We hopped on over to Maple Ridge for the night to experience our second Harvest Host location. We arrived just before lunch time and had plans to meet up with family at a nearby Canada Day celebration. Our host was easy to find and the parking lot was huge so parking was a breeze. After checking in and getting our parking spot situated we went inside to check out the store. As you would expect there was A LOT of cheese. We made our selections and then decided to have lunch at their cafe. We ordered the poutine and a grilled cheese with soup and it was all fantastic.
After lunch we unloaded our bikes and set off for the Canada Day celebrations. This was one of our first indications that my strengths do not lie in the art of navigation. We got a little lost but eventually found the right park. As expected, the place was packed. There were kids doing dance performances, horseback rides, toy car races, and more. The kids enjoyed getting to spray the firehose at some pylons, but the highlight for them was the bubble cannon. Or maybe the highlight was the ice cream… hard to tell.
Grocery Shopping – Bicycle Edition
Once we finished at the park we needed to stop by the grocery store. We loaded back up onto our bikes and hit the road. The ride to the store was rather stressful for me because the sidewalks were very small and I was still learning how to ride with a wide load behind me. I rode on the shoulder for a while but after getting honked at and been given the finger, I attempted the sidewalk. Thankfully we made it in one piece and since Lukas was in charge of navigation, he got us there far faster than I would have done. Having already learned to transition to a small fridge/freezer combo, the next challenge was fitting groceries for a family of four into a small bike trailer which also needed to carry our two children inside. Somehow we managed to get everything in and we set off again.
We set off once more for the trailer and this time the ride there was a lot smoother, albeit heavier. Upon returning to the trailer we learned we needed to move to a new parking spot, which was not a big deal. We quickly shifted to the other end of the lot and then started dinner. While that was cooking we met our neighbours, another Harvest Host guest from California on their way to Alaska. They had done several longer term trips and gave us many great pointers and ideas of places to stop. We quickly added to our list of desired stops after talking with them.
