After nine days on the road together, we arrived in Vancouver.

We spent time visiting with past ODANs, wandering around Granville Island, and exploring at the Vancouver Aquarium in our waning time out West.

Granville Island

What was once home to sawmills and factories is now a haven for history buffs and foodies. Granville Island sits beneath the Granville Bridge and isn’t so much an island as a peninsula. It hosts the famous Public Market, loads of restaurants, and some beautiful art installations. We spent a few hours popping in and out of shops, and purchasing dinner supplies at the Public Market.

Vancouver Aquarium

The interpretive programming at the Aquarium is pretty solid. The kids (and it was a rainy Saturday, so there were a lot of them) seemed pretty engaged as were their adults. Our group of adults split up and agreed to meet at the exit around 2pm. I may have spent a lot of my time with the sea otters.

The Aquarium is located in Vancouver’s Stanley Park and is an Ocean Wise initiative whose mission is “to inspire the global community to become Ocean Wise by increasing its understanding, wonder and appreciation for our oceans.”

Homeward Bound

We left the aquarium at 2pm and checked into the airport by 3:45pm. We were back in Pembroke by 2am. With two long days of travel bookending our trip, our BC road adventure and self-directed field trip was complete.

I thought about of the gear I didn’t need or wished I’d had – and other lessons learned – after I got back to the Ottawa Valley:

• We had some unbelievable weather on this trip. So:
  • I didn’t need any of my rain gear for the trip (gaiters, rain pants).
  • I also didn’t need my synthetic down jacket, but it made for a great pillow.
• Fortunately, I didn’t need my larger first aid kit or even my small ouch kit. Unusual for me!
• The F-Stop Loka camera bag is extremely comfortable to wear all day, even with / especially with my heavy tripod.
• A Chrysler Town & Country minivan is a phenomenal road trip car with multiple jacks, outlets, stow and go compartments under the middle seats, and satellite radio.

For the full wrap-up of the trip, head on over here.