The other day I bravely took our boys, by myself, to bike ride along the seawall. In hindsight it may not have been the most well thought out decision; it was, however, memorable. Fortunately I elected to do this on a weekday when the seawall is less busy. My biggest mistake, deciding to do this adventure 2 days after our two year old got a bike with training wheels. If we had gone with his trike the outing would have been infinitely more successful. I will always remember the adventure as the one where I dragged a two-wheeled bike, with a loud, crying, mess of a two-year old balanced on top. Ahhh, memories!
Despite my timing error, it was a lovely ride. We started underneath the Burrard Street Bridge. The boys and I had a great time looking at the underside of the bridge. I’m sure if any structural engineer overheard my explanation of bridges they would have cringed! We carried on looking across the water at the Space Centre, the Vancouver Maritime Museum and talking about Bard on the Beach.
Goodnight Vancouver is a wildly popular book with our boys. They take great pleasure in flipping through the pages and pointing out the various Vancouver attractions they have taken in. One elusive site has been the inukshuk along the seawall. Well no more! We ticked it off our to-see list. While we looked at the inukshuk we also admired the “freighters nestled in the bay” and discussed the mussel-covered rocks.
Now if the adventure had gone according to plan, we would have carried on to the Sylvia Hotel for lunch. Have you read “Mr. Got To Go” to your children? Based on a true story, it tells the tale of a grey cat who used to live at the Sylvia Hotel. In fact, the back entrance to the hotel features pictures of the real Mr. Got To Go cat. However, as my two year old had decided his world had ended I didn’t think lunch at the Sylvia was the way to go.
BC (and world-renowned) artist, Robert Bateman, along with the David Suzuki Foundation, have recommended children spend a minimum of 30 minutes in nature every day. Cycling along the seawall provides both the nature exposure as well as an infinite number of topics to discuss as a family. We will do it again; however, this time I’m bringing hubby and bikes everyone is comfortable riding.
