Beaches of Vancouver

The beaches were one of our favorite parts of Vancouver. There are so many with different flavors and quirks. The boys in particular wanted to spend every day at the beach. The first two weeks of our time in the area - the last two weeks of June - had lots of weather I associate with the Pacific northwest - clouds, rain, 65 degrees. The boys, as long as the rain wasn't too hard, saw this as perfectly acceptable beach weather. The parking was pretty easy on days like that. The majority of the few other people on the beach would be wearing fleece coats, and my kids would be splashing and swimming around in the very cold water. Nephi too. Ca. ra. zy. But come July 1st, the weather was pretty much perfect every single day. Sunny, and about 80 degrees. Every day! It started getting boring. We (I) did enjoy the beaches a bit more once the weather turned. 

One of my favorite beaches was called Sandy Cove. It is in a rambling, mega-expensive old neighborhood in West Vancouver. There aren't any signs, and there are like three parking spots. To get there you walk down a steep, overgrown staircase and along a jungle-like fern gully to get to a lovely secluded beach. We were the only people there for the longest time, but later in the day a few other people showed up. It was a sea glass hot spot, and Caleb was in serious collecting mode.

 

 

 

Another favorite beach day was at Deep Cove, a place I mentioned in my hiking post. The boys made friends with a few other kids, and they spent hours jumping off a platform out in the water and collecting starfish (which we put back). Nephi caught a jelly in our sandwich container and was the coolest Dad on the beach.

 

 

 

This is a view near English Bay, a very popular beach just a block from downtown. This beach was a little surreal, sitting there on the sand with a huge, bustling, hip city at my back and this view before me. This is why people live in Vancouver. It also had a pretty strong spring break, hard body vibe. Lots of young people and bikinis and loud music. I felt distinctly middle-aged. And parking was a real pain. But we came here twice because of the water slide that the lifeguards run during high tide.

 

Kitslano is another beach in the hip part of town. There were two very friendly, patient, kind young guys and a girl who had a real, full sized shovel and wanted to make themselves a little hot tub to sit in. Our boys were of course completely captivated by the project and helped in any way they would let them. The teenagers lost interest in the project before the boys so we kind of inherited it. Nephi especially enjoyed the day that someone else got to do the bulk of the digging for a beach project.

 

The beach we visited most often and was closest to our apartment was Ambleside. It had views across to Stanley Park and Lions Gate bridge, easy parking, nice sand, and we could watch the cruise ships come into and out of the harbor.