Today we had a great time exploring Vancouver.

First, we went to Granville Island, which has a lot of funky galleries and shops and a food market. We ate lunch in the food market and had a lot of really delicious food. We also stopped at the bakery on the way out and got some amazing desserts – see end of post.

After Granville Island, we drove to Stanley Park. Everything in this city is close together. We first went to the aquarium, which was amazing. We saw three live shows: sea lions, dolphins, and beluga whales. We also toured the regular exhibits and saw everything: jellyfish, sea anenomes, tons of fish, bats (!), octopus, seahorses, worms, eels, turtles, ducks, frogs, and more. It is an amazing aquarium – better than any we've seen in the States (though admittedly we haven't been to Baltimore in a while). The downside of the visit was N running off and disappearing for a while. That was scary and not fun at all. Thankfully we tracked him down at lost and found.

After the aquarium, we checked out the totem poles in the park and drove around the perimeter to check out the views. Beautiful.

Next we headed to one of Vancouver's best known restaurants, Vij's. It was totally full (no reservations accepted) but we ate next door at its sister restaurant, which was pretty good and very quick.

Finally we went home and went swimming in the hotel pool. Daddy took N in and he learned to float and kick. Daddy is a great swimming teacher.

Poor N was beyond exhausted tonight. No nap and lots of activity.

Pics:

The totem poles:

The skyline:

The aquarium:

The sweets: