This past Saturday was Stefan and my 11th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate we got out the canoe for the first time this year. We took the kids to a new place (we'd never canoed-one of my 2016 Goals), False Creek. This is a main waterway in downtown Vanouver, and with cheap all-day parking ($11/day) at Kits beach, we hauled it all the way down to Science World, where the water ends, and back again.
We saw so much this morning, including these wild murals painted on a factory, a cute little multicolored houseboat community (see below), and plenty of seagulls. Unfortunately, we didn't see any sea otters, seals, or other wildlife, but we did dock at Granville Island while they were having an outdoor jazz concert. We stopped for a little bit more food since we were staying in the city much longer than originally planned. Nothing that a few apples, cheese, and bread can't fix!
As the morning went on, the sun came out of the clouds and so many yachts and sailboats were out on the water. We also saw the cute little aquabuses that were chugging here and there for tourists and pedestrians wanting to to to the other side. If you're a visitor to Vancouver and have a sunny day, an aquabus tour would be a fun and inexpensive way to see downtown Vancouver and Granville Island-a popular market area-for a price much less than a private yacht or sailboat tour.
This paddle took us about 90 minutes each way, and earned us all a few pink cheeks (ahem). Once we pulled into Kits beach, Stefan and I were contentedly tired from paddling nearly 4 miles. We got the canoe up and secured onto the car and headed down to the dog beach they have to let the kids play with some dogs for awhile, but the entire 45 minutes they were too shy to play with any dogs, and the dogs were too busy playing with each other!
After our canoe trip ended, we stopped at Lemonade - my favorite gluten-free bakery - for some delicious treats before heading home to shower and have a bit of downtime before our night out. It was a fun new place to paddle and I hope to get the canoe out a few more times before the summer ends. We don't have a great way to haul it since we don't have a roof rack, so it's not something we'd do every weekend, but for $150 on craigslist, a canoe is an inexpensive and fun family memory-maker!
Comments