No photos from today I'm afraid (too rainy to get the camera out) so instead have a snapshot of Stanley the squirrel who followed us around by the aquarium the other day.

So yes, today has been a bit rainy. Not letting a piddly thing like pouring rain get in our way, we walked to the Museum of Vancouver after breakfast. Unfortunately it was closed, so instead we had a nice lunch in a little cafe/deli place called Juliet's and wandered back into town.

After a bit (a lot) of chilling out we met up with June and Mike for dinner and to see the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre, which was originally a venue for vaudeville and retains a lot of the old skool architecture apart from a new lobby tacked onto the front. The acoustics were pretty good, although we like to see classical concerts at The Sage in Gateshead which has better sound, but then The Sage was purpose-built for that kind of thing.

The concert itself was really nice. They played Loule's Eternal Earth which was a bit forgettable really (not the skill of the orchestra, just the music) and a Sibellus violin concerto with an amazingly talented solo violinist. I'd never heard of Sibellus but Mike said that it was the last great string concerto and no-one had come close since. After the interval they ended with Brahms' Symphony #1, and I was glad to see that the french horns got to do quite a bit of stuff. I have a soft spot for french horns (I used to play when I was at school) and always feel a bit bad for them when they're stuck playing one note for lines and lines and lines. The Blue Danube, j'accuse!

Anyway, tomorrow is our last day in Vancouver before we fly over to Toronto. That makes me sad but I'm looking forward to seeing Ontario, even though British Columbia is an amazing place with some really lovely people. It looks like the plan is to see some more impressive outdoorsy bits before we finish our trip in a more cityish place.