DLCon XI - O Canada

[Luther Lansfeld]

Welcome to Vancouver, where you can retreat to upon the election of President Trump. We have cookies.

The dates are August 11th - August 15th!

Okay, it looks like DLC Vancouver is going forward. First of all, given this, two things we need to know.

-What dates work best for you?
-Will you be attending? (and/or likelihood of doing so)

General information that may help with planning:

-If you intend to come, are not from Canada, and don't yet have a passport, start applying for your passport NOW. I can't stress this enough. Don't let your holidays be hostage to your government's bureaucracy. The passport is good for 10 years anyway (in many countries, at least) so it's hardly a bad investment even if you end up having to cancel.

-There are a few different ways to get to Vancouver by air:
--Vancouver airport (YVR) is by far the simplest. It's a quick Skytrain ride (20 minutes max) from there to downtown Vancouver, our apartment, and various other parts of the city. The downside is it has high fees to airline prices to Vancouver can be pretty pricy depending on where you are flying from.
--Seattle is about 2-3 hours away by car and 4 by bus. There is bus service which connects directly from Seattle-Tacoma airport to Vancouver, with only a small number of stops along the way (though the border takes a while). The travel time will obviously be longer if you go plane + bus, but it might be cheaper. (It might also not be, you'll have to do your research.)
--Bellingham is a small city just across the border from Vancouver. The same bus that services Seattle to Vancouver stops in Bellingham, so you can take that too. In my experience though, the only cheap flights Bellingham connect to relatively nearby parts of the country, but could be worth looking at for Californians.
--You can also fly to Seattle/Bellingham and rent a car (or, if you're coming from California or any other "close" places, drive from there). Do be careful, though: if you're renting, not all rentals will allow you to cross the border. (Some will, though.)

-We will most likely be renting a house, similar to what we've done in San Francisco in the past. The price will obviously depend on what we're able to find and how many people attend. We've tentatively found places which would run about $200 CDN ($150 US) per person for 12 people for 4 nights (Thursday night to Monday morning). You might want to budget a bit more than that in case prices rise by the time we actually get confirmation for dates and can book things.

-Prices for food and similar things in Vancouver are expensive, i.e. similar to priciest US cities like San Francisco and New York... normally. However, the current Canada-US exchange rate is extremely favourable for US travellers ($1 CDN = 74 US cents, at the time of this post), that should help a good deal; this is definitely the best time to visit Canada in this regard since DLCons first became a thing. (I haven't looked into the current exchange rates for Australia or Finland or the UK or Japan or anywhere else, sorry.)

More to come at some point, but for now, that's the basic info. Please give feedback about your availability as soon as possible.

Coming:

1. Elfboy
2. Ciato
3. Grefter
4. Snowfire
5. Excal
6. Meeple
7. Laggy
8. Magey
9. Gate
10. Lady Door
11. Andy
12. Tonfa
13. Djinn
14. Djinn's boyfriend
15. Sopko
16. Alex
17. Tal
18. Jim
19. Aziraphale
20. CK
21. MC

Maybe:
1. Gourry

Not coming:
1. Zenny
2. Super
3. Idun
4. Niu
5. Neph

For anyone who is interested, there is a Shakespeare festival going on in the city during the summer (http://bardonthebeach.org/). If you are interested, please let us know!

Passport information:

Since it looks like y'all will be having a con in Canada land and most of us aren't Canadian, and I work with passports, I figured I'd talk some about getting passports.

SO

I'm doing the math for you, but US Passports are gonna run you 135 dollars. I'm making some assumptions here. 1)You're getting the book and 2)You're getting a first time passport.

Go here. https://iafdb.travel.state.gov/ Stick in your zip code. Apply at that place. When do you apply? My recommendation is at least 7 weeks ahead of schedule, but honestly, more than that if you live in California, you guys are backed up. Apply early. Not applying early will come damn near to doubling your total cost and might not get you a passport anyhow.

What do you need?

A birth certificate. The original or a copy directly from Vital Records. No photocopies. Valid ID. A photo. Have a professional take the damn photo. Did I mention 135 dollars? Yeah. That's it.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Things to do in Vancouver besides play video games in a large house:

The aforementioned Bard on the Beach
Museum of Anthropology if you are interested in learning about the native culture of B.C.
Stanley Park - It's mostly just an absurdly beautiful place to walk/jog/bike
Vancouver Aquarium - If you love adorable animals
Vancouver Art Gallery - I've never actually been here so I'd be up for visiting
Granville Island - Pretty touristy but enjoyable and has a fish and chips place literally on the dock which is great
Dr. Sun Yan-Sen Chinese Classical Gardens - A Chinese style garden in Chinatown
Kits Beach - It's a nice beach and not too far away
Queen Elizabeth Park - It's a really nice park really close to our apartment
Beatty Biodiversity Museum - Has a huge ass whale skeleton. For science nerds.
Richmond - It's a suburb of Vancouver with a large Asian population. It will probably be a cool place for the Nius and Nephs of the world and I'm sure will fill Neph's request of Japanese karaoke.

All of these places are accessible by public transit.

Places to visit if you wanted to book a longer vacation:

Victoria (the capital city of BC)/Vancouver Island - It is accessible only by ferry (which is quite a beautiful ride). The city has a very strong British influence compared to Vancouver which has more of the Northern Pacific feel. There is a very British fancy hotel called The Empress that's really fun to stay in, and you can have fancy high tea if you hate your money. Much like Vancouver, it is very green in the summer.

The Interior - About three hours outside of Vancouver is the lower-lying Okanagan Valley. There's mostly wineries and other such things in the region, so if you were interested in being a wine snob, this is the place to do it.

Mountains - If you are into hiking, there are tons of mountains in the area, including the mountains that hosted the Olympic events here in 2010. Whistler is a bit of a trek and pricy as fuck, but Cypress, Seymour, and Grouse are all pretty close. The Grouse Grind is a hike that a lot of people really enjoy (or you can just take a gondola up the mountain).

Sechelt - Our favorite place, it's a small community only accessible by ferry. It has lots of beautiful sites, including the spectacular Skookumchuck Narrows, a rare place with large tidal rapids just randomly inside of an inlet. Smuggler's Cove is one our favorite relaxing nature walks. Elf's parents have a house there, so if we suck up to them they might let people stay there.

Food in Vancouver: Heavily Asian. Chinese and Japanese food are two things cited by most people as Vancouver's strengths, but I'm personally pretty fond of Indian and Thai food. You can find whatever you want, though.

[Lady Door]

Capilano Suspension Bridge might be worth a visit for people willing to take the drive. It ain't cheap ($38 what) but if you like nature you'd probably enjoy it. Perfect for when you start to feel Canada infecting you and you want a healthy dose of 'Muricah - it has bald eagles.

[Luther Lansfeld]

That's totally only like 30 USD. Bald eagles are fucking amazing, though.

[Laggy]

The Butchart Gardens in Victoria are gorgeous if you have the time to go there. It is definitely an extended trip thing though since you have to ferry over.

[Grefter]

For real reals though guys, you want to go to Bard.

It is like the fifth highest on my list of reasons that I visit Vancouver every year I can.

Vancouver Aquarium - If you love adorable animals

Erek, step away from the keyboard.

[superaielman]

Would love to do it but yeah, way too far and too much money. Definitely out.

[Excal]

Capilano Suspension Bridge is also easily available by transit if people want to go.  If you want something similar but cheaper, there's also Lynn Valley which is its less popular cousin.

Science World also exists, it usually has some pretty awesome displays going on.

[Tonfa]

In. Will hash out the details later.

[NotMiki]

Have we settled on dates yet?

[Magetastica]

I'm fairly certain Ciato mentioned Aug 11-15 as the selected dates? Especially since nobody has voiced any majour opposition to those days yet.

[Cotigo]

So after calculating out how much it's going to cost to get to Vancouver and back plus housing costs, I can't really justify spending that amount of money until I know I'm going to have a steady income back in the states. If I end up having a job lined up before coming back I may change my mind, but almost 99% assuredly not coming now.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I, on the other hand, now have the official go ahead from work to plan things and buy tickets. I've never been to Canada so it'd be cool to stay a few extra days outside the con for a long trip from Japan. My BF is also very interested in coming so I wanted to ask what would be the best way to make that all work out.

[Grefter]

I've never been to Canada so it'd be cool

You do realise they get Summer as well right?

My BF is also very interested in coming so I wanted to ask what would be the best way to make ... out.

I expected you to have worked this out by now.


Also woot more Shun in our lives makes them better lives.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Djinny - You can come before or after Con, it doesn't matter. Not sure how well we'll be able to host multiple people in our apartment since it's not very big, so you might want to find some lodging for the extra time unless someone else wants to offer.

[Excal]

If you can't find anything, it's possible I might have a pair of couches that could be crashed upon.  But I won't have a firm answer until after the move is done, and things are discussed with the co-habitant.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Doing the airline ticket search now. God this part always takes so long...

If worst comes to worst and tickets are exorbitantly expensive, not having to pay for a hotel for X days even if it means sleeping bags on someone's living room floor will make the financial hit a little less heavy.

[Lady Door]

... it's $137 R/T from SFO to Seattle versus $362 R/T from SFO to Vancouver. Since my family lives near Seattle anyway, I think I may end up doing the driving thing. I will talk to my family about borrowing their Jeep for the week and renting a car for them to use so that I don't have to worry about the border crossing.

If that works out, I can fit ~2 more people in the cross-border caravan! Just in case someone wants to factor that into their plane ticket search.

[Hunter Sopko]

It's looking increasingly likely I will be able to make it. Being cautious though before committing. I'll know in 2 weeks prolly.

I'dve been up for that, but sadly there's no price or time savings to be had between Seattle and Vancouver (Seattle is actually 40 bucks more expensive).

[Dark Holy Elf]

Doing the airline ticket search now. God this part always takes so long...

If worst comes to worst and tickets are exorbitantly expensive, not having to pay for a hotel for X days even if it means sleeping bags on someone's living room floor will make the financial hit a little less heavy.

Yeah, we can certainly host you for some extra time if necessary. and/or one of the other Vancouverites may be able to (our place is a bit small for hosting two DLers at once, though it has happened before!).

[Luther Lansfeld]

House is booked for August 11-15.

[Lady Door]

Hooray!

Do you have details on ~cost per person, number of people you need to stay at the house, if there's room for activities there or we need to find something else, location, etc?

[Luther Lansfeld]

It will be about 225 CDN per person depending on the specific number of people paying (we will be chipping in but probably not staying), and 16 is its capacity. There should be room for activities (it's 2500 square feet) although we might want to bring in some extra tables or something https://www.vrbo.com/816040#photos. There is also a cooking area if people want to do that sort of thing (I may). Location is in south central Vancouver. It's about a 15 minute transit to and from the airport and about a 8 minute transit to the downtown core. It is pretty centrally accessible to whatever you want to do in the city and we shouldn't really need cars unless people really love riding in cars for some reason. The house is from Thursday at 4pm to Monday at 11am.

[SnowFire]

Depending on attendance, I suspect I might be up for splitting a nearby hotel room with others.  Basically if the house is going to be at capacity, I'm more tempted to want to do this if anyone else is up for it; if people staying at the house is low, then I'll be down for splitting the house.

That's not really why I'm posting here of course; it was either here or Misc. Links, but as a warning, I think the next Fast & the Furious movie is gonna be set in Vancouver:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/13/world/americas/canada-vancouver-chinese-immigrant-wealth.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

In 2011, the police impounded a squadron of 13 Lamborghinis, Maseratis and other luxury cars, worth $2 million, for racing on a metropolitan Vancouver highway at 125 miles per hour.

Intense.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I will ask that anyone who is coming but chooses to not stay at the house to chip in for some of the cost since it is a community space we are all using.