The whale song (Victoria, Vancouver Island)

First things first my interested reader -  the title of today's post. Yes, you are correct, it is from a children's animated series: Dot. This episode is with a whale. The song goes like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYPlvPVCMIo go on, have a listen, you know you want to.

In more mundane matters, the day dawned as those before it - to a sun shrouded by smoke haze. If anything, it was thicker out here on the island. We woke to the alarm this morning, not a pleasant experience after another late night. We are going whale watching today so breakfast is important. Otherwise, motion sickness, you understand.

Hotels are not our usual accommodation when we travel. Air BnB or an equivalent is our go to, largely because we tend to stay for 5 nights or more in the one place and use it as base to explore. This trip we have three weeks, but the real reason we are here is to see Dan, not Canada, so the holiday/tourist side is a bonus. Subsequently, hotels and no more than four nights anywhere, which, when you factor in transit days doesn't really leave a lot of time. While hotels obviously serve a purpose and can provide you with great local information, the add-ons are expensive. Breakfast for instance. If we had rented a unit we would have breakfast at home or at a local cafe. In our hotel, when pushed for time, the in-house offerings win. We paid $43 Canadian for two bowls of granola and fruit and two coffees, including taxes and tip.

We are living in castle

That is the another hidden expense in North America. Taxes and tips are not included in the initial price, so the budget conscious need to be wary. To be honest, I'm not into tipping people for doing their jobs because their employers don't/won't pay them enough. Capitalism: a winner for the bosses and it sucks for the workers. Let's go for a basic wage and health care and every one lives a life.

Since I'm having a socialist whinge, I have been shocked by the number of homeless people. Not just in Van, but also here in Victoria. I have seen homeless people in many major cities across the world, and maybe it's a sign of the times, but there are more homeless people here than in Sydney - not that it is a competition, although if it was, I'd be happy to lose. What are we doing a a community to address this?

Anyway to the whale watch tour. We got on a boat. It had a cabin = good. They supplied us with warm stuff: jackets, gloves and beanies = even better. We motored into the smoke the haze and saw humpback whales, orcas, seals and eagles (see the pictures below) = awesome. That is it, I'm done. Pictures with captions. Maybe.

Fisherman's Wharf houses

First humpback sighting

Um, like goodbye

Glad my boat had a roof

Pfft. What?

Can you see my calf?

I am the boss.

Ok, not quite done. We went to pick up the car this afternoon, a day late. Well it's difficult to organise things from the other side of the world when you are not sure what to expect, or what your timeline might be. Things change.

While I have driven on the "wrong side" of the road before, it's been a while and I wasn't particularly confident then. How happy was I to find we'd been upgraded from our sedate little Corolla to a masculine, ball-breaking Jeep? Rah! So thrilled. Not. You got the sarcasm, yeah? I want to be as innocuous as possible on the road, this will help, for sure. Despite it's testonerific size, I managed to drive it back to the hotel, with Jayne's help. The mystery as we head for slumber this evening is how the GPS works. We can't find the main navigation page. But hey, I drive a Jeep, I'll bite the crotch out of a low flying Canadian goose and read the entrails  - I'm sure that will give me the answer.

One day I will publish a post without re-reading it. Not today.