The vacation that wasn't...quite

Jelly fish are cool. I could spend ages watching them at the aquarium.

I found my self humming a very bittersweet 60's song today. I don't know why. "Grocer Jack" for anyone that remembers it. It's a flashback for me. One of those choruses that has stayed with me throughout the years. "Grocer Jack, Grocer Jack, is it true what mummy says, you won't come back, oh no-no". I was surprised that it reached its height in 1967. I must remember it from replays and from a kind of osmosis of popular culture happening when I was a baby. Funny thing, memory. I listen to that song and all of a sudden I am transported back in time - where I am sitting on a stool, eating toast, drinking milky-sweet coffee, and listening to the small transistor radio, in the kitchen of the house we lived in when I was a small child. Mum getting us ready to head out for school.

Anyway, I have spent the week hobbling around like an old woman in desperate need of a hip replacement and Mark has spent the week doing twice as much work as he would normally! But at least we got to the Vancouver Aquarium on Saturday. I was told by a friend that the Aquarium has some wheelchairs available for those who need them. So we got down there first thing on Saturday, determined to do at least one of the numerous outings that we had planned for this week. Vancouver Aquarium is always a good place to visit. The kids love it and it's great for adults too. River, being River, did not seem to see any of the exhibits, but instead spent his time running around here and there, with Mark in hot pursuit. Bronwyn has been to the aquarium recently with the mother of a friend of ours and was intent on showing me around. I was the invalid, wheeling myself here and there and getting a small taste of how difficult it is to manoeuvre a bloody wheelchair around. Although I could manage to get quite close to a lot of the displays by virtue of pushing my wheels past the legs of other visitors (with a very polite, "Oops sorry" thrown in now and then). Anyway, we got a few pics.

Bronwyn is always fascinated by the sea otters...and they are sooo cute

All together now...awwwwwwwwww!

Although River didn't really pay any attention to any of the marine life, he did get mesmerized by dolphins swimming around in a circle.

Completely mesmerized...

Like father, like daughter!

Gimpy mother, with kids and a big Orca!