Vancouver moms are into it: PokéMOM Go

I’ve never been a gamer, so when my partner came home from work one night excitedly describing the new app he and his coworkers spent their lunch hour obsessing over, I wasn’t expecting to join the craze. It happened, though.

As a new mom, I was looking for new ways to get active, and this sounded like a perfect way to keep motivated when out walking with our little guy, Sam. Instead of making my destination the furthest coffee shop or bakery from our apartment, I turned our walks into “PokeMissions” and planned our routes based on Pokestops and the Pokemon I needed to complete the collection.

Here are a few tips for my fellow PokéMoms:

Hatch those eggs

The greatest feature is the eggs. In addition to catching Pokemon, you can hatch eggs by walking. They come in 2km, 5km and 10km; if you keep your app open while walking, they will act as a motivator and km counter. I usually put a 5km egg in the incubator when we leave the house with the goal of hatching the egg before we get home. You can also receive extra incubators when you level up.

Get lucky

The lucky egg is a great way to gain extra XP and level up more quickly. This egg will give you double the XP for the next 30 minutes, and are great to use when you are about to hit a stretch where there are a lot of Pokestops. Use them strategically, like when you are about to evolve a bunch of Pokemon in a blitz.

Go explore

My son and I usually walk along West 4th and down to Kits Beach. If I want to diversify my catches, though, we hit up the Vancouver Aquarium, Granville Island, and Metropolis Mall. If you need Magikarp, Drowzee, or Goldeen, the beach is a great place to go. If you’re looking for a little bit of everything, go check out the Aquarium and Stanley Park. Granville Island is a great place to load up on Pokeballs and XP, plus there are a ton of Pokestops. Metropolis is not only a huge, kid-friendly, mall, but there are also a plethora of Shellders, Spearows, Caterpie and Pidgeys.

Date night

When my partner comes home from work, one of our favourite things to do is chat about our catch of the day and share tips. It’s awesome to have a game that we both enjoy. For date night, there are lots of Vancouver coffee shops and restaurants that have joined in on the fun and are set up as Pokestops. One great place to try is Burgoo on West 4th in Kitsilano. You can taste their comfort food and creative cocktails while sharing your love of the game. If you finish up before 7pm, go grab a coffee at 49th Parallel. You can even set off Lures to attract Pokemon and help out fellow gamers.