Oh how I love Richmond's Aberdeen Mall [near Vancouver, 30 minutes from downtown]. And, trust me, I've never really used the word "love" and "mall" in the same sentence before. But here's why I think every family finding themselves in the area should consider spending a few hours at this fun place.
1. The main feature for me has always been Daiso, with its 2 floors of $2 wonders. This is where I recently spent a small bucket of money on bento supplies which I will post about soon. And while I spent a glorious 90 minutes perusing all the little kitchen doodads my husband helped the little guy spend his 2 bucks in the toy section. He ended up with a pretty cool zebra-striped cardboard jeep that you put together ... with working wheels of course, because that's very important.
2. After picking out the toy, the guys went to the Fun4Kids which is one of those indoor playgrounds with slides and balls and padded rooms. I actually really like this particular one as it's clean and open so that you are better able to track where your little one is. His crazy red curls helped too.
3. The food fair is all about authentic Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese cuisine. It's cheap and it's good. We had some great wonton soup where the wontons were packed full of green veg and my kid gobbled them up.
4. Cheap knock-off clothing. We saw adorable little jackets, dresses, and pants for 5 to 10 bucks in one little shop on the way to Daiso.
5. Dancing waters. There's a small-scale, Vegas-style fountain that spurts and splashes to Elvis and tunes from Flashdance. Do I need to say more?