Janae has been going to Bard on the Beach every year since she was 8 years old, and throughout all of those years, she has been dreaming of the day when she could attend a Bard summer camp and perform on the big stage. (That's just the way she thinks ... I, on the other hand, am content to be an audience member.)
When she was finally old enough, the program shut down for two years due to Covid.
This year, we were watching the website to see if Bard on the Beach would offer its summer camps again, and they were on! Registration started early in March, so we made this two-week experience Janae's birthday present.
This meant that weekdays from August 15-26, we'd be driving to Vanier Park in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver so Janae could attend the camp from 1-4 p.m. We left home every morning at 11 a.m. and arrived home at around 6 p.m. Eric got really good at reading in the car, and we had fun listening to lots of Elvis, Grease Live, 80s music--and we finally finished our Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire audio book (17 discs!).
But what did we do during the three hours Janae spent in her camp?
Well.....
1st Monday: We went to a nearby beach that turned out to be an off-leash dog beach. As you might have guessed, Eric fit right in--digging holes and fetching sticks :)
1st Tuesday: We found a more peaceful stretch of nearby beach! This spot was so beautiful that we felt like we were on vacation.
1st Wednesday: We went to Science World to escape the 34-degree heat! We saw exhibits on the T-Rex and the human body.
1st Thursday: We went to the H.R. McMillan Space Center. This is also where we parked most days, since it was right beside Janae's camp. We learned about space and saw a live rocket show and a galaxy show on the big planetarium screen.
1st Friday: We went to Granville Island. This was a lot of fun ... after we parked. (The area was not well suited to large vans.) We visited the Kids Market, water park and lots of shops.
2nd Monday: We went to Van Dusen Gardens. Unfortunately, most of the blooms had passed and Alaina got bitten by a spider (we think), but both Alaina and Eric loved the hedge maze (which they saw as a Harry Potter tie in!).
2nd Tuesday: We went back to Granville Island to buy Harry Potter wands for Alaina and Eric (they'd seen them the first time and we'd regretted not buying them). Eric chose Sirius Black's wand and Alaina picked Cedric Diggory's.
2nd Wednesday: We got Ben to come out with us to the Vancouver Aquarium. We had annual passes here when the kids were little but hadn't been for a long time. We saw a 4-D sea lion show and then a live show with actual sea lions outside!
2nd Thursday: We went back to the beach ... Janae wanted to come, too, so we stayed longer after her camp and had a nice time together.
2nd Friday: Jason and Ben came with us for Janae's performance! During her last rehearsal, we went to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, where we got to explore an enormous ship. The museum is actually built around this amazing ship (Saint Roche), which had been stranded in the Arctic when it went there on an expedition. This was one of my favorite places we visited--there was so much to see and do, and it wasn't as crowded as some of the other places we'd been.
And then it was time to see Janae's group perform scenes from Twelfth Night. Janae was so good at delivering lines in Shakespearean English and bringing out the play's comedy! (They asked us not to post pictures of the group, so these are just of Janae.)
Janae enjoyed the camp from beginning to end and even wants to do it again next year (hmmm).
On Saturday we drove into Vancouver one last time to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at Bard on the Beach. This was Eric's first time seeing a Shakespeare play, and he really loved it. He was laughing and clapping, just getting right into it.
There was a little difficulty right at the beginning, though--it turns out that our tickets were for Sunday rather than Saturday. Janae got two tickets with her camp, and I asked to buy four more so we could all go together. Somehow, I thought they were for Saturday. When we arrived, someone scanned our tickets and directed us to our seats, but then a group came in claiming to have the same seats. Finally, we discovered the mistake. Luckily the performance wasn't sold out, and we sat just two rows back from our original seats. I felt kind of embarrassed, but very grateful that it all worked out okay.
Looking back over the past two weeks, we have all had so many memorable experiences--from Shakespeare to the dog beach and almost everything in between. And now ... we'll all be happy to stay home for a few days until school starts!
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