Our tour guide Gordy, a country & western singer (no doubt there will be more about that later) started off by telling us Sir Francis Drake discovered Vancouver and went on to Hawaii to be killed. Huh?? Slight confusion with Captain Cook I think. He proceeded to misname a tree so now David can’t trust his information. Those who grabbed the front seats in the bus hang on his every word. What were names on a piece of paper are beginning to emerge as people: there are 28 tourists divided into about 10 couples, the rest singles with one solitary (popular) single male. Already we have noticed Annette: “I’m always late for everything” said proudly. And yes, 45 minutes late for dinner, which seems excessive.
Refreshed, we were back in the bus heading for Stanley Park. We were here in 1976 with Alison and Jon on our way to live in Florida for 3 years and Stanley Park remains vivid in my memory, especially the miniature train. It only runs on weekends so today we have a carriage ride behind two hard-working Percheron horses who plod along, taking us between towering green trees and the water-front around the little peninsula occupied by the park. Our driver is Caroline from Germany and she has a well-practised and entertaining spiel on everything we see.
Nearby is our next stop Vancouver Aquarium, full of kids, parents and tourists enjoying the seals, sea lions and sea otters - always my favourite.
They’re focussing on frogs this month: the same problem we have - loss of habitat means nowhere for frogs to live and breed. David liked the tropical fish and the jelly fish.
Once we arrived at the hotel and were able to access our room for a shower and a cup of tea it then became a struggle to stay awake long enough for dinner. It was a simple dinner in-house with no decisions to make then off to bed to crash even though it was still light at 9.30 pm. We have a magnificent view across Coal Harbour towards the mountains.
I remember fish swimming behind a wall of glass.
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