Even though we have never been to British Columbia, crossing over the border into Vancouver felt like coming home. We are so excited to be back in Canada where there is a Tim Horton’s on every corner and our dollar is now worth a dollar! Our plan is to be in British Columbia for over a month so we are very excited to have lots of time to explore this beautiful province. Our first stop was in Langley area at Eagle Wind RV park.

While we were here we went one day to explore the nearby Fort Langley Historic Site. Fort Langley is a former trading post of the Hudson Bay Company, and it is set up with demonstrations and activities that show what it might have been like if you had visited it while it was a functioning trading post. They had tons of cool hands on activities for the kids to try including barrel making, blacksmithing, and gold panning. They had a musket firing demonstration as well which was really neat and loud. Also, it was free to get in since all of the National Parks are free this year for Canada’s 150th birthday! YAY!

The company that Eric works for has an office in Richmond, B.C. so one of the days we were in Langley Eric spent the day at the office and the kids and I spent the day exploring Richmond. We decided to spend some time at the Richmond Olympic Oval and try out their Olympic Experience. They had a lot of neat exhibits, and 6 or 7 simulation rides that you could get on and test out which the kids loved. Haydn was bummed because the one simulation he really wanted to go on was the racecar one and he wasn’t quite tall enough.

After finishing up at the Olympic Experience we headed to a park in Richmond that I had found online called Terra Nova Adventure Playground. Seriously, if you are ever in Richmond with kids you need to go here. The kids absolutely loved it and said it is the most amazing park they have ever been to in their lives. I think they actually had more fun here than they did at the Olympic Experience and it was free.

We had another hour to kill before we had to pick Eric up so we ended up going to another National Historic site that I knew would be free to get in and was also in Richmond. It was called the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, and it was a neat little place that was set up to show how it functioned when it was a salmon canning plant. We didn’t have a lot of time to really explore the whole place, but there were some interesting exhibits and lots of information about salmon canning.

We picked Eric up from work and headed into Vancouver for dinner and a bit of exploring. I had found a little restaurant right on the water, so we drove over there for a bite to eat. After dinner we went to Stanley Park. We drove around and found the totem poles and then walked along the sea wall. It was a beautiful park in the middle of a big city with amazing views of the mountains.

Golden Ears Provincial Park

It rained almost every day we were in Langley, so when we had a clear day we drove over to Golden Ears Provincial Park for a nice hike. I guess all that rain helps, because the forest was so amazingly green and mossy. The hike was 5Km round trip, with a beautiful river running beside us and a waterfall at the end of the trail. It felt like we were in a magical fairy forest. It was pretty amazing.