads of people who don’t “look like us,” so it was a great introduction to another country and other cultures for our kids. 

The next day, we set out early to go to the Princess Louisa Inlet, where we planned to be campers for two nights in our most remote destination of this trip: Malibu Young Life Camp.