Vancouver Trip Report

A couple of weeks ago I took a quick trip to Vancouver for business. It is the site for our 2010 annual meeting, so this served as the "early recon/site visit/find appropriate drinking spots for after hours" trip.

I flew out Sunday afternoon through Montreal. I do not recommend this. For some reason I didn't realize Montreal is due north of DC. So 2 hours north then almost 6 hours across Canada to Vancouver. Who knew Canada was so wide? I could practically see Russia from the plane. When you leave DC at 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday by the time you arrive at your hotel in Vancouver you've been in transit for almost 12 hours. Not fun. My head hit the pillow at about midnight which for me was 3 am DC time.

Monday I had most of the day free with the exception of meeting with printers and a dinner with the Convention and Visitors Bureau, so I explored. Gastown, Downtown, Canada Place (that's the name for their old convention center), lots of walking. The entire day was misty and overcast but somehow misty and overcast is an entirely different animal in Vancouver than it is in Virginia.



Turns out Vancouver was pretty much nothing like what I expected. Every single person who I know who has been there said to me, "awesome city" with no exceptions. Still, I expected it to be a mix of San Francisco and Seattle. I am not exactly sure why, but that was in my head. Evergreen, moist, cool, damp, cloudy...and in a way it is. But it is so much more than that. It was bigger than I expected but much more walkable and people oriented. There are no overpasses, there are dogs everywhere, and lots of green space. And there is the water and the sailboats and the stunning mountains. My hotel room overlooked a marina with views of Stanley Park and beyond the park beautiful snow capped mountains.

Day two was busier with tours of the new convention center and the city, but the sun came out and it was stunningly beautiful. I found myself thinking, I could easily live here. The convention center is beautiful and the entire city is getting in gear for the 2010 Olympics. There they just say The Games. Our conference will follow about 6 months after The Games are there, so the entire city is bustling with construction and preparations. Broadcast media will be taking over the entire convention center in September, with print media taking over all of the old convention center space. In September. Crazy.

We were the first group to tour the new center without hardhats. Unfortunately it was still also free of working elevators and escalators. 4 stories of convention center is like 10 stories of regular building. Lots of climbing...but it is beautiful. Can we just skip DC and head straight to Vancouver please?

After the days activities were done, we were treated to a bus tour of the city ending over on Granville Island. A cool, funky under the bridge place, for lack of a better term, just over the bridge from Vancouver itself. There is a huge indoor farmers market there as well as a couple of restaurants and small eclectic shops and art space. We had a great dinner at Bridges.

I had a little time to explore Wednesday morning so I headed over to Granville again to see the market and just wander around the area. Definitely worthwhile.

Soon it was time to head to the airport and back home. The flight home was far less painful. Out of Vancouver at 3, 3.5 hours to Chicago and then just another 1 1/2 hour home. Much better. The jetlag still hasn't worn off yet.