The pandemic has been hard on everyone, and while I won’t get political, some health measures were especially hard on our family.
We were very lucky and privileged in so many ways. We have a house with a backyard and pool which made the isolation easier to bear, our internet connection was reasonably stable, and there’s a member of the household (me) who is tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot issues as they arise. My wife and I were able to work remotely and both avoid infection and make sure our kids attended remote classes.
Still, we suffered. The constant multi-tasking and hybrid prioritization of being a teaching assistant on top of being a parent, playmate and a real job took its toll. The kids lost ground on their academic education, but so much more in terms of socialization. Making friends, taking turns, sportsmanship… I don’t even like to think too hard about all the intangibles, soft skills and experiences they missed out on. None of this is unique to our family, but the Lightning Kid has special needs, while Shark Boy is a Provincially-ranked competitive gymnast (with no place to train except our basement), so our family might be more of a rare case.
Another way my family might be rare is that we are willing to think outside the box (and honestly we have the privilege and means to make ideas a reality). We looked outside our own backyard and realized it didn’t have to be this way. While we considered moving to Germany (where we have roots and family) or even Finland (which sounded nice at one point when the ideas were at their most fanciful stage), British Columbia presented something desirable without too much culture shock or legal red tape etc.
And so we booked a flight to Vancouver during last week of school to look into some schools that might be willing to take our boys on. We also had appointments at Gymnastics facilities that had a Men’s Competitive program for Shark Boy. Combining those prospective lists kept us mostly around Langley and Abbotsford, which are in the Fraser River Valley, inland from Vancouver.
White Rock
The trip took about 10 days, with the better part of a week staying in a corporate hotel in Langley. We kept up with remote work and school from the hotel room, though I occasionally retreated to the business centre for increased peace and quiet. Due to the time difference, the kids would be done school at noon local time, and I could wrap up work in the early afternoon. So our first afternoon was spent visiting a school in White Rock (Surrey). The kids needed to get reacquainted with how to behave in a school, but they were wide-eyed at seeing halls, gyms and lockers again. After the tour, we took a trip to the beach. White Rock is home to the longest pier in Canada, and it was lovely to be by the ocean and eat ice cream. Driving to the shore involved roads like the ones you see in movies that take place in San Francisco. I have a recurring nightmare of losing control of a car while driving on steep and twisty roads, so this was a good way to face my fears. The area near the shore is lovely but looks like a neighbourhood where people really care about appearances and property values and such. The tide was high and we saw someone in the water so we thought we might try swimming the next time.
Abbotsford
We visited a lovely school and a gymnastics facility the next day in Abbotsford. Abbotsford had that familiar feel of a suburb that is a commuter/satellite community of a larger metropolis. While Shark Boy was in his gymnastics tour (the try-out wouldn’t be for a couple of days), the Lightning Kid and I had an opportunity to geocache and explore a great playground nearby, which led to this video:
Delta & Langley
Delta is an interesting neighbourhood in that the proximity to the water should make it a little fancy like White Rock, but it seems to serve fishing, transport and industry. Shark Boy liked the gym there just fine, and the Lightning Kid fooled around in a skate park (without skates)
We headed back inland to see a school in Langley Township. It was situated in a gorgeous area with quite a view.
After many attempts, we were able to get a table at an Olive Garden, which hasn’t existed in Ontario for some time. So we enjoyed our dinner, as it was something of a rare gem.
On Friday, back in Langley by the hotel, I managed to get a run in around the local area. The hilly terrain did not make it easy! I called it a ‘Funky Fartlek’ because I played around with speed and sprints.
Saturday meant no school or work, and we still had a try-out at the Abbotsford Gym in the afternoon, so we took the kids back to White Rock to see the beach. Unfortunately, the tide was out, and I had no confidence in the safety of swimming further out, so we fooled around in the tide pools and looked at crabs.
We capped off the Saturday with a trip into Vancouver and up to Grouse Mountain. We got a look at a Grizzy Bear and a lovely dinner at the mountain top restaurant called Altitudes Bistro.
Victoria
With our business on the mainland concluded, we used the rest of the weekend to travel to Vancouver Island. The Ferry was an interesting experience, albeit there was a lot of waiting and pandemic restrictions made it less fun.
We had a beautiful hotel in Victoria. The pool was especially enjoyable. It also had theatre room where we watched the movie Cruella (the hotel provided Disney+ Premium Access), and a rooftop marshmallow roast.
Victoria is a beautiful city. We checked out a school that held a majority of classes outdoors and a gymnastics facility that was starting up a built-in high performance school.
We flew from Victoria airport on a propeller plane to Vancouver, and from there back home, having completed our mission to gather information on what our lives might look like when the next school year started. How that turns out, will be the story of another post.