Island Adventure

     Have you ever just wanted to jump in your car or onto a plane or a boat and disappear for awhile? To hide out and pretend your life is something that it is not? Some would refer to this as a vacation or getting away from it all- I refer to it as trying a town on. Similar to trying shoes on I like to go someplace and imagine myself living there- what would I do? Where would the kids go to school? How would my Mr. get to work? Just for a day I like to step out of my own life and into another- this is exactly what we did this past Sunday.

    Bowen Island is a wee little island just off the coast of North Vancouver- in fact from what I can gather it seems to be part of the District of North Vancouver- it is tiny in size only 12 Kilometers long with a fluctuating population of about 3500 in the off season. This place has been on my "Places to Visit" list for years now and for some reason we just never quite got around to going- until some friends mentioned that they went for the day a few weeks ago. The old light bulb clicked on for me and I said to the Mr. " next weekend we are going to Bowen Island"- the plan was made and before we knew it the weekend was here again.

   
      We parked our car and made the journey as walk on passengers- which was quite exciting in its self to The Littles! It is always a treat for them to take the ferry anywhere let alone being able to walk on and off the boat- over a bridge right out over the water- oh and the buttons and levers and gadgets- I seriously thought The Boy was going to levitate right off the ferry deck when he saw what was going on!

   With a few vague directions from our friends and a recommendation from another to check out the candy shop we hit the island and started out on our adventure. Our goal for the day, if we ever really had one, was to hit the trails in Crippen Regional Park- this was to be The Little's first real hike with no stroller or back pack or carrier ( although we did pack the Ergo just for emergencies but didn't tell them). Both the Mr. and I are super proud at how well these two did- given no option but to walk and with the added promise of that candy store these two kids of ours hiked solo the entire way.

We did a fairly easy trail and it took us a few hours of wandering and exploring, lots of sticks to pick up, feathers, gnarly fungus and even a Stellar Jay or two. We had our lunch at the base of Bridal Falls and talked about the fish ladders that ran beside the falls.

    By the time we climbed the rocks at the Memorial Garden we were all ready for a little break- a few minutes later and we were back in town looking for that candy store!  The Candy store turned out to be adorable and fully stocked with any sort of candy a kid or bigger variety of kid could possibly want! Just the size of a regular walk in closet it is apparently the world's smallest candy store!

    I have to say that if I was ever given the opportunity to get away from my regular city life I would check into this town for good! It is beautiful and everyone we encountered was so nice! Realistically we could make it work as the ferry runs every 25 minutes during commuter times- the Mr. could still work downtown and the kids could go to school. I'm building a fantasy life in my head even as I type this- but that often happens after trying a town on! Until the day comes  where our dreams match up with reality we know it is only a short hop across the water to an afternoon of quiet seaside bliss!
 

ps- I think one of the best parts of the day for me was encountering the Soylent Green food truck!