Not sure if it's the great exchange rate or a foolish sense of spontaneity, but we decided mid-morning to go to Canada.
On our way home to change clothes before we got on the road, we decided to pack some clothes and spend the night up north. Hubby got a great price on a room in the outskirts of Vancouver.
We grabbed some clothes etc, filled up the tank and headed north. Before we knew it we were crossing the border and the hotel was just a bit beyond that.
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| Our wait at the border |
We checked in, threw our bag on the bed and headed back out.... Time to see them fishes! Vancouver Aquarium here we come!
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| Our cool room |
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| more room pics |
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| Even had a nice water feature outside |
Parking was much much easier today than the last time we popped by. We did observe some protesters outside the aquarium. Three to be exact. They had signs and were yelling a bit. Not fans of aquariums apparently.
We were able to catch the tail end (no pun intended) of the beluga talk. Love the belugas! Then caught the talk about the porpoises. Really cute. Speaking of cute we also heard the sea otter talk.... Sooooo cute.
We haven't caught a keeper talk in forever and we all enjoyed the info a lot.
Now for the inside exhibits.
Jellyfish and octopus were highlights for me. No sea turtle today :(
With closing time around the corner and dinner starting to call we headed out.
Since we have room, we ordered spaghetti factory to go. Which allowed us to relax a bit more than dining at the restaurant.
After dinner we had some ipad time and got ready for bed. Morning brought breakfast downstairs in the Holiday Inn Express breakfast area... they had a reasonable assortment of things, including a very interesting pancake machine... cool.
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| ipad time |
We were hoping to hit the pool before checkout time... so we took a little time for our food to settle, then headed down to the pool. We weren't the only guests to have this idea. But it wasn't too crowded. After the fun we cleaned up and checked out. We made two stops on our way out.First to the Real Canadian Superstore....reminded me of a Super Target or the like. But they had some Joe Fresh branded things that I had been curious about, so mission accomplished. Plus a few cadbury items... that we couldn't pass up.
Last stop before the border.... Tim Horton's, did you guess? It was surprising that I went this long without my beloved Honey Cruller... my willpower must be growing. But Yummm!!! Thank you Mr. Horton, I enjoyed that.
The border crossing was a little longer going than coming, but that isn't too surprising. It was apparently a holiday weekend up in British Columbia. We didn't notice to much in the way of crowds, but the aquarium was open longer, which worked out great for us.
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| Welcome home |
