We woke up on our first morning in Vancouver excited to see the aquarium. With the closures of the previous day, we were afraid the aquarium would be closed, but a quick visit to their website assured us that the aquarium would be open. We left the hotel, had a quick breakfast at an alleged restaurant*, and drove across the bridge to Spencer Park.

Spencer Park is a vast, forested park in the centre of Vancouver, within which the aquarium stands. After several wrong turns, we managed to locate the parking lot for the aquarium – 20 minutes after opening time – and drove. And drove. And finally found a place to store the car while we were inside. We lugged ourselves out and paid our admission fees to enter.

I’ve always been impressed by the Vancouver aquarium. When we stepped outdoors to look at the larger exhibits, they were just finishing up the dolphin show. The aquarium was busy, but not crowded, and the animals were delightful. The dolphins danced in the water, then swam off with defeated huffs, as if to complain about the lack of audience. The belugas showed us their headstand prowess – I’m sure there’s something evolutionary about the ability to “stand” vertically in the water, placing their tail above. Simulating trees, perhaps, for the benefit of half-blind whalers. The sea otters were a busy exhibit, as they rolled and played and generally harassed each other. And the sea lion and the pair of seals that occupied the same exhibit seemed to have no concern for the two-legged ape-like creatures watching them.

Seeing all of the exhibits took a couple of hours, and we considered whether to stay and try to get a seat for the next dolphin show. The dolphin pool was fairly busy already, though, with all of the people trying to get a good seat for the show, and we were getting hungry. We opted to leave, explore the rest of the park, and perhaps get some lunch.

We found a lovely place for lunch on the other side of the park. It being noon on a Sunday, they were still serving items off of the brunch menu, from which I ordered corned beef hash and eggs so good, if I’d had room, I would have ordered another. After we ate, we rolled our stuffed selves over to a park bench to sit and watch the bay. After a bit, we thought we’d go over and take a look at the totem poles standing at the head of the park.