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Published: October 9th 2011
Important business
First things first when catching up with old friends. Martha and Jo enjoy salty margaritas by Kitsilano Beach, Vancouver.Vancouver
Our first evening in Vancouver was spent in good company with another friend of Jo's from Banff, her ex-housemate Martha. After meeting up with us when we arrived, Martha sorted us out for accommodation and then it was down to business: an evening beer and dinner at a great waterfront restaurant on Kitsilano Beach. Luckily they had wings as Jo was on a mission to enjoy them as much as possible while in Canada.
As we had both previously been to Vancouver, we spent most of our time enjoying the sunshine and walking the various districts of downtown. The weather was great for us again so it was pretty nice playing tourist.
We checked out Canada Place, the famous white-sail building on the waterfront and stumbled across an installation art piece by Douglas Copeland of an Orca whale that looked like it was made of lego blocks. Funnily enough, we also stumbled across Tim Horton's a couple of times too.
Across town we ate lunch in one of the harbour side parks then walked Granville Bridge overlooking the market stalls of Granville Island. It was an exhausting day of walking so it was good to have an
Digital whale watching
The art installation by author Douglas Copeland we found by Canada Place easy night out at another recommended Vancouver eatery with Martha, this time in the historic Gastown district.
Next morning we headed to the station to start our bus-ferry-bus journey to Tofino on Vancouver Island. After being dropped off and kindly left with some essential supplies - a box of 20 assorted tim bits (donut balls) - we boarded the first bus and began our journey northwest to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal.
Seven hours later from boarding the first bus, we arrived into Tofino around early evening. The next day we walked down the only road leading into Tofino to Mackenzie Beach. We stopped here to
appreciate the slight chill and wind and to have our picnic lunch. After walking back to the hostel, we thought we would stay in for the afternoon and enjoy the views out onto the bay. We were staying at the Whalers Point Guesthouse which has a superb location of being right on the point, which allowed for awesome views - particularly for a hostel.
The next day allowed for more bay-viewing time as the weather decided to break and present a continual day of dreary rain. To say the least, we
All the gear...
Decked out for the whale-watching experience caught up on plenty of internet time! But thankfully we managed to get out for lunch and head up the road to SoBo, a recommended restaurant for seafood chowder and other fine food. And the verdict was good - so too the delicious cornbread with chowder!
The following day we need to make up for our previous inactivity, so we decided to go whale watching in Clayoquot Sound. Loaded into a comfy Zodiac boat, the trip started with a blast, as we sped out of the protected bay and into open waters, shooting over relatively smooth but large swells. This covered about an hour of our 3 hour adventure, which Brett was loving; Jo was more just trying to stay on her well-padded seat. Once we finally caught up with the other local whale watching boats, we were immediately placed in front of five or six resident gray whales, spouting and diving majestically. After watching them for a while, we were going to head out further to a pod of humpbacks but unfortunately the weather prevented us. So instead we headed back down the coast to a sea lion colony. On the way down, we were quite lucky to
Whale sighting!
Frantic efforts to get the whales on camera pay off - just. spot many sea otters, some in large groups, some on their own or with a friend, just lounging around on their backs. They were very cute and curious-looking, but not too curious to hang around for long; as soon as we were "close enough", they would quickly turn and be straight back down underwater.
We sped back in towards Tofino Bay, with Brett hoping to see another unexpected glimpse of a whale or rogue sea lion or something but this was not to be. We had a great time out on the water and we were both impressed with what we saw and that our stomachs remained inside. So on our return we saw it only fitting to have lunch at the neighboring restaurant - fish and chips!
Our days in Tofino had come to an end and the following morning we jumped on the return bus-ferry-bus journey back to Vancouver.
Our second last day was in Jo's mind the most important day in our Vancouver travels - her birthday. Her birthday wish was to have all-you-can-eat sushi at one of the many, many sushi restaurants in the city. Amazingly we managed to track down the same
Birthday Wish
Jo and her all-you-can-eat sushi lunch. eatery she had been to 5 years earlier when here.
It definitely was all-you-can-eat heaven... for the first few dishes and then the pressure of eating so many little plates of fish at once, no matter how tasty, caught up with her. Luckily, Brett was there to push on through for the both of us and Jo left thinking a short-term hiatus from sushi might be a good idea.
So with the appeal of sushi well and truly tarnished for a while, we headed down to the park to take it easy in the sunshine and let digestion kick in. Once recovered we headed 'home' to create some semblance of a birthday party. A delicious dinner, bubbles and cupcakes, shared again with Martha, seemed to do the trick and was a nice way to end our great, but brief, re-visit to Vancouver.
(more photos below...)
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