Vancouver

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We spent a morning wandering around Victoria - shops (more wool and books for Nancy), old buildings and a very interesting museum - before catching bus, boat and bus over to the mainland, where we finished our holiday with a couple of days in Vancouver. We didn't exactly fall in love with it at first sight - we spent 40 minutes waiting for a taxi in the rain at the bus station - but we came to appreciate it over the next couple of days.

On our first full day we wandered around the city, bought some last minute souvenirs in Gastown, avoided an enormous number of vagrants and had lunch at A&W, home of the world's best root beer and some very fine hamburgers (11th and final).

In the afternoon we walked along the waterfront to Stanley Park, where we spent a couple of hours at the Vancouver Aquarium. We saw plenty of exotic fish as well as sharks, rays, frogs, dolphins, beluga whales and even tarantulas. But the stars of the place were the sea otters, who were completely adorable.

Then we spent our second successive Vancouver evening waiting for a taxi. At least this time it wasn't raining, and we could watch a bunch of racoons wandering around looking for food. No taxi arrived, despite a couple of calls to the taxi company, so after 45 minutes we gave up and walked back to the hotel. Though not directly back to the hotel, I did get us a little lost in the park, but fortunately Nancy was there to get us safely back to the city.

We spent our final day with my Dad's cousin Nancy and her son Colin, who drove us around North Vancouver, across the harbour from where we were staying. We saw a salmon hatchery, Cleveland Dam and the Grouse Mountain Skyride (though we didn't see Grouse Mountain, it has been covered in cloud all the time we have been here). We went out to Horseshoe Bay for a fish and chip lunch, only to find there was no electricity and no fish and chips. So we drove back to the city and had fish and chips closer to home.

In the afternoon we crossed the Capilano Suspension Bridge and walked along the adjacent cliff walk and tree top walk and ended the day at Nancy's house for dinner with her, together with Colin and her other son David. We had a lovely day, a good way to end our holiday.

Then we spent an inordinately long time in airports and on aeroplanes before arriving home to be we happily welcomed by our cats and bunnies.

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