Yes, I know, it’s an awful pun, but it is late at night as I write this, and my good jokes don’t work late (aha, says Uncle Euan, your good jokes don’t work early either). Anyway, Sunday was a rush day, with loads packed in. (If you are one of those people who wonder what backpackers do all day (Janet), then today was a typical day). We rushed our breakfast down and walked across town to the harbour, and caught the small ferry across to the Fisherman’s wharf. While there are still fishermen on it (for example, a chap selling Dungerness Crabs for CAN$5 a pound – about £5 for a two-pound crab), there’s more houseboats. It’s like a small bit of Seattle imported into Canada. Remember “Sleepless in Seattle”? – well it’s a bit like a mini-version of that.

The reason to head there is that a seal hangs around the wharf, waiting to be fed by tourists, and the girls really, really wanted to feed it. We’d imagined that when we got there, they’d suddenly go a bit hesitant, but oh no – off marched Charlotte and Emily to the fish shop to buy some left over salmon. And then they go on with feeding the seal. Emily wasn’t so keen at the last minute, but Charlotte had a great time – leaning over the edge of the dock and handing pieces to the seal to munch.

Then we had to get back to the hostel in time for our checkout at 11am. We left our rucksack in the luggage store while we walked down the street to John’s Place. It’s a locally famous diner, where HUGE breakfasts are served up at the weekends, and we needed fortifying for the rest of the day. Somehow Canadians aren’t as big as they should be – the food portions are huge, and leave me full for the whole day. Its amazing that often we see the Canadians order a meal, with a few side orders like extra fries, sausages etc. They obviously lead a more active life than typical Americans, otherwise they would all be 25 stone!

Then at 1 o’clock we caught a bus to the ferry terminal, just over an hour away, then caught the 3 o’clock ferry towards Vancouver. It took one and a half hours, which went pretty quickly, especially as the scenery was amazing as we passed between the Gulf Islands, through narrow straits. At the other end we caught a bus straight to the city centre (another 40 minutes) and finally staggered in through the door of the hostel at 5:30. We were hot, tired and felt very dirty, so we went straight down to the beach, about 300 yards from the hostel), via the Dunkin’ Donut shop, and blissed out on the beach for an hour, munching doughnuts and sipping Coke. (Life can’t really get better than this, could it?)

And that was Sunday done, all ready for a Monday morning…