We were straight back on the tube & surfaced again at Piccadilly Circus (above). Julie lives in London & was our tour guide for the day (and the next few). 
The girls wanted to stop at New Zealand House (above) for some reason (something to do with country of birth or some rot).
Just around the corner is Trafalgar Square (above). Tourist central! There are 4 plinths on the corners of the square & one of them has a changing feature. When we were there, there was a huge (Lord Nelson's) ship in a bottle occupying the spot (below).
There were the obligatory tourist shots like the phone box.
There were the obligatory tourist shots like the phone box.
We stopped for lunch at a pub near Trafalgar Square before continuing on our tour.
The soldiers at the Royal Cavalry were interesting with their funny hats, even funnier crutch high boots & their even funnier high knee marching.
Next door to the cavalry is No.10 behind it's wall of steel bars.
No tour around central London is complete without a visit to Westminster Abbey.
We wandered past Scotland Yard. 
We spent some time in St James's Park. There's a bridge across the lake where you can look west & see Buckingham Palace (above) & east to the Royal Cavalry (below). 
Strangely the lake is home to Canada Geese amongst a myriad of other waterfowl. 
Grey squirrels are all over St James's park (& all the other London parks). They're extremely cheeky & not even slightly afraid of humans.
Kerri & Julie took the tour of Churchill's war rooms. I opted out with some jet lag issues.
We got our first proper look at the London Eye. It wouldn't be the last time. You can see it from all over the city. 
Later in the afternoon we crossed the Thames so we could see the tourist attractions from another angle. The Houses of Parliament (below) are unobstructed from the South Bank.
Below is the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.
The Globe Theatre is also along the South Bank.
We were getting pretty weary by sunset when we got our first good look at the Tower Bridge.
The soldiers at the Royal Cavalry were interesting with their funny hats, even funnier crutch high boots & their even funnier high knee marching.
Next door to the cavalry is No.10 behind it's wall of steel bars.
No tour around central London is complete without a visit to Westminster Abbey.
We wandered past Scotland Yard. 
We spent some time in St James's Park. There's a bridge across the lake where you can look west & see Buckingham Palace (above) & east to the Royal Cavalry (below). 
Strangely the lake is home to Canada Geese amongst a myriad of other waterfowl. 
Grey squirrels are all over St James's park (& all the other London parks). They're extremely cheeky & not even slightly afraid of humans.
Kerri & Julie took the tour of Churchill's war rooms. I opted out with some jet lag issues.We got our first proper look at the London Eye. It wouldn't be the last time. You can see it from all over the city. Later in the afternoon we crossed the Thames so we could see the tourist attractions from another angle. The Houses of Parliament (below) are unobstructed from the South Bank.
Below is the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.
The Globe Theatre is also along the South Bank.
We were getting pretty weary by sunset when we got our first good look at the Tower Bridge.
We had a fairly lengthy wait at the tiny airport before taking the 15 minute Jazz flight back to the mainland.
We flew out of Canada late in the afternoon on a Being 777 (above). The flight initially took us over the mountains while the sun was still up. Fortunately the sky was clear so we caught a great look from above. We could see the many blue lakes & hugh glaciers along the way.
The decision was a good one because by 10 o'clock the wind was howling! Plan B. Explore Quadra Island. Quadra Island is one of the larger islands sitting between the V.I. & the mainland. It only took 15 mins to get there on the car ferry (above).
Cape Mudge to the south west of the island is home to a lighthouse (above). We looked out to where we were floating amongst all the orcas the day before and across the passage to Campbell River. 
Not long after leaving the lighthouse we saw a bald eagle above us. I couldn't help stopping the car & taking its photo.
The south east of the island is home to Rebecca Spit (above & below), a peninsular that spears off the island creating Heriot Bay (below). Discovery Passage islands are a natural dumping ground for the floating logs that wash out of the forests. The Rebecca Spit beaches are no exception. Some of the weird shapes of the smooth logs make for nice photos.
We drove to the other side of the bay to Heriot Cove where the ferry to a near-by island leaves from. There is a neat little hotel called the Heriot Bay Inn (how inventive). What better place to have lunch, shelter from the wind & look out over the marina (below). It was all very civilized & lunch was very nice. We thought how lucky we were to be in the pub rather than being bashed around in a boat. 
Somehow we missed the turn off to the dirt road that goes to the north of the island & ended up nearly back at Cape Mudge! We were getting low on fuel & it was getting late in the afternoon so we caught the next ferry back to Campbell River. The roads to the north of the island are pretty much dirt logging roads so it may well have been a good plan anyway.
He was a little late that day but only by 10 minutes. Lucky a Kingfisher was there to entertain us.
When Charlie showed up he set about scooping dead salmon out of the pond. The difference this time was that he was aware of us & kept dragging the salmon into the trees to eat them. Sadly we said goodbye to Charlie & headed back to town.
We had dinner at the nice seafood place from a couple of nights previous.
We were surrounded by these awesome creatures that are nearly as intelligent as us & 10 times as heavy. The family group above are part of one of G-Pod who are one of the northern resident pods. They are rarely seen as far south as Campbell River. The big male is called Shushartie (G39), the bigger of the females is his younger sister Tatchu (G52), another female Glide (G54) (far left) and a very young & unnamed calf. The calf is believed to be Tatchu's. I sent some of the photos to the Vancouver Aquarium who are the central point for all things orca. It turns out these are the first ones they've seen of this calf. 
Everywhere we looked they were surfacing & acting up.
I would have been quite happy to hang around them for hours, but we had a tight schedule to meet the grizzlies two hours away. 20 minutes would have to be enough that day.
We crossed the straights to Bute Inlet that cuts into the mainland (grizzlies don't live on Vancouver Island). It was a little cloudy but conditions were great for boating. Bute Inlet can be a nasty place for a boat if the wind & the tides are fighting each other (and often do). The only problem was the debris (mainly trees) littering the inlet thanks to storms the previous week.
We arrived at the Homalco First Nations land.
We had lunch at the dock before boarding the bus for the bumpy ride along a dirt logging track to visit the grizzlies.
After 10 minutes we saw our first bear & he was a big one.
The bear was so intent on hunting fish that he didn't even notice the excited tourists in our tower.
Our second bear spotted a target & suddenly leapt into the water but unfortunately failed in its bid for a meal.
