Summer Fun in Vancouver

Does anyone else feel like they have to pack a tonne of stuff into these last two weeks before school (hopefully) goes back? Like the summer bucket list I had rolling around in my head at the end of June (that never did end up making it on to paper) has pitifully few items mentally ticked off.

Don’t get me wrong… we’ve had an amazing summer. Lots of time spent digging in the sand at the beach, sliding on the slip ‘n slide in the backyard and endless days at the local outdoor pool leaving my laundry room smelling faintly of chlorine and damp towels.

And I am very much looking forward to our youngest starting up at daycare again and our oldest heading back to school.

But for now I feel the need to wring every last little moment out of the summer and having the kids here all day long. I’m well aware of the fact I don’t have too many more years before our oldest isn’t going to be as keen to do ‘summer fun’ stuff with us all day long.

We’ll have a couple more days up at the lake but there’s a lot of around town stuff I’d like to do as well.

Topping our list?

• The PNE, of course. We’ve never missed a year.
• Skim-boarding at Spanish Banks.
• A trip up the new Sea to Sky gondola, inspired by Rebecca’s recent Squamish getaway on VancityBuzz
• A morning hike at Hollyburn Fir. I do shorter hikes with my littles but this will be the first time we’ll be out for a full 3 hours. Check out this great list of intermediate hikes for kids from Arieanna at ActiveMama
• A day trip over to Bowen Island
• An afternoon at Kits Pool, swapping out the chlorine for a little salt water
• Riding the water taxis in False Creek (something we always mean to do but always forget about), with a stop at Granville Island to check out the bead store Salma explored with her family
• Biking the Sea Wall, inspired by Tamara from Discovering Parenthood
• Hit up Rain or Shine for ice cream, thanks to Yoyomama.ca for the recommendation
• Fish and chips in Steveston, which I’d almost forgotten about but thankfully was reminded by Bianca from Bits Of Bee

I also love these easy summer fun ideas from This West Coast Mommy.

I’ve added all this (and more) to our Summer Fun in Vancouver Pinterest board. Check it out, and let me know what I’ve missed!