I’ve always had a long distance love affair with Vancouver. We’ve never met, but it has inhabited my dreams for years.

I’m not terribly proud to say this, but as a soon to be 39 year old I have yet to visit the west coast of my own country. That’s going to change in less than two weeks as I present at and attend a medical education and technology conference in beautiful Vancouver, BC. Another part work/vacation trip; this one I’ll have my love along with me.

This has been an unusual trip to plan for. We’re going to do a road trip to visit Whistler (we can’t resist the allure of mountains after Banff, Switzerland and Norway), but aside from that there’s not the normal hit list of sights to see on our itinerary. As we both read about Vancouver, what we wanted to do was to just live there for the eight days. We chose an apartment over a hotel, our travel itinerary is heavy on exploring and wandering and light on museums and attractions. We want to shop at markets, linger in parks, visit a few neighbourhood restaurants and drink in the experience of being there.

With high expectations, here’s to dipping my toes in the Pacific in about two weeks.