Day 22 Sat 7 June Vancouver

Back in Vancouver
Farewelled Anne & Bob this morning as they head home and we continue alone. They have been great travelling companions!

Disembarkation ran smoothly and we didn't even have to wait long for a taxi. The organisation was impressive. We dropped off our bags at our hotel at about 10am and set out to do our chores. Dropped a bag of washing at the laundrette $10 for it to be washed and folded and ready in 2 hours. Next we found our way to Central station to collect our tickets which I had booked online, for Seattle.

The day was warm and sunny and we could see alot of people on the walkways and decks around False Creek so we walked over to check it out. It was the qualifying races for the national dragonboat racing championships. There were hundreds of people of all ages there, all dressed in colourful team uniforms, lots of cheering and team chants.

From there we took an aquabus to Granville Island. As well as tourists there were lots of locals doing their shopping. The fresh meat, fish, fruit and veg looked great. We wandered through the shops and then found somewhere to sit for lunch and just watch the people going passed.

  We caught the bus back to town and dropped into the Vancouver Public Library which is 2 blocks from our hotel. An impressive building and very busy, open till 6pm on Saturday. I couldn't resist having a look at the children's section. I've never seen such a big picture book collection, although most were shelved spine out rather than face out and many of those that were cover out were not at child height.

It was a big area with lots of activity spaces. As I wandered I spotted quite a few Australian titles. There was a display of Emily Rodda books and I saw picture books by Allen, Dubosarsky, French and Graham on the shelves cover out.

Hotel check-in time is 4 pm (not 2 pm) here.  We checked in - room was fine but we are no longer living at the Fairmont standard!

Collected our wasing and had dinner at the hotel in Moxie's Bar & Grill. Food good and I could watch the ice hockey game on any of the 5 screens within range of my table!