The reason for the title of my post is that we spent more time on the road than in the amusement park itself. We headed out at around 11am, anticipating a 1.5 hour drive to Fraser Valley, where the only cartoon dinosaur theme park in North America is.

Unfortunately, Google Maps can't predict traffic conditions :-/ After going through the drive-thru at McDonald's along the way to grab some grub and eat it along the way, we encountered a slew of traffic typical to congested downtowns, experienced some of the seedier areas of Vancouver (on the north end of Chinatown), and breathed a sigh of relief after we got on Hwy 1 (the Trans-Canada Hwy), only to be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic due to an accident. We didn't make it to Dinotown until almost 1:30pm.

It had been raining on and off since last night, and it started drizzling again as soon as we got into the park. Good thing there was plenty of cover from the trees and other little places to duck into. And the nice thing about having a rainy day at the park is that it kept everyone else away, and the place was fairly empty, making it feel like we alone had run of the place ;-) Todd sure had a grand time. He enjoyed meeting the dinosaur characters, even hugged them, high-fived them, and showed one of them his stuffed turtle-- the dino petted the turtle's head and Todd made the turtle "kiss" the dino, causing her to blush :-)

During a nice sunny spell we enjoyed a fun ride in the paddleboats, with Todd sitting in the middle while Allan and I paddled opposite sides with our rubber oars. We floated down a peaceful little stream and got to see all kinds of dinosaur statues along the shore.

We enjoyed playing in the water park (staying dry, or well, as dry as possible with all the rain :-P) and seeing the dinosaur abodes and vehicles, which were built like the stone houses you see on the Flintstones. Managed to get a round of mini golf in before the rain chased us back inside, into the gift shop. That's where I saw old brochures and pictures and news clips from when the park was first built-- it featured Flintstones characters and used to be called Bedrock Park. It wasn't until sometime in the 90s that it was changed to Dinotown and all semblances of the Flintstones removed, due to copyright issues.

We made our way back to the parking lot and headed out a little after 4pm. the park is located near Bridal Falls, the 6th largest waterfall in Canada, and I managed to capture a magnificent shot of it nestled amongst the trees and illuminated by the bright sun overhead, burning through the white clouds.

The drive back was equally fraught with tons of traffic, although Todd and I slept rather fitfully in the back seat and missed most of it. We stopped by a mall in nearby Burnaby and ate at an IHOP before fighting downtown Vancouver traffic again (made all the worse by temporary street closures due to a bike race) and landing back at our hotel.

More fun was yet to come-- when we arrived at the door to our suite, neither of our cards would work. Luckily there was a hotel phone in the hallway right outside our door, so we were able to use it to call the front desk for help rather than trudge back downstairs. After we got settled in, I took Todd for another swim at the health club, enjoying a brief splash in the pool and several minutes in the jacuzzi. I hope the weather warms up this week so that we'll be able to take advantage of the pools at our upcoming hotels, seeing as how much Todd enjoyed playing in the water!

But now it's our last night in Vancouver and tomorrow we check out of our luxurious hotel suite and make our way back across the border. Destination: Seattle.

But before that, a good night's rest :-)