Kidding Around Vancouver Island

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.

We doing a bit of a wander around Nanoose Bay recently and stumbled upon Beachcomber Regional Park. This gem comprises the tip of one of the peninsulas at the top end of Nanoose and while it’s small, it’s got plenty to offer, most notably a 270 degree ocean-front with beaches and rocky out-croppings (something to satisfy the kids and George).  The ocean was absolutely calm while we were there, but George was picturing a nice stormy day (I don’t beyond the picturing part, but he and Grace love to stand out in the wind and rain).  There’s a small forested area in the centre of the park and then you’re out on the beach.  But the trek down from the road above is nothing to sneeze at, so have some good shoes on and be ready for a bit of a climb back up.

We had a lovely picnic out on the rocks and the kids had a great time wading out on the beach area – but be sure to bring water shoes as it’s a rocky beach and you don’t want “barnacle feet” as Ella calls them.  Speaking of Ella, we met another little girl named Ella whom our Ella took in tow and helped guide her along, until our Ella herself slipped and fell.  Luckily a woman sitting on the beach was better prepared than we were with magical band-aids – you know the kind, even when there’s no blood, one or two of these band-aids and all the crying stops.  Yes, you know.

This is one of the nicest ocean-front parks we’ve been to and we’ll definitely be back again.

[Note - the Google map is incomplete - switch to the Satellite view and you'll get more accurate directions - Follow the signs off Northwest Bay road to Beachcomber marina and then keep going past the marina]

This August-like weather has forced us to re-think our June activities somewhat.  We’re not used to getting out sprinklers or using water parks so early in the season. Grace says she could get used to not being used to it….  I had trouble understanding that too, but the main thing is they’re having a blast.

We have a great sprinkler toy that fills with water and then waits… waits… and then sends a blast of water way up in the air when you least expect it.  George calls it the scream machine because of its effect on the kids.  But even the scream machine can’t hold a candle to some of our favourite watering holes.

The water park at Transfer Beach in Ladysmith is one of the best around.  George wanted Ella to try out the bucket dump;  the bucket fills with water and then wait… wait… down it pours on unsuspecting children.  Yep, more screams.  But George didn’t properly calculate the water-to-Ella weight ratio; she was no fool and left the deluge to her big sister.

Nanaimo has several city parks with water equipment, but our favourite is the Harewood Mining Community Park on Howard Ave in the south end of the city.  A lot of the water features are built around a painted train track and the kids love to race around it and get sprayed as they go.

Parksville community beach has a classic old water park with some particularly tricky sprays built into the ground, which unsuspecting parents can get caught it while they’re keeping an eye on the kids.  Ok, only George, who keeps forgetting that the nozzles are there.

While up in Parksville the kids also can’t resist going on the bumper boats at Paradise Fun Park – the place with the giant mini-golf courses.  Tip for parents and older kids – the taller you are, the more you’ll get sprayed.  Hmm, I guess that’s kind of a tip for the younger kids too, isn’t it…