As mentioned at the beginning of this series, an old item on my bucket list was to see whales in the wild. And today was — hopefully — the day!

Everyone said that Alaska weather was variable, all year ’round. Even in the warm summer months a day could go from a clear and sunny 70* then plunge to a cold, rainy, 50*. Knowing this made preparing to spend hours on the water more than usually difficult. In the end, I opted for wearing long pants and a short sleeve shirt, but bringing a long sleeve shirt and my raincoat. No gloves or hat or sweater.

Glacier Wind is a family-run business, now in its second generation. They know the waters around Icy Point Strait intimately and truly love what they are doing. They know all the whales and spent a lot of our time putting around telling us about the individual whales, as well as a ton of information about these enigmatic and beautiful creatures. Their boats are custom designed by them to be optimal for whale watching, nothing else. Not only do they have an onboard toilet (!), but you can walk completely around the outside of the cabin. Even from within the cabin you have a nearly completely unobstructed view of anything that can be seen.

The day was excellent. We did not have any “close” encounters, but spent a good amount of time watching a pod of seven whales over several hours as they fed, sounded, and (finally) slept. The weather turned out gorgeous and we were with a good crowd.

Icy Strait Point itself is 100% owned by the Huna Totem Corporation, an Alaska Native owned-and-operated group and all profits directly support the local community. It is a big incentive to spend your dollars there. There are several restaurants, a restored 1912 Alaska salmon cannery and museum, nature trails, restaurants, and even a beach! It was interesting and the retail shops had a lovely selection of locally-made art, goods, and jewelry.

This day was truly a highlight.

Let me start by telling you that the lack of dim sum of any kind in Braga is a big sad for me. I love tiny food, and if it’s wrapped in dough, I’m happier yet. Some of us have talked about getting together (when its cooler) and doing a dim sum or dumpling party . . . but it has yet to happen.

Finally, we made it to dim sum at Floata Seafood Restaurant. A big plus for Floata is that they take your order (rather than choosing from carts) and they open at 9am. Now, nothing is cooked yet, but you can get in and get a good seat. As early as we were, several tables already had local groups hanging out, such regulars they no longer needed a menu. We made our choices, poured Jasmine Tea, and sat back and gabbed for awhile. Then the dishes started coming out. Tender meats wrapped in the lightest of dough, perfectly cooked, whether steamed, pan fried, or baked. All of its was scrumptious. I can’t say I had a favorite, they were all so very, very good. We ate too much, as one does, and finally rolled away from the table and out into the light again.

But not too far, as we wanted to visit Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Classical Garden. The first Chinese garden built outside of Asia (in 1985-86), it consists of a free public park and a garden with an admission fee. The mandate of the garden is to “maintain and enhance the bridge of understanding between Chinese and western cultures, promote Chinese culture generally and be an integral part of the local community.”

Because the winter climate in Vancouver is similar to that of Suzhou, many of the same plant varieties are found in the garden as in its Suzhou counterparts. The plants were chosen according to their blossom schedules in order to emphasize seasonal changes, especially the “awakening” in spring. They are also selected to invoke the symbolic, historical, and literary meaning of each plant and are used sparingly, in contrast to western gardens, and provide colour through all the seasons.

The garden is named in honour of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, a nationalist leader considered the “father of modern China.” Dr. Sun Yat-Sen traveled the world to raise awareness of, and funding for, the Chinese nationalist movement. At the time, there was a significant presence of Chinese nationalists in British Columbia, who helped finance the Xinhai Revolution that overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911. Sun Yat Sen subsequently became the first president of the Republic of China.

It’s a lovely place with huge coi in a lily pond and a visiting heron who is known for feasting on them. We easily spent an hour wandering around, taking pictures, and enjoying the space.

Dinner that night was at Elisa, which was easily the best meal we had all week. Menu options include a tasting of three different kinds of tartare, oysters, cured fish, pastas, and — of course — grilled meats. As good as the filet had been at Black + Blue, the one at Elisa’s was better. I almost regretted getting the sablefish instead, but the sake marinated and roasted fish was perfection, served alongside bok choy, daikon, and wood grilled green onions. We shared the hash browns, butter lettuce salad, and wood grilled rainbow carrots, all of which were delightfully perfect. A magnificent meal in every way.

Wednesday was supposed to be dim sum day, but I ended up waking at 4am, drinking tea, and then going back to sleep until almost noon. So instead we wandered Stanley Park (https://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/stanley-park.aspx) a 400-hectare rainforest with beautiful beaches and an abundance of cultural landmarks and art.

We focused on the totem poles and the eastern portion of the seawall, which included a lighthouse, “Girl in a Swimsuit”, Nine O’clock Gun, and the lovely natural beauty of the park itself. We spent a lovely several hours before ending up at the Stanley Park Brewpub & Restaurant for a light nosh. We were all feeling a bit done in, so we went back to our respective hotels, and ended up dining separately.

A note about where my friends stayed: They were at the (difficult to pronounce) Skwachàys Lodge Indigenous Hotel and Gallery and enjoyed it very much. Located just at the border of Chinatown, the former Pender Hotel was transformed from a three-and-a-half-story derelict SRO (single resident occupancy) hotel to a unique Indigenous social enterprise that combines a boutique hotel with on-site housing and studio space for 24 Indigenous artists. There are 18 unique rooms located on the top two floors that support low-cost housing and workshop space to 24 artists in different phases of their career as well as personal and professional programming opportunities to help develop their careers. On the top floor is a small social area with a sauna.

They say, “The Lodge and production space are operated as a self-sustaining social enterprise. When a guest spends their overnight travel dollars at the Skwachàys Lodge there is a social impact – people are housed. Cultural tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism sector and there is absolutely a place for our urban Indigenous artists to participate in this industry as a means of reclaiming their lives and independence.”

Certainly, when I visited them and walk through the gallery space, I truly enjoyed the art of display from current residents. Particularly a trio of very large (18″ long) carved and painted wooden feathers.

My dinner that evening was at Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar. I enjoyed a half dozen Fanny Bay oysters, which had a clean, melon-y flavor and were mid-sized. My main was an absolutely perfect Seafood Linguine with mussels, clams, pacific white prawns, Humboldt squid tossed in a light shellfish butter sauce and topped with Calabrian chili breadcrumb. Perfectly cooked pasta and fish, and the heat of the chili was just enough to bring out the richness of the sauce. Gorgeous.

An old (OLD) bucket list item for Lisa was to go whale watching and a not-so-old item was to go on a cruise to Alaska. Combining both, she went traveling with a friend for her birthday. It was a grand adventure and she has lots of opinions!

I began my journey in Vancouver, BC, which I’d been to a few times back when I first moved to Washington. It’s only three hours to drive, and the border crossing was pretty fast and easy. So, I’d seen Granville Island and walked around the seawall and such. But by going earlier, I was able to enjoy a several day visit with good friends before the cruise.

Being a Hyatt member, I chose the Hyatt Regency Downtown because it was only 10 minutes to the cruise terminal and — just as importantly — a 10 minute walk to the City Centre stop of the Canada Line lightrail from the airport. The Canada Line (https://thecanadaline.com/) runs from the Waterfront to the airport, leaving every 10 minutes all through the day. No need to buy a ticket, your credit card is automatically charged as you enter and exit the stations. It was C$5 for my ride, which took at 25 minutes.

This Hyatt is in a good location, right in the heart of city centre. If you like high-end shopping (Chanel, Coach, Burberry, etc.) you will think you died and went to heaven at how close all those shops are. I found the local Rexall and Staples more useful as I replaced a dead mouse and got some ibuprofen.

While the city centre isn’t all that interesting (outside of the shopping), the city itself is gorgeous. Lots of public art, and so very, very, green. Trees, parks, flowers, trees, and more parks. It’s pretty flat and walkable, but transit goes all over and reasonable cost and timeframes.

Our first evening we went to Black + Blue, a steakhouse recently voted Vancouver’s Best. It’s a classic-looking place, with low lighting, upbeat music, and an elegant menu that includes a good seafood selection along with Canadian Prime, Japanese A5 Waygu, and Japanese Kobe. While the Canadian steaks were typical cuts, you could try 2 oz portions of the Japanese offerings, allowing diners to get a good taste and decide whether those cuts and qualities are worth the expense. Our server was quite knowledgeable about the offerings and was able to assist us in making our choices. As tempted as I was by the halibut, I did get the tenderloin and enjoyed every bit of it as well as the sauteed asparagus with yuzu hollandaise. The bread was exquisite, and we very much enjoyed our bottle of wine (a 2015 Chateauneuf-de-Pape).

For more than a year now, we’ve had a big trip on the books. We had promised our family when we left the States that we would be back every couple of years. So, 21ish months after we left we are heading back to North America, for a whirlwind tour of points near and far. Well, okay, far and farther. John has family clustered in the Southeast, while Lisa has bicoastal hubs. Once we knew we were going, we decided to drop in locations with old friends (and cool points of interest certainly don’t hurt) because why not? (Time and money – that’s why not. But not “why not” enough, so ha!) We top the whole thing off with a bit of extravagance left over from an early draft of our plans to move to Europe. First thing’s first, though. We’ve made friends online with people in unusual (for us) places, which should be the tagline for the internet honestly. A nice-size group of them actually live in Canada, largely but not entirely on the east coast in Halifax. And so, we kick the Grand Tour 2.0 off in Nova Scotia!

Our initial travel was not difficult, but it had several moving parts. First we got our usual ride from Orlando (a person, not a city) to Porto. From there we flew to Lisbon for a worryingly tight connection. Making that, we settled in for the modest flight to Frankfurt. Our connection there wasn’t until the next day, however, and so we popped to a “nearby” hotel – if you haven’t read our last post, feel free to pop back and get our full, deep feelings on the subject of airport accommodation. Other than John temporarily losing his phone in a taxi (thankfully returned) it was uneventful enough, and we left the next day for our trans-Atlantic flight on Eurowings “discover.”, an airline we had never heard of before and were not at all nervous about. We needn’t have bothered – they were as friendly and efficient as any other airline we’ve been on, and the food was a little better than most. Score!

And so we arrived in Halifax with a vague idea of what our welcome wagon looked like. We’ve known our friend Lesley for a few years now but, as we jokingly remarked in the days leading up to this trip, we’d never seen each other with legs! No idea exactly how tall or suchlike. Fortunately, her husband and all around gem of a person decided to make the connection easier by drawing a caricature(!?) of us. For added giggles, they didn’t have any reference photos to give him that had our legs in them, so he improvised. Still, how great is it to exit the baggage claim to be greeted by a very excitable person waving a picture of you at you? We loved it. We loved her. It was off to a great start, and became even more anecdote-worthy when Lesley bid adieu to a few people also waiting for arrivals. By name. “Do you know everybody in Halifax??” Yes, as it turns out. Yes she does.

(Ok, she doesn’t, it was a couple of wild coincidences, but still.)

We met with most of our friends that night in downtown Halifax at their favorite, or at least a favored, sushi restaurant. It was a wild blast of positive energy as we finally got to interact with our friends from afar. Most of them were local to one another but there were a couple of other folks who had also sojourned for the meet-up, so it was an intense and excited dinner. Honestly, it was borderline-overload with us being as tired as we were, but totally worth it.

Our next day – the one full day we had in Halifax – was a whirlwind. The joke was that it was kind of like having a toddler give a houseguest an excited tour of their home, with an emphasis on their room and their favorite toys and the backyard. They were very excited to show us their favorite places and things. What was especially great about it, although it makes for some uninteresting reading for strangers, is that it was a series of their favorite places, not the famous or exotic ones. We met some charmingly-eccentric shopkeepers, and ate some delicious meat pies (of New Zealand origin, we think?) picnic-style on the grass near the Garrison Grounds.

The highlight of the day was going to Peggy’s Cove, an incredibly scenic spot (the picture at the top of the post is also from there) that is just amazingly beautiful, and equally dangerous. You see those darkened rocks in the pictures above? Tourists have to be endlessly warned not to stand on “the black rocks”, which are the best places to stand for a panoramic view precisely because they are located in the splash zone for the breaking waves. One second a person is standing there getting the perfect picture; the next, they are being swallowed by the unforgiving sea. We’re told that people die here every year because of this, despite the constant warnings. No deal, ocean – we didn’t live this long just to tempt fate by standing on wet rocks. Phah. We finished the day at Rhubarb, a nearby restaurant that has one of those menus that may not read as amazing, but they make everything very well – you can trip and fall into a good meal there, and we recommend that you do.

Sated in mind, body, and belly, we retired to one friend’s home in a lovely, bucolic setting for an evening of fireside camaraderie under the starry skies. It was truly magical and we’re only sad that we can’t do it with them more often. A last round of hugs and squeezes and we were back to our hotel. Lesley finished the job that she started, charioteering us back to the airport so we could make our way south. Next stop, Washington, D.C. and children!