McMillan's Ho! : Birthday ups and downs

I woke up this morning to the sound of fog horns and car alarms. Not the greatest start to the morning, and I was already prepared to be grumpy - just like I am at the start of every birthday. I’m not sure why I start every birthday feeling the same grumpy way, but I do. In fact, most of October is spent this way. Birthday blahs I guess, since as soon as my birthday is passed, I perk up again.

Morgan bounced into the bedroom seconds later saying something beep! beep! had woken him up (darned car alarm!), and then proceeded to make a tangled mess of my sheets (which takes him about 3 seconds flat). I guess that meant it was time to get up. Grumble, grumble. The moment I hopped out of bed, my phone clicked at me, indicating a new message. Checking it, I discovered several texts, and Facebook messages all wishing me a happy birthday. Now who can stay grumpy with that greeting their day?!

The sun of the last couple of days had disappeared, replaced by cool, ocean scented fog. Even the weather seemed to be catering to my initial mood, but the scent also seemed to refresh and I took a couple deep breaths on my way to the campground’s excellent shower facilities. Once clean and happily waterlogged (yes, I often rate my campgrounds based on their showers and their ability to provide unlimited hot water), my outlook on the day started to look up.

And then came Grade 2. Morgan & I worked on school for a few hours, complete with tears (his) and raised voices (both of us) and frustration (again, both). There’s nothing quite like being yelled at by a 7 year old with tears streaming down his face as you try to tell him how to construct the sentence the right way and get him to write 3 whole words while failing to keep your own cool to make you feel like a really bad teacher. And a bad parent. And want to throw all the school books in the garbage or just give up on the whole home schooling thing and go back to public school. Not gonna happen this year though, which means that sometimes you just have to switch gears. At least with homeschooling we can be done with bookwork by noon and move on to something else. Strangely enough, the fit over writing the sentence completely erased my morning grumpiness and I was now determined not to waste the rest of the day.

I wanted to find an activity that we all could enjoy (meaning no museums and no kid stuff!), that would get us outside and doing something active – especially as the fog was clearing and it looked like the sun would come out, and nothing with “obvious” learning to it. Well, the Capilano Suspension Bridge is right close to where we’re staying, and a quick research on the web told me that there were several other activities right there. All righty then! Time to get going!

We all packed into the truck (which looks enormous driving through the narrow Vancouver streets) and drove out of the campground, noticing several people staring at the big spruce tree near our site. Looking back I saw what they were looking at – 2 bald eagles perched in the tree, chattering away. Cool, but we've seen many eagles on our adventure so far, so we kept driving (oh how blasé we've become about nature!). Off to the Bridge we went. Bob did an excellent job backing the dually into a teeny tiny parking spot (and that’s why you see all those trucks backed into parking spots – it’s way easier to back in than go forward!) and then we walked across the street.

There are three (well, four really) sections to the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park – the Bridge itself, the Treewalk (and the Nature Trail beside it) and the Cliffwalk. All of which give a unique and interesting perspective of the Capilano River, and the rainforest surrounding it. Upon entering the gates we picked up maps, which turned out to have an activity enclosed (so much for avoiding learning!). There were empty spots to emboss stamps on as you went through the sections of the area. The kids both were keen to do this, and actively searched out the stamp locations throughout our visit.

First stop, the Story house, which contained information about the building of the Suspension Bridge and its history as a tourist attraction. Usually at this point I provide some of that info, but I admit, I didn't read the panels today. I was ready for the walk and could tell that the kids weren't interested in standing around while Mom and Dad actually learned something. Plus, something about having young kids near sheer drop offs (which were quite sturdily fenced off, and therefore relatively safe) makes a mom extra attentive to them, and not the information panels around. The kids found their first stamp here and then we headed over to the Bridge, passing by some interesting native art and totem poles.

The Bridge itself is 450ft long and 230ft above the river’s surface. My mom asked me if I was scared. Nah. I was too busy watching my children to even really process the height up there. And, I’m only scared of heights if I feel like falling is a real possibility. With the high side rails, wide decking, and the presence of a multitude of other tourists, I felt pretty safe. The bridge was bouncy, but mostly on either end, where the trees were closer and there was no impression that you were about to be flung into space. I can imagine that on a windy day the middle bridge, where you can look down to the river far below, would get a bit thrilling.

Safe on the other side we quickly checked out some of the information about the rainforest we had entered and then our attention was drawn away by an intruder of the four legged kind. A cheeky little Douglas squirrel was rapidly making its rounds of the tables beside the small snack stand near the rainforest panels. It darted from table to table, jumping on the tops and even skittering across the people seated at them. Morgan and Lily thought this was absolutely fantastic and ran after it. Lily got quite close to it before it jumped off the bottom of the chair, practically running over her feet and hopped up onto the counter of the snack stand, where it found what it was looking for – the napkin dispenser. Grabbing a napkin, it hopped down, balled it up and disappeared into the trees. Hello Mr. urban squirrel!

We then wandered over to the Treetops Adventure, where you walk up 100ft into the treetops via suspension bridges and landings around some enormous Douglas fir trees. It provided quite a different perspective of the forest around us than what we get on the ground. Pretty neat, actually, to be that high up in the canopy without needing any special equipment (well, except for all the special equipment around those trees!). Descending from the treetops, we continued on the nature walk, which brought us through an area with small ponds, varying fauna, and excellent views of the river and cliff side. The walk passed under the Bridge, and continued along the edge of the cliff. Morgan & Lily had been answering questions in an activity page they picked up from the Treehouse at the beginning of the Treetop adventure. In this way we learned that their arm spans are as big as a raven’s (mine is as big as a horned owl), and that Morgan is 8 Douglas Fir years old – right on track! (He’s also 13 Western Hemlock years old and 10 Western Red Cedar years old - Lily is similar ages.) The kids took their completed activity page to the Treehouse, where they received special pins.

After a brief stop for a snack (sadly no squirrels came to visit), we recrossed the Bridge and then went to check out the Cliffwalk. This was the section Morgan wanted to see the most, and that, maybe, had me the most worried. After descending a spiral staircase, the Cliffwalk then sends people out beside the cliff – on a narrow walkway that is suspended out from the cliff. Most stays pretty close to the cliff side, although one section loops away from the face to provide a great view of the river and trees far below. The kids and Bob raced through this, but I hung back a bit. I actually wanted to look – out and down and wherever I felt like. Too many of our outings are a blur and I feel like I’m reading the cliffnotes of the activity rather than really experiencing it (sorry, no pun intended!). And I was rather surprised that the height wasn't bothering me at all.

It certainly bothered the lady behind us! But that walkway was rock solid, and again, the railings were quite high, so I did actually feel pretty safe, even standing on a walkway dangling several hundred feet up. The walkway rejoined with the cliff face and climbing the stairs, I was again on solid land. The scariest part of all the activities really wasn't that scary, and I would absolutely recommend for anyone coming to the Vancouver area to come see the Park.

We finished up our trip at the gift shop where Bob bought a variety of fudge for dessert (unbeknownst to me). We headed back to the campground where we took a dip in the hot tub before having a simple supper, the aforementioned fudgy dessert, and settling in for a quiet evening.