Travel on WT8P's Notes to Self

Prague Planning Retrospective

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 22:21:00 +0000

Where to start…

Unlike Iceland, where I’d be (at the time) moving around the island, I’d planned to stay in Prague. I initially started with the Lonely Planet Pocket Prague for trying to plan days of things to do. However, since I was going to be geocaching-focused, I used the CacheTur.No tool for laying out routes. For example, one sub-trip had me going down to Vysehrad (south), another hitting the Charles Bridge early, before crowds came in.

Sometimes poop happens

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 21:59:31 +0000

When my daughter was in college, I’d periodically visit to check up and take her on a Target trip to ensure she had all the household comforts needed. Although there was scheduled flight service to the college town, it was generally cheaper and quicker taking the nonstop from Seattle to either Chicago O’Hare or Milwaukee Mitchell, renting a car, and driving the rest of the way to the college town. And being one who likes to wander, I’d also scout out geocaching opportunities. On a particular trip in 2018, shortly after I started a new job and had no accrued vacation time, I flew after work on Friday, arriving to my motel after midnight. I intended to get up at the ass crack Saturday morning, meet her for breakfast, spend time with her (as she was available), then drive back Sunday afternoon to Milwaukee and fly home.

DC Trip 2024

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 05:24:34 +0000

I made my third trip to Washington, DC, but the first time I’d spent any time for vacation. Some of the things we saw during the trip:

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum is one of the most popular museums for a good reason, and you absolutely must get (free) timed tickets for. Part of it has been under reconstruction for a few years, with some items moved to another facility. However, there’s still a lot to see ranging from the early history of flight to planetary exploration. The photo above is an F1 engine from Apollo 11, recovered by a Bezos expedition and donated to the museum. The immensity is readily apparent, as was the hand assembly. ******* Allow 3-4 hours, Free, timed-tickets essential**. (There’s plenty to see, it just gets overwhelming with crowds.)

Washington DC Metro SmarTrip

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 05:38:26 +0000

I just returned from ten days in Washington DC, where I got around solelyby walking and public transit (bus and train). It was awesomely efficient. One of the more difficult things to suss out priorto visiting was the use of the SmarTrip app. The short summary: you don’t need it if you’re a tourist. Just use the Wallet function.

The app does three things:

Lets you buy a multi-day pass. The pricing was extremely confusing with multiple agencies and “unlimited.” I’m sure this would make more sense to a local, but it was simpler and cheaper to just buy the fares we used.

Prague Trip – Part 2

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 01:24:50 +0000

Belatedly following up with Part 1, my remaining time Prague had a day-trip to Bohemian Switzerland National Park, Bastei Bridge, and a lot of geocaching throughout the city. (Prague geocachers bring their A-game. I went home finding 132 caches in Iceland, 71 in Czechia and 5 in Germany.) To blow through my remaining CZK, I made a trip to a grocery store and bought enough candy and beer that I needed a second suitcase.

Prague Trip – Part 1

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 01:37:56 +0000

After my time in Iceland, I spent a few days to see Prague, which is renowned for its history and the excellent geocaching community. It did not disappoint.

Day 1

Summary:_ ****Fly from Keflavik, arriving early afternoon. Check into the apartment rental. If time permitted, exchange currency, then wander to the meeting point for the Taste of Prague food tour. Sleep._ The American version of airports.

The night before, I dropped off my rental car and walked to the airport hotel two blocks from Keflavik International. Thinking the US airport experience was the norm, specifically, a lot of time-wasted because of security theater, I planned to be up and out the door by 4:30 a.m. to do all the security hoops for my 7 a.m. flight.

Iceland Planning Retrospective

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 21:09:51 +0000

Where to start…

(extensively updated 2023-10-26)

I initially asked a couple of geocaching friends what they did, and it was evident their visits were stopovers onto somewhere else. It is possible do visit many sites from day-trips while staying in Reykjavik. However, this was my travel destination. While doing a couple of day trips from Reykjavik is fine, the traveling back and forth eats up a lot of valuable vacationing.

Scenes from Day 10 Iceland: All good things…

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 20:45:30 +0000

… must come to an end. For my last day, I had an early reservation at the Sky Lagoon, which is an Oceanside geothermal lagoon closer into town. I just could not get myself interested in the Blue Lagoon on this visit. Although I brought my swimsuit, I ended up renting one so I wouldn’t have to deal with a wet garment in my suitcase.

Sky Lagoon’s “The Ritual” is eloquently explained on their website, but I would summarize as alternating between hotter and colder forms of water. Towards the end, you rub oily salt on your body, then walk into a steam furnace until you absolutely cannot take it anymore, grope for the exit, and take a normal shower. The transitions, especially hot to cold, are surprisingly invigorating.

Scenes from Day 9 of Iceland Trip

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 21:20:48 +0000

Today, my last night in Reykjavik, I spent the morning geocaching around Petrin, checking out the ruins of Oskjuhlid Hill, a WW2 relic. The walk from downtown was a lot longer than I had planned for, but it was basically Seattle weather, and nice to be outdoors: Stairs to ???

WW2 structure

Bunker

On the way back, I was enjoying checking out the local street murals. The cat-stronaut is one of my favorites, but there are several solid works. My favorite

Scenes from Day 8 of Iceland Trip (CW, NSFW)

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:22:10 +0000

There’s some definitely extremely NSFW content here involving an uncharacteristically large number of dick pics. At least twenty. Oops, sorry for the Dick pic, source: Wikipedia.

To avoid the naughty bits appearing at the top of someone’s internet feed, I’m going to complain first.

After last night’s Food and Drink Walk, I ran back to the hotel to dispose of some beer I no longer needed and change into extra warm clothes for another tour that would take us out to see the Northern Lights. It was serendipitous that I’d scheduled this specific day because we were between storms and it was going to be cold and clear, with no interference from the moon, and a Kp index of 4. Although we were successful at seeing aurora, I would not recommend doing this in a tour group.

Scenes from Days 7 of Iceland Trip

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 09:59:57 +0000

Day 7 was largely heading back to Reykjavik, picking up geocaches along the way, and doing a food and drink walk tour to become familiar with the town (and eat something different than skyr and granola).

Urriðafoss was the first stop, and barely registers a paragraph in my tourist guide, but was a nice quick stop. Its name means “waterfall of the salmon,” and it’s located in the river þjórsá. According to the local description, its flow is the highest volume of water in Iceland at 360 cubic meters per second, with a drop of 6 meters. For comparison, Dettifoss, which is supposed to be the second most powerful waterfall in Europe, has a flow of “only” 193 cubic meters per second. The waterfall can freeze in the winter, which must be a spectacle to behold. Urriðafoss

Scenes from Day 6 of Iceland Trip

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 20:30:31 +0000

For today, I had booked a (small) tour through the hostel. The Midgard Surprise is what it sounds like, the guide picks a route based on weather, road conditions, expertise, and whim. Today’s was to Gígjökull, Þórsmörk then a couple of waterfalls.

According to Discover Iceland, Gígjökull is a 7.5 km long crater glacier and one of the outlets from the glacier volcano Eyjafjallajökull, famous its eruption in 2010 that wrought havoc with air traffic as well as being difficult for non-Icelanders to pronounce. (I’m told that it sounds like “Hey I forgot the yogurt” if spoken very quickly.) Eyjafjallajökull

Scenes from Day 5 of Iceland Trip

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 20:20:36 +0000

What a difference two days makes. After visiting Gullfoss and Gljúfurárfoss on Monday, in the heavy rain and wind, I rolled into parking for Skógafoss, stopped maybe 10 minutes, then noped out of there for different, equally blustery options. Because of the orange weather alert and closed roads, yesterday’s highlight was … clean laundry.

Thus, this morning’s cold, clear and calm was extra alluring. I mean, what about this doesn’t just say “go outdoors, now. Okay, you can have breakfast first, but then get outdoors!”?

Not much to show for Day 4

Tue, 10 Oct 2023 19:38:05 +0000

Despite some noisy hostel-mates, last night was my best night’s sleep since I arrived in Iceland. I woke up feeling great, and had no problem getting out and on the road to avoid potential road closures. As of this morning, I still couldn’t find a first-hand source of the potential closures, but took it to be likely given the weather conditions forecast.

I rolled into Hvolsvöllur around 8:30 a.m. and had a “Now, what?” moment. This is not a 24-hour metropolis like New York City (that I still need to write-up). Moreover, the Midgard Base Camp, like most hostels, closes during the day to clean. I passed the time sleeping in the car, walked around the neighborhood photographing random information signs for an art project Meryl is (I think) working on, and shopped in my first Icelandic grocery store. Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

Scenes from a wet Day 3 of Iceland Trip

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 20:44:35 +0000

In my trip planning document weeks ago, I had a note indicating today’s itinerary was likely going to be the wettest time here. Today, with the added benefit of the weather, that lived up to its promise and then some.

The first stop of the morning was Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall located approximately 20km east of Hvolsvöllur. It is not the largest, most powerful, or voted most likely to become class president, but it is a spectacular site with a near-constant roar. As you might be able to tell from the photo, it kicks up a lot of mist.

Scenes from Day 2 of Iceland Trip

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 19:27:19 +0000

The jet lag last night was rough. I think I had a total of nine hours sleep (which is good) but spread over 13 hours attempted (not good), including some surreal dreams. But I was feeling more human again. I started off the day with a latte and an Icelandic vegetarian breakfast of chia pudding and toast with hummus and chutney. Tastes better than it looks!

Having abstained from coffee for two weeks prior to my trip, the latte had the effect of perking me up quickly. First stop of the Golden Circle was Þingvellir National Park, which became a UNESCO site for the historical significance — the AlIÞing‘s (Icelandic parliament) formation over a millennium ago. It’s as equally interesting geologically, as it’s the intersection of two continental plates. Just say no to crack?

Scenes from day 1 of Iceland trip

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 00:22:52 +0000

After clearing customs, fetching my luggage, finding some coffee and scraping ice off my rental car, I headed over to Garðskagaviti to pick up a geocache near the lighthouse.

The cold helped wake me up from the overnight flight until the coffee could kick in. Next, I drove down the Reykjanes peninsula to the point where you could walk between continental plates.

This is the intersection of the North American and Europe’s continents. Another great opportunity to walk and marvel at geology

Iceland Trip

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 22:58:36 +0000

For ham folks who stumble here, the tl;dr is I’ll try to activate four parks on the air as TF/WT8P. I will be QRP, which means CW or FT8 are preferred modes. Logging should happen pretty quickly because Iceland is well-connected.

I’ve been overthinking my trip to Iceland, but this is what I’ve settled on:

Day 1: Arrive 6:15 am and rent a car. Overnight in Reykjavik. KEF to Blue Lagoon earthcaches, some puzzles, then Reyjkavik

Tarryall / Pike’s Peak

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 23:07:00 +0000

The second half of my geocation was in Colorado. With some potentially dicey weather en route (midwest Thunderstorms), my plan was to drive from Mt Sunflower all the way to Tarryall (GC18), the oldest cache in Colorado, then pick up caches (as weather permitted) on the way back to my motel. Departing Mt. Sunflower, KS

This part of Western Kansas/Eastern Colorado feels endless with no official rest stops. I stopped a few times to stretch my legs, grab a quick park-and-grab cache (enough to claim the county), and pee. The night before, I picked up some extra tamales at Los Jarochos food truck in Colby to munch on at an appropriate point. Cell coverage was very limited, I was really glad I had pre-downloaded music and a few (good) audio (meh) books (great). I wish the Netflix app would let one play just the soundtrack to music without having the video screen go. The scene before Lake Urine spontaneously appeared next to my car

Arikaree / Mingo

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 03:38:12 +0000

Day 1: Denver Intergalactic Airport to Arikaree (GC31) and Mingo (GC30)

I took the early flight from Seattle to Denver, not checking a bag to hasten my departure from the airport in hopes of grabbing Mingo (GC30) — the oldest active geocache — and Arikaree (GC31), nearly as old. I soon ended up on a very lonely road, headed east to Nebraska.

The first stop was the triple-point intersection of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, a completely arbitrary waypoint that I’d have no other chance to stop at and claim a virtual cache. Unbeknownst, I’d not only left Settlers of Catan running in the foreground, I also hadn’t plugged the charger cable in right. No battery. I plopped the alternate battery in near Texas Trail Canyon. Hey, I’m in Nebraska! (Also, we really fucked the locals over.)

Mystery Valley

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 02:32:00 +0000

Here it is in August, and it feels like the year has been a dumpster-full-of-doo-doo on fire, about to be hit by murder hornets riding an asteroid. So I started looking at my vacation photos from last October and so much awesome scenery in the Southwestern US get solace in the crazy times since. One of my favorite parts was my brief visit to the Navajo Nation.

I drove up from Farmington, NM, a convenient and inexpensive place to stop and spend the night after visiting Mesa Verde National Park. The Four Corners Monument is a small side-trip from the drive to Navajo Nations Park and an opportunity to claim the four virtual caches marking this small, geographical oddity. Minor travel achievement: unlocked!

Fun in Utah: Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 03:52:00 +0000

Solo Travel Breakfast of Champions

With the Fiery Furnace trip scheduled, I juggled a few of my days there to maximize my awake time. The itinerary was not hugely different:

  **Day**

  **Overnight**

  **Original Plan**

  **Final Plan**

  Salt Lake City

  1

  Moab, UT

  Potter’s Pond, geocaching

  added hiking in Arches NP

  2

  Moab

  Arches National Park

  Canyonlands, Dead Horse Point; Arches

  3

  Moab

  Fiery Furnace, Canyonlands

  Fiery Furnace; get permit at Mesa Verde

  4

  Farmington

  Mesa Verde

  Mesa Verde, Aztec NM

  5

  Monument Valley

  Sunset tour of Mystery Valley

  added Four Corners

  6

  Torrey

  Dead Horse SP, Canyonlands NP

  Added stop at Natural Bridges

  7

  Salt Lake City

  Geocaching around SLC

  Bryce Canyon

  8

  Home!

  Geocaching around SLC

  Pocatello (Southern ID’s oldest cache)

Logistical note: To save the hassle, and for crowd-avoidance, I pre-purchased annual National Parks ($80, from REI) and Utah State Parks ($75 online) passes, keeping both in the window of the rental Jeep. This let me get in super early, usually before gate was attended. Canyonlands National Park, Island in the Sky

Fun in Utah: Arches National Park

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 05:36:04 +0000

One of the rare holidays we receive is Columbus Day. (Seriously?) I’d planned to spend a four-day weekend visiting Arches National Park, when I found some vacation “under the couch,” and extended it to a whole ten days, then added destinations onto that.

The plan was to fly to Salt Lake City Friday evening, spend the night, then drive to Moab via a rare (one of four remaining August 2000 hides) geocache, Potter’s Pond. Located in Manti-La Sal National Forest, at about 9,000′, inclement weather is always a possibility. Once the snow accumulates enough, it’s extremely difficult for a tourist like me to access it until the spring thaw, mid- to late-June. I kept my eye on the weather.

College Visits 2015/7

Mon, 17 Sep 2018 05:09:38 +0000

The Seattle area is large enough that there are regular college fairs where throngs of potential students and parents wander aisles of a cacophonous hall of the Washington State Convention Center, seeking out schools they’ve possibly heard of and picking up brochures from (usually local) alumni volunteers. While the volunteers are able to answer generic questions, the venue is not conducive to having a meaningful conversation. Rather, these events are useful primarily to kick of the thought process during Junior year that, Z_OMG, it’s time to start thinking about colleges._ Dramatic reenactment of my reaction to “ZOMG it’s time to start thinking about colleges.” (Sculpture by the amazing Kimber Fliegler (artbykimber.com)

Michigan – Part 2

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 04:35:27 +0000

(Notes to self, Continued from part 1.) Whitefish Island Indian Reserve, Sault Saint Marie, Ontario

Sault Ste Marie – I’d originally planned to spend a full day in Sault Ste Marie, but that fell apart when I opted to go to Mackinac Island the second time. Since I had to claim my Ontario geocaching souvenir, I crossed the border to hike on Whitefish Island Indian Reserve and see Soo Locks. Swing Gate

Michigan – part 1

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 05:39:04 +0000

Happy Lighthouse is Happy

Finding a time that all of the family schedules line up, and is not so last-minute that activities are sold out or excessively expensive, led to an over-accumulation of vacation time at the end of the year. As I’m less a fan of “losing vacation time” than “vacationing in winter,” I’d take a few days off, but we’d invariably sit around the house as everyone equivocated about what they didn’t want to do.

Mid-Atlantic Countryside

Sat, 04 Mar 2017 07:03:25 +0000

Well that was an enjoyable week! 88 geocaches in 6 states (DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, WV) with 375 miles of biking (and some Ubering) over 9 days. Highlights were the guided tours of Gettysburg, PA (by a professional guide) and Washington, DC monuments (local, at night).

Pre-trip: This was about as bad shape as I could be in for the ride. In June, shortly after signing up for the ride, I sprained my ankle on a hike. Then in August, I caught some sweet bronchitis for 4 weeks: I was in not-so-great shape for the ride.

Geobiking Philly to DC

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 05:32:49 +0000

The excitement of visiting colleges with my daughter, her applying to the short list, and waiting on the results has is over and I’m seriously craving a week unplugged from work. I’ll be taking an organized ride in October from Philadelphia to Washington, DC. Since these trips are as much about seeing different things as the Zen of cycling, I’ll also be stopping for geocaches (and other site seeing) along the way. And maybe butterscotch Tastycakes, Cheeseteaks and those legendary tomatoes I’ve heard about.

John Day Fossil Beds

Thu, 03 May 2012 06:27:07 +0000

I was going through yet another hard disk of photos to find an appropriate “timeline” image for Facebook. Had a lot of fond memories of a geology-themed vacation through southern Washington and central Oregon. The first stop was at Mt. St. Helens, home of the ‘sploded volcano from 1981:

Mt. St. Helens - needs a little TLC

Very close by is Ape Caves, a really long, dark lava tube you can go in. We walked the south (easier) segment. I wanted to extend the trip to the north end with my more adventurous, younger daughter. We went about 500′ into the section before coming to a huge pile of rocks we’d need to climb over (and then back) — great stopping point.

Oshkosh (2001)

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:24:52 +0000

After finishing my commercial pilot rating, I was really hankering for owing my own airplane to avoid all of the randomization with renting and, ultimately, _go someplace far. _That destination would be Oskhosh, WI, for EAA’s Air Venture. For various reasons, not limited to prolonged time being unable to use the restroom and wanting to spend more time with the grandparents, my wife and kids flew out commercially to Chicago. This meshed well with my evil plan of not actually flying into the controlled chaos of EAA Oshkosh. Bwuhahaha.

Cycle Oregon 2009 – part 2

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:37:09 +0000

Day 4: Lake Selmac, OR to Glendale, OR – With the big hills out of the way, they ratcheted up the distance. But by now, I was feeling pretty good. I got to wondering how much better I’d feel if I did a ride like this at the beginning of the season instead of the end…

Highlights:

The route. This is why you take the roundabout way! By mid-morning, we were following the Rogue River near Galice-Hellgate. During my layover day in Grants Pass, I kayaked just west of here.

Cycle Oregon 2009 – part 1

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:30:35 +0000

This year’s route was:

  Medford, OR to Yreka, CA

  66 miles

  5,450′

  Yreka to Happy Camp

  74 miles

  2,600′

  Happy Camp to Lake Selmac, OR

  54 miles

  5,200′

  Lake Selmac to Glendale

  71 miles

  4,192′

  Glendale to Grants Pass

  77 miles

  3,900′

  Grants Pass loop

  43 miles

  2,900′

  Grants Pass to Medford

  42 miles

  2,900′

Day 1 – Medford, OR to Yreka, CA:

Highlights:

The ascent up the Siskiyous. I have come to enjoy these slow, steady grinds uphill:

Chillinati

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:33:00 +0000

  [](http://www.flickr.com/photos/carson/770964221/)

Chili and Diet Dr Pepper

I officially ran out of tchotchkes last night at 6:59 p.m., just as the reception was winding down. The featured dinner was … Skyline Chili in meat and vegetable varieties. The chili has the familiar texture and appearance, but has a vague curry aroma. Its non-Scovill spiciness makes it interesting. Verdict: thumbs up.

Other lines featured hand-carved roast beast (for those who eschew Skyline), fruit-kebobs (strawberry, honeydew, canteloupe, honeydew, pineapple), and brie with apricot marmalade. Uncut, the brie looked like a cheesecake. The dude in front of me apportioned himself a ginormous slice only to be disappointed when the inner cheese oozed out onto his plate. His embarrassment benefitted the rest of us. 🙂

Day three in the Queen City

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:25:23 +0000

The keynote this morning was by Michael Wynne, Secretary of the Air Force. His overarching theme was integration of the engine into the systems on and off the aircraft. For example, since the F-86 fighter, the military has included the engine in the airframe design for efficiency. In commercial aerospace, most planes have the engine bolted to a pylon on the wing. Similarly, providing wireless diagnostics in real-time, kind of like the systems launched by NASA, would permit better timing of repairs. Two takeaways:

Day Two in the Queen City

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:20:57 +0000

  [](http://flickr.com/photos/carson/sets/72157600718562712/)

Last night I assembled my bike in anticipation of seeing the greater Cincinnati area up close and personal. The bike made it through TSA’s clutches fine, but I discovered my frame pump was missing. TSA never fully closes the latches, so my theory is it fell out while they were rummaging. Grrr….

The nearest bike shop, Reser Bicycle, didn’t open until noon. Since I didn’t want to waste the entire morning watching the Stephen Segal marathon on TNT, I planned a circle route around the perimeter, intent on minimizing the time in that area. As I set off with a squishy front tire, so began my comedy of errors.

Ice Planet Hoth

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:39:19 +0000

The white noise and vibration during the takeoff phase of an aircraft always puts me to sleep. It was my hope that I’d stay that way for a significant portion of the flight to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, The Machine That Goes Ping does so at 10,000 feet, when it’s arbitrarily okay to operate portable electronic devices. As I started to nod off again, the pilot interrupts with “Today we’ll be flying over the unpopulated part of Canada, but you won’t see anything because it’s dark out” yatta yatta yatta. Then they serve something. And the glowing display of the plane’s position relative to the route will be on the bright ice sheets of soon to be green Greenland. I didn’t sleep at all.

Beautiful Baltimore

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 06:59:36 +0000

  [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/gwynnfalls.jpg)

Ginormous map!

An interesting facet of the conference I’m attending is each subset has a “lightning round” whereby the presenters have one minute to pitch their subject matter. This and the bound copy of the presentations were enough to narrow down the list of things I would be sitting in on for the first few days. On Monday, the mid-day blocks didn’t look very good, but the weather was. So I went biking along Baltimore’s Gwynns Falls trail.

Tofino and Victoria, British Columbia

Sat, 25 Sep 2004 07:41:07 +0000

  [](https://cdn.wt8p.com/i/issaquahtotofino.jpg)

  Map

During Labour Day week, we took a rare vacation, spending four days in Tofino and two days in Victoria.

Tofino’s on the west coast of Vancouver Island, just north of Pacific Rim National Park, where we’d be making day trips. It’s not very far as the crow flies, but the trip takes all day because of the uncertainties associated with crossing the border, catching the ferry, and riding with small children who need frequent potty and snack breaks. We decided to do the outbound portion in one long day.

The Hotel Douglas, Victoria BC

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 05:07:49 +0000

  [](http://www.hoteldouglas.com)

We took a vacation last week to Tofino, BC, last week. The Tofino part was great, and I’ll write about that later this week when I scan in some photos.

On the way back, we spent two days in Victoria, BC. The city rocks; however our room at the Hotel Douglas had some unique undocumented bonus features that made it a memorable part of our stay.

Automatic intruder detection — thanks to the highly squeaky floor, everybody in the hotel knew when someone got up in the middle of the night to attend to a vital bodily function.
Designer windows — the bathroom had curtains covering full-length windows right next to the toilet. The windows overlooked the null tubule encircled by other rooms. I’m not sure what the intention was. (I hope Debbie can help speculate.)
Self-spraying floor — another curiosity of the bathroom was the lack of any barrier between the “shower” and the rest of the bathroom. In fact, the shower head was one of those nifty movable wand thingies, affixed to the wall such that it would initially spray outward, usually on dry clothes. I availed myself of washroom down the hall.
Surround sound — there was a lounge downstairs that had nightly concerts beginning around 9pm. As the alcohol flowed, the music became loud enough to prevent me from falling asleep, but not loud enough to discern lyrics. I think I heard at least one Neil Diamond song where the crowd joined in. The main room windows overlooked an open area behind above and behind buildings on the block. One of these buildings was a club emanating weird, rhythmic music interrupted by the occasional shattering glass bottle. The two sound sources were incompatible.
Energy conserving lighting — the central room light, one of those awful office-style recessed, fluorescent fixtures, flickered briefly when turned on. We had to play with the switch for a few minutes before it juiced itself up. Speaking of which…
Child-proof light switches — as in “wired so down was on and up was off.” I had my oldest going for a while when I said “Canada uses the metric system, so electricity works differently.”
Satellite parking — the official parking option was a “parkade” about three blocks away. (Although this was a lot closer than the parking I initially found, the signage implied very bad things would happen to my vehicle if left after closing. Thankfully nothing did.)
The Wonkavator — The elevator had that “built in 1912″ feel to it as it grudgingly carried us to within 1.5” of our floor, each time ending its journey with a defiant lurch. The doors’ sensor had a 92-year-old’s vision as it tried to take out my kids.
Laundry conservation — We spent the day exploring Victoria. When we returned at 5pm, our room was still uncleaned, but the maid cart was in the hallway. When we returned after dinner, the maid cart was gone, but the room was still skanky. They had also neglected to clean the washroom down the hall. The lobby staff shrugged it off, but was able to procure another set of towels. There was no attempt to comp us.

It’s possible we had a confluence of bad experiences, but I cannot recommend The Hotel Douglas.