I Want to Ride my Bicycle

14/06/15

Our first morning in Vancouver began how all mornings should begin – with pancakes and French toast. The front desk staff suggested we try out a local restaurant and so we made our way to Joe’s Grill, with grumbling stomachs and low expectations. Thankfully we were pleasantly surprised by a meal that was not only delicious but also large enough to feed a small country, or you know, me.

Not wanting to waste the day we headed straight to Vancouver Aquarium which is ranked one of the top things to do in Vancouver. The aquarium is a self-supporting, non-profit association that is dedicated to the conservation of aquatic life through display, interpretation, education, research and direct action. That’s what it says on the website and it certainly impressed me. It had all the usual animals but there were a few things that pleasantly surprised me.

The rainforest exhibit had a walk through area with a sloth, macaws, tortoises, crocodiles and even an anaconda! It felt more like a zoo than any aquarium I’ve been to but it wasn’t without sea life. One thing that I found really interesting was the electric eel tank – the tank is directly below a series of lights, all of which light up when the eels emit electricity. It was amazing to watch the lights hum and buzz in response to the animals.

 We saw some sharks and ventured outside where we were greeted by the noise (and smell) of sea lions. Our next stop was the dolphin “show”. The dolphin at the aquarium was caught in fishing nets and so badly injured that she couldn’t be re-released in to the wild. Vancouver Aquarium offered her a home and have been training and studying her for the past few years. Like many before me I watched the Blackfish documentary and was outraged by what happens at SeaWorld but the programme at the aquarium is totally different. It’s less about entertainment and more about keeping the dolphin exercised both physically and mentally. They teach her behaviours that mean if she needs a blood sample taken, an ultrasound done or just a general health check up,  she knows exactly what to do and when.

Watching the dolphin was amazing, as was seeing the penguins and the Beluga whale but what I was really excited to see was the sea otters. Two of these little cuties were rescued up in Alaska after being abandoned by their mothers and the third was found here in Canada, completely blind and half dead after being shot by a shotgun. The aquarium nursed him back to health and he’ll spend the rest of his days being fed buckets of tasty seafood which is a nice end to what could have been a very sad story! Fun fact about sea otters – their skin never gets wet, it’s protected by their thick fur, which is only attached to a few places on their body and which can be easily moved around to make grooming easier. They also have a little pouch under their armpit where they keep important things like their favourite rocks or a snack for later!

After the aquarium we headed back to town where we picked up some bikes. We spent the next few hours cycling the 5km sea wall that runs around Stanley Park. The one-way system and separate areas for cyclists and walkers made getting around an absolute treat and left me free to enjoy the view! We’d heard that the Totem Poles, BC’s most visited tourist attraction, were a must see so we set off to find them. Naturally we got lost for an hour but when I finally found them Rory thought it might be a good time to tell me that he’d actually seen them and we’d cycled past them hours ago but that he thought they were something else...

Determined not to let our little detour spoil our day we pressed on, returned the bikes (without any accident or incident) and went in search of dinner. Once again we couldn’t find where we wanted to go so we settled for Five Guys which was excellent and made that little bit better by the waitress giving us a free drink. On the way back we stopped off at Yogen Fruz, a frozen yoghurt place that used to have a franchise in Belfast but which has since closed down. We had our old favourite mint choc chip and then made our way back to the hotel where we promptly fell fast asleep!