Staycation - Part 2

There's something quite satisfying about going on vacation in a place you know. There's no stress about it, it's generally quite inexpensive, and it's something we do quite often - sometimes by ourselves and sometimes with our friend Javier and his 11 year old son Adrian. With them, in the past little while we've taken day trips to the zoo, to Hope, to the Britannia Mine Museum. This weekend coming up, we're going somewhere else - not knowing the destination is part of the joy of it.

Day 3 of our staycation was spent in one of our favorite occupations - shopping. We took a trip out to New Westminster, to the outlet mall under the Queensborough Bridge. We'd been there once, a few years ago when it first opened, and weren't impressed. This time we had absolutely no trouble spending the whole day shopping and coming home with a table full of bags.

Days 4 to 6 weren't quite so successful. Yes, we ended up (finally) in the beautiful Okanagan, looking out over the beautiful view below - but it was painful to get there. We got about an hour and a half - just in Abbotsford - out of Vancouver and realized there was something wrong with our car. We stopped, called our mechanic in North Vancouver (almost as far as you can get in the Lower Mainland from Abbotsford), who said bring it to us. We turned around, got stuck in half a dozen typical summer traffic jams, and arrived there around noon. They ordered a couple of parts, we went off for a walk and lunch, and at three-thirty were once again on our way. We arrived in the Okanagan twelve hours after we'd left our house. Ouch.

But we had breakfast with my sister and her husband, laughed a lot, wandered the farmer's market in Summerland and then headed to Penticton for a lovely and very late lunch on the waterfront. See below.

The next day we had a late breakfast with my Aunt Janet (who is always delightfully entertaining), drove around the lake to Naramata and walked the beautiful and peaceful outdoor labryinth.

Then we turned around, stopped at the Black Widow winery and bought some wine, and headed home. Eighteen hours of driving, eighteen hours of vacation. Next time we go, I'm flying!

Days 7-10 will follow on Friday.

Kate

Staycation

I've just got back from 10 days of what I like to call a staycation (thanks to Brent Butt and Corner Gas for the title). We didn't go far, but we went to a whole bunch of places, some we'd been to before, some we discovered for the first time, some with family or friends, and some just us.

Here, for your viewing pleasure are the first four days:

Day 1 - actually it probably should be called Day 1 minus 1 as I worked this day so my staycation didn't officially start until the next day.

A friend invited us to a Vancouver Canadians baseball game. It's triple A ball but it's in one of the most beautiful parks in the world. Patrick's son Trev turned 11 that day and he got to throw out the first pitch. Got it into the hands of the catcher as well. We sat in the bleachers, watching the game, the sun set, the sweepers do a break dance, ate hot dogs and popcorn and drank beer with Patrick's family - all 40 or 50 of them!

Official Day 1

We took the Skytrain out to the airport and, no, we weren't going anywhere except to the airport. There's something entertaining about being there and not having to rush off through customs or security. Vancouver International is a lovely airport, full of light and great art and pretty good food and shopping. I love taking the Skytrain as it drops you right in the airport and returns us to within a couple of blocks of home. We wandered the airport, looking in stores, stopping for a drink and a late lunch, enjoying the travellers and the hustle and bustle.

Day 2

This was a particularly gorgeous day - and we took full advantage of the weather. We went across the Lions Gate Bridge and up to the Capilano Canyon. It's a tourist attraction built right on the canyon and it's full of beautiful views, interesting information about people and history, and thrilling walks. And when I say thrilling, I'm not kidding. The new Cliff Walk is a narrow (maybe 12 inches?) wide plank, with glass walls that end just above my waist. You walk right out over the canyon - it's kind of scary but also incredibly beautiful.

Day 2 Part 2

Once we'd wandered around Capilano, having scared ourselves to death on the actual suspension bridge, which moves A LOT - we decided we deserved a nice lunch, so drove west to Horseshoe Bay and enjoyed lunch and the view. There's not much to do there except eat and drink, but it's beautiful and the drive is a delight.

There's the first part of our staycation - you can catch Days 3-6 on Wednesday.

Kate