More Days Out

After last winter spent in the Arctic, the weather here in Vancouver seems almost tropical to us. Today, December 28, it's -29C, with ice crystals, in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut where we were last year on this date. Here in Vancouver it's +4C and sunny. I don't think it's gone below 0C, during daylight hours, since we've been here and we haven't even got our winter coats out yet. It's funny to see the locals all bundled up with heavy coats, scarves, gloves and toques and we're in light jackets with zippers wide open because we're too hot! Of course, the sea is not frozen either and we're enjoying long walks along the seafront on fine days. Here is a scene that if I didn't tell you it was December, you may think it was July. It was taken at Lighthouse Park, in West Vancouver.

There were many other fine views on our walk that day.

As I've mentioned before, there is a Sea Wall promenade along the shore in front of our apartment building in West Vancouver. It's great, but, is really the poor cousin to the more famous Sea Wall around Stanley Park in downtown Vancouver. On another fine December day, we took the circular 10k walk that went right around the perimeter of Stanley Park and back to our bus that takes us over the Lion's Gate bridge to North and West Vancouver.

The morning started a little fresh and there was snow on the mountain tops as can be seen behind the interesting view of the sculpture 'Girl in a Wetsuit'.

The day warmed up as we walked along. There were a few inviting, sandy beaches along the route.

We were interested to see (and hear) many Black Oystercatchers in the shallows. A new species for us as they only exist on the west coast of Canada.

We left the Sea Wall at Denman Street, where this fun art installation resides, and finished up the day with a late lunch at a Malaysian restaurant on Denman, the Banana Leaf. What a great day out!

Another day out was a very quick overnight visit to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. The ferry trip over was 'interesting' as we were in a 45 knot gale! The wind was pinning us to the dock and the ferry had to bounce and scrape itself along the dock to get to open water. Glad we weren't in Gjoa. The whipped spume and wave tops blown flat brought back memories of past voyages in our own boat. We took a circuitous route across to keep the bow as close to the wind as possible. The motion was barely noticeable although there were a few hard knocks from wave strikes. I was trying hard not to think about engine failure as we enjoyed a lunch onboard. For the ferry captains, it's probably just another day at the office as these ferries are a lifeline, run year-round and are rarely cancelled. Once in the lee of Vancouver Island it all settled down and it was fine which is probably what the captain was counting on.

Victoria, especially its Parliament building, was lit up for Christmas and was very welcoming.

We've been to Victoria before. The reason for this visit was that we wanted to visit friends we'd met in London in 2012 when we both overwintered at St. Katharine's Dock. They also transited the NWP (in 2013, a 10,000 mile journey in one season!), so, we were looking forward to trading ice stories with them. As their boat is right in the central harbour, across from the grand old Empress hotel, we decided to splurge and take advantage of a special B&B rate being offered there. There weren't many guests in the hotel. Actually, half the hotel was closed off and covered in scaffolding as there was a large renovation going on. It didn't dampen the experience though. The hotel was beautifully decorated for Christmas and somehow we ended up in one of the only two turret rooms in the hotel. It felt like a suite as the turret was just large enough to hold the round bed and the sitting area and luxury bathroom were separate. Breakfast was taken in the grand dining room which just oozed history, it felt very special.

We plan to return to Vancouver Island in the spring for a lengthier visit.