Cottage time in the Okanagan

We flew to Kelowna for our final week where we stayed in a cottage with Joel's whole familly. We attended Marcel & April's wedding where Austen made his debut as a ring bearer and Joel was the best man. The boys balanced their wedding duties with dips in the lake and fun times with the family. Austen performed his dance moves in the evenings which now include the moonwalk, the twist and downward facing dog.

Victoria and Galiano

Our week in Victoria and Galiano was quite possibly the most difficult in recent memory. Joel and I were both working and with a toddler thrown in it was impossible to finish anything. I worked at lot at night trying to get my files to upload over slow island ADSL. My usual 5 minute uploads took upwards of 7 hours. Who knew? 

It was also a busy time for our family and the week went by faster than we could have anticipated. Apologies to everyone we couldn't connect with. Next time!

We ended the week at a wedding on Galiano Island. Congratulations to Emma & Matt! It was a beautiful celebration and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We stayed in a rustic log house, attended the local market and soaked in the laid back gulf island life for a few days. Joel's family actually used to have a 250 acre farm on Galiano in the 1950s and 60s. His mother grew up there and used to ride to school on a pony. 

A tourist in Vancouver

It's been seven years since our departure from Vancouver and here I am, standing in a hotel lobby with the concierge asking where the nearest playground is. I honestly have no idea and frankly, neither does she. We google, and try to recall from memory... there must be something. I'm vaguely aware of a park near the Roundhouse community centre down in Yaletown and she's sure there's a small waterpark in Coal Harbour. Neither are right near the hotel which is in the very heart of downtown but we're up for the walk. As I meandered through the streets I realized the downtown is very adult oriented. I saw many tourists with toddlers in strollers but no locals. We did finally find a park with slides where I'd remembered it. Austen played with kids from all over the world. Kids who, like us, were trying to find something to do in the downtown.

Later I searched for kid-friendly restaurants for lunch and Yelp was pretty vague. A big hole in the map version of the search was right over the downtown area. Hmmm, I crammed myself and the stroller into a lunch place while other patrons eyed us with some distain. To get to a truly kid-friendly place we needed to walk back downtown and take a few buses to get out to Kits or Mt Pleasant.

I searched online for indoor play gyms because I was sure that the maze of downtown malls must have them in every food court. THIS IS RAINCITY -- COME ON!!! But no. Not a single one.

The verdict: if you travel with wee ones it's a much better idea to just stay in the West End so Stanley Park is right outside the door or get a BnB in Kitsilano or near Main south of 25th.  Last night we went back to our old Mt Pleasant hood for fabulous family dining at Rocky Mountain Flatbreads which has a play area and a great menu AND serves beer and wine!

The awesome play kitchen at Rocky Mountain Flatbreads