We got to our hotel driving through a downpour. It was a bit stressful but we got there safe. It was a decent hotel but I knew it wasn’t going to compare to the DoubleTree in Seattle that was to be our next stop.

We got up in the morning and had a breakfast of bagels with cream cheese. One advantage to this hotel was it had a kitchen. We then walked to the aquarium. It was only about 3 kilometers. Walking along the seawall we got a beautiful view of downtown Vancouver across the water. We also came across a old fallen tree that has been there forever. The kids climbed on it of course.

We have a membership to the aquarium so we got to skip the line. With it being spring break we knew it was going to busy. It turned out not to be to bad as the weather wasn’t perfect and people traveled as groups making it easier to move around.

The aquarium has expanded since I was last there. Somethings were the same others I knew to be new but most I couldn’t tell.

We started outside with the dolphins. The trainers put them through a training session. All of their training is to study and care for the animals. One of the things was trying to put a tube down the throat for a scope. We were able to talk to them and ask the question since I had no idea what they were doing with the tube.

Ian really likes the sea otters right now having read a book where the main character is based on the otters at the aquarium. One of them had picked up a rock and was swimming along the glass banging the rock. Fun making noise or an escape attempt?

Ian and Margaret are both doing science projects based on photos that they took at the aquarium. Margaret is going to be sorting them based on their biological classification like Philip did with pictures from the San Diego Zoo. Ian is going to be sorting them by characteristics.

We watched the Beluga show from the underwater viewing area. It was quite neat as you could watch them dive for a jump and the reentry; them holding themselves upright in place by effectively treading water. We also got a picture of one swimming quite contently upside down. I wonder if they do that in the wild or if it is a learned trait.

We had fish and chips for lunch. I know, ‘in an aquarium?’ but they have really good ones. The aquarium has a program locally called Ocean Wise about sustainable seafood.

After lunch we went to the stingray touch tank. It was packed and very difficult to get to the edge. We did and everyone got to touch a stingray. It was really cool.

We went through pretty much all of the exhibits. At one point I was separated from the group. I have been reading a book called “The Power of Pause” by Terry Hershey. So I stopped, paused and really looked at the tank. Eventually I spotted a crab motionless at the bottom pulling food into his mouth. It was cool. I showed him to a number of people that walked up.

Margaret bought a little stingray stuffy that is blue so of course she named it blu ray. Ian bought a stuffy shark that he named Blackie because it has black tipped fins.

We walked how via a slightly shorter was and were rewarded with a clump of blooming cherry trees. These are ornamental and don’t produce fruit. We had dinner in the room of pork cutlets that I need to lean how to make my own.