Cherry Blossoms and Quality Family Time

When I wrote my last post, my sister and I were in the Toronto airport waiting for a delayed Air Canada flight to Vancouver. We did eventually get there, eight hours later than planned. We’re now in the Vancouver airport waiting for a delayed Air Canada flight to Toronto. It’s scheduled to depart six and a half hours past its original departure time.

Nick and Megan have created a very homey apartment in Kitsilano. It’s in a great area that reminds me of The Glebe or Westboro in Ottawa, with lots of trendy shops and cafes, tree-lined streets, and residential neighbourhoods. We went out for Dim Sum one night and the restaurant was about 100 metres from their apartment.

Their place is also just a couple of blocks to the water and an easy walk to Kitsilano beach. It has a great vibe, with dog walkers tossing sticks into the water, or balls in the park, and dozens of people playing beach volleyball, despite the single-digit temperatures. We also walked to Granville Island for lunch.

When Nick and Meg aren’t working remote, it’s a quick and easy bus ride to their downtown offices.

We were in Vancouver for the peak of cherry blossom season. In 1925, Japan gifted 500 cherry trees to Vancouver in honour of Japanese-Canadian veterans in WWI. Additional trees were gifted by Japanese Canadians in the 1930s and 1940s, including a thousand trees from local business owners who were later interned and forcibly relocated during WWII.

There are now over 43,000 cherry trees across the city. On the drive from the airport, I got excited when I saw a street of blossoms and wanted to remember the name of the street to come back to. Nick laughed and said, They’re everywhere, mom. He was right. We saw many, many trees in blossom. They’re so pretty and look like candy floss.

We stopped by the Cherry Blossom Festival in David Lam Park, where they had a Giant Picnic and lots of vendors.

We didn’t get the spring temperatures I was hoping for – it was brisk coat weather most of the time – but we got sunshine, not a drop of rain and lots of spring flowers.

We stayed with Nick and Megan for the first three nights of the trip, then at a hotel downtown for our last two nights to give them the space to work from home undisturbed (although Megan made us promise to never do that again).

A lot of hassle for a relatively short trip – two very long travel days for four visiting days – but SO worth it to hang out with Nick, Megan, and my sister for a few days. Nick and Meg are so lovely to spend time with and in-person hugs are priceless.

Meanwhile, back in Brighton, spring made enough of an appearance for the official unveiling to occur.

And Ray, Juno and friends have been keeping busy collecting and boiling sap.

Our plane eventually took off and we arrived back at my sister’s place at 2:00 am. I’m already counting the days until my next visit.