Surprise birthday for Andrew in Steveston

So I decided that for Andrew's birthday we would meet our friends Michelle and Julius in Steveston for dinner at the hog shack. Lucky for me, the weather on my chosen day was pretty nice, so I made some plan about going for a wander.

I'm pretty sure I say this every time I blog about Steveston, but it really is camera addict's dream. There is so much to see and take pictures of!

We usually park at Garry Point Park. The parking is free and we never have any trouble finding a spot there. Plus then you get to walk through all of Steveston.

I think these pictures are somewhat out of order, but here's the cannery buildings taken from a dock.

One of the old sheds behind the cannery. Perfect background for a photo sesh.

So yah. My poor family has to wait while I take 8 million pictures.

On Sundays they have market day. And this particular day they had a mascot.

And popcorn samples!

Somebody else likes taking pictures too. She likes the selfie variety (can you blame her?)

After the market, we walked out on the wharf to look at the boats.

So many fishing boats.

From there we walked straight through town towards the old Japanese fishing village.

Apparently my little girl scout, came prepared today. She had a flashlight so she could finally find out what's inside this thing.

A lot of garbage apparently.

Which required a whole bunch of investigating by both children.

And a nap.

Steveston has a rich history, and many opportunities to explore it. First of all, the cannery buildings are actually a museum now. They encourage people to visit the cannery buildings by hosting the market day both just outside and within the doors of the buildings. They have a host of other special events throughout the year and it's worth a visit.

On the other side of Steveston village are the bunkhouses and shipbuilding buildings - also a public heritage site. You can choose to do a self guided tour through the village, but in the summer you can tour all of the wooden buildings and see and hear for yourself all the history of the village. It's really interesting!

Here's a site with some more information: http://www.intheirwords.ca/english/people_japanese_early.html.

Every time we come here, there's something going on. An art show in that building below, tradesmen showing how things were done at the turn of the 20th century, people in costume telling us the stories of people who used to live here.

And on this day, a mama swan nesting in the swamp waters.

Each of these buildings is set up like it would have been in the early 1900s.

Though apparently my family have been here a few too many times (or they've been waiting too long for me to finish taking pictures!)

We'd noticed a tire swing in the brush as we were walking, and since we still had some time to kill before meeting Michelle and Julius, we let the kids play.

And then we went down to where the fishing boats sell their wares, to wait for Michelle and Julius.

As always, there was lots to see, and smell.

And we actually saw some seals (my first time seeing them here). Julius offered to feed them so I could get a better picture...

And while they came to see us, I didn't get a good picture.