Alaska {Part 10}

Today I'm finishing up my Alaska posts with the last two days of my vacation. I am going to do one more post in the next couple of days to wrap it all up and share some of my final thoughts/tips on Alaska. I hope you enjoy reading about the end of my trip!

Day 11 - Friday, June 27 - Vancouver, Canada

This was our last full day of vacation. We woke up on the ship and ate our final breakfast in the Windjammer while overlooking the Vancouver skyline.

We decided to stay an extra night in Vancouver instead of just heading straight home. I am so glad that we did because I really loved Vancouver. We got off the ship really early too, so we had an entire day to explore the city. We stopped by our hotel to drop off our luggage, and then headed over to Stanley Park, which is a huge park where you can see the city and the harbor.

While we were walking through the park, we stumbled across the Vancouver Aquarium (which is in the middle of the park) and decided to go through it. I ended up really enjoying it - I thought it was a pretty good aquarium!

These little jelly fish were my favorite. One minute, they were all laying a heap together.....

....and the next, they were floating all around!

On the way out, we were starving and picked up some of these gourmet candy bars from the gift shop. Yummy!

We walked back into the downtown area and ate lunch at this cute little bistro called Cinch.

I also had to check out a chocolate shop I found online called Thierry. I pretty much fell in love with it. They had tons of pastries, desserts, chocolates, and drinks. And they had a nice patio out front that you could relax and eat at. If I lived in Vancouver, Thierry would be a place I would go a lot. Just look at all of these different chocolates!

These were the two chocolates I ended up getting. They all looked so good that I couldn't just settle on one! I can't even tell you what flavors they were because the labels in the store were printed in French, but they were very delicious.

We could finally check into our hotel, so we did that next. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency, and when we checked in, they told us that we were getting a corner room and that it would be a little bit bigger. I was so shocked when we walked in because it was huge, especially in comparison to the tiny stateroom on the cruise ship. I kept saying that I wish we were staying longer in Vancouver just to enjoy the room some more :)

My dad decided to stay and take a nap in the hotel room, so my mom and I grabbed a Starbucks in the lobby and set out to explore. (And it rained of course, but by that point, I was used to the rain!)

I had to stop at another bakery called Soirette as well. They were a tea and macaron shop, and I was obsessed with how cute it was.

I love macarons, and I always try to get some on vacation if I can find them because they're so difficult to find at home.

These are the ones we ended up getting. We tried the chocolate, caramel, blueberry, cappuccino, rose, and creme brulee macarons. I liked them all!

Even their packaging was adorable. I know, I have a bakery obsession problem....

This was the rose flavored macaron - definitely a unique flavor!

We swung by the hotel, met up with my dad, and went to Second Cup, which is a Canadian coffee chain. I had gone there when I went to Montreal back in April, so I thought it would be fun to go again. I'm a creature of habit and ordered the frozen hot chocolate. It made me a little sad to be drinking it without my KBS friends this time!

We walked down by the water and saw our boat again. It's crazy how fast the week on the cruise went.

Gastown was next on our list of things to see. It's a cute little area of town with shops and restaurants, and I really enjoyed walking around there. It felt very European to me!

We ate dinner at the Black Frog where we watched the Radiance of the Seas sail away from the dock. It made us a little sad to see it leave us behind. Ha!

I made my parents go back to Thierry so I could pick up a little bag of chocolate madeleines simply because I've heard of them before, they're French (and I'm obsessed with all things French), and I'd never tried one before. I took them back home with me, and they were good!

Day 12 - Saturday, June 28 - Vancouver, Canada/Cincinnati, OH
This was our last day of vacation. After being gone for almost two weeks, it felt weird to actually be going home. We ate Starbucks in our hotel before leaving for the airport. I was blown away by the views from the airplane. You could see snow covered mountain peaks beneath the clouds!

We had another layover in Minneapolis, and I snapped this picture while we waiting for our flight to actually take off (it kept getting delayed). Armed with my boarding pass and favorite candy bar......what more do you need?

It always kind of sad to go back home after an absolutely amazing vacation. Although I do love seeing Coco again! We bought her this bandanna in Alaska, and I think it's just so cute.

And that was the end of a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Like I mentioned earlier, I am going to do one more post to wrap up my Alaska trip soon!