Day 8 - Vancouver with Matt & Teresa

Today its raining. So we have a chance to catch up on our blog. Or so I thought. Between visiting and preparing to go and folding laundry, we ended up leaving just before noon for the Vancouver Aquarium. The original plan was to go do some hiking, but in the rain it we thought it would be best to do something else. We split the boys and girls into separate vehicles and headed into Vancouver.

The traffic was bad going into the city. It's construction season all of the time here since it doesn't really freeze, and it has been since prior to the Olympics. They're building new bridges, widening the Trans-Canada, and still the traffic is building up. We got into the "HOV" lane (High Occupancy Vehicle) on the way in and it was traveling near the same speed as the rest of the traffic - slowly. On the way the kids saw a lot of Vancouver, including Hastings Street. That was an eye-opener, especially for Micah. He finds homeless people scary. I don't blame him, but I also know he has a heart of compassion.

We parked in Stanley Park in the Vancouver Aquarium lot and walked up to the admissions desk and formulated a plan to get in as inexpensively as possible. One season's membership and two tickets later, we were in and through a few dollars lighter than before but not too worse for wear. We exchanged a little cash between friends and walked on in. By this time it was after 2 pm.

There was plenty to see. I think a few of the kids thought we would see an orca whale, but all in all they seemed rather pleased the way the day turned out. The rain stopped while we were in the gallery looking at the local marine life on display. Micah chose the splash zone at the beluga whale show. We received a well-aimed sideways whale tail flick that sent Brooklyn into tears. We also saw African penguins, touched sea urchins and anemones, conversed with sea lions, watched sea otters dance as they preened, and a host of other things. They also had an Amazon exhibit with a prehistoric-looking beast of a fish, bats, monkeys, and an anaconda. Judah and Micah liked the last two in order respectively as their favorite animals at the aquarium. There were sharks and a sea turtle as well that I was glued to at the end of our exploration.

Then I realized that our parking meter had expired and we may be receiving a parking ticket in the mail. It was after 5 by this point and we needed to get food into the kids. Between thick traffic and navigating closed roads, construction and confusion, we didn't end up at our destination restaurant until late. Judah's behavior wasn't great in the first place, but with no food and a late day, he was atrocious. Marek wasn't feeling well and fell asleep in the vehicle. All of the little girls fell asleep as well. We finally arrived at 7:30 pm.While we waited for a table, Judah received a stern lecture and a number of 'consequences', and once we did order, a few things got mixed up and our waitress seemed a little confused. We seem to have that effect on people.

During the day Matt got a phone call that someone else hadn't cleaned up after a previous basketaball camp. So after the meal (around 9 pm) the ladies headed home with Marek and Judah added. Judah entertained Norah the whole way back with tales and songs and was remarkably good. Micah, Matt and I headed to Trinity Western University to load a bunch of stuff into our van to haul back to Matt's place. It was sometime around 10 when we got back. I hadn't been feeling great a lot of the day, so I practically fell asleep on the couch. Great company, huh? That's okay. Matt had to leave the next morning for Seattle to coach at a tournament someone else had forgotten to tell him about until this week.