September 2013
A Trip to Victoria for Labour Day & Autumn Festival Events
Walking to McMinn Park
The kids fell asleep in the car after the
ferry ride but before we got Grandma's. I did carry them to
bed (who doesn't have great memories of being carried to bed) but
they didn't sleep long. A quick meal and it was time to go
out for a walk. Turns out going out for a walk was another
meal - Blackberries were in season!
Claira doesn't really like sweet things (as a baby, she turned her
nose up at yams, peaches, strawberries and anything else mildly
sweet), but Claira really liked blackberries. We were
picking some for the kids now and putting some in a recycled
clamshell container for "later" but once we got moving, Claira
broke into the clamshell like a raccoon breaking into a garbage
can. She had dark blackberry juice all over her face.
The next morning we went to Cordova
Bay. The tide wasn't super low so there wasn't a huge
ammount of sand, but it was warm out. We started by doing
some digging on the beach, but quickly Nara wanted to get her
boots wet, then she figured out the water doesn't get deep.
It didn't take long before her boots were flooded and then taken
off. Of courses Claira wanted in as well so very quickly
were were all out for a walk in the very shallow ocean. I
think everyone had a good time.
After the trip to the beach and nice lunch, everyone
crashed. It sure is nice when both kids nap for the same
length of time at roughly the same time.
I've had some good times at Outerbridge
park (it's right around the corner from my parents house) so after
dinner we decided to walk over and see what was going on.
The kids do enjoy a good stroller ride and they got to see a
rabbit! Not so much with the birds - I didn't see any
woodpeckers, humming birds or other notable birds. Maybe
next time.
Monday Morning - Back to the Beach
The next morning was a bit dim but the
kids wanted to go back to the beach. The tide wasn't
particularly low so there wasn't a lot of sand, but there was lots
of fun had anyways. We had a brief rainshower but since we
were already waterproof, it wasn't much of an issue.
Caitlin, who is just getting back to
school, came over for lunch. The kids had lots of toys to
play with (they really liked the back deck and the ride on toys)
so they were pretty happy on their own. Eventually it was
time to catch the ferry and go home to see Mommy. Thanks
parents!
Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival
 This is my first time
to the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival. I used to bike
by the Refrew Ravine on my way to EA so I knew about the
park and my workplace is flooded by Still Creek from time
to time so I'm famiar with the creek, but the festival is
a completly new. This time of the year the sun sets
early (It's pretty dim by 7:30) so the kids had a chance
to see the night time activity, unlike the Festival at
Trout lake where the kids fell asleep before it got dark.
Their were plenty of lanterns hanging so there was lots of
things for the kids to see. The park isn't very
large (compared to the walk around Trout Lake) so when the
large crowd did show up, it got difficult to move.
That said, most of the lanterns were setup behind the
fences so there were lots of photo opportunities.
 Some people brought
their own lanterns which were very impressive. I
though this articulated whale lantern was particularly
impressive - the woman holding it could make it look like
the whale was actually swimming. Overall, we had a
good time and still got home in time to give the kids a
bath. We only got to see one side of the ravine, but
that was plenty for our first visit.
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Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden
Hands down, the most difficult time
I've ever had driving to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens. There
was a protest walk on this particular Sunday morning that went down
the viaduct, through downtown and then ended up in a
chinatown. Trying to drive around it and then find a parking
space anywhere near the garden was nearly impossible. On the
plus side for us, the garden was almost empty because no one else
could get there either.
The garden had a number
of stations set up for crafts that kids could do. It was
raining pretty hard so doing thing indoors was a nice
alternative. Nara made a lantern and then got to try out
chinese calegraphy. Claira was also interested in the brush,
but more to eat it than to draw with it.
Outside they had a
number of activity stations showing traditional activities like a
yoyo, foot sac (but with a birdy like badminton) and bean bag
toss.
Around 11:45 they had
fed the Koy. The normally slow moving koy suddenly became
quite active and swam rapidly to where the feeding station was
setup. Surprisingly little food was put in the water and the
fish were well behaved. After feeding, they stayed in the area
making nice collections for photos.
A good time had by all and our car didn't get broken into!
Tags: Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival(7), lantern(6), Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden(5), rain(4), wagon(3), Cordova Bay(3)
People: Claira(12), Nara(7), Jennie(3), Lloyd(1), Helen(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2023 to 2005 > September 2013
Last Modified Sunday, January 29th, 2023 at 20:44:34 Edit
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