Voila Vancouver, Adieu Doris

So we finally ditched Doris yesterday, quite a milestone. Rhys, who grows very attached to things – sticks for example (“oh poor sticky! Will I ever see him again? Will he be reincarnated?”) – had a little weep but we reassured him Doris was going home and would have great bragging rights over the hundreds of other Horaces, Borises and Florises at the Cruise Canada depot, “hey, I’ve come all the way from Montreal with some crazy Welsh people!”. A mere 963 kilometres over our allowance of 5,500km – yes, we got some raised eyebrows – but we got our deposit back so that FULL DAY of cleaning and packing we did the day before was worth it. And no speeding tickets It felt good to close the door, grab our packs, and head out on the road again. We checked in at the young, hip and noisy HI in the centre of the seedy bit of Vancouver, and went immediately to a 1930s diner, complete with juke boxes at each table, for some much needed and NOT home cooked food! All was well with the world, until Joe reached into his pocket and found … Doris’ keys. Nice one, Joe! I suppose it was just instinct to completely ignore the instruction to just leave them in Doris and shove them in your pocket instead. We were all torn between hysterical laughter and mild panic – $100 of taxi fares there and back we could well do without – so Joe got on the blower to Cruise Canada and must have been very apologetic dumb tourist as they promised to send a cab out for the keys, free of charge.

So out to explore Vancouver. It is a great mixture – lots of deco type cinemas and neon, Brighton type 70s yuk high rises, lovely old quarters like gas town (complete with steam powered clock) but all against a backdrop of the beautiful Rockies and all surrounded by the glorious Pacific. Me and Rowan really like it. We spent an afternoon at the beach and explored Gas Town in the early evening … back to the good weather, hurrah! … then headed back to the HI, dog tired and Doris-less. We all piled into our bunk beds and grateful heads hit pillows. Only to discover that “the heart of the entertainment district” means booming night clubs till 3.30am and crowds, crowds, everywhere. The kids were oblivious, but we alas were not. Still, everything looks a lot brighter this morning in the sunshine, sitting outside a coffee shop with free wireless. And this afternoon we say goodbye to Canada for the final time this year. We leave by bus, meaning we will have crossed the US border by plane, train, boat, foot and bus. Tonight we stay in a REAL hotel in Seattle, as we fly down to San Fran at 7.00am tomorrow. Off to cool California!