Crabbing, Galleries...and coming to the end of Spring Break

True to our word we revisited the Jericho pier to attempt to catch some crabs.

Went down to Canadian Tire on Thursday only to find, to my dismay, the crab trap we had wanted (the one we saw everyone else using) was sold out! Not to be deterred we bought a slightly different one. It's small and cheap ($15). Got some crab line to go with it and returned home to get the kids ready for adventure. Of course it was pouring down. It's Spring and this is Vancouver, what more can one expect? But we were not going to let a little bit of rain prevent us from catching a crab..oh no! So we set out on our wet walk to Jericho beach. Nicky on his scooter...and Bronwyn, for a short while. River dragging along behind with his umbrella. And we got there, a little bedraggled, but ready to go.
Stopped off at the grocery store for some chicken drumsticks. I think most crab catchers use chicken neck or something like that...probably something that's gone a little off. Our crabs were going to get chicken drumsticks. It's all they had. So we bought a pack and made the rest up for dinner later on.
 

There were only a few fishers on the pier. Obviously some people had been put off by the persistent rain. We found a place to attach our line and, after considerable arguing among the kids...well, me as well (dammit...I wanted to cast off first. It was MY idea and I was the one who went to get it). Mike looked disapprovingly as I argued with the kids about why I should get the first go...and then sulked for a second because Nicky won the argument. I was still whining, "We should at least toss a coin!" as Mike (very maturely) handed the trap to Nicky and he cast it into the water (bloody kids...they get to do everything first!). My argument is that just because we are adults it does not mean we have forgone everything about being a kid. And it's good for kids to see that adults are not completely removed from the fray of competition. Well, that's my justification for childish behaviour...and, well, so there!

Of course there was a great deal of negotiation about who cast off and who got to pull the line...a few "it's not fairs"...and some reprimands...but it was fun AND we did catch a few small crabs. Pulled them up and then released them and watched them skittle sideways along the dock, a little stunned by their abrupt change in circumstance. Nicky and Bronwyn knew how to pick them up; we examined them closely, their pointed crab legs waving helplessy and little pissed-off hissing and clicking sounds coming from their mouths, feelers spinning around, then they gently put them back in the water. ("Back to be with their families" as Bronwyn liked to put it). In between casting out the trap and waiting, the kids played along the pier and dug holes in the sand. After all, the holes aren't just going to dig themselves.

Other fishers on the beach let the kids touch the big craps that they caught. The atmosphere in general is one of friendliness and fun.

It was a lot of fun, even in the rain. We only quit because we were feeling cold. It's something we'd definitely do again.

The following day, Friday, River had asked to go to daycare. I decided to take Bronwyn and Nicky downtown. Again, it was another day of pouring rain and, again, we refused to let that stop us from getting out and having fun. We got the bus downtown and headed for Pacific Centre Mall for a look around. Neither kids spend much time in malls (and, as I think I've mentioned before, they are my idea of hell on earth...after the zombie apocalypse), but it was fun to look around. We got Bronwyn a couple of things from H&M; so cheap that I question the point of going to Value Village (where I usually buy all the kid's clothes). Then we stopped off at the Apple store to play on the ipads and, finally (all part of my cunning plan), we went to the Vancouver Art Gallery. There is a great Lawren Harris exhibition on right now. As well as photography and a movie by Edward Burtynsky. The kids enjoyed themselves. They were especially transfixed by an video installation consisting of a guy digging his own grave (Derek Brunen's "Plot"). They sat for quite a while watching this video, asking all kinds of questions and speculating on the whys and wherefores of the project. Finally, they just lay down and watched for a while. I am always interested in kid respond to art. They don't have any of that self-consciousness of adults, worried that they don't 'get' it...or trying to sound knowledgeable. They just respond. And they seemed to like this one. Other stuff they had mixed feelings about.

This was a plain, "I don't get it"...though they did like it.

 

They spent most of their time watching a movie by Edward Burtynsky; a behind the scenes look at how he captured the photographs of the exhibition, "China", "Shipbreaking", and "Urban Mines". They sat quietly for more than half an hour watching images of large-scale manufacturing in China. The shipbreaking in Bangladesh; men wading up to their knees in oil as they pull apart oil tankers that have begun to fall apart on the shore. And children rummaging through vast poisonous garbage mountains looking for stuff to recycle. It was not lost on me that they paid more attention to anything that was represented on a screen. Having said that, Bronwyn was very interested in the Lawren Harris paintings. Going through at a children's pace (like butterflies, flitting from one thing to the next) made we want to perhaps revisit without kids and spend a little longer looking around.

We took the bus back home via the library (and the pet store; to look at fish) where the kids spent a long time looking for an old cartoon call 'The Point" by Harry Nilsson, from 1971. I remember watching this as a kid and we borrowed it one time. Not sure what they like about it so much because it seems so dated.

Nicky went back to his mum's and Bronwyn and River spent the weekend with Mark. A quiet, intimate weekend for Mike and I, which was very good and relaxing; time to catch up with each other, and our reading (and some Game of Thrones). Just what was needed before the 'back to work/school' rush that starts on Monday.