2022: Vancouver/Whistler Trip

For Spring Break we took a quick trip up north for our kids's first visit to Canada. Online the I-5 border crossing said 70 minutes, but as we drove the signs told us only 20 minutes, and we figured the regularly updated signs should be more accurate. It ended up being about 55. My bladder was begging for relief at that point, so we stopped off at a Canadian Supermarket to use the bathroom, pick up some Canadian SIM cards for our phones, and bought a bunch of yummy Canadian candy and other goodies they don't sell in the US. We tried pretty much everything that looked unlike anything we have at home. Some of our favorites were giant Kit Kat bars, Wunderbars, and Bear Paws. Since we were there a week before Easter, we also got Canadian Easter candy, like Smarties, Kit Kat, and O Henry Eggs. 

After stuffing ourselves with candy we continued north into the Vancouver area. Since it was spring I wanted to revisit some waterfalls Oscar and I had seen 12 years earlier. Our first stop was the Lynn Canyon Suspension bridge. Here's an ephemeral falls you can see just before crossing the bridge. Before we had to hike to the bridge passing twin falls along the way, but they've changed access since we last visited and now you can actually start right at the bridge and loop back around over the top of Twin Falls. 

This is the falls you overlook while on the bridge.

Twin Falls, howver, is much more difficult to view now than it was then. Allison didn't want to go down all these tree roots, but the boys went down to explore a bit more.

They never got a great view of the falls, but they did get some nice views of the pretty river. 

From there we traveled west to a beautiful lookout we'd seen before at Lighthouse park. It was a beautiful Saturday, so the parking lot was full. Oscar dropped me and the kids off while he went to find a parking place. I hadn't realized the hike was so shady, so we didn't grab coats. Tyler and I were fine, but Allison was freezing and didn't want to hike anymore. 

Here's the lovely lighthouse itself.

The east beach lookout has the best views of downtown Vancouver in the distance. Oscar let Allison borrow his coat while we climbed up on some big rocks. I'm not sure how he managed it while assisting children, especially one in an oversized coat without great access to her arms. 

If only we'd realized that just beyond our first spot was another one that was easier to climb over and had a less obstructed viewpoint.

Oscar and Tyler went back to the car while Allison and I took our time climbing back up the hill. She gave Oscar his jacket back now that we were hiking uphill and exerting more energy warmed her up naturally. Once at the start of the trail head she sat on a rock while we waited for the boys to come pick us up. 

Google told us our drive back into Vancouver would be 33 minutes long, which is longer than the 15 minutes it would have taken without traffic. It actually ended up being 2+ hours due to horrible merge traffic from everybody trying to cross the only bridge into downtown. I've never seen Google be THAT wrong! Once we crossed the bridge we got stuck trying to turn left at a light. After 3 green lights went by without a single person in our lane trying to turn, we pulled over to the right and grabbed dinner at a nearby pizzeria. It was similar in concept to MOD pizza, but not quite as good in my opinion. 

The next morning we grabbed some breakfast at the restaurant attached to our hotel and Tyler and I played giant Scrabble before we all went to church. One of these days I want one of these in my house!

After church the kids had fun at a playground in Stanley park before we started our drive up to Whistler.

Our first stop was Shannon Falls, which is about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler.

We tried to go to Brandywine Falls, but the gate was closed. Google told us it closes at 4:30pm, so we figured we'd try again the next day and went up to Alexander Falls. Oscar and I had come here before in July of 2010. This time the short walk out to the look out was covered in hard packed snow. 

The kids had a fun time playing it in, though it was so hard packed you could only do so much (as evidenced by Oscar's fall here).

The next morning we went to Brandywine Falls again, but the gate was still locked for some unknown reason. The kids and I hopped out and went to the falls while Oscar stayed in the tow away zone ready to drive off if a patrol came by. 

After the falls we went snow tubing for the first time. I'd told the kids we were going to do this, then we had several disappointments thinking we wouldn't be able to. On their website it wouldn't let me buy tickets because when I entered Allison's age it said she was too young for the activity. I checked the website and it said smaller kids could ride on the smaller slide only. When we arrived at the tube park, it said the park didn't open for another 35 minutes (the website had told us it would open in 5 minutes), and it said the smaller kid hill was only open on weekends. However, I saw a height measurement sign that looked like Allison was plenty tall enough for all of the slides. We were all feeling really let down and confused by all of this when fortunately an employee came by and confirmed that kids just have to be 42 inches to ride any of the slides. Phew! Most kids are 42 inches well before 7 years old. Our kids were 42 inches around 4 and 1/2. Why they won't let you buy an online ticket for a kid under 7 is beyond me. Plus I saw several younger kids there shorter than 42 inches, but they were still allowed to slide as long as they were in a double tube. Their website needs more accurate information. 

The hard packed snow made the slide super slick and fun. I'd done summer tubing at Mount Hood, and that was fun too, but this was better. The slick snow made you go down much faster. It was a little too fast for Allison. She was not interested after her first slide. She wanted to play in the snow more. After the first she thought we were done and was disappointed when I told her we'd be staying for the next two hours. She warmed up to it though. We took her in a double tube after that, which helped her feel more secure. She'd had her own tube on the first run since their rules stated that double tubes were only for use with small kids on the smallest slide. However I saw people using them, and an employee told me anyone can use them on weekdays because the smallest slide is closed. After doing the double she wanted to try single again, then double again, then play in the snow for awhile. She kept up that pattern until our 2 hours were over.

The accommodation we booked ended up being a nice big 2 bed/2 bath house. It was nice to get some space rather than just two queen beds in one room. 

Oscar picked up groceries our first evening in Whistler, but Tyler woke up before us and couldn't find the cereal boxes (that were in plain sight on the counter).  He did find the ice cream in the freezer, though. I came down the stairs from our loft room to discover the ice cream in the bathroom and Tyler with ice cream on his face.

The next day was rainy and dreary, but fortunately I had several indoor things planned back in Vancouver. We get free admission into "Science World" thanks to our local Children's Museum passes, so we spent our first couple of hours there after driving down from Whistler. I liked these banana caution signs in the water play kids' area. 

I took Allison up to the T Rex exhibit after I finally dragged her away from Wonderworks

Here's Allison digging for dinosaur bones and Tyler doing some spin art. I don't have any pictures of it but their "Eureka" gallery was awesome! It was a making science fun play area that was pretty much Tyler's version of Heaven. 

We took a break from Science World to go to "FlyOver Canada" and "Flyover Iceland." These are similar conceptually to rides like "Soarin'" at Disney or "Wings Over Washington" in Seattle. They were down in Canada Place, the same area where Oscar and I had taken our cruise to Hawaii back in 2009. "Flyover Canada" is an indoor activity, and we didn't realize we'd be waiting outside for it, especially since we arrived only 5 minutes before our scheduled flights. The kids warmed up in daddy's jacket while we waited.

After our rides we went to the "Top of Vancouver" revolving restaurant. It was happy hour then, so the pricing wasn't too bad, and we enjoyed the nice view with the kids. It was interesting to watch the clouds moving from that high up. We then returned to Science World for the remaining 45 minutes it was open and then started our drive out east. 

We booked a hotel out a bit further east since we were going to explore a couple waterfalls out that direction before heading home. There was a nice warm swimming pool and hot tub at our hotel, plus the breakfast was really good. The kids had fun swimming both that evening and the next morning after breakfast.

At our first waterfall, Cascade Falls, a dog came bounding up to Oscar like he'd been waiting for him all day. He also climbed in our car, let the kids pet him, and played with Allison's stuffed animal. Everyone asked if he was our dog since he was so sweet with the kids. We gave him some leftover beef sticks we had in the car before leaving. He had a collar with his address and name - "Sam." When we googled it, we found it was less than 2km away, so we're assuming his owners just let him roam freely.

Here's Cascade Falls. Lovely! The kids had no trouble doing the short hike because of Sam. 

It was fun to view the falls from the suspension bridge. You could see it slightly obstructed from before the bridge, then all of it from the lookout beyond the bridge.

Then we proceeded on to our final waterfall - Bridal Veil Falls in Chiliwack, BC.

Oscar and I came here in 2009, but I accidentally dropped and broke our digital camera, so we only have a couple fuzzy pictures from that visit. I wanted to redeem myself with plenty of good footage this time.

We were pretty hungry by then, so we stopped off at Tim Hortons and a Walmart close to the border to get some more Canadian goodies before heading back to the good old USofA. Our border crossing took us less than 2 minutes this time.