My Father's New Job

Here's a photo of me near the sound in stunning British Columbia.

While many of you LCD readers are big fans of the daily activities and thoughts of an 18 month old lap infant, I know there's a small minority (statistical, not racial) that are curious about my father's new job that brought us out to the far reaches of northwest Canada.

He's not keen on me divulging the exact details to the internet community, but he has agreed to pass along a little bit.

Well, as some of you know, he's been working in Wall Street finance since graduating from college with a few breaks here and there while "in between jobs" as they say. His latest endeavor is still in finance and investments. Currently, he is up in Canada to help out with his company's stake in one of the operating companies here.

I realize this description probably means NOTHING to 99% of you (since most lap children can't read yet), but let me find a pop cultural reference to help you understand...he's kind of like Gabe (from Saber Corporate) visiting Dunder Mifflin Scranton, except much shorter and more Asian.

And later today, we're off to Vancouver!

Prince Rupert Crest Hotel

Hotel Stay Details 
Hotel: Crest Hotel 
Dates: April 24-May 3, 2013 
Rate Paid: $205/night (by Company)
Points Earned: 0

For the first time in a long while, my father agreed to stay at a hotel that didn't earn him any loyalty points or even credit card spend points. But I guess that's OK since he didn't spend any money either. As some of you may know, he's been working the past week and the company's been putting him (and us) up in the town's best accommodations, the Crest Hotel.

Before we get into the Crest, you have to put it into context with the rest of the town. Around 30 years ago, the town had a population of approximately 25,000 people driven largely by the commercial fishing and paper/pulp industries. In the past few decades, those industries declined sharply and many of the more rural communities lost their younger workers to the larger urban centers like Vancouver.

Currently, the population is closer to 12,000 (Korean population = 1.5 including my father and me), leaving much of the town's infrastructure and retail footprint underutilized. So as you drive through, you'd pass a handful of abandoned retail buildings or storefronts that haven't been updated since the early 80's.

As you pull up to the Crest, you'll be reminded of those old motor lodges your parents used to see in smaller towns. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then watch last season's Mad Men where Don leaves Megan at the Howard Johnson.

They've renovated the hotel to appeal to a higher end customer base (tons of visiting business travelers). When you get inside, you'll notice a very local British Columbian decor full of wood furniture and First Nation artwork.

We were given a room on the 2nd floor overlooking the water. Usually, we don't care as much about the views at many of the hotels we stay in because we're usually just sleeping there and venturing out more than we're staying in the room. However, given the small town and the lack of car while my father was working during the day, we really appreciated the stunning view of the water and mountains each morning.

As you can see from the photos below, the room itself was quite nice and very comfortable for a small family of three to stay for 9 days. While the bathtub looked like it would be a lot of fun for me, we decided against it when the water came out a yellowish tint. And yes, my overprotective mother freaked out a bit. Better safe than sorry.

But the best part about the hotel is the pristine views of the water.

Next Town in British Columbia

Sometimes I completely forget that I was born on an island. Walking around the City, I often get overwhelmed by all shops, restaurants, and busy pedestrians walking by me and smiling when I wave hello to them with my tiny hand. I never really see the water unless we're really making an effort to find it.

In our Flatiron neighborhood back home, within a 10 minute walk, you can get to just about every kind of store or restaurant you can imagine (except for In-N-Out Burger). The density of people and places is just amazing. But at the same time, sometimes I feel like I'm trapped in a concrete jungle and want to venture out to the boonies (aka, Brooklyn/Jersey).

However, crossing a bridge or tunnel never really gets you that far from the world we know and love. So we decided to take advantage of being out on the Northwest Coast this past weekend. We had no real plans on Saturday, so we were deciding between exploring the island town of Prince Rupert (population of 13,000) or drive to the closest town on the mainland, Terrace.

As exciting as the downtown Prince Rupert scene is with their 1 movie theater, McDonalds and new Walmart, I voted to drive out to the next town. But for those of you LCD readers who live in the Northeast, getting from one town to the next isn't the same as it would be going from Hoboken to Jersey City.

No no no. We were in the real boonies. Being 18 months old, I still don't have a great sense of time or distance, but my father tells me that the 150 km (93 mile) drive takes about 1.5 hours. Yes, you heard me right. Almost 100 miles to the next closest town!


Not only does the drive take 90 minutes, but there are no gas stations at all until you reach Terrace. Also, along most of the drive, there's absolutely no cell phone service. And I'm not talking "1 bar, I'm in an elevator" kind of no service. I'm talking "this phone is useless" kind of no service. So yeah, not a place you want to run out of gas or have a flat tire.

And to be honest, even when you get to Terrace after making such an effort, it's not all that impressive. While, they do have a Staples, Tim Hortons, and a Taco Bell, we found that the cosmopolitan Terrace wasn't going to be confused for Paris or Hong Kong anytime soon. Though, I did get to enjoy some nice kiddie rides at the "shopping mall" (if you can call 7 stores connected by an interior walkway a mall). And did I mention that they close at 6PM?
However, what made our day amazing wasn't the destination, but the journey itself. Taking a closer look on the map, you can see that the route is right along the river through a range of mountainous terrain.

> Along those 93 miles of highway, was some of the most stunning natural scenery you can imagine. As my mom would say, it was just like the background in the Twilight movies! 

Prince Rupert - View From Our Room

I'll follow up with a more formal hotel review, but just thought I'd share the following view from our hotel room here in Prince Rupert, British Columbia.