Whales, anyone? Fresh seafood? I spent the day surrounded by the Salish Sea on a whale watch, ate fresh Pacific cod overlooking False Creek, and tried a Japanese hot dog on my last day in Vancouver.
I grabbed an iced toffee nut latte from Blue Parrot Coffee and two donuts from Lee’s Donuts in the Granville Island Public Market before heading to my 8:30AM whale watch tour with Prince of Whales. I thought I was prepared with my sweatshirt and ¾ length leggings, but boy was it chilly out on the water!
Prince of Whales operates catamaran vessels so we got out into the Strait of Georgia pretty quickly. About an hour and 15 minutes after we left Vancouver, we spotted our first (and only) pair of humpback whales. We followed them for about 30 minutes before heading to a colony of stellar sea lions and harbor seals near Valdes Island, part of the southern Gulf Islands off Vancouver Island, 18 miles across the Salish Sea from the city of Vancouver. We rode around the Gulf Islands and then headed back to Vancouver. We were out for about 4.5 hours and the sun was shining, so it was well worth it to spend the morning on the water.
Next up: fresh seafood. I walked around the harbor to Go Fish, a tiny seafood shack set right next to False Creek, where I enjoyed two delicious, tender pieces of Pacific cod and French fries with malted vinegar by the water. I strolled around Granville Island and then headed back to my hotel for a while.
Since this is my last day in Vancouver, I wanted to go back to Coal Harbour and sit by the water for a while to end the day. I grabbed a scoop of fior di latte gelato from Motoretta and walked over to a bench by the seaplane terminal to watch the planes taking off and landing in the evening sun.
I knew I would be hungry if I didn’t eat anything else tonight. Asian food is very popular in Vancouver but it is not my favorite cuisine. However, there is a small local chain of fast food restaurants/food carts called Japadog with one right across the street from my hotel. They specialize in Japanese style hot dogs and I decided to give it a try. I had an all-beef Terimayo dog which comes with teriyaki sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. It was actually very good and a filling end to the day.
Traveling with Laura 