A few final shots of the harbor and we were on our way over to the ferry to catch a ride back to the mainland. What an amazing place to spend a few of our days this year!
Once we were lined up for the ferry we did a bit of souvenir shopping.
Oh this last leg of the trip. We were not meant to be taking a ferry back to the mainland- our original plan was to take a ferry over to Victoria, BC to spend the day before taking another ferry up to Vancouver for a few hours sleep before hopping onto our 5 AM flight (which was bumped back from a reasonable 7 AM departure, the travel on this trip was cursed, I'm telling you). Now having experienced the snail's pace and unreliable schedule of the ferries, I am very, very happy that I realized before this day that the ferry from San Juan Island to Victoria BC was cancelled for the rest of 2022 (that was not the case when we made these plans back in February and while they said it was because of COVID-19, the word on the island was that the ferry strike meant there were no workers available to run the route). It would have been pretty miserable trying to take two ferries in one day, but still, it took a few days and scenarios and phone calls before we finally found a way to get into Canada to catch our flight home- with Auntie Michelle!
Given all of the changes to the flights and ferries on this trip, we were very happy to be on this one, even if it was freezing cold!
Nope, no whales, but we kept looking!
Everyone was pretty pooped after dancing the night away.
We said "see you soon" to all of the family, and then hopped into Michelle's van for the 2 hour drive north. The views were exceptional along the way, and when we hit the border we were all excited and nervous about driving out of the country.
But we made it through just fine and were SO grateful that Auntie Michelle was willing to take us up. We had a great visit along the way!
And we were finally, fully in Canada!
All we had to do now was explore Vancouver a bit and then get some sleep before our early morning flight. Emma insisted on a picture with the fancy glass in the fancy hotel restaurant.
And Noah insisted on poutine. When in Canada!
We were all tired but our hotel room turned out to be a high rise apartment that was just a bit too cozy for hanging out in all evening long, so we took to the town with no idea of where we were or what we would see. But look! Even the crosswalk signs are happy in Canada. What a cheerful little fellow.
We walked over to a central park that had the cutest residents- bunnies!
Apparently they are widespread in Vancouver and a bit of a nuisance but they made us all laugh as they hopped around the park.
I don't think anyone actually touched one, although the kids tried!
We had to hide our ponytails from the owls on the prowl!
There were bunnies outside of the park too! It reminded us of the monkeys in Maringa- maybe they're just like squirrels to everyone else, but we were completely enchanted by their presence!
Here we all are walking around Vancouver- lots of emoting in this picture.
We quickly learned that Vancouver has a large Japanese population- we definitely saw more Asian people, shops and signs than any other representation. It almost felt like we were in Japan!
But we did find some of the classic Canadian foods and flavors were were expecting as well.
We were back in the room before the sun went down, where we did homework and had screen time and did everything we could to be packed up and ready for our 3:30 AM alarm.
We made it to the airport, through customs, onto the plane (Tim Horton donuts in our tummies) and finally back to the good old US of A!
And that was it! Our final trip of the year- CHECK!
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