Alouette Lake: Finding Franklin
When is summer officially over? Is it at the end of August? Is it after Labour Day, when the kids go back to school? Is it on September 21st, when autumn officially begins? Or is it on the last weekend when you can still happily wear shorts, go on a weekend bike tour, and swim in a beautiful lake? This year it felt especially important to keep summer going as long as possible. So in early October we found ourselves packed up and ready to go on a very local overnight bike tour, but still in an area that was completely new to us. It was the suburbs of Vancouver…
Viewpoint Beach: The Perfect Early Season Hike
We hadn’t left the city in three months and as much as we had started to get used to our new very local lifestyle we were also starting to get some cabin fever. COVID-19 restrictions were starting to slowly lift and BC Parks and campgrounds had reopened. We refused to take part in the BC Parks crazy camping extravaganza reservation system which crashed as soon as it opened and some very frustrated people were on their computers at 7am trying to book sites. So as usual we just decided we’d play it by ear and see where the wind blows with our summer plans. The first weekend in June was…
Keeping Sane by Biking During COVID-19
We were sitting down for lunch the other day and Neil suddenly said “we still haven’t ridden our bikes today!” That needed to be fixed so we got ready and went on a bike ride. Yes, that’s what we’ve been doing lately, a lot of bike riding. People ask us how we manage during this time with two young children at home, and in a way I feel like we’re doing just fine, and a lot of it is thanks to our bikes. The beginning wasn’t easy. It started with canceling our two week trip to Israel to see our family, a trip that everyone was looking forward to. So…
- Carfree, Hiking & Scrambling, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Random Thoughts, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
BCMC Trail: How to Get Kids to Go Farther
Do we hold our children back by making assumptions about their abilities? I think we do, at least some of the time. Our four year old son Neil recently cycled 30 kms, despite us urging him repeatedly to ride the cargo bike part of the way. This really surprised me and got me thinking. Perhaps by steering clear of experiences that challenge our kids’ comfort zone, we don’t allow them to discover where their limits are, nor to expand them. If we accept that, the natural question is: how to get kids to go farther? Leading up to this trip, I was curious to know where Neil’s hiking limits are.…
- Crosscountry Skiing, Downhill Skiing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Random Thoughts, Sea to Sky, Trips with Kids, Urban
Activities with an Active Toddler with a Toddler’s Fracture
December brought some extra challenges into our lives. It happened on December 2nd, when Gili took Neil skiing on their second day of the season. Neil was excited about skiing and was keen to go. I wasn’t able to go with them and was home when they returned. It seemed odd to me that Gili was carrying Neil to give me a hug and then he told me that Neil had injured himself and can’t put weight on his leg. I would never have guessed, since Neil seemed to be in a good mood… Since it was a few hours since the fall and he still couldn’t put weight on…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Hiking & Scrambling, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids
Mt. Seymour: A Surprising Last Taste of Summer
October in Vancouver can go either way. Sometimes it’s more like November, with the constant rainfall and dreary dark days of the Fall. Other times it’s more like September, with blue skies, sun rays that actually feel warm, and the last taste of summer. It’s kind of like the Forrest Gump saying: “October is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”. Our good friend Yaron was visiting from Israel, always a good excuse for a hike. Mt. Seymour, with its exquisite views that are easy to get to, is a common choice for us – it’s hard to beat such good “bang for the buck“.…
- Cycling & Cycle Touring, Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Trip Reports, Trips with Kids, Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island-Sunshine Coast Loop: Blackberry Summer Ride
All great trips start with a single idea, and we had been thinking about this one for quite some time. Although we have visited most of the southern Gulf Islands, many of them several times, we had yet to explore the northern Gulf Islands. They are a bit farther away and more complicated to get to from Vancouver. In addition, a weekend, or even a long weekend is not enough time to do a decent bike tour there. The stars finally aligned in early September when we decided to take off for ten days. While it didn’t make sense to fly anywhere, combined with the fact that we don’t have…
Steveston: Along the Arbutus Greenway and the Dike
The ride to Steveston is one of our favourite local rides, but it just got a whole lot better. Now, with the new Arbutus Greenway we can leave our place and to ride all the way to Steveston, 25 km away, almost all on designated bikeways, aside from a short section in Richmond. It’s been a while since our last ride there, and so we decided to make it into a day trip, which was also good preparation for our longer cycling trip starting the weekend after. Neil also enjoyed riding a long section of the Arbutus Greenway. The opening of this Greenway is one of the best things that…
Quarry Rock: The Trial Hike
Quarry Rock is a nice hike when we want to experiment with our abilities. We first went there with Gili’s dad when I was still recovering from my broken arm injury five years ago. We also went up there when I was about 37 weeks pregnant and I remembered it to be very long and challenging. Then we went there again last year with Neil in the carrier and finally we went there once again a few weeks ago to test Neil’s hiking abilities. Hiking season is upon us and Neil is getting heavier. We are not sure how far we’ll manage to hike this summer if Gili needs to carry…
- British Columbia (and nearby), Downhill Skiing, Metro Vancouver & North Shore, Okanagan, Trips with Kids, Videos
Teaching a Two Year Old How to Ski
It all started kind of accidentally. We were on our way to Mt. Baker for the Family Day long weekend back in February. On the way there Gili and I were talking about how funny it would be if Neil would try skiing. We both agreed he’s probably too young and we should wait till next year to start him skiing. Boy, were we wrong. I guess that being originally from Israel we still don’t have the Canadian mind frame of how young kids can actually start skiing. You see, both Gili and I started skiing at age 26 (!) right after we moved to Vancouver. We figured that since…
