Days 82 - 88: Final week in Sechelt and Vancouver

Unfortunately the smoke from the wildfires persists over Vancouver and the whole area - down the coast as far as Seattle, eastwards as far as Calgary! Hard to escape. We spent a couple of days on the Sunshine Coast but the air was no clearer there.

Ferry ride in the smoke, as compared to...

Ferry ride in the sun (same trip, in June)

Returning to the Sunshine Coast gave us a chance to spend a couple of days more with my Mum, and also a chance to check out the new mandala at Roberts' Creek.

We also checked out the Sechelt Aquatic Centre - and wished we had done so before! Swimming pool, kids' pool (open to all, with river), waterslide, sauna, steam bath and jacuzzi - all for $2!

We returned to Vancouver just in time to meet my friends Stefano and Alessandro from the English-speaking hiking group and show them around town. Unfortunately Vancouver is still not looking its best, so we skipped Grouse Mountain, but we did go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which I had never been to before! It is expensive and crowded - a total tourist trap - but lots of fun! Convenient and well-organised, too: they pick you up with a shuttle bus downtown and take you back when you are done. Gives visitors who are only in Vancouver for a few days a taste of what it's like outside the big city (if they can imagine the same kind of setting, but without the crowds and the infrastructure).

On our last day in Vancouver the wind changed and the smoke finally began to clear, so my friends visiting from Italy had a chance to see the mountains before they left. We spent the morning at the Museum of Anthropology of the University of British Columbia, followed by a picnic on Jericho Beach.

Poking about in the drawers at the Museum of Anthropology