Oh do you remember these guys?
We had so much fun with the kids during their first Winter Olympics and we were so lucky it happened in Vancouver! I remember taking them to the Richmond Oval and parading them around with someone’s torch and just taking in all the excitement of the Olympic Spirit. It will be neat to watch the Olympics again with them now that they are a LOT bigger and it was fun seeing past Olympic memorabilia at the BC Sports Hall of Fame.
We were up in Vancouver on a Monday, and a lot of the museums I thought we’d visit were closed. Apparently Science World and the Beatty Biodiversity Museum are both closed on Mondays in the wintertime. And then I remembered the Sports Hall of Fame. (When I wrote this it was open 10-5pm daily!)
Specifically, I remembered this part of the Sports Hall of Fame from when I was younger, a room full of neat sports activities and a running track with a timer:
I also remember taking summer camps to this place when I worked at a community recreation center as a teen and it was so much fun. And apparently my kids thought so too. We were there for at least an hour and a half and it was pretty empty so we had it all to ourselves. After we played, I had fun reliving the Ronning/Bure/Linden/Gino years watching the Stanley Cup highlight reel in the hockey area. It’s too bad we didn’t get the cup, but it was fun to pose with this mock one and find some really old jerseys too.
And when we found this window, it totally made me wonder if you can visit the museum during the Winter Classic, because peeking out this window that looks into the stadium would be an awesome visitor’s perk. (I totally bet it gets blocked by an ad or something, so don’t get your hopes up, but we had fun watching the Boat Show getting set up while we were there.)
And because the hubby and I went to the Canucks’ game, I got a discount on my admission. The museum is half-price two weeks after and before your stub date so you can show your ticket stub or printout. My guys are still 5 so they were free. I parked on Beatty street in a two hour spot (maybe 4 dollars for parking) and that was plenty of time so the whole outing was pretty reasonable.
This was a lovely way to spend a Monday morning with my guys and they are totally wanting to go back to the Sports Hall of Fame. Especially because it’s ALL SPORTS ALL THE TIME in our house lately! The guys newest addition is Karate, and they had their yellow belt test the other day and passed!
(PS. when I wrote this I noticed a Living Social for admission and a membership deal. I’d totally get that if I lived in Vancouver!)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)