Vancouver

Tuesday, August 8. 2006

This was our last full day in Vancouver, so we made the most of it. We got up early and caught the first “Big Bus” to Granville Island to eat breakfast. The bus was about 15 minutes late, so we weren’t too happy with that as we could have slept later.

After Granville, we caught the Big Bus over to Stanley Park where we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. We spent about three hours there. It was interesting, and some parts were extremely well done, but it’s not like the Monterey Bay Aquarium where we spent all day. A lot of fish would have a name posted, but no other information. Since we like to read the signs, it was a little disappointing.

The highlights were the Beluga Whales, the Amazon Tropics area, and of course, the Sea Otters. I could have watched the otters all day. When we first got there, they were sleeping and two were side by side and looking like they were holding hands. Later, they were all awake and playing, chasing each other around and wrestling. The Belugas were neat in that we could go below and watch them through a big glass wall. It’s surprising how much blubber is on those. You can see the fat jiggle around while they swim. It’s fascinating and somewhat revolting at the same time.

After we left the (very crowded) aquarium, we caught the Stanley Park trolley around the park. It’s a free trolley and mostly goes around the perimeter. We got off at “Sequoia Grill at the Teahouse” which was mentioned in one of Rachel Ray’s shows. We couldn’t remember which show “$40/Day” or “Tasty Travels” but after looking at the menu, we were pretty sure it wasn’t $40/Day. Rather pricy, also, as it turned out, they were only serving drinks at that time (4pm) and they wouldn’t start serving food until 5. The girl at the reception area said “What do you expect? We’re just a restaurant.” Meaning, in jest, how dare we be surprised that there’s no food.

The last Big Bus to Granville was just past 4, and we knew we missed that, but we figured if we caught the next one, and jumped off at stop 17, then walked over to stop 5, we may be able to catch the one from before. We told the driver our plans and he radioed ahead for another bus to hold up as he was almost on their tail and since he was running early, he would have to sit at a stop for a while and ruin our chances. So at one stop, we hopped off that one and onto another. Then that driver radioed the bus we needed to catch at stop 5 and warned him that we, and two other people, wanted to catch it. It all worked out because we got off that bus near the art academy, hurried around the corner, and within a minute or two, the last bus to Granville came around the corner. Yay! It was all rather exciting and we were very happy it all worked out.

We got to Granville at 5, and had reservations for the Pacific Cooking Academy at 7. We wandered around and picked up some bread, cheese, pastries, cherries, and an apricot for tomorrow’s breakfast. By 6:30, we were tired, so we went by the academy to see if they could take us, and they did. Dinner was nice, but more expensive than I would expect, just like everything else in Vancouver seems to be.

After a three course dinner, we caught the #50 city bus back home where we packed everything up for tomorrow’s flight to LA and went to sleep. Around 3:30 in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of someone using the shared bathroom. No biggie, but through the power of suggestion, I soon had to go. After waiting for what seemed like forever, I never heard a flush or the sound of their door shutting. I finally checked for a light under the bathroom door. Seeing no light, I unbolted our door. No shriek or sound from the other side, so I reached my hand in and turned on the light. Still nothing, so I stuck my head in and while there was no-one there, the door to the other room was wide open and the toilet was unflushed. Aaaahh, and ewww.

I quickly pushed their door shut, went in and locked everything up. A few moments later, I heard them bolt their door. I hope they were embarrassed. How they could forget that the bathroom was shared is beyond me, but I’m sure they remembered after that.