My meeting in Seattle ended today around noon, and we hit the road for Victoria soon after. It’s been a few years (try about seven) since I’ve been over and there have been some changes. We had our passports, but didn’t need them to get through Customs – at least if you arrive, as we did, by ferry from Seattle. That part of the trip was pretty much the same as always. It was about a two and a half hour ferry ride, very pleasant, crossing the Puget Sound then heading up the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Back in my old USC days, I was coming up to Victoria a couple of times a year as we explored some partnership possibilities up here (they unfortunately never panned out but along the way I fell in love with Victoria). Since Chuck had never been, I wanted to make it a memorable stay, and booked us at what looked like a fabulous newer hotel (Victoria Marriott) in the Inner Harbour area. Appearances can be deceiving, at least on the Internet. The hotel, it turns out, is being dwarfed by construction around it, and to get the harbor view, you need to be up high – as in above the 16th floor or so. Unfortunately for us, tonight we’re on the 9th floor, and have a view of – construction. *sigh* They say they’re going to make it up to us tomorrow night and move us to a higher floor with a good view. Here’s hoping! We do have dynamite free Internet access, so that’s a plus. Oh, and we also have access to the Concierge level, and all of its unlimited treats. So life could be worse.

Sadly, the biggest change that I’m noticing in Victoria is that there has been a LOT of growth. It now has several harbor front condos and hotels, and there are lots of people bustling about (just as we arrived, a busload of Japanese tourists were being disgorged into the hotel lobby, and that can make any place seem small and overcrowded). I think I need to go walk around some and recapture the magic of Victoria. Maybe it just seems so much more busy because it’s the height of the summer season.

Our iPhones have been little troopers on their debut trip, along with being the subjects of much oohing and ahhing whenever we pull them out (which we do, to be honest, more than we really need to – we just really enjoy the envious looks we get). We had nonstop connectivity in Seattle had connectivity all the way on the ferry ride, and somewhere along the way seamlessly slipped into a Canadian service area. While I couldn’t access the infamous Edge network, the iPhone still happily pulled up a Google map showing where the hotel was. Slick! How much at&t will charge me for all of this glorious connectivity, I haven’t a clue.

So here we are in Victoria, in our very pleasant room with a so-so view and Chuck is working and I’m blogging. Do we know how to have fun or what?!?