A Visit to "Enchant"ing Vancouver

When I heard about the new Christmas Light Maze "Enchant" coming to Vancouver BC this holiday season, I wanted more information.
Sadly, I couldn't really find the info I wanted - pictures, maps, etc. But we went forth in faith and made plans to buzz up for the weekend and check it out.
Our first plan was to go last weekend, but we had a slight miscommunication at home: Hubby thought I bought the tickets, I thought he did - Oops. Luckily we realized it before we headed up. It was sold out for last week and we decided to bump our plans out a week so we could get tickets.

So, with all our ducks in a row this weekend we headed north to the (insert deep booming voice from the Epcot Canada Pavilion opening) GREAT WHITE NORTH, Where it snows all the time.... Well not really, but between the weather in Vancouver and here at home, we had our share of cold and snow this week.

Peace Arch in the Snow

Lined up at the border

Fields and fields of snow in BC

We were not completely sure this whole trip was going to work. I wanted more information about the weather in Vancouver and it was a bit harder to track down than our local weather. We had read that the crowds last weekend at Enchant were bad. And with the snow/rain we had no idea what to expect and if our delicate NW constitutions ;) were going to enjoy this adventure.

We stopped at the hotel long enough to all put on base layers, scarves and gloves. I also grabbed a umbrella, just in case. Then we headed over to Enchant, hoping to get there early enough for onsite parking, which apparently was closed last week because it was full.

Parking worked out well. They had 5 spots left when they let us in. We were glad we went early. The event opened at 4, and we pulled in at 4:20.  The parking lot was all slush and puddles, and we splashed our way to the entrance.

A small crowd at the front, but not really a line. We pretty much walked right in. 

The Maze is located in back half of the event area, and we made a beeline for the maze and picked up our scavenger hunt forms. Hidden in the maze are all 9 reindeer (Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, etc) you are tasked with finding them all.. and we were up for the challenge.
The maze had people in it to be sure, but the crowds were tolerable.
We really focused on finding those pesky reindeer, and Cupid was the elusive deer that gave us the most trouble. We retraced most of our steps to find that love-struck guy, but found him we did!
And we took a few pictures along the way :)

Being silly in the lights

Rudolph!

Finally, Cupid!

After the fun of the scavenger hunt in the maze, we went out to walk through the marketplace area and find some food. With more food trucks than you can count, we had lots to choose from. But by this point, the crowds have joined us. A line to get into the maze has formed and was a couple hundred people long!
We found a table in the seating area - not chairs... just a table.. all the chairs were being used. And it was soo loud in the tent that the girl on the stage trying to perform Christmas Carols was completely drowned out.
We enjoyed our food truck dinners and decided it was time to go get warm in the hotel.

A note on footwear... BOOTS, people, wear big rubber boots, or be prepared to have wet feet, not damp feet... WET feet, soaked socks, that swish with each step. Cause with 4 inch deep puddles that cover the width of the walkway... you can't avoid the puddles.

I did have a moment when we got back to the car, before I shed my wet soaked through layers, that I wasn't appreciating the enchantment of the event... but luckily it faded as my feet warmed up and in the end, we all thought it was fun.

Sunday we woke up and lazily got ready to head home. We stopped at a new Canadian breakfast favorite of mine, Cora.

Such a fun presentation of fruit! 

Then back to the US... where the snow has melted!

It was a fun adventure!