We had been looking forward to today for most of the trip. For Aimee's birthday, I had booked us a kayak tour that went out early that morning. It departed from Fisherman's Wharf, which was where we had the fish and chips the day before, so we were plenty familiar with the area.
We arrived early, so we sipped our coffee on the pier while Brad and Katherine of Kelp Reef set up their shop. Like everyone else in Canada, they were fast friends. As they unpacked the kayaks, they told us about how they made a life out of taking tourists on boating trips around Canada. Not a bad gig.
The Wharf has a few shops right on the pier (like Kelp Reef and yesterday's fish and ships shack), but it also has quite a few homes tied right to it. As in, floating homes tied straight to the dock.
I had never been so close to considering international real estate. $200,000 didn't sound that bad.
The wildlife spotting started even before we got off the pier.
But it didn't take long for Brad and Katherine to get the boats in the water, and we couldn't wait to get in.
Fisherman's Wharf isn't just a name. It's very much a working pier. We were ducking in and out of fishing boats on our way out to the open water, and that was just the beginning...
We actually had to plan our path and speed to avoid becoming the hood ornament of a sea plane.
That was a completely literal statement. Not one ounce of exaggeration. The Vancouver Harbour Airport, which despite the fact that most of its airplanes are no bigger than a passenger car, is one of the busiest airports in the world. Its runway also happened to be our path out to sea, with sea planes taking off and landing every few minutes. Experienced boaters know to look at the flashing light houses for their cue to enter or exit the harbor. Inexperienced kayakers simply paddle, terrified, as fast as they can across the harbor. Our thin-walled plastic kayaks never felt so thin.
With the sea plane excitement behind us, the rest of the trip was beautiful and serene. There was a ton of sea life, and the currents were pretty calm.
The holy grail of early morning kayak trips is spotting a whale off the coast, but despite a couple of squawks on the radio, we didn't have luck. Apparently, all of the tour boat companies share a radio frequency to tell the others where the good whale-sighting locations are each day. If this is what tourism looks like in a socialist democracy, I'm ok with it. I would have been more ok if we saw a whale, but I'll take a dozen seals and a couple of otters.
Lunch was a picnic provided by Kelp Reef. We all tied up our kayaks to some sturdy floating seaweed and snacked on some pastries and fruit. Classy move, Kelp Reef.
We managed to avoid the sea planes and fishing boats on the way back, and we still had a bit more adventuring planned that day.
