Baby in sling while flying a kite... how's that for multi-tasking?

On a windy labour day holiday weekend in Vancouver, what better outdoor activity can one undertake besides flying a kite?  This was the thought running through our heads this morning, so we set a plan to fly a kite in motion.

Of course, we don’t have a kite, so our first stop was the Granville Island Kid’s Market, where there is a pretty cool store that sells all kinds of kites.  Bypassing the “beginner” $100 models, we settled on an “easy to fly” version with a pretty dolphin on top, with a price tag that was reasonable enough that we could let our boy fly it into a tree with minimal regret or guilt.  Our son chose the one with the dolphin… I had taken quite nicely to one with the skull and crossbones, but I was overruled.  Actually, we gave our boy a choice between the dolphin one and an octopus one.  “That one..” he said, with absolute certainty, pointing to the dolphin one.  And so the dolphin one it was.  We forked over the 22 bucks and headed on our way (not before stopping at Pedro’s for a coffee and a cookie, of course).

After a short walk (that seemed rather long) through a goose-poo-peppered path, we arrived at our destination.  Vanier Park.  The wind was blowing well, so we were set to go.

A few failed attempts at flying the kite later, we managed to get some decent elevation.  We were all stoked.  Except for our boy of course.  He held the string a few times, but was more concerned with the amount of goose-poo on the ground.  I pondered the mystery of the goose-poo for a bit.  “There is a $2000 dollar fine for dogs to poo here,” I thought, “yet these 10 or 20 geese here can poo all around to their heart’s content (and they do), without so much as having to drop a dime.”  Who’s fining the geese?  A mystery that may never be solved, but a real cash-cow that is not being capitalized on by our Parks Board.

So I held our boy in my arms (he refused to stand amons so much poo), sweet wife held our daughter in the sling, and we were having more fun flying the kite than the kids.  At least it let me get in touch with my inner child again… it had already been a few hours since I had done that.

“I want to go to the playground” exclaimed our boy, amid complaints of the abundance of goose-poo on the ground.  So we packed it in and started heading back.  Shortly after, he was asleep on my shoulder.  Now he’ll probably be up till 10pm tonight.

It was a fun time overall and we all really enjoyed it, despite the small hiccups along the way.  And what did our boy say when I pointed up at the kite earlier, asking him to take a look at the pretty kite?  …..  “I want the octopus.”  Argh.

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