O Can-aska - Day 17
Index
Sunday 15th September 2019 - Whistler & Travel Home
Going home day is always a bit sad
Our original plan for this morning was to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge on our way back to Vancouver, before our flight home. However, the weather forecast for today was as bad as the previous few days, and we just didn’t think Capilano would be fun in the rain.
Instead, we decided to have a bit of a browse around Whistler Village and a chilled morning, before driving back to Vancouver.
On the plus side, we could now see a bit of a view out of our window and verify that we did have a mountain view, as we were told at check in!
We finished off the packing fairly easily, with both of our cases being a little bit underweight (much better than last year when we had to ditch all our toiletries). We’d be back before check out so didn’t need to worry about moving them yet.
As it was only drizzling at the moment, it gave us a chance to take a few snaps.
I always photograph anything bear related!
How could there be anything on the agenda for breakfast other than Purebread?
We got two breakfast items to share, as we did yesterday. The first was a repeat – the bacon and egg brioche ($6.65).
We decided to double-brioche, adding a nutella crème brioche to the line up ($4.75). There was so much Nutella in this filling – I made a complete mess!
I got a hot chocolate from Blenz ($5.57) to complete this nutritious breakfast.
We also picked up two treats for later. The first was an ooey gooey chocolate chip bar, which looked a little like a brookie, for $4.85. I also had to get another of those amazing brownies that we had yesterday. They did all sorts of interesting flavours, but I wanted to stick with the original – why mess with a good thing? This brownie made it home with us, and we ate it the afternoon after getting back from the airport. It wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, but it was a day old by this point. Still very enjoyable though!
The next hour was spent browsing in more of the gift shops and pretending we weren’t going home soon. Ollie also picked up some maple syrup in the small supermarket for some gifts.
When 10am came around, we had only one stop in mind. Don’t judge – it was ice cream time! It may sound a bit odd, but we knew we really wanted another Cows ice cream. They opened at 10am, meaning we could just fit one in before we left.
Before we made our selection, we had a chuckle at some of the tshirts available.
Our plan was originally to just share a tub with two scoops. However, when we walked in we were greeted by the most amazing sweet smell – they were making a fresh batch of waffle cones. I knew we’d need a cone, and as cones are difficult to share, it meant we needed one each! (I just managed to justify going from 2 scoops to 4 scoops at 10am – impressed?)
Ollie stuck with our options form last time - Gooey Mooey –
burnt sugar ice cream, English toffee marble, caramel cups and chocolate flakes – and Messie Bessie –
chocolate ice cream, moo crunch, oreo cookie and English toffee.
I went with a scoop of Messie Bessie and swapped in a scoop of Moo York Cheesecake –
cheesecake ice cream, oreo and chocolate swirl. Each cone was $5.95, and we upgraded to a chocolate rim cone for $0.95 each.
I was so happy with our decision to have morning ice creams! We enjoyed these whilst walking back to the hotel. For every look of disapproval we got from people, about 10 people looked impressed or envious!
Once back at the hotel, we picked up our bags and checked out. The hotel had a hot tub and pool, although we didn’t go in them (they were rammed in the evenings).
It was then on the road for us back to Vancouver.
We stopped at one viewpoint, although all I could see was this –
This next view point was a bit better –
We filled the car up for the last time a few miles outside of Vancouver - $27.80 back to full.
Driving into Vancouver we got to go over the Lion’s Gate Bridge. It felt like so long ago that we had been sailing underneath it at the start of our cruise.
We were dropping off the car at the Port. Dropping off at the airport was going to be a lot more expensive, so we opted to get the skytrain back instead.
When clearing out the car, we did notice that a small kitchen knife had been left in the car. They clearly hadn’t checked the car that carefully before giving it to us (then again, we clearly hadn’t checked the inside of the car carefully either). We told them when we handed back the car, but they didn’t seem too fussed.
The skytrain back to the airport was a bargain – as it was a Sunday it was only $3 each.
Once at the airport, we checked in, had our cases weighed (a couple of kilos comfortably under the limit), finished guzzling water and made our way through security.
In the security area, they were proudly displaying that they was won ‘North America’s best airport’ for the 10th year running. I must admit, even the staff in security were really friendly.
Once through security we picked up a late lunch. Our ice creams were 5 hours ago by this point! We settled on a Chinese place and chose a few dishes each with noodles. Ollie really enjoyed his, but I found the whole thing just made me really thirsty. I wish I’d gone to the A&W burger instead. This place also charged us for tap water, which made me instantly dislike them!
How nice does Vancouver airport look?
Soon enough it was time to board for our 16.45 flight home with Air Transat.
Again, we were relatively near the front of the plane. With a bit of a zoom, we could see the pilot!
We were sat in a row of 3 by the window, but weren’t as lucky this time and had an older lady in the aisle seat. She did pester Ollie quite a bit during the flight, which isn’t what you want on a night flight. She gave him a proper elbow in the ribs at one point to get his attention when he had his headphones in, as she wanted help adjusting the volume in her headphones. He also had to adjust the air blower for her. He was very nice and helpful, even if he was very irritated. They also had a bit of a wrestle over leg room, but that is more down to the poor design of the seats.
With our first round of drinks we tucked into our purebread treat (I couldn’t wait any longer). Very nice, but didn’t beat the brownie.
Dinner was chicken provencal at around 7pm – not particularly exciting, but edible. The quinoa bites made an appearance for pudding again. The lady next to Ollie did give him her quinoa bites – I’m sure she was being nice, but no one wants more of those.
I’m normally a really good sleeper on flights (or trains or buses or boats or benches), but I struggled on this flight to drop off, although I felt really tired. I did however enjoy a few episodes of Scandal.
There was one middle aged woman who seemed to be standing by the toilets every time I went to stretch my legs. At one point she was lecturing a young lad about how he should travel the world, and as a man it doesn’t matter if he accidentally fathers multiple children
.
Breakfast was served before landing – a piece of marble cake. The cabin crew made a joke of it, but I’d been having pudding for breakfast most days of the holiday so far! Although, what kind of airline would serve quinoa for dessert, but cake for breakfast?
Eventually we were landing and didn’t have to wait too long through passport control and baggage claim. Our taxi text us while waiting for our cases to tell us it had arrived and it was a nice smooth journey home.
Once home, we took a short nap and started with the unpacking. At least Ollie came home with me this time – after our honeymoon last year he went round to another terminal to fly out for a work team building trip!
Unlike last year, a Slimming World leaflet didn’t arrive through our door within hours of getting home. They waited a respectable two days before one appeared!
We absolutely loved our time in Canada and our cruise around Alaska. It really was a trip with a bit of everything!
So, what’s next?
Our next planned trip was to California in May 2020. I was very sad when we had to cancel the trip and we’re still in the process of getting back all our refunds (8 different hotels makes it a long process). We will make it to Cali at some point – we’re looking at May 2021, as October 2020 seems a bit optimistic for California at the moment (although I’d jump at the chance if this was possible – I have a lot of leave left for this year!). On the plus side, imagine how long it would’ve taken me to write this report if we had gone to California!
We fell in love with Canada on this trip, and decided we wanted to try and see more of this huge country. For September 2020 we have booked a second Canadian adventure (Cana-deux, if you’ll tolerate my awful pun). The trip has stops at Toronto, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. It also involves a ‘detour’ to Ohio to visit Cedar Point theme park. (A little more than a detour if you look at the map, but Ollie convinced me. After all, is it really a holiday without a theme park?).
Again, it’s looking very unlikely that this trip will be happening. What’s really annoying, is that we didn’t realise our travel insurance for this trip doesn’t cover travel disruption (our May holiday is covered), so we may have to take some loses on this trip. At least we are healthy and employed.
As always, I have to end the trip report with a big thank you to everyone who has been reading along. I know a lot of you have Canada/Alaska trips planned, and I really do hope you make it to this beautiful part of the world soon.