A Saturday Afternoon With The Kids

Parents living at Evan are going to love the neighbourhood.

Here are a few of the places that are great to take kids on a weekend (or any day) outing - walking south.

At Mount Pleasant Community Centre every day between 10:15 and 12:15 (except Sunday) they have a playroom for tots and toddlers. It's a colourful adventure land of cars, springboards, trikes, and slides. For birthday parties, they even bust out the bouncy castles and balloons.

Once you're in there sign up for a monthly gym pass in the new facilities (they also have dance and yoga classes you can do with the little guys) and get yourself a library card. In the back section there's an extensive selection of books for all ages, comic books, and a reading/play area where you can enjoy some quiet time reading to your kids on a rainy day. Chances are if you start reading Batman to your guys you'll draw quite a crowd of other interested kids by the time Gotham's saved.

If you need fuel, there is no shortage of excellent coffee shops in the area. 



It's a little tough to get a stroller in Rx Comics, with their extensive collection of books and comics, but leave it on the sidewalk (it's Mount Pleasant, it will be safe) and let the little ones peruse the lower shelf where are the children's comics are kept. Get them started on the easy-to-read and none-too-violent Avengers and My Little Pony.



For slightly older guys, check out Pulp Fiction just up the street. There's a great selection of new and used books and interesting graphic novels. It's perfect for when they're ready to trade in Tony Stark for the Walking Dead.



Dude Chilling Park (as Google likes to call it) is your next easy stop. It's the closest big park to Evan, and yes it does have a dude chilling. You can get access to the Mount Pleasant school facilities here too, so that's twice the swings and slides to play on. To sign the official campaign to have Guelph Park renamed by its much hipper title, click here.



Kingsgate Mall, one block away, is a good place to stock up on supplies and have some halfling fun.



Buy Low's there for some of the best priced meat and fish in the city (and a rare place to get delicious steelhead trout - better than salmon) as well as fresh wild sockeye - Safeway is all frozen.

The BC Liquor Store in the mall has some excellent well-priced wines from around the would and a sizeable scotch selection. It's the second largest liquor store in BC, so if you can't find it there, go to Cambie, just fifteen minutes away, for the biggest. 


Lely's Books is a toy store in Kingsgate that is well stocked for children on rainy days. There is a fully setup train set that the kids can play with for hours. 

Speckled throughout the mall are also coin operated rides that kids love, such as racecars, trains and elephants. The dollar store has one if the few places in Vancouver you can still get helium balloons (sorry scientists!!) and Santa makes his East Van appearance here in December. The whole place is a playground for kids.

Just up the street is another huge park. RobsonPark has swings and slides, lots of places for pooch to play, fountains and splash pools in the summertime, and tennis courts to run free in with hockey sticks and balls.

Across the street is a consignment kids accessory store: Wee Ones Reruns. It's a great place to get a new or previously loved stroller, or high chairs, toys, clothes, and what have you.

For more practical shopping, up Main Street are several more children’s consignment clothing stores for excellent value on sharp outfits. Finally, be sure to stop off at the Granville Island Toy Company before you make your trip back home to Evan.

Whether you're a weekend dad, a Big Brother, or even a grandparent, the area around Evan has plenty of places to enjoy with kids on a Saturday afternoon.

This is just a sample of what you can do walking up the hill (south). Next week we'll talk about all the fun things you'll find heading down north towards the mountains.