I have ARRIVED

Oh Canada!

This photo was taken about an hour into my wait for my friend Drew.  I waited, and waited, but the aforementioned lunch never happened.

Oh well.  On to MONTREAL!

The flight on Air Canada was very pleasant.  I even had an entire row to myself.  The movie, "Kung Fu Panda" was just silly.  So Mr. iPod went into action.  

Upon arrival...

I took this ancient and spray-painted former city bus to my hotel, the Marriott Chateau Champlain in beautiful downtown Montreal.  My room is on the 4th floor and overlooks a small park.  

And the room is small, but pretty.

I've ordered an early room service breakfast as a treat, since I never got that lunch, they only served snacks you had to pay for on the plane (Pringles and cashews didn't cut it, baby) and room service dinner stopped just after I got to my room.

HUNGRY!  

Tomorrow, the Gray Line sightseeing tour.  I promise a much more interesting post.

Waiting in Vancouver

Well, I'm sitting here at Domestic Arrivals, at the Vancouver International Airport, waiting for my friend Drew to meet me for lunch.    And guess what?  They have FREE WI-FI here!

So....why not blog?

The flight from Seattle to Vancouver was completely easy and uneventful.  No significant lines at security, and no big lines at customs when the tiny Air Canada Dash-8 arrived.  However, it's a LONG walk to customs from the tiny plane gate.  

I needed the exercise.   

Drew's not supposed to meet me until almost noon, so I'll explore a little bit.  Just wanted to find my destination before I took off.

Drew Snider is a PR executive at Vancouver's transit agency....they operate light rail and busses.   He's a former radio talk-show host and news guy from Victoria and Vancouver. 

It's a 4-hour layover, so it'll be nice to meet up with my friend.

OK, I've got to stop blogging now.  There's  4-year old girl loudly singing Christmas carols about 4 feet away.  It was cute when she sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, but she's into her 5th chorus of "Jingle Bells" now.  Must change my seat.

More later.