Summer is fast approaching, and in Vancouver that means some very welcome sunny days after a colder and longer than usual winter.  Taking advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend, we trekked on out to Playland with Smary Pants (our 3 year old boy) and Sweet Cheeks (our 10 month old girl).  We ventured out there with some friends who have a 3 year old boy as well, adding a cherry on top of this heavenly recipe for Smarty Pants.

I was happy to learn that kids 3 and under get into Playland free,  and me and my wife were both able to get guardian passes, which were only $13 each.  That is a sweet deal at about half the price of a regular adult day pass.   Another reason to have kids right there.

So, $26 dollars later, we were through the gates and ready to go on our Playland adventure.  We hit the Super Slide first.  Smarty Pants is still too young to go on it by himself, but he enjoyed going down with us.  Its a really long bumpy slide that you slide down pretty fast, cuz they give you slippery blankets to ride down on.  Smarty Pants wanted to go again, and again, and again, and again…

After Super Slide exhaustion, we chugged on over to the Honeybee Express.  Its a cute little train that we all rode on together.  Smarty Pants was excited cuz he got to ride up front in the engine with his buddy.

From there, we were off to the merry-go-round, Pirate Ship, cars, boats, motorcycles, rollercoaster, flying helicopters, flying Dumbos, maze and back to the Super Slide and merry-go-round again.  There was so much to do that my head was starting to go merry-go-round.  In between the romps and riding, we had an over-priced lunch, some yummy ice cream and a Spiderman face-painting session.   Playland was heaven on earth for Smarty Pants, especially cuz he got to enjoy it all with his little buddy.

About $100 later, we were set to go.  We packed a lot into the time we were there.  We had a lot of fun, and it made us really happy to see Smarty Pants having so much fun too.  Leaving Playland was the most difficult part of the day.  Smarty Pants could have easily spent the rest of the day and night there, and especially didn’t want to part from his friend after having so much fun with him.

Back on the home front, the questions kept on coming, “Can I go back to Playland, pleeezze, Papa?” and “Can I go there again, Papa?”

We’ll go back again a few times this summer I’m sure.  I was surprised to see it actually wasn’t very busy.  Unlike my memories of Canada’s Wonderland and Disney World, we didn’t have to wait in any lines.  Okay, Playland is not as big as either of those, but still, it was nice to just be able to hop on any ride we wanted.  The longest wait we had was for our lunch, but only cuz the dude at the counter couldn’t figure out how to work the Interac machine.

So if you are sitting idle with your kids on a nice summer day in Vancouver, definitely consider taking them out for a fun and adventurous day at Playland.

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