Our Favourite Hikes in British Columbia (So Far)

Hiking is one of our favourite things to do as a family. Whether at home in the suburbs of Mississauga, in Muskoka, or on vacations, it’s something we can all enjoy regardless of the length of our legs and doesn’t take much extra planning or equipment when we keep the hikes reasonably short. Given BC’s legendary beauty, we knew we’d find some extraordinary places to hike. Here are some of the ones we’ve enjoyed so far

Golden Ears

This was the first provincial park we tried once we had settled in. We go over the beautiful Golden Ears bridge (which shows off statues of Golden Eagles, and I once saw a real one perched on a pole too) and through Maple Ridge.

A park of this size always has more trails than you can hope to completely discover, but the Spirea trail was good for our moms who have some mobility issues. The Mike Lake trail was a little more challenging, terrain-wise. I love the moss-covered vegetation, which makes the whole forest look enchanted, especially when the light comes through.

Othello Tunnels

We made it out to this unique attraction a week before the floods would have made the routes to Hope, BC unuseable. In fact, as of this writing, the Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park which encompasses the Othello Tunnels is still closed. The tunnels were created to support rail transport of crude ore from mines in the area. Kids love tunnels, and the trail is flat and easy to walk or even ride a bike along. It goes along the Nicolum river and the views are gorgeous. It’s an out and back, and we didn’t complete it but you can keep your hike under 3km and see all the tunnels.

Rolley Lake

Rolley Lake Provincial Park

This park gave us Ontarians a glimpse of how big the BC trees (and their leaves) can get. It’s always nice to walk along a shoreline – this is a pretty lake that I nearly took a cold-water swim in.

Honourable Mention: Abbotsford (Discovery Walk and More)

The best places to walk are in your own backyard (I have it on my to-do list to write an ‘Ode to the Suburbs’ post, stay tuned). Abbotsford has a network of trails called the Discovery Walk, and on our first outing (on bikes) we saw a pair of Beavers before we had gotten more than 100 feet from the car. The trail network pretty much spans the town from East to West and comprises nearly 30km of mixed use paths traversing forests, wetlands, and meadows.

Some of the bodies of water that have dedicated parks in Abbotsford are the Mill Lake park, which is a beautiful spot for a bike ride, and the Albert Dyck Memorial park – a former quarry which hosts a waterski club and a swimming area. If I can get myself together enough, I might try a cold water swim there.

Our Adventures in BMX

Whenever I’m in a new place, I try to discover what kinds of recreational opportunities are around. Back in September, I was in the parking lot of Shark Boy’s gymnastics club, when I noticed terrain of a unique nature. It was a BMX park, with bumps and curved embankments forming a course that is completed in a single lap, although it twists and folds back upon itself rather than just being a circle.

My birthday happened to fall on a Sunday, so the Lightning Kid and I decided to give it a go, while Shark Boy was at his gymnastics training. For the footage, we’ll have to consult the Lightning Kid YouTube Channel:

I was on my hardtail mountain bike, which is not quite ideal for jumps and such on this track, or maybe that’s my lack of confidence talking. We did go back once, and I wore clip-in shoes rather than the trail runners you see me in during the video. We also got a chance to witness a race to end the season and see how it’s really done, with a mechanical gate to keep the starting line honest, found at a top of a ramp by the start of the course. A rep from the Abbotsford BMX club told us they would transition to indoors, and how welcoming they were to beginners.

Unfortunately, it took us a while to get back to them, and by the time we did, the Lightning Kid had lost all the confidence and ended up walking his bike around the ‘half-track’ which is the latter segment of the indoor course with smaller bumps. Shark Boy tried the whole racecourse but found his mountain bike wasn’t well suited to the racing gate, as he couldn’t sit in the seat and stay balanced while waiting for the gate to drop. He got to try a loaner BMX bike, but he hated how low the seat was – BMX riders typically stand on the pedals for the entire ride, and absorb the bumps by bending their knees and elbows. Shark Boy seemed to be doing well adapting to the bike and a new style of riding, but apparently he hated every second of it. I thought that would be the end of our foray into this sport, but apparently, the Lightning Kid was adamant about coming back.

On your first visit, you can get a 1 day BMX membership for liability reasons, but subsequent visits mean an annual membership. I have to admit I didn’t want to spring for one just to watch him walk his bike, but thanks to some great coaching by the staff at Abbotsford BMX, he got to ride the half-track the very next visit! Looks like I’ll be investing in the official protective gear (gloves, helmet with face covering, etc) for him, but I’m not sure if it’s something I will take up myself.

The Move to British Columbia, Part 2: Leaving Ontario

Before the Labour Day weekend of 2021, we pulled the trigger on our move to British Columbia. I had driven from Toronto to Calgary once, but I didn’t think I could re-create the same route and timing with the kids. Using Google Maps shows that crossing the country is accomplished the quickest with crossing the US border, but COVID-19 testing requirements ruined that idea. So we left early in the morning from Mississauga with a fairly unambitious goal of making it to Sault Ste Marie (the Canadian one – there’s one on the Michigan side too!).

Before I get into the journey, I should mention our packing. Obviously, we couldn’t fit everything we owned into my Kia Sportage, but a Thule rooftop carrier and trailer hitch bike carrier made it feasible that we could have a bit of life when we got there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my wife’s bike onto the rack due to its shape; it’s a ladies-style leisure bike and doesn’t have the normal triangular frame that the rack needed. The upside is I got to bring 2 bikes, my Trek hard-tail and Sable. The drive into Northern Ontario, was part familiar (maybe till around Sudbury), then got new and novel.

Photo actually taken in Sault-Ste-Marie, but it shows how we were kitted out.

We stayed in a Holiday Inn and ate at Montana’s.

The next day’s driving was a tricky one – we selected Dryden as our destination; Thunder Bay wasn’t far enough, Kenora was too far. Thanks to stopping in White River for the Winnie the Pooh monument (and a job interview over the phone), we were driving through lonely Northern Ontario roads in the dark and rain, which was a little white-knuckle for my tastes.

2 days just to get out of Ontario! The next day took us clear through Manitoba with a stop at a Winnipeg McDonalds’. In Regina we had a nice evening of Sushi and Steak at an Earls’.

Sample of the kind of scenery the prairies provide

Now we knew we were closing in on our new home. The next day we spent some time getting last-minute items for school including socks and pants. We stopped for lunch in Medicine Hat, but had something special planned for the evening – we would be staying at the Canmore Inn. Canmore is a tourist town for sure but was the better option (compared to Banff) going into a long-weekend COVID or not. The kids loved the waterslide and pool and it was a welcome change from being cooped up in the car for 3 days. Lucky for us, the Lightning Kid had a swimming cast on. Did I not mention he had a broken ankle?

Here’s a video to get you caught up!

From Canmore, we got to drive through the mountains, and start really savouring the scenery.

The cell service in the mountains was surprisingly poor, given that we were on the Trans-Canada highway, and we had been forewarned that forest fires were still active. Though there was nothing dangerous to us, we could smell smoke throughout our drive and we saw a helicopter dump extinguishing chemicals on a small fire.

We arrived at our temporary digs in Langley in the late afternoon. The kids attend school in Abbotsford, and Shark Boy is back to competitive gymnastics training in an actual gym. We’ve moved around the Fraser Valley a bit, but we’re settled in nicely here. More BC adventure reports coming!

Summer Adventure: Tennessee and the Smokey Mountains

This post is another throwback to coping with the pandemic and lockdown. Ontario had nothing going on in terms of camps or activities, or at least not when you could plan for the summer, and the kids were long overdue for some adventure, and the adults needed their alone-time.

We had researched FlipFest and its sister event NinjaFest; a competitive gymnastics, and obstacle course/ninja warrior camp respectively, that are held in Crossville, Tennessee. We enrolled the kids for mid-July and plotted how to get there. The land border was closed into the US, while flights back into Canada had their passengers diverted into Quarantine hotels (which could only serve to help spread the virus by concentrating at-risk travellers into small spaces), so the workaround was to fly there and drive back.

The Drive Down

My car was shipped across the border from Niagara Falls, Canada to Niagara, NY, and we flew on 2 helicopters to meet it.

Each flight was only 7-8 minutes long, but the chopper could only seat 3, so we needed 2 flights. The car left on a truck ahead of our scheduled flights. After clearing customs, we hopped into the car and drove till we got hungry in Erie, PA, and had some pizza for lunch.

Then we drove on to Cleveland West- I booked mostly Holiday Inn Express and Suites on this trip since I’m an IHG rewards member. Unfortunately, the pool at this hotel was under repair/maintenance of some kind, so there was no fun reward for the kids being patient in the car. Instead, we found a SkyZone Trampoline Park. We found a nice Italian restaurant in a shopping village.

From the Lightning Kid YouTube Channel

On Day 2, we made our way to Lexington, KY. Our timetable getting to Tennessee was not an aggressive one, because none of us were sure how well we’d fare with the long drive. I’d made it to Kentucky in a day on a road trip in my twenties, but travelling with a family (never mind one that is recovering from lockdown blues) is obviously different. Before hitting the road, the Lightning Kid and I did a little geocaching – whenever there’s time and we’re in an unfamiliar area, it’s worth checking if there’s anything nearby to be found.

After some driving, we decided to try our first Chick-Fil-A at Columbus’ Polaris Fashion Mall food court. I’ve got to say, their chicken sandwiches were overhyped – I don’t think we’ve been missing that much in Canada. On the other hand, we gorged ourselves at a Cheesecake Factory once we reached Lexington.

The third day was the 4th of July. We tried Sonic and their killer milkshakes for lunch en route. We had We got a Holiday Inn in Newport, TN, and went to see the sequel to Boss Baby (Boss Baby: Back in Business) in a theatre – in Ontario, they still weren’t open. We had dinner at a Cracker Barrel and tried Okra for the first time while trying to distinguish between Chicken Fried and Country Fried – if we figured it out, I’ve since forgotten it. Once it got dark, we were able to see a few fireworks from the hotel windows.

Tennesee Family Time

Having arrived in Tennessee, we stayed at a ‘Glamping’ Camp Resort, and our first night was spent in a Treehouse!

We spent the day in a fairly relaxed manner, swimming in the pool, playing Cornhole, as well as eating Barbecue and ice cream. We took some time to check out Gatlinburg, which is quite the tourist trap – I had the verse from Johnny Cash’s ‘Boy Named Sue’ running through my head: It was Gatlinburg, in mid-July, and I’d just hit town, and my throat was dry… I thought I’d grab myself a brew… We drove up to Ober, which was just closing, so we didn’t get to try much in terms of activities. In winter it’s a ski resort, which kind of blows my mind that people can ski in Tennessee. We slept well in that treehouse and were sad to have to leave it.

The next day we used the Gatlinburg Trolley Service to go into town and had a long wait in line to ride a chairlift to the top of Anakeesta, a local theme park.

We were highly unused to crowds at this stage, and since standing in crowded lines is part of any theme park day, we were a little unnerved and unable to fully enjoy the experience. It was a hot day, and the Lightning Kid took to a splash pad we found near the top after lunch. He and I were going to take a coaster ride, but the wait times were too long. The kids did enjoy a cat-walk play area, but I didn’t get pictures. Still, it was a great view of the Smokey’s and we opted for a bus ride back down to the bottom.

Once we got back to the Campground we had to check out our Safari Tent, thankfully it had a portable air-conditioner as the canvas walls weren’t breathable and the summer heat was on!

We were in this Safari tent for two nights. The second day was spent with more swimming, Cornhole, and searching for breakfast. We grilled sausages by the fire for dinner. We really enjoyed the community feel of our campsite, and it was so nice watching the boys make friends.

The next day we checked in at another campsite, this time in a cabin. The Jellystone Park in Pigeon Forge. Pigeon Forge is Dolly Parton’s hometown and where Dollywood is found. We didn’t make it there; as we were still a bit wary of crowds (and expenses) from being tourists in Gatlinburg, but I’d encourage anyone and everyone to look into Dolly Parton’s biography because she is fascinating.

The Jellystone campground had a fun jump pad/ trampoline that the boys got to use to warm up their skills prior to their sleepaway camp (which was the purpose of this trip).

Our final destination as a a family of four was Crossville TN. Checking your kids in to their first sleepaway camp can be a little nerve-wracking. Shark Boy did a couple of overnights with Beaver Scouts, and sometimes at a friend’s or grandparent’s place. The Lightning Kid had only done overnight Beaver Scout camps with me as a leader. They were both anxious, and so were we leading up to it, but the check-in process at Flipfest was so encouraging and we were so happy to see our kids be able to interact with peers again that there were plenty of smiles (brave smiles, but smiles all the same) around.

My wife and I headed back to our hotel in Crossville with nothing to do but enjoy the peace and quiet. For about an hour, when we got a call from the camp! We were terrified that the Lightning Kid was not fitting in somehow – the fear of the special needs parent, or at least, fear #437 – but it ended up that Shark Boy had twisted his ankle. We spoke to the camp director and we came to the consensus that we wanted to wait and see with some icing, rather than rush to a hospital. In the end it ended up being the right move, since he was training at full capacity within a couple of days, having taken one day to treat the ankle lightly.

After that, we were able to have a couples weekend (which actually took place on a Monday/Tuesday) in Nashville. We stayed in a beautiful hotel called the Bobby. Unfortunately not every amenity was in full swing (e.g. rooftop pool, rooftop bar weren’t operational during the week.

Our first night in Nashville made it hard to find the barbecue that Tennessee is famous for – the line-ups and crowds were a bit much for us. It was exciting to hear live music come out of every bar though.

We had better luck the next day and reserved at Puckett’s Grocery Store early. We spent part of our afternoon at the Johnny Cash Museum. Some of my favourite parts were listening to all the great artists that have covered the Man in Black over the years (did you know Miley Cyrus did a live cover of A Boy Named Sue?). We’d been listening to Johnny Cash a fair bit on the drive down as a Tennesse music primer. Seeing him act in some TV shows and movies was a hoot too (he seemed to like to play the villain).

At Puckett’s, I tried a flight of Tennessee whiskeys and I’ve been on the lookout for a bottle of George Dickel‘s ever since. There was great BBQ, and live music from an artist named Troy Kemp managed to stoke an appreciation for country music in this heart of mine.

The next day, we left the urban environment of Nashville behind (though hopefully not for the last time) for a bed and breakfast in a more picturesque area, and not so far from the Flipfest camp (just in case). The Garden Inn Bed and Breakfast had a nearby trail with some nice lookouts (especially the aptly named Bee rock – the large bees kind of scared us off extending a sunset walk beyond a certain point).

We were able to do some nice hiking by Falls Creek Falls State Park. I actually used the waterfalls themselves to cool off after a tough, hot hike down. We added a little more walking and tried the suspension bridge with some trepidation.

Another day went by and suddenly we were picking the boys up from camp. They had a wonderful time, apparently their favourite part was the ‘Blob’ – a giant inflated pad which launches one kid up and into the lake when another kid drops onto it from a height. They had campfires, dance nights, and loads of other fun, and they’ll be begging us to go back next summer, I’m sure.

The drive back was through Lexington and we stopped in Cincinatti. From there to Detroit and across the border thanks to the negative PCR test results we got from a CVS in Crossville. We got home and spent 2 weeks quarantining which was difficult, but probably worth it in the long run.

How a Bullet Journal and Strengths Finder Helped Me Learn To Love My Job

I originally published this on LinkedIn. This blog will probably have more Bullet Journal content in the future. Bullet Journalling is its own sub-culture that is easy to get sucked into and rest assured, this blog won’t turn into a catalogue of flowery page spreads. My Bullet Journaling practice is mostly about staying sane i.e. mental wellness.

I found myself getting a little overwhelmed at my job. I had started 6 months before, and at the time, I wanted to be more organized and purchased a sophisticated planner. The planner had me map out various ambitions and goals and made me think that I could accomplish everything my heart desired if I followed the steps laid out by the structure of the pages of the planner. Somewhere along the line, I noticed the pages of the planner were largely blank, and I felt guilty and anxious.

I believe the mistake had been to try and completely transform many habits at once – it was too much to take on for someone who rarely used to-do lists or anything much more than calendaring functions of Google and Outlook. I did come across the concept of Bullet Journalling though.

While Bullet Journalling has its own subculture that can become intimidating and make it hard to define, my favourite explanation is that it is part planner, part journal and part to-do list. You can take any notebook and create your own bullet journal. There are pages for an index (so you can reference any extra content you create) and ‘future logs’ which are simply annual and monthly (or the optional weekly) overviews. Beyond that, it’s simply one page a day, writing things down in bullet form. Different bullets have different meanings, but overall the system is flexible enough that I figured I could give it a try, and if I missed a day or a week, I could pick it up where I left off without feeling like I had wasted paper (or my money – my first bullet journal resided in a branded promotional notebook provided by a supplier).

I would put meetings (and sometimes appointments) in the journal as items that carried the same amount of space as to-do tasks. When colleagues or customers made unexpected demands, I wrote them down too. Things that didn’t get done got migrated to the next available day, and everything that got done gets marked with an ‘X’. Anyone who uses to-do lists on a regular basis will tell you how gratifying it is to mark items done, but by including things that were ‘done’ without being ‘to-do’ beforehand, I could look back on the day and realize how productive I had been, even if some or all my plans had gone off the rails. It made it easier not to lose track of outstanding items and fill out timesheets at the end of the week too.

None of this is new or revolutionary to those who use bullet journalling, but I did enjoy feeling more satisfied and motivated by seeing how the time had gone. I even included family activities as their own bullets and used a heart-shaped ‘signifier’ (a symbol to identify the nature of the entry) so that I could know that I was still being a good husband and father.

I have, however, come up with some signifiers that might be new to bullet journals. The Strengths Finder is a book/website often used by those in a career transition. It espouses a school of thought that says shoring up weaknesses is not a good use of anyone’s time, but rather, identifying strengths and spending time using them increases both productivity and satisfaction. I bought a copy of the book, which in addition to being a guide to the individual strengths and how to best use them, provides a code that can be redeemed on the website to generate a report on your strengths through a long online questionnaire. My strengths were identified as:

  1. Intellect
  2. Input
  3. Consistency
  4. Learning
  5. Ideation

Getting into the definitions of my individual strengths would make this article too long, and my individual strengths are not what is interesting, but rather that there are actions or activities that I should be undertaking regularly (if not even daily) to be my best. The ideal job is one that lets you work with your strengths daily – and while I believe that no job is perfect, it’s important to track when you can operate to your best potential. I created signifiers for each strength (a for Intellect, a 🚪 for Input, a for Consistency, ⬜ for Learning and a 💡for Ideation) and in reviewing tasks for the day, identify which met the criteria for one (or more of these strengths).

When I read a white paper or brief, I could mark it as Learning or Input, likewise for Webinars. When I engaged in some writing (like this article, for example), it got a star for Intellect. Brainstorming sessions on strategy or sudden epiphanies on strategy could get the Ideation lightbulb, working on processes or systems gets a triangle for Consistency. I wanted to include a photo of a good sample page, but the best ones all had confidential matters on them.

The more often I could signify my work according to my strengths, the less my job seemed to be about putting out fires or sitting in meetings, and the more I liked my job. Our jobs are generally the biggest component of our waking hours, so being able to have a positive attitude of gratitude can be a great mood booster for the entirety of the day or even the week.

Applying my Strength Signifiers to my daily journal entries is a process that hasn’t yet become a natural habit, but I’m convinced that I’m on to something that enhances my productivity, motivation and general mental health. I even applied these signifiers (as well as others like an up arrow ↑ for outdoor/physical activity and a down arrow ↓ for reflection/meditation/downtime) to a year-in-review exercise I performed. I simply leafed through my journals for 2017 and wrote out the most significant achievements and events of every month, applying signifiers as I went along. I hope to continue to evolve my bullet journal practice and continually play to my strengths in my professional and personal life.

The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit – Will Durant

The Move to British Columbia Part 1 – Scouting Mission

The pandemic has been hard on everyone, and while I won’t get political, some health measures were especially hard on our family.

Education and schooling in Ontario have been profoundly disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. From March 14, 2020, to May 15, 2021, Ontario schools have been closed for 20 weeks total, longer than any other Canadian province or territory.

We were very lucky and privileged in so many ways. We have a house with a backyard and pool which made the isolation easier to bear, our internet connection was reasonably stable, and there’s a member of the household (me) who is tech-savvy enough to troubleshoot issues as they arise. My wife and I were able to work remotely and both avoid infection and make sure our kids attended remote classes.

Still, we suffered. The constant multi-tasking and hybrid prioritization of being a teaching assistant on top of being a parent, playmate and a real job took its toll. The kids lost ground on their academic education, but so much more in terms of socialization. Making friends, taking turns, sportsmanship… I don’t even like to think too hard about all the intangibles, soft skills and experiences they missed out on. None of this is unique to our family, but the Lightning Kid has special needs, while Shark Boy is a Provincially-ranked competitive gymnast (with no place to train except our basement), so our family might be more of a rare case.

Another way my family might be rare is that we are willing to think outside the box (and honestly we have the privilege and means to make ideas a reality). We looked outside our own backyard and realized it didn’t have to be this way. While we considered moving to Germany (where we have roots and family) or even Finland (which sounded nice at one point when the ideas were at their most fanciful stage), British Columbia presented something desirable without too much culture shock or legal red tape etc.

And so we booked a flight to Vancouver during last week of school to look into some schools that might be willing to take our boys on. We also had appointments at Gymnastics facilities that had a Men’s Competitive program for Shark Boy. Combining those prospective lists kept us mostly around Langley and Abbotsford, which are in the Fraser River Valley, inland from Vancouver.

White Rock

The trip took about 10 days, with the better part of a week staying in a corporate hotel in Langley. We kept up with remote work and school from the hotel room, though I occasionally retreated to the business centre for increased peace and quiet. Due to the time difference, the kids would be done school at noon local time, and I could wrap up work in the early afternoon. So our first afternoon was spent visiting a school in White Rock (Surrey). The kids needed to get reacquainted with how to behave in a school, but they were wide-eyed at seeing halls, gyms and lockers again. After the tour, we took a trip to the beach. White Rock is home to the longest pier in Canada, and it was lovely to be by the ocean and eat ice cream. Driving to the shore involved roads like the ones you see in movies that take place in San Francisco. I have a recurring nightmare of losing control of a car while driving on steep and twisty roads, so this was a good way to face my fears. The area near the shore is lovely but looks like a neighbourhood where people really care about appearances and property values and such. The tide was high and we saw someone in the water so we thought we might try swimming the next time.

Abbotsford

We visited a lovely school and a gymnastics facility the next day in Abbotsford. Abbotsford had that familiar feel of a suburb that is a commuter/satellite community of a larger metropolis. While Shark Boy was in his gymnastics tour (the try-out wouldn’t be for a couple of days), the Lightning Kid and I had an opportunity to geocache and explore a great playground nearby, which led to this video:

Delta & Langley

Delta is an interesting neighbourhood in that the proximity to the water should make it a little fancy like White Rock, but it seems to serve fishing, transport and industry. Shark Boy liked the gym there just fine, and the Lightning Kid fooled around in a skate park (without skates)

We headed back inland to see a school in Langley Township. It was situated in a gorgeous area with quite a view.

After many attempts, we were able to get a table at an Olive Garden, which hasn’t existed in Ontario for some time. So we enjoyed our dinner, as it was something of a rare gem.

On Friday, back in Langley by the hotel, I managed to get a run in around the local area. The hilly terrain did not make it easy! I called it a ‘Funky Fartlek’ because I played around with speed and sprints.

Saturday meant no school or work, and we still had a try-out at the Abbotsford Gym in the afternoon, so we took the kids back to White Rock to see the beach. Unfortunately, the tide was out, and I had no confidence in the safety of swimming further out, so we fooled around in the tide pools and looked at crabs.

Lightning Kid in shallow water

We capped off the Saturday with a trip into Vancouver and up to Grouse Mountain. We got a look at a Grizzy Bear and a lovely dinner at the mountain top restaurant called Altitudes Bistro.

Victoria

With our business on the mainland concluded, we used the rest of the weekend to travel to Vancouver Island. The Ferry was an interesting experience, albeit there was a lot of waiting and pandemic restrictions made it less fun.

We had a beautiful hotel in Victoria. The pool was especially enjoyable. It also had theatre room where we watched the movie Cruella (the hotel provided Disney+ Premium Access), and a rooftop marshmallow roast.

Victoria is a beautiful city. We checked out a school that held a majority of classes outdoors and a gymnastics facility that was starting up a built-in high performance school.

We flew from Victoria airport on a propeller plane to Vancouver, and from there back home, having completed our mission to gather information on what our lives might look like when the next school year started. How that turns out, will be the story of another post.

Mellow

Swimming! Biking! Running! Mountain Biking! Travel! Bucket Lists! Enter the COVID-19 pandemic…

Obviously, this blog has slowed down a lot over the past few years, and the pandemic is not the only cause. I’m getting older and while there are plenty of athletes who keep on trucking through middle age and even into their golden years as seniors, the act of ageing has not ever made physical activity easier. In short, I’m not as active and since this blog is mostly about active living, there haven’t been posts.

While doom-scrolling Twitter, I still see running and triathlon posts from accounts I follow, and as you might guess, there are athletes who have been able to actually thrive during the pandemic, but most of us have had to struggle with the impacts on our structures and schedules – the boundaries between our work, family and personal lives have been blurred practically beyond recognition. Not to mention dealing with what amounts to a straight-up assault on our mental health.

I did come across this letter to a column in Outside magazine, and I saw many response tweets indicating it resonated with a lot of people.

Outside magazine does cater to athletes and adrenaline junkies, so it’s nice to see this endorsement of the ‘mellower’ side of the outdoors. We’ve all had a lot to cope with during the pandemic and its associated consequences (e.g. isolation), and while maintaining our physical health is important, our mental health has taken the bigger beating during this time. While exercise and the outdoors have a lot to contribute to mental health and wellness, the fact that anxiety and depression (or just about any other mental illness) will impede your ability to ‘Get Out There’ or ‘Just Do It’.

I did manage to participate in a socially distanced triathlon in August of 2020, but otherwise, I’m less active and fit than I was pre-pandemic. No races, no gyms, and while we have a good amount of fitness equipment at home (including stuff for Shark Boy’s gymnastics), I had depression sapping my will and motivation to exercise, and the duties of being a remote learning teacher’s assistant draining my energy too.

When the kids were younger, they needed constant parental presence, but they took naps and fit into our Chariot jogging stroller/bike trailer (see the archives for some of those adventures). With them now being older yet not having access to friends or structured activities, we found ourselves having to be active as a family in ways that were either better suited to shorter legs, or to preferences of boys who have always had their own ideas…

One form of exercise I’ve been getting more of instead of say, running or cycling is basketball. Ever since the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship Shark Boy has been obsessed, and I guess I’m the person in the house best suited to give him a challenge.

I was never very good at basketball, and I’m still not, but playing almost daily has certainly improved what little skill I had. The general wellness mantra is to ‘Move Your Body’ and the one-on-one (or two-on-one with the Lightning Kid) have often been my only significant movement during many lockdown (or general pandemic) days.

We certainly did what many families did and made simple walks around the neighbourhood or bike rides into our semi-regular exercise regimen. You can only walk around your neighbourhood so many times without purpose, though.

Enter Geocaching. If you’ve never heard of it, everywhere you go, a secret subculture has hidden small treasure chests (I mean, really small, some smaller than your pinky), just about anywhere you can think. They are usually accessible on foot, with some leg work involved. They are listed on the web, and with the right co-ordinates and some hints, you can find them. Of course, a smartphone and the app make it much easier. You can record your achievement in finding them in a small logbook that is stored inside, or again, simply use the app. It’s free, though access to the bulk of the caches out there (especially some that are more challenging) requires a subscription. To keep giving us something to do and keep exploring, I paid that subscription fee (currently $8.29CAD/month).

Want to see us in action? Did I mention the Lightning Kid now has a YouTube channel? See the video below and go ahead and like and subscribe!

It gave us an excuse to get out and about, and whenever we’re in a new area or neighbourhood with some extra time to spare, I can count on the Lightning Kid to help me look for these little treasures. Sometimes people put little dollar store toys in them for kids. I have to start paying it forward by restocking the ones I find. I might even create one of my own.

What kinds of new ‘mellow’ hobbies have you started thanks to the pandemic?

“Screen Time” Tips for Families in Lockdown

It’s been a while since I posted anything, and while I suspect a blog like mine is rapidly becoming a type of dinosaur. This article (“Why it’s time to stop worrying about your children’s screen time during COVID-19” ) moved me to put some of my thoughts down – even if they might still be a bit scattered.

It isn’t time to stop worrying about screen time; but then, it was never time to ‘start worrying’ – worry implies anxious thinking rather than taking action. Screen time has become somewhat of a necessity during the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean its documented effects are gone, and their impacts are probably more important than before. Screen time can affect sleep quality, and high sleep quality is probably the best defence against mental illness, including anxiety and depression, which are both at high levels in pandemic times. For reference, as of this writing, where I live, the Canadian province of Ontario, is in a State of Emergency, which is distinct from a Lockdown in… ways that aren’t necessarily all that clear to me. Suffice it to say there are no indoor places to go (libraries, gyms, extracurricular activities, schools) and outdoor ones are limited by capacity and pre-booking.

Not All Screen Time is Equal

The biggest takeaway from the article I linked at the beginning is that simply measuring screen time is an extremely coarse way to look at the problem. The kids are in front of their screens for school, so taking that away would simply be depriving them of an education, so that’s what I’ll call the first tier of screen time, and has the lowest ratio of risk to reward. I’ll break down some other categories as I see them.

  • Zoom/Other Video Conferencing for Extracurricular Activities: Shark Boy is trying to stay in competitive gymnast shape through Zoom sessions. He does not really like it. We do have some mats and equipment that lets him practice some techniques, but mostly it comes down to grueling conditioning exercises. He’s 11 years old, and I have to hope that somewhere in that developing pre-teen brain there is the understanding of cause and effect, and the knowledge that conditioning is necessary to keep a body capable of doing the ‘fun stuff’ of flipping and twisting, etc. When restrictions were a little lighter, the Lightning Kid (age 9) started Karate and a local dojo and was really thriving with it. He’s got a great passion for all things ‘Ninja’ and for a while I had him signed up with an online ‘Ninja’ program run by one of his favourite YouTube Channels (more on YouTube in a bit) – but I prefer that our money goes to an accredited Black Belt in our community. Unfortunately, the Lightning Kid does not enjoy online Karate and has not attended classes recently. They both do German School on Saturdays over Zoom. We are also considering piano lessons in a virtual (or partially virtual, if possible) format.
  • Movies/Television: Watching a movie or show as a family basically counts as quality time in my book, but it’s still screen time. Going on a walk/hike, skiing, swimming would all be better – but at least the communal nature of watching together (whether it’s all four of us, as siblings, or one parent one child) still makes for some bonding. I’ve also noticed from a sleep hygiene perspective that big screens from a distance interfere less with my personal sleep quality than small screens like phones/ tablets.
  • YouTube: I feel like an old man saying it, but I think I hate YouTube. The kids will watch hours of it, but when I try to put on a DVD of a classic family movie (‘The Iron Giant’) to save our bandwidth while my wife tried to have a high-priority Zoom call, they got bored in 20 minutes. Apparently, the appeal of a narrative structure that was worked on by hundreds of professionals can’t compete with Millenials yelling at the top of their lungs (because it’s the only way they know how to make their content dramatic and exciting). Obviously, not everything on YouTube is bad, and I can’t detract from families and individuals who have achieved financial independence (or even outright wealth) through their content creation. It’s just that even when we monitor and restrict content to ‘family-friendly’ stuff, what they can put out there should still come with a ‘Don’t Try This At Home’ disclaimer. Pranking your parents, hiding important items, and of course, yelling and screaming are all unwanted incidents that have invaded our home through YouTube…. but don’t forget to Like and Subscribe to the Lightning Kid channel 😉
  • Social Media: Our kids don’t have accounts on any platform (except the aforementioned YouTube and Facebook Messenger), but they can be affected by their parents’ consumption of misinformation, or simply the anxiety response provocation of a lot of what is found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Once we mention something alarmist out loud within earshot of the kids, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. While I believe in tackling issues with open communication, even with children, the pandemic has provided a non-stop stream of questions with no easy answers, and our kids have to cope with too much ambiguity already. We have to try to filter some of that unknown and unknowable from ourselves, and if not that, from ourselves.
  • Video Games: Ah, the great evil of electronic media. While I think a hyper-realistic game like Call of Duty should be off-limits to all children except perhaps near-adults, and there is no Fortnite in our house, Shark Boy has been playing an online shooter that uses *eggs* with school friends as well as the incredibly popular ‘Among Us’. We have the strictest regimen for these – only with known friends, generally about an hour a week, only by appointment. I’ve been personally enjoying a fantasy RPG (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblvion) – which isn’t online and can be paused and saved at the drop of a hat in case I need to help chop vegetables or whatever else needs doing. I don’t recommend video games in the later evening for adults or children, as I think they are over-stimulating close to bedtime.

Structure/Obligations

When school was still in-person, we kept a morning checklist to keep the kids task-oriented and on time for school. It used to irk me that after years of doing it, we still need to order the kids and keep a written record of basics like ‘Eat Breakfast’ and ‘Brush Your Teeth’, but when the alternative is yelling and/or repeating oneself ad nauseam, you make your peace with the whiteboard. We’ve actually expanded the whiteboard checklist to include ‘Eat Lunch’ and ‘Outside Time’. Our kids also have some light chores like emptying the dishwasher, taking out the recycling, and putting away their laundry. I know some families are more hard-core about chores, and some don’t have their kids do chores at all. While the long term developmental benefits of having kids help around the house are good, my view is a little more self-serving and pragmatic when it comes to this. As parents, we already have the following duties:

  • Teaching Assistants: While school is online, teachers can’t do things like look over their shoulders to make sure the work is being done properly, ensure students get to class on-time, hand out worksheets, or console students during a meltdown (at least not physically). That’s us, the parents filling that role.
  • Housekeeping: Not every household had access to outsourcing these duties before the pandemic, but right now, I would guess the average household has seen an increase in how much they have to do housework – there’s simply more traffic in the house now that we don’t go to the office or school.
  • Playmates/Babysitting: I honestly don’t know how parents of only children do it. When our kids aren’t on screen, they do play with one another, at least until something escalates and parental intervention is needed. When we’re not breaking up fights, we also act as entertainment/clowns/whatever (see the Lead By Example section)
  • Job: That thing you do to pay the Internet bills.

With all that going on, the kids have to pick up some of the slack. In addition to homework, we’ll ask whether the chores are done as a way to interrupt or mitigate the total screentime.

Tell Don’t Ask

Did I say ask in the last sentence? I did not mean ask, because that doesn’t work as a means to interrupt the siren song of the screen. In my experience, you have to be willing to traverse the house to the child and physically disable the device or confiscate the remote, etc. I also have an app for each TV that acts as a remote so I can over-ride the screen. Our service provider provides an app that can monitor and control the Internet. I’ve put devices into different profiles including ‘TV’ and ‘School Tools’ which get controlled differently (rather than simply killing the Wifi entirely which could impact the adults’ ability to do their jobs). The TV profile gets disabled from 6 to 8:30 so the kids focus on being ready for school according to our whiteboard checklist and has an overall usage time limit. It seems like that time limit does not get enforced by the app restricting those devices after the time limit is reached, but at least I get notified and can take manual action.

Lead By Example

My phone has apps to control my kids’ screen-time, to monitor their school work. I check the weather on my phone to know how the kids have to dress for outdoor time. There are times when we are between obligations like meetings or preparing meals where we might look at social media as a means to pass the time that we can’t spend on something more constructive because the next obligation might come rushing around the corner. Let’s face it though, there are times we are straight-up doom-scrolling, and it would be better to put the screen away.

Every time we’ve gotten outside for a walk, hike, or anything, there’s been plenty of resistance, yet once we’re out the door, the boys start to play with each other exactly how you imagine kids should. Tag, maybe some roughhousing, running, jumping, climbing, and so on. I compare them to animals with a great deal of reluctance, but they resemble dogs off the leash so closely, I can’t think of any other comparison. I pointed out to them once that the way they were playing on our walk could just as easily be done in our backyard at any time. They just shrugged, because they’d never have come up with that on their own until we freed them from the lure of the screen.

Kids vary in their temperament, and we’ve been smart/lucky enough to have made getting outside a priority since our kids were babies, but I often think of this scene from the generally terrible movie, This is 40.

The problem here is that the parents try to quit electronics cold-turkey and force the kids to play outside in ways they’ve never been shown how to, and there’s very little evidence that they participated in the kinds of activities they suggested at any point. In the movie, Paul Rudd’s character was a cycling enthusiast and Leslie Mann had put in a lot of work with a personal trainer, but that doesn’t translate to their kids. What they needed to do was start getting their own hands dirty ‘playing with sticks’ themselves to engage the kids with the activity and model how it’s done. I don’t know how to make lettuce more appealing though.

We have some indoor activities too. While board games, yoga, and bedroom basketball can demand time from us as parents that is already in short supply, I think it does pay dividends in that they see there is more to life than screens even in quarantine. Sometimes they continue the games independently for a few minutes after the parents have left.

I’ll close out with a story of how the screen has actually inspired a non-electronic form of fun. The aforementioned ‘Among Us’ is basically a murder mystery where the players perform tasks around a space station while an Impostor lurks ‘among us’. We’ve created a ‘real-life’ version where little cards are drawn at random. The tasks are even geared toward cleaning up the house a little (though I’d caution against putting full-blown chores on the task list). The game needs at least 3 people, but 4 is better for making the logic and intrigue more fun and challenging.

What do you think? How hard should the limits on screen time be? Should there be flexibility depending on what kind of day it is, or does that lead to a slippery slope? Would you like to know more about ‘Real-Life Among Us’?

Wellness Practice: The Wim Hof Method

I’m not sure how I first got interested in the Wim Hof Method (beyond curiosity about how the more amazing feats of ‘The Iceman’ were accomplished. It was either the desire to take on a breathing practice that would be a meditative ‘downtime’ and increase mindfulness (being in the moment) during the day, or the idea of reducing inflammation in my body through cold exposure. Figuring out which came first is a chicken and egg problem since I partake in it for both benefits, although I can’t say I’ve gone ‘all-in’ on it… I don’t really go all-in on anything as I like to keep my wellness practices diverse and maintain a healthy dose of skepticism.

Introduction

If you’ve never heard of The Iceman or the Wim Hof Method, let me explain. Wim Hof is a man from the Netherlands who is known for his ability to withstand the cold. He holds the record for the longest swim submerged under ice, has climbed 7200m of Mount Everest in nothing but shorts and shoes as well as climbing Kilimanjaro similarly dressed. He has run the fastest half-marathon barefoot in ice and snow and was a previous record holder of the longest period of bodily contact with solid ice.

After losing his wife to suicide, Wim Hof found that exposure to the cold gave him a relief he was unable to find in any other way. He studied several Eastern meditative and yogic practices until he developed his own method which consists of 3 components: Breathing, Cold Exposure and Commitment/Meditation.

The Wim Hof Method, or WHM for short as I’ll be referring to it going forward, can be accessed in several ways. The main way is through a full-on online video course with supplemental reading materials that costs on the order of $200 (depending on promotions and the exchange rate with the Euro); I haven’t made that commitment, but there have been smaller promotions and versions, and my favourite is an app that has expansion packs for a small fee, available on iTunes and Google Play (search for WHM).

The 3 ‘Pillars’ of the WHM are Breathing, Cold Exposure and Mindset/Commitment.

Breathing

The basic breathing technique is diaphragmatic breathing with a focus on the inhale. You fill your lungs starting with expanding your belly before your chest, then release the air without using effort to expel it. Wim’s frequent coaching phrase is “Fully in… letting go”. You do this about 30 to 40 times, and on the final exhale, you keep your mouth closed (I sometimes plug my nose to keep from cheating) and try to hold for as long as you can (they recommend at least a minute).

Sounds hard? It is… sometimes I don’t make it for a full minute. Usually, the more I can still my mind, the better I do, but I don’t think I’ve exceeded 2 minutes more than a handful of times and certainly not in the past few months. Obviously, this should only be attempted in a safe space – they specifically warn against doing it while driving or in the shower or otherwise in water. I usually lie on the floor, sometimes in bed or on a couch. I’ve never lost consciousness (you would start breathing immediately if you weren’t consciously trying not to, but why take the rest? I’m most relaxed while I’m lying down anyway. Apparently some tingling sensations can be felt during this stage, but I usually get them at the next step. What I do experience is the need to swallow saliva (which usually signals the beginning of the end of the breath retention phase) and contraction of my diaphragm muscles.

When you can’t hold any longer, you take in a big lungful of air and hold for 15 seconds. During this period I have felt some light euphoria and pleasant tingling in my arms and legs. After those 15 seconds, you’ve completed one round, and you can repeat as needed. 3 rounds in the morning on an empty stomach are recommended. When I’ve done it later in the day, I often don’t last as long in the retention (breath-holding) phase.

A fun thing to try is rather than just holding empty lungs during the retention phase, try to do as many pushups as you can. I find I can usually do 2-4 more pushups after the breathing exercise than I could without.

Cold Exposure

The path to resisting (or embracing) the cold seems to be to try taking cold showers. You start with hot water and switch to cold, gradually increasing how long you can last. You might start with as little as 5-10 seconds. I can usually do a good minute, though I move around under the showerhead so it’s not just one part of my body getting cold. If you do the diaphragmatic breathing (without holding your breath) a little before going under, you can experience the sensation of your body warming from within and it makes it easier to withstand. Keep in mind, we are warm-blooded creatures and our bodies stay at around 37.5 degrees Celsius regardless of what your skin is feeling.

I played around a little with cold immersion last autumn when our new swimming pool had a broken heater (temperatures in low teens), but only once or twice with an ‘ice bath’. Even then, I only used a single bag of ice in a large soaker tub and stayed in for one minute. The more hardcore adherents put in a lot more ice and verify that the temperature is truly close to freezing.

Overall I do enjoy the sensation I get after the cold shower. My blood is flowing in my muscles almost like the middle of a workout, and there’s a mental clarity that you don’t get with a hot shower, in spite of how many of us use hot showers to ‘wake up’ in the morning.

Mindset/Commitment

I confess this is the ‘pillar’ I have spent the least time with. Within the app, the exercises available are Forward Fold, Reverse Balance, Headstand and The Shelf. These are all Yoga poses including 2 inversions and an arm balance. The justification for these seems to be mostly a way to track your overall progress and health. If you have Netflix, you can see an episode of Gwyneth Paltrow’s The Goop Lab where they explore the method, and the Goop team is seen doing a ‘horse stance’ with some quick punching and breathing to prime themselves for cold exposure including Yoga in the snow and jumping into an icy Lake Tahoe. The show doesn’t delve deep into the science and nor do I – there is plenty of medically dense terminology in the supporting literature you can find, (Wikipedia is almost never a bad place to start), I just didn’t want to get too bogged down in something I mostly dabble in. I will say that I’ve gotten through the cold/flu season (so far) relatively unscathed – some coughing and sneezing that only lasted 3 days.

The WHM is one of the inspirations (and foundations) of Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece’s XPT, which I hope to explore in a future post.

Hawaiian Cruise with NCL Pride of America – Part 2

If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

We were finding it hard to make use of the bunk bed set-up in the room. Shark Boy found the safety railings uncomfortable, but given how he thrashes in his sleep they were completely necessary.

Luckily, every day tuckered them out so much, we came up with a solution that worked better for all concerned and made for good bonding.

Kayaking in Hilo

For our day in the port of Hilo on the Big Island, we had scheduled a Kayak to Waterfall excursion. This was one of the shortest bus rides to an excursion, and Hilo doesn’t seem like much of a town, but small and quaint can be good. Our guides were friendly, but we found out later that ours was the second-last tour they would be operating! Apparently the tour operators were closing up shop. My wife took Shark Boy in one kayak while the Lightning Kid and I were in the other. It was important to keep your strokes in sync, which made it a challenge when quick responses to “Left!” or “Right side!” were called for (I can only imagine how it would have gone to use “Port” and “Starboard”…

We paddled outward from the shore through the surf and needed to hit the mouth of the river from an angle, coming in from further out in the bay rather than heading in a straight line from the shore to it. This allowed us to avoid a nasty break in the surf that would have been hard to handle. Unfortunately that longer paddle through the surf was taxing and tiring for our family, but luckily the overall level of our group wasn’t much more fit or advanced than us.

We got into the river’s opening and found a place to rest under some trees, while everyone got caught up. We held ourselves fast on dangling vines. There was a part of the river where rapids would have prevented us from getting further but the guides were able to get out onto some rocks and pull us using a rope.

Shortly beyond that point, we reached a waterfall area where we could swim, but we were tired and it didn’t really feel safe – it would have been difficult to climb out and back into the kayak. Paddling our way back out of the river and to the shore was a somewhat tiring affair, but the weather was beautiful.

We returned to the ship and I had time to use the running track around the ship (each lap approximately 1/3 of a mile) as well as the fitness centre to do some rehab exercises for my shoulder. I found it fairly well outfitted. We also had our first meal in the Liberty Dining room which is one of the included restaurants, but not a buffet. The food and service were excellent. We wrapped up our evening with a ‘Close-up Magic Show’ – it focusses on sleight-of-hand card tricks (no sawing people in half or whatever). It was a little cheesy, but there was a trick or two that really still boggle my mind. It was actually New Year’s Eve, but jet lag was enough that we didn’t make it to the local midnight – although we did see it observed for those in Central Standard Time

CANCELLED – NO TRIP TO KONA

Kona is the only port where the Pride of America can’t dock – a ‘Tender Port’. That meant taking smaller boats to shore and with the seas being too rough that day, all shore excursions were cancelled. It was too bad as the ‘Captain Zodiac Raft & Snorkel’ trip was the first excursion we booked – the only one that had been formally planned prior to leaving for Hawaii. We had to fill our day with onboard activities like voting on a Gingerbread house contest, board games in the games room, mini-putt and oversized chess. The latter was difficult because the wind kept blowing the pieces over, and there was a lot of demand for any onboard activities – the basketball court was also closed from that day forward. The ship navigated a more scenic route past the islands of Maui, Lana’i and Moloka’i, and the view did not disappoint.

My wife and I enjoyed French Cuisine at the Jefferson Bistro for our date night, and the kids had a blast at the Splash Academy that evening.

Port of Naiwiliwili on Kaua’i

We hadn’t found an excursion that suited us for Kaua’i (the only contender was yet another waterfall/kayak expedition) so we opted for a beach day at Anchor Cove. We had some time to throw the ball around and swim in the waves, but the highlight for me was the surf lesson I booked for Shark Boy and me.

This would be another of those occasions where a GoPro would have come in handy. The lesson was great, and though it was a little nerve-wracking not have a continuous line of sight to my son (due to waves), never mind being far out of reach, we were both able to get to standing on each attempt and had some good runs. It got a little crowded, and once Shark Boy got knocked by a surfboard, while I had a near collision with another surfer and a canoe, overall we had a great time. I did feel the paddling in my shoulders and my back hurt a little when I tried to stand quickly but it was a small price to pay for a once in a lifetime experience.

Did I say we had no excursion booked for the first day in Kaua’i? I forgot the Luau! We gathered in the onboard theatre and were grouped into buses that took us to a plantation where the Luau would take place. The meal was rice, pulled pork (traditionally prepared in a pit called a Lua), Terriyaki chicken and fish. Everyone was encouraged to try some Poi (a paste of mashed taro root) – I found it a little bland, to be honest, I think you’re supposed to add something to it.

The Lightning Kid and I took a chance to volunteer for a dance performance. Then it was time for the show to begin the show. The story of a family separated but ultimately reunited in a journey from Tahiti to Hawai’i was compelling and had great songs, dances and a fire show, but I couldn’t really take it all in, because the Lightning Kid found the drums and chanting terrifying to the point of physically shaking. I took him outside to comfort him. It was really weird to see him react like that, but he had been scared by a theatre performance of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ when he was much younger, and I wonder if there was some kind of flashback going on. The Luau was an enjoyable experience, but we were eager to bring tired kids back to bed as soon as possible.

Our second day on Kaua’i was spent on the beach (with a little shopping and ice cream mixed in). The chop of the surf seemed rougher and neither kid was interested in trying out the boogie boards I rented, so we were content to swim and play catch. We decided to re-board before lunch so that we could save money and use the buffet. The rough seas also caused the onboard pool to be closed – for a while there it looked like a fun wave pool, but I’m sure it got dangerous. Our cruise was coming to an end, and there was packing to do.

Departure Day

We got up early and enjoyed our final buffet breakfast – everyone on board had the same idea. We had arranged a shuttle to the airport, but it seemed a little foolish since our flight wasn’t till 11:30 PM, we had the day in Honolulu to spend. NCL wouldn’ let us cancel our shuttle charges unless we booked an excursion with them instead. We took our luggage to the airport and paid for storage, then made our way to the Ala Moana Shopping District. We saw the movie Frozen 2 (long overdue, since the Lightning Kid is a huge fan of the first one), we played in a local playground and we did some more shopping and ice cream.

Our last meal was a Shabu Shabu restaurant – you choose your own broth, meat, vegetable and seafood and prepare in on an element at your table. We filled up so quickly the all-you-can-eat aspect was wasted on us, but ending our big Hawai’i adventure with a culinary adventure was a nice way to go out before a long flight.