Burnaby Central Park

Today we did something completely selfish on my behalf. When I was a little child I have a lot of happy memories with my family in Burnaby where we used to live. I can remember running through the wooded trails in Central Park and getting completely trampled on by Max (our golden retriever) because I didn't get out of the narrow path fast enough. I remember feeding ducks, the pitch and put and I can even remember the smell of the cedar trees from our family walks. These are really happy memories for me and I can remember that I loved it so I really wanted to take my kids there and show them the things I used to do with my parents when I was their age. We parked on the street where we used to live since it was only one block away from the park, took out the stroller and headed to the park. We didn't walk too far before we stopped at a quiet spot along the lake and brought out the bread to feed the ducks. They started chowing down on the bread and the kids seemed to enjoy throwing these huge chunks right at the ducks with a piece even getting stuck right in the center of one poor ducks back. While we were feeding the duck a huge blue heron flew over us and landed just on the other side of the lack to take a rest. It stayed there the whole time which was a little frustrating since I was really hoping to get a nice shot of it in flight... but my plans were foiled when the ducks got full and swam away leaving the kids with no further excitement and we went on our way.

We went for a nice walk through the trails with a few chipmunks and squirrels running across our path. At one point Kait and I separated from Ryan and the kids to go through one of the narrow paths in the trees so we could be nerds with our camera's and try to take artsy pictures.

We caught up with Ryan and the kids at a park and sat on the bench while they ran around playing on the slides and making new friends. The park was beside another lake where some ducks were bathing and some people were suntanning. There were so many different families out for picnics and the smell of yummy BBQ burgers was so tempting. We continued on our way after a while taking the rest of the path around the park. It was so nice to go somewhere familiar and happy for me, to share it with my family now and to see it's still just as I remember it being. It was also great to watch my children enjoy themselves as much as I remember doing and knowing somehow I was able to pass a little piece of who I am down to them today!