Day 3: Whistle while you (don't) work

Today we left Vancouver proper, taking the Rocky Mountainer train to Whistler.

Among the many things I learned was where the name Whistler comes from.    The area was well stocked with marmots (not to be confused with marmosets; marmosets are adorable South American monkeys, marmots are rodents the size of beavers), and marmots whistle.

Yeah. If I was building a resort I'd name if after a giant singing rat too.

The 5.30am wake up call was a harsh start, but the day improved. We made our way to the Vancouver Fairmont, where the bus picked us up and dropped us off at the train station in a fairly ordinary looking light industrial area  in North Vancouver.

The train trip takes about three hours, leaving North Vancouver, through the beautiful and jaw-droppingly expensive West Vancouver, then travelling up the coast at a leisurely 30 mph/50 kph before heading inland to Whistler. The views were as stunning as we hoped for, aided by more flawless weather.

Emma decided we needed another matrix moment, this time trying for bears.

It worked. I spotted a black bear sitting about five meters from the rail line. Ever alert I called out, "...bear?", just fast enough to get Emma's attention. So I have a witness. But, sadly, too fast to get a photo.

The countryside is beautiful, and would be familiar to fans of Star Gate, given the series was shot somewhere around the Vancouver area. Emma joked about finding a glimpse of a star gate through the trees.

Should have thought to matrix up a star gate. Oh, well.

Arriving in Whistler, rugged up for cold with our best cool weather gear, only to discover Whistler is quite hot at this time of year. Fortunately it's easy to discard jackets, so shoved them in our back pack and started exploring, walking the length of the village.

It's a pretty setting, but unless you're a mountain biker there's not a great deal to do. Well, there's shopping and eating. There are 200 retail shops and 90 restaurant/cafes. We picked one of the latter for lunch, Emma selecting the BLT, while I figured the most suitable meal at the top of a mountain was ocean fish. Environmentally-friendly ocean fish at that, a halibut BLT with the sustainable fishing stamp of approval from the Vancouver Aquarium.

The afternoon sun made the train ride home even more striking. But we decided we do need a better camera. Our pocket camera didn't do the scenery justice.

After our third day of walking we had dinner in our room, and still couldn't finish off the rest of the Japanese food from the previous night.

I think we finally made it to 11pm - party monsters - and Emma finally managed to sleep through without her body insisting it was in Sydney and waking her in the middle of the night.

Which was good, because the next day was our biggest adventure yet...

Day 2: Decidedly fishy

Stanley Park, one of the world's largest metro parks (1,000 acres I think someone told me) is just north of the Westin Bayside, so we set off after another typically massive North American-ized breakfast. 

As usual Emma was keen to find vivyurki ("squirrels" for those of you who don't speak Polish). In fact she *demanded* to see vivyurki. Because everybody knows squirrels respond to tourists' demands.

Thirty seconds later they started showing up. Emma proudly took credit, observing this was another of our "matrix moments". We seem to have these quite frequently when we travel. We say " wouldn't it be cool to see X", and it appears. 

I tried it with "wouldn't it be cool to see a  twenty kilogram gold nugget", but it didn't work.

Anyhow we figured walking the full 1,000 acres was an overly ambitious target, so we set off for the Vancouver Aquarium, which is near the middle of the park.

It's not the largest aquarium I've been to, but it's a particularly nice one. The entry has a sampling from various other parts of the acquarium, with a spectacular collection of jellyfish. After this is a section dedicated to sea creatures off the waters of British Columbia, a small freshwater tropical section, an extensive colection of frogs, beluga whales, an otter and twao dolphins.

And my favourite, an amazing Amazonian walk-through wildlife environment. They've created a massive greenhouse, complete with 99.9% humidity and a constant spray of water. There were two gorgeous blue macaws, stunning butterflies and moths, beautiful leopard-spotted rays, two or three not see pretty but rather cool sloth, and a superbly well-hidden basilisk (so well hidden we couldn't actually find it). Plus some bats, marmosets and a couple anacondas in enclosures. Separate enclosures, of course. Probably a good thing, if less entertaining.

Emma's favourite was the beluga whales. We caught the whale demo twice, once above the water, once from the undersea view.

The otter and dolphins were rescue animals, the latter caught in fishing nets off the coast of Japan. They're now part of a research project on dolphin echolocation (basically animal sonar) to see if they can find ways to design nets dolphins can detect.

When we returned we had to shift to a new hotel, the Westin Grand in downtown Vancouver. Newer, and shinier, with great views from our room on the 25th floor.

Dinner was at a small Japanese restaurant a block away. It had several tables of Japanese customers inside, and a brilliantly cheezy 2009 New Years Eve gala spectacular on the wide screen TVs, so we figured it had to be reasonably authentic.

We went for the dinner combo for two, $16.95 each. We should have just bought one. Gyoza, two platters of sushi, New York steak teriyaki, tempura, chicken karate... The food kept coming. And coming. And coming. We had enough leftovers for dinner the next night.

Best of all, the food was fabulous. 

Then we collapsed, around 9.30, which was a feebler effort than day one. Must be something in the water.

Day 1: These boots are made for walking'

Lying in bed at the Westin Bayshore, waiting for room service breakfast on a beautiful British Colombian morning, enjoying a relaxing start,  I hear:

 

BrrrreeeeeeeeeEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Not sure what it was, but it's gone -

BrrrreeeeeeeeeEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Shortly followed by -

BrrrreeeeeeeeeEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Like mosquitos. Both in sound and number.

OK. I go to the window and see a float plane (AKA sea plane) taking off over the river, with at least two more queued on the water waiting to take off. Emma explains that this part of the world has the highest density of small aircraft on the planet. 

I believe her.

Fortunately we woke up with less jet lag than I feared after 26 hours of travel, so the float plane's don't ruin our sleep. The weather's perfect, with a forecast of perfect weather until we leave . Niiiiice.

We took a slow start to the day, setting out around midday, walking into Vancouver via the sea wall on the north side of town. this part of the city has clearly fallen on hard times. I saw at least two multi-million dollar yachts for sale.

Over coffee we arranged a few activities to take us up to Saturday, and watched people do things in a very relaxed Canadian fashion. In this case it was falling off a building, very slowly, as part of some sort of cliff climbing competition or demo.

Vancouver is a very pleasant and liveable city. The setting is gorgeous, it's clean and bright (maybe not so bright during a Canadian winter, but we'll be long gone by then), and as is often the case in Canada, full of incomprehensible polite people. 

Example: we rushed across an intersection just as the light was changing, in front of a driver turning into the street. When the driver stopped to let us cross he - apologised. In Sydney he would sworn like a crazy man before hitting the horn, us, or both.

In classic Emma and Brian style we took a wrong turn and ended up at the wrong end of town. Normally when we get lost we end up having adventures, usually involving the local wildlife. Today was no exception, this time being an encounter with a moose. It was a five foot tall plush moose in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform, but it was still a moose.

Having walked the length and half the breadth of central Vancouver we had dinner at Cardero's, a restaurant close to our hotel. Being on the water, and in one of the largest fishing ports on the west coast, My choice was obvious. Naturally I decided to have the pork. 

Emma wanted the Atlantic lobster, but wasn't sure it would be fresh seeing as how on the Pacific. Laura, our waitress, assured us it was fresh, having been traumatised that very afternoon witnessing the lobsters being dispatched by the kitchen staff.

Excellent meal, and we're far too full for the highly-praises apple strudel (sob), so we retire and collapse around 10pm. Exhausted after day one. At 10 pm.

Meh. We're getting ooooooold.

Day 0: Arrival (category: moderately painless)

DALLAS

(NB photo fixes to come. I've discoverd that Apple/s iPad doesn't play nice with Google Picasa. It's almost like the two companies don't co-operate with each other.)

We've arrived into Dallas without drama. There was a moment of peril after landing, when we were passing through customs. Having put my shoes, watch, coins, phone, belt, coat and two packets of Jila mints into the plastic tray before stepping into the micromillimeter-scanner thingy, I still managed to set it off.

A quick pat-down revealed the culprit: a couple of wadded Kleenix tissues. I was chastised for ignoring the instructions to put *everything* into the plastic bins, and sent on my way. Naively I hadn't realised my tissues posed such a dire threat to the security of the United States of America. I imagine my ex-tissues are now in the process of being transported to a secure location, where they will be subjected to extreme interrogation by Homeland Security before being shipped off to Guantanamo Bay.

The flight itself was a breeze. We even slept for half of it, and we love the on-demand movies. Emma watched The Artist, The Sapphires and The Lorax. I went for something far more arthouse and intellectual. An amazing multi-layered critique of post-historicism, the Catholic Church and modern media culture. Ya gotta love The Three Stooges. 

Apart from two periods of forearm numbing turbulence - it's extraordinary how much pressure Emma can apply to my arms after the plane has taken a particularly large jolt - we had a flight free of screaming infants, chair kicking children in the seat behind, or obnoxious 300 kg fellow-passengers trying to push into our share of the tiny battery-hen sized space airlines allow for passengers these days.

Speaking of fellow-passengers, we were seated next to a delightful couple Grant and Jenny from Victoria, near Bairnsdale. He's a vet, she's a character. Great fun.

They were off on on a driving holiday from Dallas to New York, then off to Hong Kong (being on the way home to Melbourne. Sort of. Ish. If you can't read a map...). They're leaving Hong Kong around the time we get there, so we might even be able to catch up with them again.

We're now killing time in Dallas/Fort Worth International. As we have a five hour layover we were looking forward to the airline club facilities. We identified the club our friend's told us about, the Admiral'sT Club (I have no idea how Emma thought this might be "Anderson's Bar" much less "Willy Wonka's" or "Bob's Bar and Grill - but I digress). 

The Admiral's Club is run by American Airlines. I assumed that as Qantas partner airline our passes would be accepted there. I was wrong. Qantas have their own club here, but it doesn't open until 6pm, about four our after landing and 40 minutes before our departure to Vancouver.

We were told the club's hours are set-up to cater for passengers flying out on the one Qantas flight. It seems Qantas' attitude to inbound passengers who have connecting flights is "we've dumped you in Dallas, not our problem". Considering Dallas is a Qantas hub this seems -  inconsiderate. But, in fairness, it's been years since anybody accused Qantas of being customer focused. 

Two hours to go, currently filling up with a quesadilla the size of a small farm, ice tea, and beer. 

Aaaaand...

I just realised I've lost my $200 Shure sound-isolating earbuds on the plane. Unsurprisingly there's nobody from Qantas here to talk with to see if they've made it to lost and found.

Emma commented, "Qantas made a big deal out of Dallas being their new hub. Nobody in Dallas to know anything about it."

Being ever clever, resourceful, and tired of my whining, Emma pointed out that there was an audio shop at the airport. So I picked up a new set of earbuds.

VANCOUVER

An even less eventful flight in a half-empty plane. I didn't know they let planes fly without 112% capacity and three people strapped to the fuselage.

Vancouver Airport remains one of our favourite airports. I love the way they have this mini-museum effect when you walk in from the plane.

The only downer was the airport seems to close at 10pm, and we were one of three flights that arrived at the same time. So the handful of remaining customs officers had to cope with hundreds haggard foreigners from Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Dallas. Remarkably good humoured despite what must have been a long day for them.

Finally getting to the Bayshore Westin was a relief. We were tired, but not buzzing-headache-give-me-a-room-before-I-kill you tired. The view is fantastic. They were even thoughtful enough to put a cruise ship in port to remind us of our trip ahead.

Leaving!!!

Departure day. It's 9.30am, we leave for the airport in half an hour, all the paperwork and bookings have been confirmed a dozen times, and we've been packed since yesterday afternoon. And, for bonus points, the luggage is several kilos underweight.

Everything is going smoothly. Very smoothly. Far too smoothly. Emma and I see this as a sign that Something Must Go Wrong.

We're being driven to the airport by Simon, Emma's nephew, and he just showed up. Our trip begins by putting our lives in the hands of this (semi-comatose) man:

In fairness he had a big weekend working on an intensive two-day project for his computer animation course. As far as IT geeks go he actually can pass as a normal human being, speaking in full sentences, not eating with his hands, and so on.

But enough about him. This is our travel blog.

We have 25 hours of flying ahead of us. Sydney to Dallas, six hours on the ground there (we hear there's a great bar in the airport - Anderson's, or Billy Bob's, or Willy Wonka's or something, Emma, can't quite recall), then arriving in Vancouver around 9pm local time, perfect for sleeeeeeeep.

Then we wake up in this setting:

10am. Time to go.

The Northern Pacific calls. We answer "yes!"

In five days Emma and I set off on Grand Adventure number three, this time leaving Vancouver and sailing to Alaska, Japan, Russia and China.

Here's a map for the geographically challenged who may be wondering how you can sail from Alaska to Russia (hint: not via Moscow): 

To say we're excited is something of an understatement.

At this point regular readers of our first ground-breaking travel blog http://greatpacificadventure.blogspot.com.au/ might be thinking "Alaska? Didn't you go there on your first cruise?" and be wondering "how can you talk of adventure when you're just revisting the same old ground? Isn't that pathetically safe and unimaginitive?"

Excellent question. Rude, but an excellent question.

So to these six people I reply: to see the things we missed out on the first time, such as taking a 30 minute helicopter from Juneau followed by a two-mile trek over a glacier (which was cancelled last time due to bad weather), and seeing parts of Alaska north of Skagway we didn't make it to last time (such as Glacier Bay, College Fjord, and Anchorage).

That, and because Alaska is just so damn awesome.

We've been planning on going back to Alaska ever since our first trip, with the plan being to start in Asia and finish in Seattle or Vancouver. As it turns out the opportunity to do the trip in the opposite direction came up, and not being wedded to the idea of a counter-clockwise tour we booked it.

Besides, my first choice of a real adventure holiday, a trip to Mars, was outside of our budget, and would take a bit longer than five weeks.

This time we're sailing on the Diamond Princess, so in a few weeks this will be us:

I'll post an envy-inducing description of the Diamond Princess' facilities soon. And as cool as a trip to Mars would have been, the restaurant, entertainment and accomodation offerings on the Mars Rover are somewhat lacking in comparison:

For those of you who missed out on our previous blogs - or who simply want to relive the awesomeness - our first Pacific cruise blog can be found here http://greatpacificadventure.blogspot.com.au/ , while our adventures from New York to LA via the Panama Canal (not to mention our excursion to the wilds of Boise, Idaho) lives here http://great-panam-adventure.blogspot.com.au/.