Canadian wildlife

I had such a lovely day today. I went for a walk down Robson (that's Robson STREET for all my English readers) and ended up at Stanley Park, where I saw 2 raccoons! Never seen any before that I'm aware of, so I was pleasantly and probably rather ridiculously amused by them. It reminded me of an Australian girl I once knew, by the name of Arri. I was driving along with her and saw a squashed hedgehog at the side of the road, to which I said 'Awwww', or words to that effect. She asked me what I was awwwwing about, so I said I'd seen a dead hedgehog, to which she burst out laughing. Hardly an appropriate response, as pointed out. It turns out she assumed I was joking because, as everyone knew, hedgehogs don't actually exist, they are merely creatures created by, and for, cartoons and children's stories. She refused to believe my vigorous assertion that they did in fact exist, and as I couldn't ever find another hedgehog to show her, I'm pretty sure she returned to Oz still thinking I was making it all up. At least I'll now believe in raccoons.

I then visited the Vancouver Aquarium, which I'm pleased to report is excellent, and I was beyond delighted to finally see the world-famous Vancouver sea otters that have been paraded about so often on popbitch. The beluga whales were beautifully graceful, the sea lion enormous, and I must admit to being rather pleased with some of the pictures I took of the jellyfish. I love jellyfish. I want some as pets. Is that allowed? As is customary in these places, I had to exit through the gift shop, where I managed, against the odds, to convince myself I didn't actually want a soft-toy jellyfish or a sea otter backpack.