Early this morning I got on a plane from Toronto heading west. A few hours later I was in Vancouver, a new destination for me. But this was only the start of the journey.

The first job was to head over to the international terminal to find Kevin who had flown up from San Francisco. We then headed by train and bus to the ferry terminal and took ship for Victoria. All of the transit connections worked perfectly so we got the 13:00 sailing.

It is a beautiful day here in the Pacific North West. The sky is blue, the sun is shining and the Puget Sound was like a mill pond as we crossed. The landscape here is a lot like Ã…land, but bumpier. The rocks are the same, the trees are pretty much the same, there’s a shallow sea; all that is different is that the landscape has more elevation.

Kevin and I are now safely settled into a palatial suite in the local Doubletree. Goodness only knows how I ended up with this room. Sometimes devotion to the Hilton frequent stay program bears dividends. The conference doesn’t start until tomorrow, so we have plenty of time to get our bearings. And to catch up after over a year apart.