#210 Mark & Kindrey - Summer Vacation

Mark: Hello everyone, welcome back to EnglishLingQ. It's Mark here and I'm joined by Kindrey again today. And today I guess we thought we'd talk about the various activities that our kids will be taking part in in the summertime, just to give those of you in the rest of the world an idea of what kids in North America, kids in Canada, do in the summertime. Kindrey:         I guess we should start by saying first, kids here in Canada generally go to school from September until the end of June. There's two weeks off at around Christmastime in December and over New Year's and another two weeks -- they call is Spring Break -- in March and then school ends at the end of June and they have two full months off, July and August, to enjoy the summer. So that's where we're headed right now, we're into our last week and a half of school and everybody is looking forward to being free for the summer. Mark:               Absolutely, I remember that feeling well.

Kindrey:         Counting down the days on the calendar.

Mark:               As school is about to end and summer vacation is about to start the weather is starting to get nice.

Kindrey:         Well in most places in the world.

Mark:               It's been nice the last three days. Kindrey:         Yes, the last three days and that's about it. Mark:               We've kind of had a very poor spring here. Kindrey:         A lot.

Mark:               Cool.

Kindrey:         Cold.

Mark:               Yeah, cold spring.

Kindrey:         And lots of rain.

Mark:               Lots of rain. It's never a good sign when the heat comes on every morning. Kindrey:         In the house.

Mark:               Then, actually, even today we thought it was quite a warm day, but it probably didn't get above 21-22. Kindrey:         No, 22 maybe, 21-22?

Mark:               Yeah.

Anyway, it looks like the weather is maybe turning now, so… Kindrey:         We'll cross our fingers for some warm weather and start enjoying summer. Mark:               Either way, the kids are excited to get out of school. I mean it was interesting, actually, I heard recently that in the states they get out of school at the beginning of June.

Kindrey:         Well, I've heard that too. I've heard that particularly in the southern states when it's just so hot, it costs too much to keep the schools air conditioned and they release the children early. Mark:               Release the children.

Kindrey:         Release them.

Mark:               Just sounds funny.

Kindrey:         From their jail?

Mark:               That's right. So, yeah, I think at least here, so it ends up being just over two months of summer vacation. I guess some people go away for a lot of the summer; the major of people go away somewhere.

Kindrey:         Have a vacation.

Mark:               Have a vacation of some kind; either, you know, go stay at a lake in the interior of B.C. or some people may have a summer or a vacation place up the coast or on a lake as well. A lot of people go camping in the many parks.

Kindrey:         Or some people get in their car and go all the way to Calgary for the Stampede or just go see a different part of the country for what they call a road trip.

Mark:               Right.

Kindrey:         Where you get in your car and see where the road takes you.

Mark:               Right and end up maybe going down to California or down the west coast of North America. Yeah, all those things people do as well as places further a field like going to Europe, you know.

Kindrey:         A lot of people take their European vacation right now.

Mark:               Yeah, I mean this is the only time really when… Kindrey:         You can get away? Mark:               Well, you can get away. When you have a family and if you're going to go to Europe or to Asia or Africa or anywhere far you're not going to go for a week. It's expensive, there are so many people to bring and so if people are going to do a big trip like that they normally do that in the summer and that's, I guess, why. Not just a guess, I know why, in Europe that's their busy tourist season because that's when the kids are out of school. I guess, in our case, we have not taken the kids to Europe.

Kindrey:         Not yet.

Mark:               Not yet.

Kindrey:         One day, maybe.

Mark:               One day, but we have some plans this year to visit friends who have summer places, which is a great way to go.

Kindrey:         That's right. We're very fortunate to have a lot of friends that have summer cabins. Mark:               We hope they'll still like us after we leave. Kindrey:         We've been invited back to a few. Mark:               That's true. Kindrey:         So that's our big plan, I guess. Mark:               That's like the expression “fish and house guests go bad after a few days.”  That's not the case with us? Kindrey:         No, you know, I don't know. Mark:               Well, we normally aren't there that long anyway. Kindrey:         No.

Mark:               So we're looking forward to that. We'll be going up the coast here north of Vancouver in this Archipelago near Vancouver. Kindrey:         It's called the Sunshine Coast. Mark:               Right.

We'll be on an island one trip and we'll be on the coast itself another trip. But there are no roads leading up there, so you end up having to take the ferries to get up there, which just makes it that much… Kindrey:         But a ferry that you drive your car onto. Mark:               Right.

Kindrey:         It connected you.

Mark:               Right, but it feels quite remote.

Kindrey:         Yeah, it does.

Mark:               Even though distance-wise it's not very far. Kindrey:         Not far at all.

Mark:               But you can't get there accept by boat, so it's… Kindrey:         Feels more of a journey. Mark:               Feels more of a journey, for sure. And so we've got a couple trips planned like that and then besides that, obviously, the kids will have quite a few days in which to do nothing. Kindrey:         Which is how we like it.

Mark:               Right and bug each other.

Kindrey:         We'll go to the beach and they can fight. Their cousins are coming from England, I believe. They always look forward to the visit from the cousins that they see once a year.

Mark:               Absolutely.

Kindrey:         That will be fun.

Mark:               Besides that they'll probably get into some kind of camps in the summer. Kindrey:         Well I haven't organized anything yet; we'll see how everybody's doing. If they're bugging each other too much and too bored then we might have to do some kind of camp. Mark:               Yeah, I mean I remember going to quite a few hockey camps, of course, and then even the regular sort of summer camps, you know. We'll see what they end up doing, but there are all those kinds of options. Very often a lot of kids will go to at least one week of camp of some kind during the summer, if not a couple weeks. Hockey schools, soccer schools, regular summer camps, I mean there's all varieties; all manner of programs available when your kids are getting on your nerves because they're home all day fighting each other. Kindrey:         And it's not always easy to find friends to play with because the friends go away or whatever. They end up spending a lot of time together, which is good too.

Mark:               For sure.

Kindrey:         The dog will be happy to have the kids here all day.

Mark:               Yeah.

Kindrey:         Entertain him. He will benefit from summer vacation.

Mark:               And then the two months goes pretty quickly.

Kindrey:         It sure does.

Mark:               It's funny though, as a kid I always seem to remember summer vacations being so long, but really two months… Kindrey:         …flies by. Mark:               It files by, yeah.

Kindrey:         Yeah.

Mark:               So, other than that, I guess I can't think of any other special things that we, I mean, or what other people…  Anything you can think of that other people might be doing? Kindrey:         Not really.

Mark:               No. I mean it's so nice actually here in Vancouver in the summertime. It's the only time really when we get nice weather. Kindrey:         And we live close to the ocean.

Mark:               Yeah.

Kindrey:         It's nice just to walk down and have a little swim at the beach. We always stop at the 7-Eleven on the way home and get a slurpee for the kids. Little things like that everyone looks forward to.

Mark:               Yeah, for sure. I mean when the weather is nice here in Vancouver there's no better place. Kindrey:         We like to stay close.

Mark:               The summer tends to fly by. Anyway, I'd be curious to hear from all of our listeners what sorts of things you or your kids do where you live, you know, let us know on our Forum. I mean I'm sure many things are similar, but many things are quite different depending on where you live, so come on the EnglishLingQ Forum and let us know. And, again, I just want to remind you all to let us know if there's anything in particular you want us to talk about. Again, let us know on the EnglishLingQ Forum. I guess that's all for today. Kindrey:         That's all for now. Mark:               We'll talk to you later. Thanks for listening.

Kindrey:         Bye.