Whales, and wolves, and bears! Oh, my! And then to see an elephant fly! - Day 2

[Ware Bears]

Friday August 2nd 2013
It was fantastic waking this morning to the sight of the HAL Amsterdam and the Celebrity Millennium coming in. Unfortunately the weather was a bit miserable, it was cloudy and raining and continued to do this for much of the day. According to the news there had been no rain at all in the whole month of July, they had obviously been saving it for us!

We'd planned what we wanted to do in Vancouver but apart from FlyOver Canada nothing was set in stone so as the weather was not very nice we thought it would be best to go to Vancouver Aquarium today.

And now begins my love affair with Tim Hortons! I'd picked up from the cruise board that it was a good place to get a coffee and pastry for breakfast so it was back to the Waterfront food court although we took the street level route this time.

I'm a tea drinker rather than coffee but the French vanilla cappuccino was oh to die for

as was the blueberry danish.

This became my breakfast staple for the next three days!

So we donned our waterproofs and set out along the sea wall to Stanley Park where the aquarium is.

 

[Ware Bears]

It took us about half an hour to reach the aquarium which was well signposted. There's lots to enjoy here and my photo just doesn't do the jellyfish justice as they really were beautiful.

We stayed here much longer than we'd planned as we were enjoying it so much. We bought chicken strips and fries for lunch and watched both the dolphin and sea otter shows.

I could have spent hours watching the sea otters. There's three living at the aquarium now although the original couple that achieved world wide fame via Youtube are sadly long gone.

And look at this cheeky little raccoon! There were two of them and they were really entertaining people with their antics although this was the bolder of the two, we only saw the paws of the other one. I expect they were waiting for us all to go home so they could come looking for food scraps!

After buying my 'must have' fridge magnet in the gift shop we set off on the short walk to Brockton Point to see the totem poles.

The totem poles are really worth seeing and each one has a placard giving its history. There is also a shop at Brockton Point called Legends of the Moon where they sell genuine Canadian arts and crafts. We bought ourselves a wooden totem pole and some dreamcatchers.

The original plan was to walk up as far as Brockton Point lighthouse and then round to see the statue of Girl in a Wetsuit but we were running out of time so reluctantly had to leave without doing this. I half hoped we'd get chance to come back over the next two days but realistically knew it was unlikely. Oh well, always good to have an excuse to have to return somewhere!

Took a quick snap of the Celebrity Millennium before it went under the Lions Gate Bridge on its way up to Alaska.

We made it back just in time to have a quick freshen-up and change of clothes before our time slot for FlyOver Canada opened. There were only a few other people here and we wondered if it really had been necessary to book in advance. However the next two days we saw that it was really busy and it was obviously the weather keeping people away today so yes, it had been a good idea as it could have been hot and sunny. It was a fantastic experience, basically it's Soarin' but over Canada instead of California. The only downside is that with Soarin' you can get a fastpass or queue to ride again - to do that here we'd need to pay!

None of us were particularly hungry so instead of going out to dinner we ate (yet again!) in the food court, a mixture of McDonalds and Subway.

Night-time view from our room.

Tomorrow - Capilano Suspension Bridge

 

[Chilly]

FlyOver Canada sounds good, wish i'd known about that.

 

[dolphingirl47]

We loved the Aquarium and the totem poles. You got a great photo of one of the dolphins. Unfortunately the Fly Over Canada attraction was not open yet when we were in Vancouver. Would have loved to do this as Soarin is my favourite ride.

Corinna

 

[mandymouse]

Looks like you had a lovely day, fab photos too

 

[strawberry blonde]

Looks like you had a good day. Shame about the weather.

 

[Ware Bears]

Thanks for reading.

FlyOver Canada sounds good, wish i'd known about that.

It didn't open until June, luckily Linda managed to ride it after her cruise.

We loved the Aquarium and the totem poles. You got a great photo of one of the dolphins. Unfortunately the Fly Over Canada attraction was not open yet when we were in Vancouver. Would have loved to do this as Soarin is my favourite ride.

Corinna

A good excuse to go back, Corinna?

 

[dolphingirl47]

A good excuse to go back, Corinna?

Absolutely

Corinna

 

[maryr1oz]

Really enjoying your report

 

[Linda67]

This is bringing back such lovely memories
The aquarium is fab isn't it?
I'm so glad that we got to experience Flying Over Canada - loved it

 

[Ware Bears]

Thank you for reading, just bumping this up as I'm really going to make an effort to complete this over the next few weeks (famous last words, eh?

 

[chocolateMinnie]

more amazing photos - thanks

 

[Linda67]

Yay!
Would love to see more of your photos

 

[wilma-bride]

I love that you brought the rain with you from the UK - I'm presuming that's how it got there

Our Canadian friends raved and raved about Tim Hortons and were over the moon, when we were in Grand Cayman, to see that one of the shops sold Tim Hortons coffee.

The aquarium looked good and I love the sound of Flying Over Canada. Canada is on our bucket list but it's such a big place, it's hard to know where to start (like America).

 

[irongirlof12]

those Racoons are just too cute great day exploring