Vancouver day 2 Whale Watching & Stanley Park

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Today we went Whale Watching with Vancouver Whale Watch. The shuttle picked us up from just up the street. We only just made the bus. We drove south of Vancouver into Stevenson where our Whale watch boat left from. From the brochures we read its cold so we had on jackets. When we got there we were told it would be freezing so we put on yet another jacket and then big fat red suits which acted like life jackets but also gave a bit of warmth. They made you look so fat and could barley move under all the layers. Theres a few different types of boats that you can take out. We choose the open zodiac boat and were seated in the third row. I had the outside seat. The boat actually went really fast and it was fun. It made the trip a lot more interesting, like a ride. Not scary at all. It was very cold though when it was moving. It was freezing out on the water. FREEZING. We were desperately trying tp pull on our hoddies and wishing we had gloves. When the boat stopped though you warmed up right away.

We saw some juvenile bald eagles first. The were still brown all over. Then we saw some big adults with the white heads. We saw heaps of harbour seals. We had to travel so far so see the whales. Back 2 hrs into American waters. The weather was terrible with really dense fog you couldn't see far which totally sucked. No one could find the whales.

Eventually out through the mist we saw a mother and a baby then another mother and baby. The pods were slit so they were everywhere but because of the fog you couldn't see too much. We were not able to stay with the whales long either because we had traveled so far south and had to get back for the afternoon departures.

It was not as good as I expected but although it cost a lot of money I would totally do it again and hope for better luck. Killer whales are my favourite animal so I would do it over and over again.
Of course my camera died after one picture of the whales so that sucked but I have plenty of the seals and eagles.

On our way back in we saw heaps more harbour seals and also some sea lions. The guide said it was very rare to see the sea lions this time of year as they should be down in California or Vancouver Island for the breeding season.

When we got back to Stevenson Cat and I had lunch and then got dropped back into Vancouver.

Cat and I had been considering blading Stanley Park Seawall but from our little tour yesterday we though a bike may have been the safest option. Turns out for me walking would have been the safest option. There's plenty of places to hire bikes so we chose one and were given 2 bikes. I have not ridden a bike since i was probably 12... but that's fine right its only 10/11/ years. WRONG!!!! I was terrible. Worst bike rider ever. Initially we hired old school bikes with no breaks - breaks were back peddle. Back peddle. How bout hell no... that is way to advanced for me. We started on them but in only 100 meters i was struggling and so was cat so we swapped for bikes with breaks. The bikes still sucked thou. I should have gotten a mountain bike like I was used to. Instead we had racers which lost control over every leaf and bump on the ground.

Cat was doing great. I nearly took out a roller bladder and was over taken by a dog. We rode the entire seawall easily. It was really fun. I'm so glad we didn't blade as it was more hilly then we thought. I would have fallen over. I was surprised to return the bike without coming off. It was fun, a lot of fun but i was actually surprised and happy to get back without a full on stack or least a bit of bruising or scratching.

After we returned the bikes we had a walk around Stanley Park. Mission Beaver Lake (randomly picked off the map) We seemed to completely get lost but then hey, beaver lake, right in front of us. Saw so many squirrels and finally a raccoon. Mission acomplished, I was not going back to the hotel until I saw a racoon. They are so cute.

For dinner we went to a noodle place for dinner which was quite nice and then had ice cream at a place that seems to always be packed out so we figured it must be good. It was but it was so big we could both only eat half. After that we went to bed.

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