There is no shortage of bears in Vancouver, that’s for sure.

The day had come. Yesterday, as we returned from breakfast, Elvy had laid out the bedcover with the biggest hint on it - time to begin packing. In between meeting friends for coffee and lunch and trivia and any other displacement activity we could devise, we quickly sorted our things out and completed all the other small details that need to be done as a cruise draws to an end. Having done that, we enjoyed a fun evening in delightful company which on this occasion included our waiter Binu, whom we’d first met several years ago at the start of his career with Regent. It’s always hard to bring such lovely evenings to an end - so we agreed to meet at the same table for breakfast and prolong our farewells a little longer!

In common with so many of our ports of call, Vancouver was looking pretty in the morning sunshine.

We were watching the floatplanes come and go, making a real racket as they did. Imagine paying a million dollars for an apartment with a daily wake-up call like that! Of course, double or triple glazing would soon sort that out…we were standing on our verandah.

Here we were, an hour or so later, checked into our downtown hotel and free as birds. With nothing in particular in mind for the day, we chose to buy tickets for the Hop on Hop off bus with a view to spending the day doing exactly that and reacquainting ourselves with the city.

Sadly, it didn’t quite work out like that.

Though the service was scheduled as a ten minute frequency, we waited around half an hour for a bus to appear, by which time there was quite a queue. When the driver stepped out and said she had only four seats, we were glad to be at the head of that queue, but a full HOHO bus that appears to be running an infrequent service for way too many people destroys the whole point. After all, no-one wanted to get off and run the risk of having a long wait for the next one which might be full too. So we rode around Stanley Park, leaving a dozen or so people at most stops and the wooden benches were getting harder by the minute.

We decided to hang on in there until Gastown and then give up on the HOHO idea and walk.

We caught sight of an interesting bit of architecture on the way!

Once in Gastown, we found ourselves in tourist territory - because after all, we are travellers and not tourists, aren’t we? ;-)

We stopped by David’s Tea to replenish supplies of my Hero’s favourite Forever Nuts (no comment!)

We spent some time looking around the mother-ship of John Fluevog shoes, on behalf of our dear friend and Fluevog fan Nadine.

The designs are distinctive and very individual. Nadine wears them beautifully of course.

I think that, however, these are slightly too racy for me - and possibly Nadine too?!

Nice quilt on the wall too…by Stephanie of Antipod workshop.

Taking note of a cute T shirt in one of the many souvenir shops we passed, we made our way back towards our hotel.

We caught a glimpse of Mariner as we went.

As we passed by this doorway however, I just had to step back and admire…and take a photo, of course.

Wow.

My Hero spotted the plaque on the wall outside.

Of course we went in!

Feeling a little footsore by now and having received a call to say our room was ready, we hotfooted it back to our hotel, a few blocks away.

Since we were to be here for just the one night, we took Regent’s offer of overnight accommodation and transfers, though had misgivings when we learned of their choice. Yes, it’s stylish, quiet and well situated for our needs, the staff are friendly and our room is spacious and well-equipped.

Our misgivings? Let’s just say, he’s not our President.