Tag Archives: Day Camp

District Victoria Trip

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Last month Burnaby Mountain District took a day trip to visit our province’s capital for a day of culture, fun, and friendship. Organizing this trip was quite the undertaking as more than 70 girls participated. Girls left Burnaby on a school bus early in the morning and arrived back there late in the evening. In between they participated in their choice of a variety of experiences — all on a day that turned out to be very, very rainy!

Girls had signed up for their experiences ahead of time. Choices included the Royal BC Museum, Miniature World, a tour of the BC Legislature, and more.

Girls who went to the museum got to enjoy amazing artifacts from the Mayan civilization at the featured exhibition called Maya: The Great Jaguar rises. Some of the items were about 3000 years old! They also had time to check out some of the living world exhibits to learn more about the geography and creatures in beautiful British Columbia.

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The legislature tour was very informative, telling girls all about the history of how BC’s government was formed and how it functions today. They also got to enjoy the amazing architecture of a very beautiful building. The engaging tour was inspirational for the girls.

The incredibly detailed dioramas at Miniature World were a highlight of the trip for both some of the youngest and also some of the oldest girls on the trip. There’s something about the tiny figurines recreating periods of history and fantasy that really capture the imagination. They’re really cool!

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Some girls also spent time at majestic Beacon Hill park, including playing with some incredibly friendly petting zoo goats. What a group of silly kids! (See what I did there?)

Victoriabugs At the Victoria Bug Zoo, girls got to learn about, view, and even handle some amazing bugs. It’s a wild world out there.

The rain put a bit of a damper on things, making the planned scavenger hunt a bit of a bust. Pathfinders also had their bike tour cancelled due to the weather — but the girls still had a blast doing some shopping and stopping for tea at Murchies. It turned out to be a bit of a lesson for some girls about being prepared… for much of the day it wasn’t lightly drizzling, it was pouring.

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Everyone gathered at the end of the day for a huge group meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The staff there did an incredible job feeding our huge group and getting us out in a timely manner so we could get back on the buses and to the ferry terminal in time to get home on schedule.

What a day! Thank you to all the businesses, tour guides, tourist attractions, and friendly strangers who helped out our group all day. Thank you to the planning committee who worked hard to make this trip happen, and thank you to the girls who participated in cookie sales and other fundraising to make this trip (especially its transportation costs) manageable.

Sea-to-Sky Day Camp

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Earlier this month Burnaby Mountain District hosted a day camp for girls from all branches at the beautiful Sea-to-Sky Gondola in Squamish, BC. We have already posted about some of the older girls going on an extended hike, and this post is about what the majority of the participants were up to that day.

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Everyone gathered at a local meeting spot to board school buses out to the gondola site. Once they got there, the girls split into groups and began working through a series of activities with Sea-to-Sky Gondola staff. The staff were so knowledgeable and they were great at working with the girls. Everybody learned a lot!

Much of the day involved hiking through different trails and checking out some of the highlights of the mountain. From the base, girls were brought to see the magnificent Shannon Falls.

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Riding the gondola was a great experience. Did you know the Sea-to-Sky gondola is the steepest gondola outside of Europe? The ride takes about 10 minutes and features incredible views of the surrounding area. The staff members also made sure to take time to show the girls some of the gondola mechanics, giving a cool engineering perspective to learn how the thing actually works.

At the top of the mountain girls got to go on another hike which featured a great lookout point to see The Chief mountain. The girls were surprised to see there was still quite a bit of snow up top.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather. Even though it had been rainy earlier in the week, we got excellent spring weather which made for a lovely day of walking about. For some of the Sparks and Brownies, this was the most hiking they had ever done!

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Another highlight of the site is the very cool suspension bridge. Even though some girls were a little bit nervous to cross it, everybody did great! On the other side of the bridge was another trail where girls got to do a Canada 150 themed scavenger hunt.

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A huge thank you to the Sea-to-Sky Gondola team who worked with us to make the day a success. The staff members were fantastic, the lunch was delicious, and girls had a great time! Offering this experience as a day camp was a great way to bring some outdoor adventure in a way more accessible for some girls who don’t prefer overnight experiences. We had a wonderful day!