Le Soleil

The past weekend was the first real weekend of great weather to kick off summer.
The temperature reached 30 degrees on Sunday. I got a nice tan and evened-out my farmer's tan.

I washed my car (slight regret from my stiffness now). I did some chores. I picked up my niece mid-Saturday from the burbs. She has one more week of school and then she's off for the summer. I tried to find a summer camp or swimming lessons for a week for her to participate in, but finding child care until I get off work was impossible.

Late Saturday afternoon, my niece, my cousin, my mate, and I went to Stanley Park to swim in the pool at Second Beach. I had never actually been in the pool before, but I admired it from afar and imagined myself in the clear blue refreshing water. We walked down Davie Street and along the Seawall at English Bay to the pool.

We saw rock balancing along the seawall and the tide was out. A few painters were setup and selling paintings. There were plenty of people at the beach, walking, biking and roller blading along the pathway.

The pool itself was a reasonable $4.75 per adult. The pool was heated and only went to five feet deep. We played in the pool for a few hours and then we headed back up Davie Street for dinner. We decided to give Moxie's a shot, and surprisingly it was good. I had a haibut entree that was delish. I ignored the mountain of spring mix on the plate and enjoyed the scrumptous baked potato with cream cheese. No room for dessert!

We took a taxi cab back to Kitsilano. My niece had been counting every colour of taxi cabs that day. I think the totals stood at: 27 yellow, 2 green, 3 black, and 1 white.
By the time I got her changed into her pajamas, teeth brushed, and a story read, it was late. I was poopered and dreaded the early wake up call.

 

On Sunday, we awoke at about 7 am to the sounds of crows. Argh! Reminds me of camping and the ravens doing their thing first thing in the morning. By the time we got going to meet my mate for breakfast at Cafe Zen, it was about 9:30 am. Grabbed an early bird special of bacon, eggs & toast for under $5.

Then we packed up the car and headed to the Granville Island water park. My niece was in Science World mode until she saw all the water spraying out of the structures. The water park is the same one I went to as a child. There are fire hydrants, showers, and a giant water slide. She actually went down it by herself. Then reckoned that it was too cold and scary.

There were sevreal birthday parties around the park, including a Princess Parade of some kind. They played with a giant parachute (reminded me of elementary gym class), and did a gymnastics show with multiple flips and jumps.

One birthday mom was giving her guests a small bag of chips, a slice of watermelon and pop. Nice minimal hosting for a crap-load of presents. Another group had a potluck of platters of fruit, veggies and snacks, and grab bags with bubble wands for the kids. I watched a dog chase and pop the bubbles with his mouth.

By the time we left Granville Island at 12:30 pm, the place was a car park/zoo. Had a quick lunch and then drove my niece back to the burbs so my father could spend some time with her too. Five hours of driving around town in two days is a bit much. Driving in and out of Kitsilano is a nightmare because people drive in from the outter areas to go to the beach.

Spent the evening barbecuing at Kitsilano Beach and watching the sun go down. A bunch of teenagers were having a water fight right in the middle of everyone's barbecue and picnic. Got kind of annoying after awhile.

I thought about how it would be interesting to sit and take pictures of people using the water fountain and tap all day. We saw dogs drinking out of the fountain (one small one even jumped up on top of it to drink out of it), people rinsing out empty pop cans, one lady brushing her teeth, people rinsing fruit and rinsing out containers and rinsing.

Made it home in time to see two episodes of the Family Guy.

Listening to: John Lennon - Watching the Wheels