Fish for Lunch on a Perfect Summer Day

This morning while we were eating breakfast Ethan announced that he would like to have fish for dinner. I asked him what made him think of having fish and he plainly said, "I just want to have fish!"

After our morning dog walk and trip to the coffee shop we headed home to put Beckett down for his morning nap. "Mama, I want to go to the fish store." said Ethan. Who knows why toddlers come up with what they do?

As Ethan was so intent on getting some fish today I had the idea to take the kids down to Fisherman's Wharf to eat at Barb's Fish and Chips when Beckett woke up from his nap. So we packed up and drove downtown through the throngs of tourists and traffic spotting a horse! and carriage!, a boat! with a helicopter! parked on the back, people!, bridges!, and a castle! (the legislative buildings).

Ethan really enjoys downtown.

We wandered on the dock and checked out the float homes and all of their pretty gardens. We watched the float planes taxi by headed for their liquid runway towards the edge of the harbour. Looked over the edge into the water spotting thousands of little fish and Ethan noticed how "the sea is green!" under a boat when the sun shines in the water from the underside.
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There were tons of people on the wharf, and the line for food was incredible but Ethan and Beckett made friends with "neighbors" in the lineup with their smiles and curiosity and they were so very good and polite and patient today. It was one of those outings where you feel very proud of your kids instead of flustered and rushed because of whining or crazy behaviour.

We sat at a table and a few people asked if they could join us. We had some small talk about where we were all from and how hot it was while enjoying our food with strangers.

There were two boys at the table next to us just a bit older than Ethan and Beckett. They all smiled at each other and the babies waved and pumped fists - that certain unknown and easy communication between kids. The older boy and his mom were folding brightly colored paper while they waited for their food and after a few moments he came to our table holding a bright green crane for Beckett and a bright blue paper airplane for Ethan.

There were smiles all around. We thanked the family with the paper crafts and bid farewell to our table mates. We left the dock for the park across the street and tossed the tumbling paper airplane through the warm summer air towards the car as we walked.