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Old 18 Jan 22, 12:19 AM  
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smithlane
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The BIG 50th Vancouver Vacation Sept/Oct 2021 - Day 9 - Whale Watching & Keg Steakhouse

Day 9 - Friday 8th October 2021

Today I was whale watching and needed to be at the check in office on Granville Island by 11.15.
The boys were playing golf again this afternoon and Helen was going to check out the Outlets after hearing about what I had bought the other day. She didn’t fancy the whale watching after we did it a few years ago in California.

I got up and started to sort out my suitcases as all the different shopping bags were giving me anxiety 🥴
Hope called for a chat which was lovely, she’s really settling into Uni life which is such a relief, for now!

By 10.45 I was ready and started my walk to Granville Island.













It was very straight forward down to the end of Burrard Street that our hotel is on, you then get the little passenger boat over to Granville Market. This was $6 return and the journey is literally minutes over the water.







I found the Wild Whales office easily but quickly ran into the food hall to grab a croissant and a cookie as I hadn’t had any lunch yet and wouldn’t be able to eat until at least 4pm.

I checked in and signed my life away then had a few minutes to sit down and eat. I had dressed in multiple layers so was a bit overheated with my power walk down here, I knew I needed to be wrapped up though for when we’re out in the open sea.



After everyone had checked in, we all got given a floatation suit to put on. These were a bit tricky and because of all my layers I just did it up to the waist for now.



Once done we walked down to the dock, our guide was a lady called Ashley and our captain Roman.
The boat was an open vessel with no indoor seating, hence the suits.
I found a nice solo seat on the right hand side of the boat, perfect for me!









Ashley went through the safety briefing and also reminding us that masks had to be worn at all times. The company had decided against vaccine passports so masks it was, I think I’d prefer the vaccine passports instead….





We slowly made our way out onto the open water and once clear of all traffic, Roman put his foot down!









My god it was fast 😳. I had to hold onto my hat and sunglasses, it was taking my breath away. Great fun though!



We sped along for about an hour, the temperature plummeted the further out we got. We were just off the coast of Vancouver Island when we slowed down as a whale had been spotted up ahead.







Sure enough we had a solo humpback gliding through the water. We couldn’t get too close but Roman turned the engine off and we just watched in silence. They’re such majestic animals!













After about 30 or so minutes there was a radio call from one of the other boats to say they had a group of 4 within sight so we headed to where they were.





Sure enough we had a mum and 3 calves all playing around in the water. They were rolling around and being very visible, my photos however, are crap 🤦. This holiday has made me realise just how much I need a decent camera that can zoom in further than the rubbish iPhone.



















We stayed with this group for ages as they were really putting on a show for us.
Ashley was explaining how excited they all are that more and more mums are coming back with their calves year after year. 16 came back this year which was a rise on the 11 last year and 7 the year before.
Whaling was abolished in the Pacific North West in 1967 and the whales were hunted to near extinction so it’s taken a long time for the whales to return to this area.
The Vancouver area is their summer feeding ground where they eat as much as possible before migrating down south towards Mexico and Hawaii where they mate and give birth before travelling back up north with their calves in the Spring.
Females are typically much larger than males at about 50-55 feet to 40-45 feet.

We watched them for over an hour until we thought they had gone but suddenly they appeared about 2 feet away from the back of the boat, they were so close!

I wasn’t quick enough with my camera but here are some half decent shots anyway







They stayed around entertaining us for about 30 minutes more before they finally swam away.

We now headed back towards Vancouver on the hunt for harbour seals.





The first place we tried there weren’t any, so we went around the coast towards West Vancouver. We passed the Point Atkinson Lighthouse and found loads of seals sunbathing on the rocks.









They are unbelievably cute and a lot quieter than the sea lions we saw the other day!
The properties in the background are some of Vancouver’s priciest homes, one of them has an elevator taking you down to the pool deck 😍



After watching these cuties for a while we headed back to base. We saw a bald eagle on the way which was cool!







We got back just after 4 and I was a bit shaky getting off. We were a long time on the water so my head felt a bit wobbly.





We went back to the office to return the suits and I thanked Ashley profusely for a really great afternoon. I was a bit gutted we didn’t get to see any Orcas but there’s always next time I suppose! Apparently none were spotted in the area by any boat tour out today.
I bet I would have seen some from Nanaimo…. 😉😆

I needed to have a sit down with a drink and a snack as I was feeling a bit uneasy.







I went into the market place and got a small taco salad with a Diet Coke and sat at one of their indoor tables.
This was very nice, a crispy taco shell filled with rice, seasoned chicken, lettuce, salsa, cheese and sour cream. Yum!



I now felt much better so had a quick browse around the stalls they have here.





I naturally gravitated towards the chocolate sellers and came away with some chocolate caramel pecan turtles. These may or may not have lasted until I got back to the hotel….😉





I now started my journey back and thankfully only had to wait a few minutes for a passenger ferry to come along but was soon making my way across the water.







I took a slow walk back up Burrard Street to the hotel.















I hadn’t heard from the others yet so assumed they were still golfing so I had a nice peaceful few hours packing up my suitcases properly and getting out clothes for tonight and tomorrow. I felt much better once that was done although both suitcases were dangerously close to 23kg each 😳

Sun setting on Vancouver






After overhearing a couple on the boat saying it was Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, a lot of places were getting booked up with extra visitors flying in so I reserved a table for The Keg Steakhouse.
I had originally booked it for 7.30pm but by 7 when I hadn’t heard anything from the others I changed the time to 8.45 which was very easy to do on the OpenTable app.

I jumped in the shower and got myself ready and by 8pm Jim arrived. They had been held up on the golf course then hit a tonne of traffic on the way back.

We took a short walk to the restaurant on Dunsmuir Street. We walked past the Vancouver Art Gallery where it looked like they were doing some filming. I believe a lot of movies and tv series are filmed around Vancouver.









We got taken to our table upstairs straight away and given some water.
They have a digital version of the menu that you scan a QR code for but they brought out physical menus as the WiFi kept crashing. The new digital age drives me bonkers at times, give me a good old fashioned paper and pen any day!











It was a huge menu but I eventually decided on the cheese garlic toast to start, everyone else went with the shrimp cocktail.
For mains Helen and I went with the 8oz sirloin with garlic mash and the boys the Prime Rib.
I ordered a Cosmopolitan but when it came it had tequila in it which I despise so could only manage half of it. I’ve never heard of a Cosmo having anything other than vodka, Cointreau, cranberry juice and lime before so god knows what their barman was thinking!



The starters soon came out and were so good, some of the best garlic bread I’ve ever had.





We had a nice pause before our mains came out and yet again this was an excellent steak, not quite as good as last night but very tasty still the same.
The red wine jus was delicious.





We didn’t have an ounce of room left for dessert but our very lovely waiter, Dallas, brought out a slice of The Kegs signature dessert for Nick as we said we were celebrating his birthday. This was a coffee ice cream cake with a dark chocolate biscuit crust drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce. We each got given some and boy was this good. I don’t even like coffee!



The bill altogether came to $170 per couple.

We stumbled out of there completely stuffed and started the short walk back to the hotel.
We walked past the film set and asked the security guy what they were filming. Turns out it’s for the new DC Comics The Flash movie!











We only stayed and watched for a few minutes as we were exhausted yet again. It must be this clean mountain air we’re breathing in!

Bedtime came at 11 o’clock and I slept like a baby!

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Edited at 12:25 AM.
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Old 18 Jan 22, 01:26 AM  
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Fabulous day and photos! So lucky the whales came up close.
I definitely have the Keg on my list and the dessert looks right up my street!
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Old 19 Jan 22, 08:59 AM  
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Originally Posted by anji View Post
Fabulous day and photos! So lucky the whales came up close.
I definitely have the Keg on my list and the dessert looks right up my street!
It was a really lovely day on my own. Seeing the whales really was a highlight of the holiday for me!
Yes definitely go to the Keg, so good!
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Old 22 Jan 22, 08:23 PM  
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The whale watching was fab, lots of great photos, but I'm sure it's nothing like being there for real. Your dinner looked lovely, even if they did mess up your lovely Cosmo by making it into a margarita! Oh dear, shame on them.
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Old 23 Jan 22, 10:24 AM  
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Originally Posted by Goldia View Post
The whale watching was fab, lots of great photos, but I'm sure it's nothing like being there for real. Your dinner looked lovely, even if they did mess up your lovely Cosmo by making it into a margarita! Oh dear, shame on them.
Photos never quite do it justice do they? I feel very privileged to have been able to see Humpbacks in the wild again!

Yes! It was a mixture between a Cosmo and a Margarita! As you know I HATE tequila so I really couldn't finish it
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Old 27 Feb 22, 06:09 PM  
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The whale watching looks fab and you got some great photos!

That Cosmo sounds very odd with tequila in it, but your steak looks lovely.
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Old 5 Mar 22, 10:20 PM  
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Originally Posted by jocat View Post
The whale watching looks fab and you got some great photos!

That Cosmo sounds very odd with tequila in it, but your steak looks lovely.
Seeing the humpback whales in the wild again was amazing, I was really lucky to see them so close this time!
I think the bartender must have had a few drinks himself when he was pouring mine
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Old 24 Apr 22, 08:10 PM  
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How amazing seeing the whales so close. It sounds like you had a great trip, and some nice time on your own.

Another lovely meal at night - it definitely seems like there are better restaurants to choose from in Vancouver.
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Old 29 Apr 22, 08:39 PM  
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Originally Posted by Fuellady View Post
How amazing seeing the whales so close. It sounds like you had a great trip, and some nice time on your own.

Another lovely meal at night - it definitely seems like there are better restaurants to choose from in Vancouver.
I'm quite odd in that I quite my own company and after a while need to just be on my own for a while so I really enjoyed today .
Seeing the whales in the wild again was just magical, gutted I didn't see an Orca but it just means I'll have to return!
Vancouver has some fantastic restaurants, so many to choose from!
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