Before having kids I would of protested that vacationing at Cultus Lake is nothing like vacationing in Cancun. But now....having done both with small people, I have to say that a beach vacation at Cultus is pretty darn close to being in Cancun.
First of all, it only takes an hour (in theory) to get there. We did leave at 4:30 pm on weekday though and there was an accident on the highway, I thought we would make it there for supper but instead I was rationing out the one package of goldfish crackers I found in the car as we were stuck in gridlock traffic. But even with traffic, we made it there in time for them to run a lap around the lake before the sun went down. You can't even make it through customs in the time it took us to get from our front steps to the dock.
The beach (and playground) is walking distance from the beach house. Alas, it isn't the gorgeous white sand like in the Mayan Riveria but whatever, the kids still made the same sand castles that they would have with prettier sand.
The water was warm (at least according to Big Sister who was the only one who actually jumped in). Both kids kept asking if there were sharks and I could confidently say that there were no sharks in the lake (perhaps swimmer's itch but no definitely no sharks).
Cultus water slides was also walking distance from the beach house. I was slightly disappointed the kids did not want to accompany me on any slides that were actually fun. Little Brother was content to go on this one slide that was as fast a sleeping sloth.
Alas, there was no swim up bar here but there were mini donuts and mini donuts makes everything better. Entertaining and delicious.
One of the best parts of Cancun is the all-inclusive meals and honestly, Costco sponsored all the food and my mom graciously cooked all the meals so it was basically the same. Plus there was no risk of eating from the buffet and puking for days after (we know from experience!) Cheers to that! Husband can even drink Gatorade in a martini glass when you're at Cultus.
Speaking of meals, the dock was steps outside the beach house so we always had meals with a great view. Nothing says good morning like corn pops on the dock. So classy.
We have now invested in two SUPs so there was no shortage of good times out on the water.
There was lots of down time to play Uno, Scrabble and our new favourite game,
Speak Out. If you have never played Speak Out, you need to google it and watch it on
YouTube. We saw it on the
Ellen show and I bought the game right after....let's just say it was worth every penny....best 2 minutes of the entire vacation was everyone trying to decipher my dad saying, "bosses love free donuts"with the ridiculous mouthpiece. We couldn't breathe we were laughing so hard...I love that my dad is willing to play stupid games with us. If the video below doesn't work, then try clicking
here
So yes, I am OK with skipping the potentially puking children on the airplane and I am glad we got some great family beach memories not far from home.
I know my husband will tell me to read my own blog the next time I am wishful for a getaway to the Mayan Riveria but at least for now, its really nice to be content with making memories in beautiful British Columbia.
