Science World Overload

Monday morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then headed for Science World. Whee! The place is cool -- pricey (if we lived closer, I'd get an annual pass and squeeze some value out of it) but it is stuffed with fun things. Big bonus while we were there was a travelling LEGO exhibit! Long story short, the kid did not want to leave. She started whining, crying, and refusing to do what we asked. Since we had been there nearly 3 hours, and it was past lunchtime, we did leave. We headed for Granville Island with her screeching a good portion of the short ride.

After a meal in the Granville Island Market (sushi for hubby, greek for me, pizza for the kid), we tried to have a leisurely wander through some of the boutique stores but the kid started complaining about being tired, and not "able" to walk. And crying again. So we abruptly curtailed our visit and bundled her into the van. As we were trying to navigate through the many twists and turns in the area in a way that would get us to a mall where we could buy a new cooler, I looked back and thought the kid was just tired, her eyes were drooping and she looked like she was going to fall asleep at any minute. Then she threw up.

We found a suitable side street and pulled off to clean up the worst of it. Since we had spare clothes for her in the van we decided she wouldn't miss those she was wearing. She fell asleep after the cleanup. About twenty minutes of late afternoon traffic later, we arrived at Oakridge Centre and decided to wake the kid to go inside. We ended up spending almost two hours in the mall and came out with some healthy food for dinner from Safeway, some fancy Body Shop soap for the kid's bathtime, and the aforementioned cooler to transport all our produce booty back home. For her part, after a good barf and a micro-nap, the kid seemed much improved both for that evening, and since.

Tuesday morning we packed up our belongings, checked out of the hotel, had breakfast and wandered through IKEA. Biggest disappointment? No more "ball room" for the kid (instead it is a supervised play area for one hour). Biggest unexpected bonus? Scouting a dented desktop in the AsIs area then adding some legs to get hubby a new desk with a tower rack for under $50. After that it was a straight line to the ferry and back to the Island.