Posts filed under Park

I love Cheeeese! we went to a cheese farm today.

Little guy in a giant wooden shoe outside the Dutch Grocer

The evil waves will be defeated by Weenie the Brave

Trying to catch lunch at Dinghy Dong Dock Pub

Chowing on the chowder!

Kids loved the bunnies at the Cheeseworks.

Making a doomed sand castle as the tide is coming in

So we are going to combine yesterday and today into one epic, monstrous post! And as well we are going to have a contest, details at the end of the post.

Yesterday we booked it out of Sooke bright and early and headed back to Nanaimo. Along the way we stopped at a little art gallery just off the highway.

During our trip our oldest has been taking an interest in totem poles, as we have come across a lot of amazing ones on the Island. And in Sooke she found a piece of drift wood and said she was going to make a totem pole, she used her markers and made a cute little totem pole of her own.

So Mom and her went into the little art gallery and came out with a nice little replica totem pole for her to keep in her room.

By the time we got to Nanaimo it was lunch time, so we hopped on the ferry and went to Protection Island in the Nanaimo harbour for lunch at Dinghy Dock Pub. It is the only restaurant on the island and it is at the end of the dock that the ferry uses, so the kids loved that they ate lunch at a floating restaurant, and they serve pretty good meals too. Mom had a tuna sandwich and Dad had to try their clam chowder and then ate a honey ginger glazed salmon salad with a wasabi dressing!!  

A really neat thing for the kids is that they have a place outside where we sat where the kids could fish. They had little fishing poles and line with corn on the end. Little fish kept coming by and nibbling but no one took the bait and was caught. But it did not stop the kids from trying and trying and trying and trying.

We did not get back to our home base in Nanaimo until late afternoon so Mom ran out for some groceries while the kids played and relaxed for the rest of the day.

And of course Mom and Dad rocked the tea on the deck in the evening relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

Today, we had a much busier day because we had no travelling to accomplish. We started out by heading to Qualicum and checked out their beach. Because the tide was just about all the way back in the kids played in the sand and were constantly being pushed back closer to land every few minutes as the ocean kept washing their shoes away from the dry spot they had placed them.

We think the little guy was still choked about getting thrashed in Tofino because he had a wooden sword and was very angry at each wave as it crawled up the beach at him, and it ended in tears when the ocean first took the kids shoes from an earlier dry spot and slowly washed them about.

After we were evicted from the beach by the water the kids voted and we decided to go to Parksville and play at their playground and spray park.

On our way there we came across a sign that read,

"Moonberry Winery and Little Qualicum Cheeseworks"

So we of course veered off the highway and searched for this amazing combination of a place. What we found was perfect! It was a dairy farm that produced cheese and also made wine, AND they also had a cool self guided tour for kids that was a scavenger hunt taking us all around the farm to get different stamps for each clue. The kids played with a few rabbits they had, they saw some baby dairy cows, which caused the youngest to shout "Be-be Kow! Be-be kow!", over and over again for a good 10 minutes, even after we left the cows.

We were able to see the barn where they milk the cows and check out the horses they have on hand for trail rides, all in all a great stop.

Oh, and we ate cheese! The kids were sooo excited to be at cheese farm because they could then tell a friend of theirs, who LOVES cheese, that they were at a cheese farm.

So we left the Cheeseworks with a bottle of wine and some cheese and finally found ourselves at the playground and spray park in Parksville.

2 hours later we packed up and drove off with a van full or rosy cheeked kids, and stopped again at that nice little restaurant Avo's Eatery in Parksville. Mom had the Santa Fe wrap with broccoli sprouts and carmelized onions and Dad had an avocado, tomato, and Asian salad on noodles. We both agreed that Mom's was the best!

On our way back to Nanaimo we were again sidetracked!

A sign that read,

"70 flavours of Licorice" caught our eyes. Sooo we pulled off the highway again and found a neat little Dutch grocery that indeed had at least 70 different flavours of licorice. The kids dug through the bulk bins and selected quite the assortment of licorice tp give Grandpa once we get home. And the nice lady who owned the store gave the kids a bag of chocolate soccer balls and Dad a dried farmers sausage.

The kids loved the chocolate but the large farmers sausage made Dad's stomach feel - bletch!

Once finally home we ate a buffet of random foods we had on hand, had a quick evening dip in the hot tub and then bath and off to bed with the lot of them.

Tomorrow we leave the Island, which will be a sad moment. We had a hell of a good time here and I think we would all galdly spend another couple weeks checking out what it has to offer.  

But it works out well for us because tomorrow we are going to meet up with someone in the family who the kids adore and have a super fun time in Vancouver at an amusement park.

Thanks for a good time Vancouver Island, stay classy!

 

Now for the CONTEST!!!!

We have so far taken a lot of pictures on vacation, and more than a few of them are completely ridiculous! So we thought it would be fun to have a caption contest.

Take a look at the picture below and in the comments section below write your best caption for the picture. I don't think there will be a prize but we can all enjoy the stupid and silly captions that everyone comes up with.

What's your best caption for this picture?

Posted on July 12, 2012 and filed under B.C., Beach, Farm, Food, Nature, Ocean, Park, Summer Vacation, farmers market.

Eating what we 'catch'

   A wee breaking of our fast on the front porch in Sooke.

  Morning walk on Wiffin Spit in Sooke. Wiffin Spit from our pilotless drone that came with our new Nikon D3200. We are that dark spot beside that light area. 

Our first pothole we splashed in, nice and shallow here.

A little dip in the second pothole we visited. Being submerged in the icy water was quite the shock to the human body!

Our youngest did not want to part with his egg that he picked.

After dropping and cracking his precious egg he was more than happy to eat it!

Our middle child prepared with the lid in case the crab escaped the transfer.

Our first morning in the cabin in Sooke was pretty decent, except for the early birds wanting their worms. But it seems that when in a cabin or camping early mornings are a guaranteed occurrence.

We started off with pancakes, waffles and toast and some strong (new coffee makers are always fun to learn) and finished off on the front porch planning our day.

We first headed off to the natural peninsula in the Sooke Inlet called Wiffin Spit, cue the wild crazy laughter from our oldest boy. It is a full kilometer long and almost stretches across the whole opening of the inlet. We were advised that is was a good spot to see sea otters, sea lions, and seals.

After a good hike out on Wiffin Spit, and disturbing many early morning walkers peaceful stroll, we headed back with nothing to be seen.

Until we spied two sea otters diving and swimming near the shore! The kids were excited and watched them for a good 53 seconds and were then off to the Boardwalk down the coast a bit.

The board walk was a cool little walk down a bunch of stairs and then along the coast for a couple hundred yards. It was a great view of the inlet and is supposed to be a great place to watch whales that happen by the area, no sea animals for us though.  We dis meet a nice boxer named Lola though.  She was rescued by the "Without Borders Boxer Rescue" and taken in by this super nice family when she was only a pup.

Once we made it back to the van we were off to the destination that everyone was excited to see...the Meadery!!!

I think it is called a meadery?

There is a little farm outside of Sooke that is a honey farm and a meadery (they make their own mead!) called the Tugwell Creek Farm and Meadery. After our trek down the coastline we found out that meaderies are closed on Tuesdays. Crap.

So we went back to the cabin to drown our sorrows in lunch, and a nap for the wee one.

After the rest we were off to what the locals called the Potholes, well I gues the government calls them the potholes too because it is called the Sooke Potholes Regional Park. But this is a place along the Sooke river where over many years the water has worn away the rock to form these little pools along the bank that are great for swimming.

So we vanned it up to the park and hiked down to two of the different pools. They we great!

The water was cold, clean, and clear. It was a popular place for people to hop in a tube and float around, swim the little pools (the first one was about 100 feet wide and in the middle we couldn't see the bottom), or to bask on the pebbly beaches.

It was a great afternoon in the sun. And we are amazed at how many different places to swim we have found that have been absolutely different than each other.

It was supper time by the time we left the potholes (which by the way look absolutly nothing like a pothole.) and so we were going ot stop for some fresh prawns at one place and some lettuce at another.

At the first stop we bought some prawns but Dad, in his wisdom, also bought a live 2 lbs Dungeness Crab to boil and eat.

At the second stop we bought some mixed fresh greens and jam and in talking to the owners Ellen and Dick ended up spending an hour and a half touring their farm. It turns out Ellen is from Saskatchewan and has been turning her little plot into her little prairie oasis.

She has a great garden (which she plants wheat and oats!), a few sheep, some goats (which they milk and make cheese out of), a few geese and ducks, a dwindling flock of chickens (a pesky racoon has been taking the hens), and a great little orchard of fruit and nut trees!

This was an absolute fantastic evening! The kids got to pick eggs from the coop, eat mulberries and thimble berries, feed the goats, see all the trees (they spun around the mulberry bush, and picked artichokes from their garden.

Ellen and Dick, or Grandpa Dick and Grandma Ellen as they introduced themselves to the kids, were amazing, and sweet to the kids. Ellen showed everything to the kids and did not just talk to the adults and even picked up our youngest and excitedly walked him to the almond tree they had.

If you are even in Sooke keep your eyes open for a little sign that mentions fresh veggies and baking, Ellen and Dick are busy people (their veggie and baking stand in the yard is a self serve and pay deal with a slotted tin to put your money in) so hopefully you get the opportunity to meet them!

We wantd the kids to eat the eggs they had gathered so we planned on making some scrambled eggs with supper, except our little guy had different ideas. He did not want to part with his egg. He carried it back to the cabin and would not hand it over. But he ended up cracking it pretty good when he was playing with it and toy car he had. Then he was ready for the circle of life to take place, once he realized that the egg that he had gathered from the hen house was nothing but...an egg.

Supper was a buffet of sandwiches, salad, scrambled eggs, veggies, crab legs (receipe below), prawns, hot dogs, and yogurt tubes. We ended the evening with a marshmallow roast over a little fire and plopped the kids to bed before 9:00 pm.

We did end up finding some of the local mead at a pub in town, so Dad enjoyed a glass of honey mead and Mom a cup of tea.

Tomorrow we are back to Nanaimo for two nights then homeward bound.

 

Dad's Not Famous Crab recipe

ingredients

1 -2 lbs dungeness crab - as live as possible

1 big pot

lots of water

1 stove

 

First you put lots of water in the big pot. Then you put them both on the stove and boil.

Once the lots of water is boiling, place the as live as possible crab in the water, bottom down, and slam lid on pot as fast as possible so you don't have to see the angry crab boil.

After 20 minutes remove cooked crab and consume!

Posted on July 12, 2012 and filed under B.C., Food, Garden, Nature, Ocean, Park, Summer Vacation, farmers market, forest, recipe.

Scare the Kids

Whitewood Beach

Sundaes on the Deck

Let's go back to Sunday now shall we...

It was super nice out in Nanaimo, so we decided to head to the beach.  There is a lake just within Nanaimo called 'Westwood Lake'.  It was so pretty with huge trees, you would never know you were in a city.  There were lifeguards on duty and a nice area roped off for swimming. the beach was nice as well with lots of sand, and the total beach was probably 100 yards along the shore.  The water was quite cold, yikes, but we had fun. Our oldest even swam out ot the anchored raft with Dad, even though she "...couldn't see the bottom of the lake!", she said. 

Our youngest was super exhausted afterwards so Dad took the older 2 to "Brave" the new Disney movie. Sounded like a great thing to do...except for the massive scary bear in the movie that freaked them out!

It wouldn't have freaked them out as badly if they hadn't seen bears in the wild a couple days earlier. The evil bear followed them to Sooke a few days later where we learnt "...there are more bears here than anywhere else in BC."

Terrifying bear movie while in bear country....Good one Dad!

We cooked a super BBQ supper of chicken, hot dogs, asparagus, corn on the cob, and then made sundaes with homemade chocolate sauce, gummy bears and reeses pieces for dessert. 

We tucked the kids in early to bed so that we would be ready for Victoria and Sooke in the morning!

......

Then with everyone asleep Mom and Dad enjoyed some wine we had found on our way through Kelowna. If we both loved wine, instead of just liking it, we would have had more than the one bottle, because it was a great evening to sit on the deck and watch the ferry do it's thing in the Nanaimo harbour.

 

Posted on July 11, 2012 and filed under B.C., Beach, Lake, Nature, Park, Summer Vacation, forest, ice cream.

A racoon ass kicking and lots of crabs

Our day started off early (as usual) so we went to hang out on the deck. 

every kids dream, a canon ride!

playing at the park on the harbour in Nanaimo

just starting our trek to the ocean's edge

In the shallow tide pools the water was nice and warm.

having a blast in the water

The family enjoying supper at a local joint just after leaving the beach

We got quite the treat while eating pancakes.  2 baby deer and 3 adult deer were playing in the yard, they were only a few metres away from us, but on the other side of the fence (this fence offers little to no protection we learned as this evening we saw one jump the fence quite easily).  Then Mr. Raccoon came back and put on a little show for the kids climbing trees.

We decided to start the day and hit downtown Nanaimo today and check out the harbour.  Seeing all of the boats was very cool.  It is so different for the kids.  They wanted to explore everything.  We grabbed lattes and walked the docks and enjoyed the dragon boat races that were taking place in the harbour.  There was a massive playground that was neat and the kids played their hearts out all morning. 

By 11:00 am they were exhausted.

We planned it out so that we went to Parksville when the tide was out.  The tidal pools were unbelievable!

They freaked the kids out though. First they took off full tilt into the first one and were shocked to see tiny little crabs running around, clams and sand dollars (none of which they have ever seen up close before).  Then they all wanted to be carried, yeah right! 

It took awhile for them to realize there was nothing to be afraid of, then they were ready to explore.  They collected a whole bucket of neat shells and helped save some sand dollars by putting them back into the water. We walked close to 300 yards through the tide pools and sand until they were able to swim in the ocean. We ended up hanging out on an island of sand right at the oceans edge and created worm habitats as we dug in the sand. We realized it was time to walk back to land once water began to creep up and was going to flood our bag and blanket in a few minutes time.

The kids were amazed to see the tide come back in!

Not only was the beach amazing at Parksville, but they had an unbelievable playground and spray park. The kids didn't want to leave. We spent so much time playing there that the kids were starving and ready for supper. Even though we had planned on BBQing, we instead stopped at a very neat restaurant that we stumbled upon by accident. Avos was the name, and avocados was its' game.

We had fresh chips and salsa sitting out on the patio. Our oldest son ate his weight in prawns. The kid meals were awesome and came with fruit and veggies and dip and juice.  The kids had grilled cheese and chicken quesadillas.  Mom and Dad shared a Baha salad with avocados, beans and sprouts and fish tacos with mexican rice and refried beans.  They were amazing!!!

The other amazing thing today is that it is Mom and Dad's 11th anniversary! It was a great way to spend a day like today, we relaxed, we played, and we had a great time together.

And it was as if the racoons in the backyard this evening knew that today was a special day, because they put on a 3 minute show as 2 racoons proceeded to kick the ever loving s*** out of a third racoon who had wandered by.

Gotta love what vacations throw at you.

Posted on July 7, 2012 and filed under B.C., Beach, Nature, Ocean, Park, Summer Vacation, Van.

first full day in a city, Kelowna beware!

The Kelowna Farmers Market

The indoor pool in Kelowna, those windows fold up and the whole wall is open to the green space.

View from balcony in Kelowna. Pool indoors and hot tubs outdoors.

The oldest enjoying a picnic in Kelowna at a Regional park.

Our strawberry haul from the u-pick farm.

The little one saying "hello!' to the baby kangaroo in Kelowna.

A beautiful picture of our girl and an albino kangaroo baby!

We started off today by not packing the van to head out of town, but instead we packed a picnic lunch and planned a day in Kelowna.

We could write a whole post about the farmers market here in town, but we will limit it to just a few comments. It was fantabulous! Below is a list of what we bought;

- carrots, 3 bunches
- peas, 1 bag to be shelled and eaten in hotel
- cucumbers, 2 for snacking later
- kale crisps, 1 small bag of dehydrated kale crisps
- cheese bun, 1 bun that the young one selected
- lemon aid, 1 cup fresh squeezed that was selected by the middle kid
- cookie, 1 coco cookie that was selected by the oldest
- spinach buns, 3 spinach stuffed buns
- sweet and sour gluten, 1 order of soya gluten that was crispy, chewy and awesome
- cookies, a whole pack of coco cookies that everyone loved
- pumpkin seed brittle, 1 small bag of pumpkin seed brittle, so damn good
- chocolate mint ice 'cream', 1 cup of coconut milk ice cream that is 100% local and organic
- quinoa granola, secret recipe of quinoa granola that was crunchy and good
- cheese cake, 3 bite sized pieces of organic frozen cheese cake

Whew!

And we would have bought much more. There was so much fantastic booths and food trucks. And the kids enjoyed the kids magician that put on a show for all the kids at the farmers market. Check it out if you are in Kelowna on Wednesdays or Saturdays.

Then we found a awesome winery in Kelowna called House of Rose. www.houseofrose.ca. The owner was super nice, she walked us through the wines she had and Mom was able to sample a few. And we walked out of there with 3 bottles of wine and a map she gave us showing a u pick strawberry patch.

The strawberry patch was awesome. It was very hard keeping the boys from eating more than they picked, but they managed to collect 7 pounds of strawberries in 10 minutes...the juiciest, sweetest strawberries ever. The boys could barely eat their picnic lunch after eating as many strawberries as they could in the van on the way to the park. The left overs served as a wonderful topping on angel food cake back at the hotel.

Who knew that we would find kangaroos in Kelowna (that was not on the BINGO card)? We checked out a fun place called Kangaroo Creek Farm. The owners lovingly care for wallabies, kangaroos, goats and other animals. The kids got to feed a kangaroo and hold a baby kangaroo that was in a makeshift pouch. It is nice to see the kids interacting with animals. Our youngest had to crouch down at every animals and say "hello baby".

When it is 18 degrees and you are walking past an amazing spray park...decisions, decisions...but how can you say no when you also feel like jumping in there too? Needless to say, after a supper of cereal and fruit in the room we checked out ogopogo and went to the spray park (fully clothed, we had extra clothes in the can though).

Our middle was convinced that if he captured a picture of the real Ogopogo that he would, of course, be famous. He carried his camera around all day and told more than a dozen strangers how he was going to find Ogopogo. When we got to the lake though, he gave the camera back. He had decided that after he took the picture, a big limo would probably come and take him to a new hotel and then he would miss his family.

Great city and surrounding area Kelowna is! We could easliy stay for another 2 days. Next stop, the couv!

 

Posted on July 4, 2012 and filed under B.C., Hotel, Nature, Park, Summer Vacation, farmers market.

Canada's Birthday

Mom getting her feet wet in a cold mountian stream

The kids enjoying the refreshing splash in the mountian strem.

Our oldest boy looking out of the gondola in Banff.

The kids waiting for a Parisian Waffle in Canmore

A little cotton candy at the Canada Day celebration in Canmore.

A little Boston Pizza art to share with the world.

The view from our hotel balcony.

The view on our hotel balcony as we read books before bed.

Today started with a bang. Everyone was awake by 5:30....I guess that is the down fall of being asleep by 7:00 the night before. Instead of waiting 3.5 hours till the pool opened the family decided to get going to check out the mountains and get a start to our day.

We were exploring kananaskis village by 7:00 am. And on our way back to Highway 1 we came across a waterfall at the side of the road. It was awesome to see the kids put their feet in the water and try to come up with ideas as to why the water was so damn cold.

We also stopped the at a Texas gate and let the kids loose at figuring its' purpose. It took them a few minutes and some wild ideas like " a place where animals can hide under and get away from the cars." or "this is so I can balance on these.", and our middle child began to tightrope walk across the gate.

Then it was on to Banff and the sulphur mountain gondola. When we pulled in it was getting a bit busy, but we had almost no wait at the bottom and the top to get on the gondola. Both of us, Mom and Dad, were a bit worried as we started off but all the kids did great! Our middle one was crazy excited and was yelling and twitchy eyes. We were not the most prepared for the fact that the weather was going to be colder up top, we forgot our youngest one's hoodie. And he just kept saying "burrrr, cold. Burrrr, cold."

Then it was off to Canmore for some Canada Day celebrations. We walked around town, ate ice cream, ate cotton candy, ate Parisian waffles...and even ate birthday cake. The town was alright too. Then believe or not we even ate lunch.

Then we checked into the Best Western in Canmore and proceeded to go straight to the pool.

Meh.

The pool was alright, would be even better if the kids were a few years older. The was no shallow end and the waterslide launched the kids out at Mach 2. But the best part of the hotel was the balcony. We read books on it, we ate snacks on it, and at 10:30 we even were able to watch the fireworks. It was a great end to the day.

Except we then watched some bad rom com on cable way to late and we are currently regretting we stayed up for it.

Overall the hotel rates:

Best Western in Canmore

Room 3/5 (clean and roomy, but a bit old and dated)


Pool 4/5 (it is still. A good pool, slide and hot tub. But not quite suited to younger kids)


Location 5/5 (on the main drag in town and nice and close to restaurants and grocery stores)


Hotel 3/5 (we would stay here again but would likely look somewhere else next time for a place with a cool pool)

Tomorrow we are off to Big Cedar and Revelstoke.

Posted on July 1, 2012 and filed under Alberta, Hotel, Nature, Park, Summer Vacation, Van, forest.

Let Summer Begin!

Mom and the wee one at the Alberta border.

The kids in the van at 5:30 just about to set off for summer vacation!!!!

The kids at hte Alberta border showing off their tomahawks.

The little guy is in love with his new stroller because it matches.

Today we began our summer vacation to the West coast!

It was an early morning with a departure from home at 5:00 am. You can see the three of them droopy eyed but ready!

It seems as the vacation was doomed from the start with an early start, but it couldn't have worked out better. Besides a pee break and a gas fill we didn't really stop until the Alberta border at 9:00 am.

And it was a great stop. The weather was amazing and the sky was clear and blue. The temp was 19 degrees when we pulled in to stop! We enjoyed the park they had there and ran off lots of energy that was beginning to build in everyone. Mom even had a tire swing ride and Dad gave the slide a workout. And you can see Mom and wee one ran around the play structure having a good time.

Once the tourist centre opened at 9:30 we went in to use the facilities. But while Mom was going number 1 we talk to the young fella at the information desk. After a few minutes of looking at a map of Alberta with him and pointing at places we will likely never see, he gave the kids a mini tomahawk each. And they were not a shitty plastic toy but instead an actual stone tied to a stick with strips of leather! Pretty damn awesome.....until we realized the carnage that could occur by presenting captive children with a weapon to injury another. The picture shows them at the tourist centre with their tomahawks and a Dino.

So it was a rare combo Tourism Alberta fail/win.

And as if that wasn't enough we met these two amazing women at the tourist centre who are cycling across Canada to raise money for autism. Check out their blog as they head out East. http://www.2filles2roues.blogspot.ca/ Show them some love if you see two women cycling by in a tandem bike.

It is in French but it is still worth a look by non French reading folk like me.

And we rolled into Calgary at around 1:30 so we made some pretty good time along the way. So far we only noticed one thing we forgot, our youngest's stroller. So off to Sears we went to snap one up. And you can see how happy the little guy is with a new matching stroller.

More pictures will follow tomorrow of the hotel and water park here at the Hotel. The kids love the pools and slides!

Tomorrow off to drive our way into the mountains, we are looking forward to seeing the kids faces tomorrow.

Posted on June 30, 2012 and filed under Alberta, Calgary, Hotel, Park.

Leo Mol Sculpture Garden

We took the family to Assiniboine park in 2011 in early summer, and it was actually by accident.

We had planned on spending the afternoon at the zoo in Winnipeg, which I find out later is actually called the Assiniboine Park Zoo. On the drive to the park we drive by this fantastic looking gated park/garden/sculpture place.   THe both of us looked at each other and were immediately excited about taking a look at the place. ONce we were done pulling a wagon full of tired and hot kids around the zoo our excited had faced a whole lot. But we thought we would give it a try.

Now what we had found was one amazing huge garden(s), and the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden. The sculpture garden is inside the English garden but you just have to wander around and you will find them both.

Now it does seem strange to take these,

I like supper!

these boys don’t sit still for long, just like bees!

to this,

Assiniboine Gardens

But it worked, it worked so well!

They were tired and hot and were even kinda bored with ‘seeing’ animals at the zoo. But these gardens allow you to walk multiple paths, get close to the plants and flowers (no touchie!) and slowly walk around in the sun and shade and relax.  It allowed them to wander and be more free and investigative than the zoo.

We quickly split up with the young one teetering around at his own pace and random directions, while the older two were a bit more focused and suggestible as to things to look at or paths to take. We spend a good hour or so wandering around.

Water feature in the Leo Mol sculpture garden

Now the plants and flowers are amazing, we went early in the summer so the flowers were crazy cool, though i am sure later in the summer there would still be nice flowers to view. We would suggest this to families that like to have a little walk, enjoy to beautiful gardens and spend some time talking about some of the amazing flowers.

WORD OF CAUTION: this is not a picnic place or ball throwing kinda park (there are lots of those in the Assiniboine Park though). This place is a tranquil quiet place, and so may contain it’s fair share of khaki wearing-loafer donned-pearl necklaced-sun hat wearing-culture snobs (and there is nothing wrong with that). So you either have to enjoy other people getting annoyed by active kids (I do), or maybe keep away.

The whole Assiniboine Park was nice, great picnic places, room to run, zoo, but the gardens were a surprise that was excellent.

oooooh, sculpture in a garden.

Posted on May 17, 2012 and filed under Garden, Park, Winnipeg.

Japanese Garden

This park is across the river from the Japaneses Garden in Grand Forks. The garden was developed and completed by representatives from Awano, Japan, Grand Forks’ sister city.  There is a lot of green space around the play ground and is very pretty and the kids loved it.  There is a nice pond  in the Japaneses Garden to walk around and they play structure is great!

Rock Climbing

Rock Climbing

Grand Forks Park

Grand Forks Park

Near Park

Japaneses Garden in Grand Forks

Climbing

Grand Forks Park

Posted on May 16, 2012 and filed under Grand Forks, North Dakota, Park.