I was awake at around 4:00. I checked my emails and Facebook and read a chapter in my book. Then I fell asleep again. I next woke up just before our alarm went off at 06:00. That day, we were on a tight schedule. We got up and ready. We made sure that we were at breakfast as soon as the breakfast room opened at 06:30. We both had coffee. Graham had cranberry juice, scrambled egg, a boiled egg, English muffin with sausages as well as a couple of mini pastries, and a blueberry muffin. I had orange juice, breakfast potatoes, sausages, and couple of boiled eggs. I then went back for an English muffin with sausages, toast with peanut butter, and a blueberry muffin.
We had booked a whale watching tour from Granville Island. We needed to check in at 08:00. According to various journey planners and Google Maps, it takes 30 minutes from the hotel to Granville Island. However, we decided to play this safe, and I had reserved an Uber for 07:00. Our driver arrived slightly ahead of time. We had a clear run to Granville Island. We had checked this out in 2024 and were not impressed. It did not look like it had improved since then either. However, we were not planning to spend any time there. There were already people waiting outside the office of Prince of Whales. Initially, we were told that check in would start at 08:00, but they checked us in slightly ahead of time. Once we were checked in, we were directed to wait by an orca statue on the dock. I was not too impressed with that state of affairs as it was a floating dock, and it was bouncing a little.
Eventually the crew got off the boat to meet us. We got a bit of an overview on what to expect and then we were allowed to get on. We opted to sit inside. As soon as everyone was on board, we got a bit of a safety briefing. Then we were on our way.
As soon as we were in open water, the captain sped up. I wondered if there had been a whale sighting. This was confirmed shortly afterwards. A fishing boat had reported a humpback whale up ahead. We headed into that direction at speed. As we got closer to the area where the whale had been sighted, we slowed down. We carried on for a while at a slow speed in the hope of finding the whale. After a while with no sighting, one of the naturalists made an announcement that we were moving on to see what else we could find. Literally as soon as the announcement was made, the humpback whale showed up. The second mate took photos and all the photos that were taken during the tour were included in the price. This meant that I was not under any pressure to try to get photos and could just enjoy. We watched the humpback whale from a respectful distance for a while when the whale decided to come at us at speed. The captain cut the engine to see where the whale was going. Once he had gaged where the whale was going, the boat slowly backed away until we were at a safe distance again. Then we sped up again to see what else we might find.
Not long after this, we got our second sighting. This was the sighting that I had really hoped for. There were orcas up ahead. There are two different types of orcas that frequent the waters around Vancouver. Southern Residents live in large pods, and their diet consists only of salmon. They are also classified as endangered. Prince of Whales has made the commitment to never watch Southern Residents and if they happen upon them not to share any photos or videos. The orcas that we happened upon were what used to be referred as transient orcas. Their diet consists of marine mammals, and they live in small family groups. They are now referred to as Bigg’s orcas as they tend to stick to one area. As one of the naturalists put it, they are just as local as the Southern Residents are. The orcas that we were watching was the T101 family. It consists of mum Reef, who was born in 1969 and her adult sons Rush, who was born in 1993 and Lagoon, who was born in 1997. We spent a fair while watching this family from a respectful distance. At the time of the tour, the legal distance to watch Bigg’s orcas in British Columbia was 100m. However, Prince of Whales has made the commitment to stay at least 200m away. This has become the legal requirement since we took the tour. At some stage, we had to start to make our way back. One of the naturalists announced that we would wait for the orcas to surface one more time and then we would head back. This is what we did.
On the way back, we sailed past an island where there was a harbour seal colony. We also saw a bald eagle. when we were sailing back towards Granville Island, our captain spotted two humpback whales up ahead. Malachite is a relatively young male who was born in 2021. Graze is a 20-year-old female. She has distinctive scaring as she was attacked by an orca when she was a calf. We watched those two for a while and then we headed back to Granville Island. This was an amazing tour, and we were incredibly blessed with what we saw that day.
One thing that we did like at Granville Island in 2024 was the Granville Island Market. We figured as we were already there, we may as well have a look. I discovered a stall specialising in German food. The prices were crazy and, in any case, we were not looking for a proper meal anyway as we did not want to spoil our appetite for dinner. Graham used the bathroom and I had a look around some of the nearby stalls. I got treated to a few free samples. Once Graham was back, we continued exploring. We came across a stall that specialised in scrumpets. I have never come across a scrumpet before. Apparently, it is a cross between a scone and a crumpet. I decided to get an almond and apricot scrumpet to share. It was yummy. I did get the scone part, but I am not sure where the crumpet part comes in.
Once we had finished our scrumpet, we headed out. We walked down to where the False Creek ferries dock. In 2024, they operated ancient diesel operated ferries. They now have modern electric ferries. They also now have a ticket booth at Granville Island. We bought our tickets and then we were directed to a ferry that was going to the direction we wanted to go. We enjoyed the trip again. We got off near Science World. There is a nice waterfront walk that connects the dock with Science World. This has been updated recently and slightly rerouted. It was still nice. The globe at Science World had been turned into a football as the stadium nearby is hosting some of the games for the World Cup.
We headed to the local Skytrain station and headed back downtown. There were a couple of things on my to do list. We got off at the Burrard station, which was right opposite one of the things on my to do list. Last year, we stayed right opposite Christ Church Cathedral. We had planned to visit this the morning we got on the cruise, but could not find an entrance that was open. I wanted to have a second attempt of visiting this. This time round, we were in luck. At just over 135 years, Christ Church Cathedral is not particularly old, but it is the oldest surviving building in downtown Vancouver. Christ Church Cathedral is a real hodgepodge of styles combining a Tudor ceiling with some very modern elements. It is known for its stained glass. Again, this is a great mix covering everything from Victorian stained to modern abstract stained glass and anything in middle. On the way out, we got talking to a couple of the cathedral volunteers. Apparently, the cathedral is open every day apart from Saturday, which is why we failed to find an open entrance last year. This is not obvious from their website. I was glad that we made the effort to come back.
At that stage, we were both thirsty. There is a Starbucks in the Hyatt Regency hotel opposite. We headed there. Graham had an Americano. I had some water and an iced mango cream chai. I had high hopes for this as I love anything mango and also chai. However, this was quite disappointing. I much preferred the iced cherry chai that they had last year.
At that stage, we were quite close to the Flower Pool, which is a fountain incorporating a Chihuly installation. As the works by Dale Chihuly go, this is nothing to write home about. However, even a mediocre Chihuly is better than no Chihuly. It would have been a shame to be so close and not check it out. Graham said that we could go if I can find it. I may have no sense of direction, but as a rule once I have been somewhere, I can find it again. I had no issues finding this. The fountain itself is currently undergoing some work, but I was able to take some photos of the Chihuly installation through the construction fence.
After this, we headed back in the general direction of Canada Place. We came across a house that gave off serious Haunted Mansion vibes. I think it was once a very beautiful building, but it is sadly derelict. What really made me angry that it has been on the heritage register since 2017, but it has still been allowed to fall into a complete state of disrepair.
When we got back to the area close to Canada Place, Graham needed to use the bathroom. I made use of the time that he was gone to try to call the German restaurant in North Vancouver. I had sent them an email a few weeks previously, but never got a reply. They are only open Thursdays to Sundays. However, it states on their website that they use Wednesdays for prep work. I hoped that this meant that somebody would pick up the phone. I was not so lucky. I left them a voicemail stating that as my phone number is an international number, I did not expect a callback, but we would come by at opening time the next day in the hope that they could seat us. I figured that there would be plenty of alternative options if they could not fit us in.
Once Graham was back, we headed back to Waterfront station. The driver that took us back to the airport last year was from the next town over from Burnaby. He mentioned that there are a number of restaurants serving Croatian or Serbian food in Burnaby. I love this kind of food, but it is not something I can get locally. I did some research and found a place called Balkan House that ticked all the boxes. It was somewhat off the beaten track. However, I figured out that if we took the Skytrain one station beyond where we would get off for our hotel, we could then get a bus from there to close to the restaurant. This worked great.
Balkan House is a neighbourhood restaurant that probably does not see any tourists as rule. We had some water and shared a Balkan Platter, which consisted of 6 assorted house specialty types of meat: meat patties, sausage, bacon, shish kebab, smoked pork neck and cevapcici served with mashed potatoes and rice. Everything was delicious. Unfortunately, there was more food than we could handle, but we tried a bit of everything and polished off our favourites.
Once he had finished our dinner, we decided to take an Uber back to the hotel. I expected that we may have a bit of wait as we were definitely off the beaten track. However, the Uber arrived 5 minutes later, and it did not take long to get back to the hotel. I was quite awake for a change and read. Graham fell asleep straightaway. I had hoped that we would have the Gewürztraminer that evening, but I thought that I was out of luck. However, Graham woke up again an hour later. We enjoyed our wine and then we got ready for bed. This time round, we both fell asleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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