Vegas 24/9
We got up a little later today which was nice. It turned out to be quite a hot day as we wandered down the strip, on our way to brunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe. The café was quite over the top as you would imagine, with a massive track built around the room holding motorcycles on movable platforms. It’s a bit hard to describe so hopefully some photos will do it justice. They ended up doing some pretty good food there; I had Huevos Rancheros which was a massive plate of scrambled eggs with some re-fried beans on a tortilla with hot sauce and corn chips. Kirsten ended up having a tortilla creation with prawns and vegetables served on a sizzling plate, you then had to assemble the tortillas yourself, adding to the adventure. Thoroughly stuffed, we purchased some Harley merchandise for people at home before walking back to the Tropicana in the now very serious heat. We had a bit of a rest afternoon in the hotel before heading off to see the Cirque du Soleil show ‘Ka’ at the MGM Grand casino. We joined up to the free MGM gambling club which entitled us to ‘by one get one free’ tickets on the show, which meant of course that we were happy to pay a bit more for a single ticket to get good seats. As it turned out we were right in the middle of the fan shaped seating with a great view of an amazing show, performers and surroundings. I won’t go into detail about the plot, suffice to say that it was a quite engaging story with a bit of action and some stunning visuals thanks to the outlandish costume designs and elaborate sets, including a hydraulic floor that could be raised high in the air or turned on its side to form a wall depending on the demands of the storyline. Following the show (we went to the earlier showing at 7.30 – they were doing two shows a night) we had some late snacks at a popular cafe in the MGM casino. We ordered up a large snack of onion rings, fries and some pretty awesome shakes which came on plates decorated with massive amounts of M&Ms, Gummi Bears and caramel popcorn. Not a meal for the weight conscious or those generally concerned with sugar, salt or fat levels it was bloody magnificent, and one of the best shakes I have ever had – black cherry and cinnamon. Waddling back to the room, we felt thoroughly sated.

Vegas to Vancouver 25/9
We were up early the next morning for our flight to Vancouver . Despite having a close view of the airport from our hotel window, it was still not a cheap cab ride as we had to go all the way around the perimeter to the other side. It was a couple of hours up to Vancouver , and we arrived in pretty good shape. Sadly Kirsten left a jacket which she’d had made in Vietnam on the plane, never to be seen again. We called the airline but the plane had already left to go back to Vegas. We were met at the airport by our good friend Dara and we headed into Vancouver by cab to her apartment in a cool part of the city. We dumped our bags and headed out to lunch as the offerings on US internal flights a meager. We had some great fish & chips down by the water, there was a huge queue of people waiting at a little mobile cabin – it was well worth the wait. I have forgotten what type of fish it was but it was right up there with other fish and chip fare we have had while we've been away. Following the food we had a wander back to Dara’s place, she had to work in the evening so we spent a quiet night at the apartment.

Vancouver to Victoria Island 26-27/9
In the morning we headed out from Dara's apartment and caught a taxi to the Canada Line train. This service offers a link to the airport as well as downtown and because it's fairly new the train ride was very smooth all the way out to a bus terminal, where we boarded a bus heading out to the ferry. There is a ferry service running to Victoria Island several times a day. It took about an hour and a half to travel, with some good scenery on the way. The ferry meanders slowly through a group of smaller islands on its way to the harbour on Victoria Island. We were met by Carly, a good friend of Dara's who had kindly ventured along to pick us up and show us a bit of the island. Our first stop was a bar/restaurant on one of the waterways downtown, where we had some great food and drinks in the sunshine. We've had a great introduction to a Canadian version of the Bloody Mary, named a Caesar. Instead of tomato juice, it incorporates Clamato juice, which, like the name suggests is a mixture of clam juice and tomato juice. This ramps up the sodium content a fair bit so it tends to make you a bit thirsty while trying to quench your thirst, but along with some heavy spice and some vodka, it makes a pretty tasty drink. Following a couple of Caesars (Kirsten went for the virgin version) we headed out to visit another friend of Dara's, Lauren along with her kids and husband. They were trying to pack up their house in order to make way for the new owners. We also had a bit of a look at Lauren's new place, still being worked on by a team of builders. It’s a lovely historic building in a nice part of Victoria, and pretty expensive I’m sure of it. Following our drop in, we were lucky enough to be driving along a section of the coast with the sunset in the distance, very picturesque. We were heading back to Carly's condo in order to get changed and head out for the evening. Kirsten ended up staying home to watch some movies as she was worn out, so the three of us (Carly, Dara and me) headed out for drinks, firstly at the Sauce and then Lucky bar, both of which were quite crowded with Saturday night punters. We ended up having a moderately early night after a few drinks as Dara peaked a bit early on the drink stakes. Back to Carly's for a snooze. The next morning we went out for breakfast at the Herron Rock, a local cafe that served nice food. It was pretty packed so it took a while to get our food but it was pretty good when it came. Another Caesar helped to take the morning edge off. There was an eclectic thrift shop next door where Dara scored a couple of lamp bases to add to the great decor in her apartment. Carly dropped us back at the ferry just after 12 and we headed back to Vancouver after a great couple of days out and about. We had better weather heading back so we spent a bit more time outside before the wind eventually beat us.

More Vancouver Action
As I've been a bit slack in writing down the last section of our adventures, I can't be absolutely certain of the chronological order of some of these events. A night out drinking might have had something to do with it too. One evening we had dinner at Vijs, which is a great local restaurant just near Dara's apartment where she works in the evenings. It's some pretty tasty Indian style fare, with some great service and some excellent wines on the menu. We also spent a day out and about shopping about in Vancouver, where we saw some great stores, including Zulu records and a great Ice Hockey apparel store named Ironhead. They do limited edition t-shirts but sadly one I was interested in didn't have my size. Our last evening in Vancouver saw us heading downtown to Gastown for the afternoon, where we met a friend of Dara's working in a great bar named Pourhouse for drinks. We got into some cocktails early, with a very tasty bourbon based drink called a Gold fashioned. Suitably fortified, we went out for dinner at a new pizza/pasta bar, for some lovely food before a last drink or two at another bar where another friend of Dara's works. For our last day with Dara she cooked us an awesome lunch of local sockeye salmon with a pickle on the side, before we headed off to the airport. We had such a great time in Vancouver and enjoyed the company of all the Canadians we met along the way, it's a destination on our list to return to.

Transit hell
This is going to be a short post since it’s the bitter end of our trip. Suffice to say, we had a decidedly average 31-hour transit from Vancouver to Melbourne. However, it’s a very small complaint up against six months of brilliance so I don't need to go into further detail.

To all of those who showed us their hospitality we must say thank you. It was a blast.

The end - for now.