Richmond BC Fall Family Activities

Fall is the best season in Richmond and I will argue about it with anyone. Summer here is crowded and hazy. Winter is nine days of rain, then two more. But from the middle of September to the middle of November the light comes in low and gold across the flats, the mountains reappear from behind the summer haze, and the dyke stops being a bike traffic jam.

The catch is that most of what people do with kids in the fall depends on it not raining, and in a delta town at sea level you cannot count on that. So I have organised this the way I actually plan a weekend. Outdoor things first, wet-weather bench strength after, and food running all the way through, because the whole enterprise collapses without food.

The dyke, in October

The dyke is where my mornings start, so I am not remotely objective about it. It runs roughly five and a half kilometres from Garry Point up to Terra Nova, flat and gravel-firm, with Sturgeon Bank on your left and the North Shore mountains sitting out ahead of you. In July it is busy. In October it is close to yours alone.

The thing that makes fall out there different from fall anywhere else is the geese. Snow geese come down the coast to the Fraser delta in the back half of October and stay for the winter, and when a few thousand of them lift off the marsh at once it is loud in a way that surprises people. You do not need binoculars, though somebody in your group will wish they had brought a pair. The birds are out on the mudflats, so a low tide and a still morning is the combination you want.

With small children, do not start at the Garry Point end and try to walk the whole thing. Start at Terra Nova Rural Park instead, which has the best playground in the city as far as I am concerned. It is not a plastic set. It is a built adventure environment with a slide down a bank, a rope bridge and a lot of climbing, and it has swallowed entire afternoons of my life. Then walk south along the dyke as far as the mood holds and turn back.

Garry Point is the other end and it is the sunset end. In October the sun is going down early enough that you can be there at five and still be home for dinner at a civilised hour. Kite weather is good in the fall. Bring one more layer than the temperature suggests, because the wind comes across open water and does not care what your phone said.

Pumpkins and the farm circuit

The farms are on the east side, past Highway 99, where the city gives way to the Agricultural Land Reserve. October is the month. Richmond Country Farms, out on Steveston Highway toward the east end, is the one that has run the full fall operation in past years: a market barn, a corn maze, wagon rides out to the fields, and the cranberry harvest going on around it. I am not giving you dates or prices, because those move every year and I would rather you checked the week before than trusted me.

What I will tell you is that early October beats late October for both mud and pumpkin selection, that mornings beat afternoons for the queue, and that you should put your kids in boots and privately accept that the boots are a write-off. Take Westminster Highway or Blundell out rather than the freeway. If the timing is right you will pass a flooded cranberry bed on the way, and the red of those things has to be seen rather than described.

If your child is at the age where a hayride is an insult, the corn maze does the work instead. Ours takes about the length of a mid-sized argument.

The bog, which is mostly empty

The Richmond Nature Park sits on Westminster Highway near the interchange and it is one of the most underused places in the city. Flat trails through bog forest, a nature house at the entrance, and in the fall a startling amount of fungus. Small children who are bored by a view are generally not bored by mushrooms. Bring a magnifying glass and you have bought yourself an hour.

The other cheap outdoor option is the heritage side of Steveston, which is better in the fall than in summer for the simple reason that nobody is there. Britannia Shipyards has a boardwalk out over the mud and a run of old buildings up on pilings, and on a grey afternoon it is genuinely atmospheric. London Farm at the south end has an old farmhouse, an orchard and a bit of small-scale farm energy. Kids like the boardwalk more than they like the history. That is fine. The history goes in anyway.

When it rains for nine days

It will. Here is the bench.

The Richmond Olympic Oval on the river at the north end is the biggest indoor room in the city and the most useful one. There is public skating, a museum about the 2010 Games with things you can actually try, plus courts and a track. The schedule shifts around whatever else is booked in the building, so check before you drive over, and expect the lot to be busy on a wet Sunday.

Minoru Park is the other anchor. The Cultural Centre there holds the main library branch, the art gallery and a media lab within a few steps of one another, and the pool complex is next door. Library, then gallery, then swim is a real plan for a rainy Saturday.

Then there are the malls, and in Richmond the malls are not a consolation prize. Aberdeen Centre on No. 3 Road is a full afternoon on its own once food is involved, and the Canada Line puts you at the door, which with kids and rain is worth more than it sounds. Lansdowne, Parker Place and Richmond Centre are all on the same corridor within a couple of stops. Parker Place has the food court people go there specifically for. Richmond Centre is the one for a straight practical errand day when someone has outgrown their winter coat again.

Down my end, the Steveston Community Centre and the branch library share a building near Moncton and No. 1 Road, and on a grim afternoon the drop-in gym schedule there has rescued my sister more than once.

Halloween and the shoulder weeks

The city and the community centres usually run a handful of Halloween things, and they publish them. I am not listing any, because the details move every year and a wrong time on a Halloween event ruins somebody's evening. Look at the city's page in the middle of October and plan from that.

What I will say is that the last week of October and the first week of November are the good weeks. Early dark, leaves down, and fog. Fog is not bad weather here. It is the best-looking thing that happens all year, and the dyke in it, with the marsh grass going in and out of view and the geese somewhere you cannot see, is worth getting out of bed for.

Feeding everyone

Steveston is set up for cold, damp children. Damien's Belgian Waffles is a walking-and-eating operation and works on the way back from the water. Outpost Mini Donut Company does the small hot donuts that end an argument on the spot. Screamers Soft Serve & Treats gets asked for in October, which children consider entirely reasonable and adults do not.

For sitting down: Breakfast Table is the one I use for a proper weekend breakfast before a dyke walk, Cannery Cafe is the low-key village option when nobody wants a production, and Moncton Pizzeria is the fastest way to feed four people who have run out of patience with each other. Hog Shack Cookhouse is the reward for a long muddy day, and the portions are not shy.

On the No. 3 Road side, Little Fox Bakehouse is where I stop when I am already up that way and want something better than a mall cookie. Pearl Castle Cafe is the dependable sit-down with a long enough menu that everyone at the table finds something, which is the real requirement with a family and not a small thing. Out at Ironwood, Boston Pizza Ironwood is exactly what it is and exactly what you want after a pumpkin patch.

The Saturday I would actually plan

Breakfast in Steveston. Terra Nova playground, then twenty minutes north on the dyke toward the geese. Back into the village for waffles or donuts. Home for a nap that no adult admits to taking. Then, if it is still dry, Garry Point for the sunset with a thermos, and if it is not, the library at Minoru and pizza on the way home.

The best fall day I have had here was not planned at all. Flat grey sky, tide out, the geese went up off Sturgeon Bank all at once, and my dog lost her mind. We were forty minutes from home and we had a bag of donuts. That was the whole day.

You do not need a schedule for October in Richmond. You need boots and a snack.