PlayDome at BC Place

Posted on March 29, 2018 by stacey

Good, innocent fun! That’s the best way I can describe my family’s experience at the PlayDome event in BC Place.

All of the people working at Playdome were friendly and helpful. Many times the guys working the games encouraged my kids to try the games they were working – they’d say, “go ahead, it isn’t too busy so give it a try, just have some fun!”

The game operator’s attitudes at PlayDome were so different than many of the other carnivals that we’ve attended. They encouraged us to try their games – they often said, just try it, no charge, just have some fun!

Playdome

They even let me play. Although both times I played my kids beat me.

Playdome

Yep, that is my Scooby-Doo coming in last. Again.

And the rides! No, there aren’t the super-wild rides like you find at other bigger, outdoor carnivals – thankfully!

Playdome

But the rides that are at PlayDome were good fun for the kids – big and small. The fact that there wasn’t a wild old roller coaster ride made it so that I did not have to make up more and more bizarre excuses about why I couldn’t go on the ride. Just good, innocent fun!

And while there was a very positive and exciting vibe inside PlayDome it wasn’t so busy that we had to wait long to get on the rides.

The kids even convinced me, someone who is scared of even the tamest ride, to try them. And I had a great time.

Obviously we also had to eat – isn’t that what carnivals are all about?

My personal favourite food item – the must-have carnival food item – the mini donuts.

My kids? Cotton candy and sno cones. As an adult, I cannot fathom the appeal of cotton candy or sno-cones but there kids everywhere at PlayDome in BC Place eating both “food items”.

Playdome

 

Of course there are also the gourmet food choices; poutine, wriggle fries, hot dogs, and MORE. My one “complaint” is that it costs $4 for a bottle of water. Of course that is not unusual for events, but it sure pinches the family budget.

PlayDome in BC Place will be open from Wednesday, March 28th (yesterday) through to Monday, April 2nd and fair-lovers can enjoy all their favourite rides right inside BC Place. If you are going to PlayDome, purchase your tickets online, ahead of time to save a few dollars on the purchase.

Online Pre-Purchase Tickets:
*excluding GST. All fees included.  
$29.95 Dome Pass (valid for full day, all carnival rides)
$49.00 Ultimate Pass (6-days, all carnival rides)
$9.95   Guest Pass (required to enter as a spectator. Limited rides available)
**Children under 2 years old admitted free (for safety reasons, they are not permitted to ride).

Disclosure; the organizers of PlayDome provided my family with complementary Dome Passes. However, as always, editorial control and the opinions expressed on my blog are my own. 

 

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Traveling the Scenic 7

Posted on March 27, 2018 by stacey

Typically, when we travel to the interior of BC we avoid the freeway (Hwy 1) and we choose to travel via the Lougheed Hwy – the Scenic 7.

It really is a beautiful drive and as I’ve aged, my driving habits have become much more like my Dad’s. He always talked about how a car or truck’s fuel economy got progressively worse the faster you traveled so the Scenic 7 is a natural for me – a slower paced drive.

On my most recent trip up the Scenic 7 I had an idea – give my iPhone to my kids and get them to take pictures of “whatever you think people would want to see”.

Unfortunately I forgot to tell them how to focus when taking pictures so most of the footage has what you might call a “soft focus”.

I hope you enjoyed this video. Next one we do will be the Fraser Canyon from Hope up to Lytton. And I’ll be sure to show them how to focus before filming!

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A Weekend of Eating

Posted on March 26, 2018 by stacey

We traveled the Fraser Canyon this weekend just gone and of course we ate a few meals along the way.

We started with harvest mushroom soup at the Blue Moose Cafe. Excellent soup with a true mushroom taste.

We also got a sandwich each. I had the smoked turkey, Blonde Bear got the ham sandwich, and Brown Bear got the grilled cheese. Massive sandwiches. And awesomely delicious. Next time we’ll share two sandwiches instead of getting three.

At the cabin I oven roasted Brussels sprouts, a couple potato patties each, and some very heavily sauced ribs.

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, breakfast ham, and sliced baked potatoes. A few cherry tomatoes to keep us from getting scurvy.

Lunch at the cabin was a return of the Brussels sprouts and cherry tomatoes. I also whipped up some biscuits (not good) and a couple potato patties (one of the only foods Brown Bear will eat).

On the way home we stopped at 293 Wallace in Hope for a culinary adventure.

We started with a plate of foie gras – an item off the tasting menu that Chef Brent Gillis was preparing for another couple at a nearby table.

It was magnificent. Salty, buttery, fatty, melt-in-your-mouth bacon-pancetta goodness. The texture and mouth feel was almost as much of a pleasurable experience as the taste.

I had the soup and salad combo and upgraded my salad to the Blue cheese, candied pecans, and hazelnuts on a bed of romaine lettuce.

The soup was a perfect salmon chowder. Loads of salmon with just enough saltiness.

My daughters had a cheeseburger and fries – best fries ever. And the chicken strips and Caesar salad.

The chicken strips were a lightly too toasted for my liking but my daughters loved them.

For dessert, the three of us shared the lemon cheesecake with a blueberry compote. The kids LOVED it. I enjoyed it. Of course I grew up in a house where cheesecake is a perfected art form.

And that was it. A wonderful weekend of eating.

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My New Rad Power Bike

Posted on March 23, 2018 by stacey

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Good Advice; Never Read the Comments

Posted on March 16, 2018 by stacey

At her recent talk in Vancouver Michelle Obama said something like, “Never read the comments on social media.”

I recently engaged in a Twitter “conversation” around the issue of White Privilege. The conversation started after a disgruntled parent went to social media with her complaints about a Gold Trail School District campaign to raise awareness about systemic racism in our society.

Full disclosure, I do have connections to the Gold Trail School District; I was once a student in the district and many years after being a student there I was a teacher in the district.

This morning I read Patti Bacchus’ column in the Georgia Straight on the fiasco that developed around the well intentioned campaign. It is a good read.

However, this line from Patti’s column quite accurately summarizes the experience I endured after I spoke up in favour of acknowledging systemic racism:

“Reading the social-media comments on stories about racism is often akin to looking down the hole in an outhouse. It’s a dark and fetid experience, featuring an abundance of human waste, some so vile and infectious that it poses a serious threat to our collective public health.”

Yep. I looked down the outhouse hole and it is indeed and dark and fetid experience.

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R.I.P. Stephen Hawking

Posted on March 15, 2018 by stacey

I pulled up two of my favourite quotes from the recently deceased Stephen Hawking, the first one;

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”

How wonderful is that?

And then there is this dandy,

I have noticed even people who claim everything is pre-destined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

Rest In Peace Stephen Hawking.

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A Day On Grouse Mountain

Posted on March 12, 2018 by stacey

I summarized my afternoon on Grouse Mountain into just over four minutes of video. I included a pretty epic “technical failure” into the video. Enjoy.

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Red Light Cameras and Speeding

Posted on March 9, 2018 by stacey

Yesterday I followed an interesting twitter “conversation” about the possibility of implementing red light cameras that not only catch people driving through red lights but also catch drivers who are speeding while driving through red lights.

One person commented that the process “wasn’t very transparent” because there wasn’t a publicly available list of which intersections the red light cameras will be implemented at.

Huh? We need a list of intersections where we shouldn’t go through the light at a high rate of speed, particularly when the light is red?

This actually reminds me of another story I saw on Twitter yesterday. The police in West Van put up one of those large portable signs telling drivers that 100m ahead the police were checking for drivers using their mobile phones.

Almost unbelievably, the police still caught a couple dozen people using their mobile phones while driving!

But back to the red light camera story – for the record, there actually is a list of the 140 intersections in Metro Vancouver that have significantly higher rates of collisions. Those are the locations that it is most likely a red light camera will be installed.

But really, shouldn’t the standard practice be that when you are approaching an intersection and the light turns yellow, you slow down and stop? Do we really need a public list of which intersections we should follow the law at?

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Thursday Thoughts

Posted on March 8, 2018 by stacey

What you say is important.

What your listener hears you say is arguably more important.

Think about what you are saying and think about what your listener is hearing from you. They are not always the same thing. Is that okay with you?

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Going to the Sushi Well

Posted on March 7, 2018 by stacey

I tried Sushi Well in uptown New West for lunch the other day. I’m not sure if is actually new, or maybe it is just a rebranded Okonomi Sushi, the previous tenant in that location.

Either way, I was pleased. The sushi was cut nicely to a perfect size – not the massive slabs of fish do many places do these days. Just perfect bites.

And one of the reasons I’m wondering if this is a “rebranding” is because as you can see in the image above, they have the same pink sushi rice that Okonomi had.

I’ll be trying Sushi Well again.

  • Sushi Well is located at 620 6th Street in New West.
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