Vancouver

With summer coming to an end and Hadley starting school soon, we decided to take a little trip North to Vancouver, BC. There was another reason for the trip, but we'll get to that later. 

With my work schedule and Cambri starting soccer, our weekends were filling up, so we decided to go up on a Wednesday and come back on a Thursday. Just a quick trip in the middle of the week, also because we assumed things would be less busy. We soon found out that wasn't really the case.

We woke up Wednesday morning and got our stuff together. We weren't really in any hurry, so that was kind of nice. The drive up was fine, and getting across the border was relatively quick for the Blaine site.

I had seen that Costco in Canada has chicken strips and fries, as well as poutine. So, even though it seemed like a weird lunch destination when on vacation, I had to try it. Had we known the absolute zoo this Costco would be in the middle of a Wednesday, we probably would've tried some other time. Just finding a parking spot was insane. Once inside, it was crazy seeing how many people were crammed near the checkout and food court. However, to their credit, we didn't have to wait too long for our food. Our only concern was finding an open table, which luckily became available as I was walking over with the food.

Emily got the chicken strips and fries, I got the poutine, and the girls got some pizza. The way I talked about it, Emily thought she was getting gravy on her fries. I got caught up in the bustle of the crowd that I didn't even think to get her dipping sauces. I offered to go get some gravy, but she said it was fine. I made the rookie mistake of believing her.

They cut the pizzas a little bigger in Canada than they do in the US.

I haven't had a ton of poutine in my life, but of the poutine I have had, between Whistler and Banff, this Costco poutine was actually pretty good. The poutine place we went to in Banff had too much sodium, but this stuff didn't. I give it a thumbs up, much better than I was expecting.

Something else I wasn't expecting, but wasn't surprised about given the liberal nature of Vancouver, was the wooden utensils.

Cambri said she didn't want ice cream, but Hadley did. I got her a sundae thinking that was what she wanted, but it wasn't. The only other thing they had was a waffle cone, something else you don't see at the Costcos at home.

Harlow gladly ate the sundae with Emily.

Hadley did share with Cambri, and they couldn't be happier about it.

We've been to Costco on Saturday many times, and have never seen the amount of people that were at this Costco in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. It was nuts.

Anyway, for our afternoon, we hit up the Vancouver Aquarium. Again, we had to park like a quarter of a mile away because parking was difficult to find.

The girls loved it. Hadley especially liked the jellyfish, which I am realizing I didn't get a picture of.

They had a blast going from tank to tank.

Meanwhile, I had Harlow strapped in.

They had a couple tanks with a little bubble for you to stand in and get a 360 degree view from inside. The girls had to wait for some adults to record their little ticktock video before they could get in. They thought it was pretty cool.

We found a little kiddie area where Harlow could break free. Otherwise, there were just too many people around and this kid likes to run now.

There were a few reptiles, but not too many.

I guess I failed to get a pictures outside of the otters and seals, but the girls enjoyed those as well. They usually have penguins, but had since relocated them. So, enjoy this picture of the girls with this giant otter, which is clearly fake.

Wednesday night we hit up the closest McDonald's so the girls could get some Happy Meals. The promo in Canada was little Squishmallows, which the girls love. Well, to their disappointment, this McD's must've run out, because the girls got a little toy from the Maddagascar movie from last year. They still thought it was cool, though. 

That night I had to run to Walmart for something, and tucked in the back was a McD's. This location had the little Squishmallows, so I was able to get the girls a couple. 

***

Thursday morning, we packed up and headed a couple miles up the road to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. One of the nice things about going to attractions in the morning is the smaller crowds. 

I had Harlow strapped to my chest again, and Hadley and Cambri were able to run wild. But first, we had to get their picture in the giant frame. 

All that space, and they wanted to be tucked in the corner, I guess.

The girls thought the bridge was pretty cool. They didn't have any fear at all. 

I realized later that we didn't take any family pictures on the bridge without the little onesie that we were using to announce Emily's pregancy. This was the main reason for the trip, but that will be coming in the next post. So, yeah, spoiler alert: Emily is pregnant again.

Here's our family picture on the bridge. 

On the other side of the bridge is like a nature boardwalk that takes you around the little forest area. The girls enjoyed running ahead and then waiting for us. 

We stopped and thought we were going to see a falcon demonstration or something, but it was just a couple people with a falcon and talking about them. It wasn't too interesting so we headed over to the tree bridges.   

The girls loved these, and were anxious to go from tree to tree. 

We crossed the suspension bridge again and decided to take a little break before doing the cliff walk.

The cliff walk was pretty cool, and again, the girls had zero fear.

I'm not sure what this pose is, but she broke this one out on me.

This was our attempt to take a picture with the bridge in the background and had to squat/sit to get it, but the guy that offered to take the picture for us took it from too low of an angle. So, we look weird.

One of the other main reasons we wanted to go to Vancouver, was because we saw a noodle restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, that Emily has been wanting to go to ever since. For a while she was on a gluten-free diet, so it hadn't been possible the last time we were up ther. But now we could, and we did. 

And it was delicious.

Harlow and Cambri ate the noodles up like crazy. They kept asking for more. Hadley kept asking for the bell peppers, which was fine by us, because we weren't going to eat them.

It's called Peaceful Restaurant, and it got Emily's seal of approval. The last few restaurants we've tried that were featured on DDD, have underwhelmed. So, it was nice to get a good one.  

We got a plate of sweet and sour chicken for the girls because it was the closest thing on the menu to orange chicken, which is their favorite. That was also really good.

Emily and I got some noodle dishes, and we also got some beef rolls, which needed a sauce to dip them in, which we didn't have. 

Overall, we'd easily go here again

After lunch, it was time to head back home. The boarder crossing too over 2 hours. That part sucked, and we should've planned better for it. Luckily we travel with a little potty training toilet in the van, so the girls were able to use that when needed. 

Due to the delay, we weren't going to get home nearly as early as we thought we would. By the time we got to Marysville it was time for dinner. The girls had been asking Chick-Fil-A for a while, so we hit that up.

Since the girls took naps on the drive, bedtime wasn't the funnest, but it wasn't too bad either. 

It was a fun little trip.