Day 34 ~ Thursday 24th September, 2015

Once again I slept like a baby and alas Steve did not. The hotel whilst basic was surprisingly comfortable – I mean the mattress. The shower had the smallest head in all the world, but boy did it have some good water pressure and warmth! Made up for the lack of noise insulation.

We packed the suitcases and we got them zipped up – and not a tear was shed! And nor should it – it not like we've bought anything because we didn't have room coming over for any purchases!

We jumped in the car and we headed over to Stanley Park. The weather was threatening, but we thought we'd make the most of our last remaining hours.

We went to the Vancouver Aquarium as I have heard many times that it is one of the worlds best. As I had only been to the worlds biggest in Beijing a few weeks prior, I was keen to compare it. WOW – It is a lovely aquarium. Very well laid out and the tanks are pristine clear. The outside enclosures whilst not enormous, are well equipped for the animals they have.

The fish were gorgeous and I found the sea anemones were spectacular and unlike anything I've seen before. I can see why people go scuba-diving! I thought it was brilliant with just the indoor tanks, but then we went outside and there were SEA OTTERS – OMFG – I think these are my new favouritest animals ever! They are so much bigger than I thought they'd be. The ones we are used to seeing in our zoo's are the river otters, which are darker and much smaller. The Sea Otters would be the size of a small dog or large cat!

I watched them for ages (and yes, took hundreds of photos)! Until the rain started, so we darted under cover and watched some sea-lions …. and then we found the Beluga Whales!! We watched them swimming for a long while and occasionally they would come up to the surface and look directly at you with one eye! Was great!!

We got to see the Beluga Whale “show” - well, it wasn't a show like in China, but they undergo “training” exercises with their trainers, and this is what we got to see. Nothing too circusy, but enough to see them swimming around!

We met “Chester” who is a baby False Killer Whale. He was washed up on the beach of Torfino on Vancouver Island earlier this year and almost died. He is now under going “training” to be on show. He is quite the character and is VERY curious of humans. He came right up to the window and he followed me, watching me. He was like this with children too. Was a beautiful sight.

From there we met Jack and Daisy who are rescued porpoises. Porpoises are smaller than dolphins, and are quite charismatic. Jack kept coming by the window and posing for the camera! Daisy wasn't really interested in the people.

We had a late lunch and took our time as the rain set in for the day. We got talking to a couple who were visiting from Southern Alberta. Its really lovely, the people you meet on your journey. There are so many things to learn and so many stories to hear.

With the rain still coming down we were ready to leave, but I decided I only had a couple of hundred Otter photos and I would really like a few more! Lol So back out to the Otter enclosure we went. They were feeding the otters, so we got to watch them laying on their backs eating. They are so SO cute!

Unfortunately I had to leave – mostly because Steve was dragging me out of the place stating that it was now 5pm and we were hitting peak hour traffic and had to get to the airport! So sad….our last day had come to an end. Not happy!

We got stuck in peak hour traffic – it should have been a 15min trip, but was near on 2 hours! We were witness to a car accident, so that bought us some entertainment, even if it was at someone else's expense.

We dropped off the Hire Car without incident, and checked in to Canada Air on behalf of Qantas. My bag was 25.7kg and should be 23kgs…. Steve was 23.4kg, so luckily we weren't charged. Stupidly, they haven't put us sitting together – WTF! I am sure Steve did it on purpose, not wanting me to chew his ear off for 15+hours – it's bad enough he's spent the last 5 weeks non-stop with me! Lol I will see if I can get him to swap seats once we are on the plane with the stewardess!!! Poor Steve!

So thats it…. our One Of A Kind Canadian Adventure has come to an end. Its been epic, amazing, exhausting, exhilarating, and most of all one of the very best holidays we have ever had!

It will take us 6 months to edit the thousands of epic landscape photos we took, let alone the thousands of animal photos! It will take us 6 months to get over the experience, but we are already planning our next adventure! There are so many countries to visit and explore and photograph. Where to next I wonder?? Possibly Iceland, maybe Patagonia. We might focus on the hardest countries first whilst we are still able bodied (well, kind of able bodied), and work our way down to the easier countries from there!

Thanks for reading our blog and sharing our journey. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Till next time.

Vicki & Steve :)