Sunny California?

We headed back on the road at 8:30am. As it was light out, we got to see the Oregon mountains. Oregon has some great views. We crossed into California and the rain came pouring down, again. It seems that we can not escape this rain. Northern California is very similar to Oregon and Washington State, except that it is a little less lush from generally receiving less rain (not today though).


We cruised a good clip and arrived at Stanford by 2:30pm (I needed to be there by 2:55). As you cross the bridge from Oakland into Palo Alto, the city does not appear to be very trendy. Houses look very ordinary. But when turn on the road that heads into the university the trendy appears full force. It is a strip of fancy stores and restaurants that goes on for at least 5 blocks. Then you enter the university on Palm Drive, a dramatic entrance that is lined with large palm trees. In an area that seems pressed for space, Stanford has an abundance of it that they take advantage of to create a beautiful campus.

The business school appears fairly modern. The students give off the impression that there is a lot of money floating around. I attended an Organization class that was examing customer service models and their analysis using the case study of the Ritz Carleton. I was impress witht the teacher, who effectively used the Socratic method to reinforce the main lessons of the class. I was also impressed with the caliber of the students. The majority of the students participated in the class and all demonstrated a good to advanced understanding of statistics.

Stanford is exactly as I expected: a top notch school with exemplary students. While I know I would enjoy the academic environment that Stanford creates, I may have difficulties meshing with the money and overachieving focus of the student body.

After Stanford we headed for Davis, CA. My father offered a detour of driving though San Francisco to see some sights before hitting the hwy80 towards Davis. Sightseeing San Fran in the dark when you have no clue where you're going is not easy. We did get to experience the ridiculous hills of the city. Who thought building a city in an area with so many drastic hills was a good idea? This isn't some easy slopes. These are 60 degree downslopes!

Seattle, San Fran and the Rockies - they are giving our dear 4 cylinder automobile a real workout. So far, it has held up great (knock on wood). Tomorrow, I interview and visit UC Davis. Then, we head down to Orange County.

University of Washington

I completed my interview at the University of Washington. We talked for one hour and twenty minutes. The questions were like a typical job interview, but with a why a MBA now slant. Afterwards, I got the opportunity to talk to three UW students about the program. They reinforced my impression that the program has a strong focus on entrepreneurship and the student body has that focus as well. The students appear very nice and laid back, which sorta fits my mold. Overall, it was a good visit and the program appears to be as advertised. There is a lot going on in Seattle and the UW MBA is a great means to play a big part in it.

The UW campus reminds me of Western's, but it is more condensed. Buildings look to be the same age as Western's. It's location on the waterfront gives it a great look.

We got on the road at around 3pm and headed south to sunny California. After driving on Washington State's highways on Saturday and Sunday, it reminds me a lot like Ontario. Not in geography, but in the fact there always seems to be some yahoo driving 110km/h in the far left lane of a 3 lane highway and he will not move over to the right lane unless there is a one kilometer open stretch. A big rain storm is hitting the west coast and it really slowed us down on Monday night. We had to stop at the Oregon/California border. After that disappointing result, we hope that we can make better time on Tuesday.

I thought San Francisco was the City of Hills???

We are still adjusting to the 3 hour time change. We were all up by 6:30am and out touring Seattle by 8:30am. Surprisingly a lot of Seattlites (is this correct) get up early and jog, bike, walk, etc.. The city has a real outdoor fitness vibe which is certainly contrary to my current nature (the technical term is "lazy ass"), but I think I could adapt (although I am not sure about the early morning thing).

The best way to describe Seattle is that it is a lot of distinct, self-contained neighbourhoods that overlap one another. The first things that stands out is that there are a lot of hills, the architecture is very interesting (generic buildings are a rarity!), there is a youthful energy to the city, and there is an amazing view in all directions. First we drove towards the University of Washington that took us through the neighbourhoods of First Hill and Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill has a real funky flair with a number of neat small shops and restaurants.

We then took a quick loop through the campus. It reminds me of Western except that it has a division 1 football stadium. We then drove through the University District which has a very student focused neighborhood as opposed to Western whose surrounding neighbourhoods are more focus on older adults.

We then went through the neighborhood of Fremont. It is the self proclaimed "Centre of the Universe". It is another area that has a fun, funkiness about it. We stopped a the the Gas Works Park located at the south-most point of Fremont. My dad took a picture of us with Starbucks coffee and the Space Needle in the background (Don't we look cute).

Next, we traveled down to the famous Pike Place Market. We got there by 10:30am and the place was packed. There were artisians, street performers, many food stands, and, of course, fish.

After that we went up to the posh suburb of Bellvue and did some shopping at one of their malls. Overall, Seattle was a pretty impressive. It has a very distinct character and seems to cater to the young professional. The only drawback is the overcast weather.

Well see how tomorrow goes. My interview is at 10 am and I have a tour with some Canadian UW students at 12:30. It is unlikely we will be able to check in tomorrow as we are leaving the UW campus and driving as far south toward San Francisco as we can get. I need to be at Stanford for 2pm, Tuesday. We will definitely have an update on Tuesday evening.

Day 2 - Montana, Idaho, and Washington State

Well we made it to Seattle already! We got in at 8:30pm PST for a travel time of approximately 12 hours. After driving this leg I think anyone who would rather fly into Seattle rather than drive is crazy. The scenery of this land is incredible (except South Dakota - you're still dead to me!). Montana becomes an incredible mountainous wonderland. the views are remarkable (as the pictures show).

The brief trip through the north of Idaho is very impressive. The road has a lot of sharp twists and turns as you move up and down the Rockies.

As you enter Washington State, something weird happens: no more mountains. When you look around in 360 degrees, you cannot see any more mountains. You are actually on the top of the mountains on a plateau. It is just Steppe-like plains with no trees and bushes no taller than 3 feet.

When traveling through the Rockies, I cannot help but think of the early pioneers who crossed the Rockies in horse and wagon. I can't help but think about how far we have come. As we start your 4000 foot descent to Seattle, we cruise through the mountains at ridiculous speeds. The pioneers probably went 20 km/h, tops. Then, as we join the throng of cars, 3 wide, jammed together in a rocket like descent, I think at least the pioneers were likely telling their horses to slow down. Everyone in our group had no thoughts of braking; they were accelerating (and some were talking on cell phones!). Maybe we haven't come as far as I thought.

Well, tomorrow we look around Seattle. It is supposed to rain, so it will be a good introduction to what to expect if I move here.

Friday's Final Leg - Wyoming and Montana

With the bad taste of South Dakota left in my mouth we finished up our Thursday/Friday marathon drive with the great (and very empty states) Wyoming and Montana. We cleared Wyoming without seeing one cop (score!). In Wyoming we drove by Sundace (home of the Sundance film festival) and were shocked to discover that there was not much fancy hollywood stuff in the area. We stopped about 200km into Montana at Billings (again we did not see a cop on the highway). So far, both of these states are very similar - rolling hills of emptiness where cattle (who I am sure outnumber the humans) eat the short grass, blissfully unaware of their final fate. If I had to choose, I like Montana better because the hills seem to have more character (don't ask me what that means, but I have pictures of the Montana hills).

When arriving at Billings, we found a cheap hotel and went straight to a steakhouse. Ironically, the steakhouse did not serve Montana beef. Nonetheless, the meal was good.

So the final stats are 26 hours of straight driving, for close to 3000km, too many pee breaks to count.

Tomorrow, we are going to try to drive straight to Seattle. This is a 14 hour trip. After a 26 hour drive, this is peanuts (of course this is through the Rockies).

Thursday Departure - Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota

Lindsey and I left London for Seattle at 6 pm on Thursday, February 23rd. We recruited my dad, Steve, to help out with the driving. Unfortunately, it appears his age means that we stopping every 2 1/2 hours for a pee break, but his seniors discount more than makes up for this fact.

We departed London just as a storm was coming in (see the picture of what we left). Thankfully as we moved west, the weather was perfect (see Sarnia sunset).


We have decided to drive over 24 hours straight for our first leg. There is something about being the sole automobile in a sea of transport trucks driving through Iowa at 3 in the morning listening to Christian Country Rock radio stations that makes me question the sanity of this decision. Furthermore, the only driver of us three who can sleep with any success in a vehicle is Lindsey (and she is always sleeping). Well we are giving it a try.

First observations is that aside from the badlands at the far west of the state, South Dakota is very boring. We did a diversion throug the badland park. The badland are an area of rock heavily eroded by glaciers. The results can be quite amazing.

Unfortunately, I got a reminder that outsiders are treated with suspicion by the fine members of the South Dakota State Police. For some strange reason when two cars pass me like I was standing still, then break when they see a speed trap (althought the cop was facing the opposite traffic direction) the cop decides he wants to pull me over for tailgaiting (Even though the cars in front of me were breaking). I got to sit in the police car and I got the distinct feeling he did not know exactly where Ontario is (he also did not know what an MBA was?). The cop gave me a lecture about why tailgaiting is inappropriate, then asked if Ontario cops enforced this rule. To which I replied that while it was a rule, they had more important things to enforce. Mercifully, he gave me me a warning and I high-tailed it out of South Dakota. As the Colbert Report says, "South Dakota, you're dead to me!" Where is the picture you ask. Well it appears my wife and father where so concerned about my well-being that they forgot to record the moment. You can see me below showing off my official warning.

West Coast Visit Preparations

Lindsey and I are busy juggling our work obligations and preparing for this 10 day west coast tour that will take us from London, Ontario to Seattle to Palo Alto, CA to Davis, CA to Irvine, CA. We plan to take a lot of pictures on the way and take advantage of the prevalence of free Hi-speed access at various hotels to keep our loved ones informed of our journey. This is our first blog, so I hope everything works!