Kidding Around Vancouver Island

Lantzville, just north of Nanaimo, may not be a big town, but they know how to put on great events.  From the Rotary Club’s wonderful Breakfast with Santa to the Fire Department’s Halloween bonfire and fireworks, people come from all over to join in the festivities.  But the crowning event of the year is Minetown Day, which this year is Saturday September 12.

The day starts early with the traditional pancake breakfast at the Lantzville Legion (George says, see you there for the opening at 7am.  I say, see you later.)  Then at 10am there’s a parade down Lantzville Road ending up at the school grounds, where the rest of the day’s activities are centered.  The highlight of the parade is the several dozen decorated bikes that kids have entered in a contest, all riding down the street.

Years ago at our first Minetown Day, there were more people in the parade than watching it.  Now you need to get there early to get a good spot.  There are over 22 games and rides – all no charge – lots of music, storytelling and dancers.  Among our kids favourites:  the rock climbing wall, the velcro wall, the dunk tank, and the nail hammering contest.  They’ve always been fascinated with the 50/50 Chicken Poop draw.  I think the 50/50 stands for 50% interested in winning and 50% interested in seeing the chicken lay its… whatever.

Oh yes, there’s a watermelon eating contest that the kids love to enter – who cares if you win!  They also love making cars out of Zucchinis and then racing them for prizes.  And maybe, just maybe this year, Grace will be brave enough to take a spin on the human sphere.  I think George really wants to do it and is hoping to live the thrill vicariously through his daughter.

There’s also a main stage for musical entertainment all day from noon until 7pm, and historical displays of the town’s rich coal mining heritage, so bring your picnic blanket, a couple of chairs, and spread out on the school grounds to spend the day in Lantzville!

We all want to teach our kids the true meaning of Christmas.  What about teaching them the true meaning of Labour Day?  That’s George’s plan for the girls this year:  cutting the lawn, weeding the garden, ripping out that old fence and putting in a new one.  Some good old-fashioned labour.  Okay, while we see how that works out, your family might want to try:

The Lighthouse Country Fall Fair – Saturday Sept 5 in Bowser/Deep Bay.  Features plenty of activities for the kids, including pony rides, a petting zoo, and bouncy castles (how did we manage before bouncy castles came along?), and the theme this year is home gardening, with lots of tips and displays,  as well as fresh produce.  The fair is at the Lighthouse Community Centre from 10am until 4pm.  Adults are $5.00 and kids under 12 are free.

Port Alberni Salmon Festival – Fri Sept 4 – Mon Sept 7.  Grace will be too busy ripping out fence posts to be able to take part in the fishing – there’s a $10,000 prize for the largest salmon caught during the Festival and hundreds of other prizes.  Fireworks will be on Friday night, and there’s a dunk tank, lots of great food and entertainment all weekend long.  There’ s a free bullhead derby early Sunday morning.  All takes place at the Clutesi Haven Marina.

Labour Day Swim – Mon Sept 7, Nanaimo – With the Aquatic Centre closed for maintenance and the ocean losing its “make you think you’re living in Hawaii” temperatures, you can grab a good long swim between 12 noon and 5pm at the Beban Park pool.

Hike to Labour Day Lake – Ok, you’re really celebrating the weekend if you make the trek to this lake – yes, that really is its name – which is literally half way between Port Alberni and Nanaimo (as the crow flies – see the map below).  It’s a pretty hefty hike for a family, but what are days of labour for, as George would say.

Or you could just relax at home and have a nice barbeque – maybe do a New Year’s Eve kind of countdown to the kids going back to school.  Oh wait, that’s for later at night when they’re in bed.

With the sunny hot summer we’ve had on Vancouver Island this year, fruits were ripening extra early, and that meant starting blackberry picking mode not long after BC Day – it’s been going strong ever since.  When we head down to the park, we don’t bring any snacks with us; just grab a handful of black berries and you’re set.

Of course I use “grab a handful” very metaphorically.  We’ve been perfecting our technique the last few years to minimize tears from prickles and the stains from handling.  You have to grip those berries enough to pull them off, but not too hard that they instantly become jam in the hand (known as ‘mushers’ in Ella lingo).  As for prickle protection, our trick is to use a glove on one hand to grip the branch and then angle it in such a way that your bare hand can easily get at the berries.  Result?  Less tears, more berries!

Another tip is to use your shortest child as the spotter.  Quite often, the nicest berries are the ones hanging underneath leaves – they’re hard to spot unless you get right underneath.  Ella has become quite good at her scouting job, though she gets a bit tyrannical when she spots a batch:  “There it is, get it!” or “I see some, pick them now!”

Being the taller of the two, Grace is more focused on the highest berries possible.  When she saw at tip on Shaw TV about using a step ladder to compete with the birds, she was all for it; when she had to carry the ladder, the enthusiasm waned.  I suggested to her that Daddy would make a very good step ladder.  Grace thought that was great, George not so much, until I told him it was kind of like a free massage.

Now it’s a frenzied race to do something with all these berries.  Jam is the old stand-by (good for Christmas prsents!) and then there are the pies, and the crumbles, and the syrups.  But this year, a little something for mummy and daddy, which is fermenting as I write.  Gotta love those blackberries!

Our kids are Island kids through and through – always at the beach, going to farmer’s markets, exploring the parks, and travelling the back roads.  So when we told them we were going to visit another island, they were pretty ho-hum about it all.  But as we left the ferry and started driving around Salt Spring Island, they got that this place was something special.  It was all the things they loved about the big island, but in concentrated form.

And it wasn’t just the Saturday morning farmer’s market, or the great kids stores – they had a blast touring the art galleries (obeying the no running, no touching rules as they went!), finding their way through one of the most unusual hardware stores you’ll ever see and sipping a cool drink under the branches (literally) of the Tree House Cafe.

Then we discovered a very special way of seeing Salt Spring and the surrounding islands – a sight-seeing excursion with Salt Spring Air.  Now the kids love it when we occasionally take a seaplane over to Vancouver, but that’s mostly water-seeing.  On this tour of Salt Spring, you circle the island at low enough altitude to really take in the magnificent scenery, homes, and some of the surrounding islands.  The take-off and landing from the harbour at Ganges is great fun in itself!  Our pilot Harold Kirkpatrick was really helpful (you’re wearing headsets so you can easily hear) in describing what we were seeing.  The cost is quite reasonable when you can get a group of 4 to 6 people, and they have lots of other tours available as well.

KidsFest in Parksville is coming up this Sunday August 16th for a full day of fun, food, and entertainment.  It’s held down at the Community Beach in the large field over on the right hand side – where the kites are flown.

Will Stroet is the MC and provides muscial entertainment between acts, which include Rick Scott, Friends Forever Puppets, Tickles the clown, and a production of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  Lots of displays from local businesses and organizations, and of course, lots of food.  Things get underway at 10am right through to 4pm.

Sometimes the kids just need to get away from it all.  You know, from the daily grind of eating, playing, more eating, more playing, but mostly they need a break from their parents.  So sitting around a room with your parents, or going swimming with your parents, no matter how nice the resort,  just doesn’t cut it for kids.  We’ve discovered this summer how well Tigh-Na-Mara resort in Parksville understands that.

We’ve been discovering the variety of kids’ activities they offer, from day camps to building stuffed bears to beading to movie nights, and tennis or swimming lessons.  Grace and Ella have been having a blast and there’s always some artwork or project they’re bringing home with them.  The day camp in particular is great fun and unless things get really rainy, it’s all held outdoors under the shade of trees, so the kids get a full day of fresh air and sunshine without the burn.  And that means – thankfully – they usually get to sleep nice and early at night (my concern here is for the children’s health and well-being, of course).  Most activities are available for a fee to non-residents of the resort, but always check ahead and book for activities, as they fill up fast.

The kids have at least half a dozen hula hoops hanging in the carport, but none of us has been able get the hula part of it.  The only use the hoops get is a rare game of daddy toss – 10 points if you get it over his head and 5 points if it just hits him.

Then we met Sally Whibley who has a booth at the Errington market selling hand-made hula hoops and helping people like us. Partly it’s a matter of having the right kind of hoop (too light and there’s nothing to counter-balance against), then you need to find the right swing of the hips (think minimalist instead of wild gyrations).  You also don’t want to have too big a hoop. Pretty soon, we were putting the hula back in the hoops.

Ok, so maybe we only got about two feet and not 10 kilometres, but we were keeping those hoops going!  Grace was absolutely into it, though I had the feeling Ella wondered why we were all so concerned about encircling our bodies with plastic tubing.  Surely a princess, like Cinderella, would never do such a thing.  I was liking it because the hula hoop gives me some exercise and it’s something I can do with the kids.  George is into to as long as it’s in the backyard and no one can see.

Sally is bringing a hula hoop expert to Oceanside for a whole series of workshops on Hoola Dance from August 8 – 16th.  The woman’s name is Betty Hoops – no really, that’s her name.  Betty is listed in the Guiness Book of World Records for having travelled 10 kilometres while hooping. She combines dance, aerobics, and yoga to make hula hooping a fun routine.

We signed up Ella for swimming lessons, but it turned out the lessons were really for us.  You see Ella thinks swimming is a contact sport – she has to be clinging to me in order to get into the water.  Her teacher  was very patient the first day.  No you can’t put a strangle hold on my neck, she would tell Ella.  You’ll have to walk into the water yourself.  It turned out there was pay-off.  Walk into the water by yourself and you get to play with toys.  By the end of class, Ella was at least walking around in the water by herself and showed me some of the exercises her teacher had taught her.

Then it was my turn with the teacher.  No more holding Ella in my arms in the water.  Under more questioning I had to admit that we give Ella a cloth to wipe her eyes every few moments in the bathtub.  That explains why she won’t get her face wet in the pool, says the teacher.  Another lesson learned.  Once the parents are trained, the child will be swimming in no time, it seems.  Ella’s teacher has been marvellous – we went the private lessons route through Nanaimo Parks and Rec because Ella’s too shy around groups right now.  There may be another lesson in there somewhere for us.

A friend of ours who lived for a short time in Parksville and had to move back to Alberta for job reasons, keeps emailing and asking how things are on the Island.  You can hear the longing in their words.  We love Parksville too – it’s the epitome of small town Island summers – and adding to that tradition for the last few years has been the Summer by the Sea Tuesday night market down on Craig street.  Great shopping, great music, great fun.

The heart of the street market is being able to browse over 120 vendors selling everything from artichokes to artworks, bread to beads, clocks to candles, and from every other letter of the alphabet.  The kids bought a very fun puppet here and they’ve also found unique gifts for friends’ birthdays.  If they can sample something – like honey or fresh bread – they’re extra happy campers.  And they’ve made lots of new friends there too because plenty of families come to the market.

The kids always have a fabulous time dancing to the top quality musicians featured each week.  We’ve tried in the past to have the kids stay in their shoes, but it’s a losing battle and blackened feet are a small price to pay for all the fun.  Face painting is another favourite and the ice cream wagon gets a regular visit as well.  And since the beach is so close, we often come up there first for a picnic and then show up for the market starting at 6pm (which is crucial if you want some of the fresh bread and other goodies!). The market is every Tuesday night through to August 18 from 6pm to 9pm.

See the problem is, they call it Canada Day, but it’s really Canada Days and picking and choosing between them isn’t easy.  Let’s start in Ladysmith.

We love Transfer Beach as you probably know, and that’s a great place to have Canada Day, which is why the clever folks at Parks and Rec are having it there from 1 to 5pm.  There’s going to be music and lots of family activities.  And of course they have the water park there and one of the best concession booths around – great burgers!

Nanaimo’s Maffeo Sutton park boasts one of the best playgrounds around with a wonderful view of the Harbour, plus it’s getting all polished up for the opening of the new Spirit Square, so what better place to hold Nanaimo’s Canada Day celebrations.  Our kids love the Kerplunks and guess who’s going to be there!!  A multi-cultural food fair promises lots of good eating and there’ll be plenty of fun activities as well.  It all starts at 11am and runs until 3:15pm.

If you like your celebrations to start early, then Parksville’s Canada Day celebrations will get you going at 8am with the popular Shriner’s pancake breakfast.  What could more Canadian than piling on the butter and the maple syrup!  Then it’s the annual Canada Day parade down the Island Highway starting at 10am.  Get your seats early because this is always well attended and this year everything about the Parksville celebration is supposed to be even bigger!  Then it’s off to the Community Park for a full day of fun starting at noon.

No matter where you spend the day on July 1st, though, you’ll want to end up in Parksville around dusk because it’s time for fireworks!  Our littlest one has turned out to be the biggest fireworks fan after a couple of years of ear-covering, so she’ll be there.  With her family of course – can’t have the 5 year old driving by herself to Parksville.