Vancouver Day 1

I flew into Vancouver last Sunday afternoon. It was cold and rainy, but a totally different kind of rain than what I am used to here in South Florida. For one, it didn't completely screw up my hair. Which in and of itself was shocking.  I get corralled onto a bus and we take off to our hotel. I notice a lot of activity and what seems to be a very youthful city. In appearances as well as the age of it's population. Something I noticed almost immediately upon disembarking the plane was the high concentration of Asians. Well, duh, it is the Pacific NW. So of course, there aren't going to be any of the usual ethnicities that I am accustomed to seeing.

Back on the bus, we are chugging along to the hotel, and I get dropped off at the entrance where i am met by a representative of the conference. I check in and to the 14th floor to an amazing suite.  I walk around, go to the hospitality suite and realize, hey, I have time to go to the gym and go for a run. So I do just that.

the reception was held at a different property so we loaded up on a bus again and head over to the other side of the waterfront area. The seafood that they are serving at this shin dig is absolutely some of the best I have ever had.  The salmon w/sea salt and the freshest sushi.  I even tried the oysters on the half shell as I had not tried that before, and while it was not my favorite, the freshness of the oysters was apparent in the fresh lemony flavor that they managed to impart.

I found my partner in crime and started making plans to carry over the party to a local drinking establishment but at about 8pm local time the bottom fell out of my time zone.  Jet lag hit me like a sack of day old non-core rolls and I went back to my hotel where I promptly fell asleep. I was so tired that i slept through my 5am wake up call.  I still managed to get up in time for the day's activities. Which included some brain storming on various obstacles that we all may have faced at some point and an attempt to use co-creation to overcome these hurdles.  It was a good team building experience. 

I then had the wonderful fortune to be able to meet Patti.  She drove up from WA and we met and had coffee and tea for a couple of hours. I found her to be absolutely charming and engaging and absolutely the same in person as she is online.  My only regret is that we did not have enough time to stay together and go shopping or some other fun activity. Of course, I was talking to some young cute Canadian construction workers at the time when she arrived.  But that's another blog.