This Saturday the destination was Lighthouse Park, a bus ride over the Lionsgate Bridge and into West Vancouver. It's a beautiful compact green space with water on three sides, but manages to contain precipitous ups-and-downs over granite summits and under towering Douglas firs. It's a mini Yosemite.
Like Yosemite it contains bears, and we saw lots of destroyed tree trunks and bear-proof bins, but didn't spot anything wilder than a woodpecker. The lighthouse itself is still in use so you can't actually visit it (although it's been fully automated since 1996) but you can get down to the rugged shoreline where someone told us you can cliff-dive. Hmm.
It wasn't that bad to be outside, although I'd prefer less bugs and dirt, and more retail opportunities. Pete didn't originally like the baby backpack but now thoroughly enjoys sitting while daddy huffs and puffs up ridiculously steep inclines. Does that count as another parental win?
Ready for the off.
Me and my sister used to watch this on TV!
Disappointingly, these turned out to be the giants in question.
Family selfie, not to everyone's amusement.
A fairy house!
This was marked on the map as a nice beach to have lunch, but screamed "parents' nightmare!" within seconds of arrival. We wandered back to find a picnic table.
Savage - like in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The lighthouse! Can we turn around and go home?
We've seen the lighthouse, now here's the siren luring men onto the rocks.
I kept expecting a dinosaur to jump out, or at least a kiwi.
What we did find was an old friend from California: a banana slug! They don't taste much of bananas up here either.
