11/08/2025
Our journey has been full of change, daily, weekly, and monthly.
When this all started, the idea was to relocate to somewhere in Canada (Toronto, Ottawa, or Victoria/Vancouver area) (he's canadian) because of several reasons... i'll leave out the politics but i'm 100% certain that a country CANNOT "actually" be taken over and "become" the 51st state, despite how many times one person says that's what they want,,,,, so i disregarded it as "hot air"..... he did not disregard it, and so, wanted to leave the U.S. .. Meanwhile, hot air is hot air and i had to go back to work so i went back to Oregon.
Anyway.
He came up to Canada.
The original plan was to fly, but proved to be quite difficult with a non-service dog, non-therapy dog (working on that).
When the flying plan fell apart, he drove my car up.
The drive up included alot of stops for gas and highway hotels. It took about 5 days.
One happy day was when he showed up early at the town where I would be working, and we had a short but sweet day visit.
After a sweet day, he continued on his way to Victoria. Without any real opportunity to find a solid rental, and after an online scam took him for $300, the only option left was airbnb.
So airbnb was the deal for the next 3 weeks or so. What's nice is that the homeowner will extend your stay for a better rate.
On my first workbreak, i came up to Victoria - OMG to be honest it's a great visit but a pain in the royal asssss to get here. From my work location i had to catch a ride to enterprise rent a car, which would not rent to me without a credit card. Then i had to Amtrak to Seattle to catch a regional commuter bus, but too late for the ferry so i had to stay in a hotel in Seattle. The next morning i would try again, Uber to the bus station (20 minutes) then ride up to the ferry port (90 minutes) (Port Angeles) to catch a very prompt ferry to Victoria harbor (also 90 minutes).
Together we drove to the current airbnb (very nice) and a meal. The balance of this workbreak was spent on searching for a pet-friendly rental (home, room, or apartment). It's not easy, and especially not easy in the middle of June when EVERYBODY is looking for the same thing. It's amazing how FEW people are willing to rent to a single male with a pet. They all want females 20-30 years old, university students, happy to have 'girlie nights in with wine and movies...'...
Anyway.
We found, one day, ourselves up on Fort Street (or avenue) i don't remember. It's full of apartments. !
We parked the car and walked around a bit. What's interesting here (CA) vs the States, is that i'm not finding a massive apartment complex with a main office to go sit and look at floor plans etc. i.e. like "Polo Glen" or "TownPlace" or "IMT" etc. ALL over nashville you will find cute-names on apartment complexes and they have a main office, you walk in and find an agent ready to give you a tour, show you floor plans, talk about your move-in dates. No problem. They have 200-300 apartments available.
In Victoria, there's nothing really like that. We walked around this Fort street location and saw plenty of independent apartment buidlings. Standalone buildings that might have 50 units. What's interesting is that they have "No Vacancy" signs out front, or, "Vacancy." What's also interesting is there are no on-site office or team. You have to figure it out. Some building signage indicates the company, some do not. How do you know what a floor plan looks like? you don't. You won't be able to see that unless there's a vacancy. Then, you realize how quickly vacancies get snapped up here, you're tempted to just take it because you don't know what else will be available or when,,, AND you don't want to keep spending $$ on airbnb and movoing in/out every 4 days...
So we stumbled up an apartment with a sign and called the number, a lady answered the call (surprise! it was a saturday) so we agreed to meet. The only available apartment she had, in our price range and rather quickly on time, was downtown. Good for Cameron because he wanted to be able to walk to work.
I finished my workbreak and on the day after I left, he signed all the papers for his new place.
On my next workbreak, again i went to Victoria. Again i took the Amtrak, uber, and ferry, although this time i left earlier and avoided the hotel stay in Seattle. He picked me up at the ferry and for two weeks i enjoyed not working, but "furnishing" a studio apartment.
It's AMAZING how HUGE a space can look when it's empty. Then you put in a 2-person table w/chairs and a Queen bed and suddenly it feels crowded.
Anyway. Facebook marketplace is a 'good' place to look, however, just like in the U.S., scams abound.
At the end of this workbreak, i took my car with me back to Oregon. Woooooooooooooo the feeling of freedom!! Not from work and not from him, but from being bound by a public transit schedule. EVERY decision i needed to make, had to match and fit a public schedule of the bus, the Amtrak, the highspeed train, and of all the most important, the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria. What a MAJOR ROYAL pain in the ass. Fair warning if you think you're moving to Victoria, do NOT do it without a vehicle. Even getting a rental car was a pain in the ass. I do not have a cc. I do not want a cc. I do everything cash/debit. I did not PLAN to use a rental car but because my wrok company will not fly me to a international airport (YYZ) I was scrambling for an option. Rental car option didn't work out, so i was forced to find the RIGHT highspeed train, the RIGHT Amtrak, the RIGHT bus, all planning BACKWARDS just in order to get to Port Angeles on time to catch the ferry. Which operates on a STRICT schedule. Like, 3 per day until high summer season. Then 4 per day. (And now in November, 2 per day.)
With my car in Oregon, it was a blessing. I was able to drive myself to all sorts of places only as time allowed. Walmart. Target. Doctor's office for other coworkers. Food stores for the chef. And i was able to put alot of excess personal belongings in my car, to clear out my room onboard my boat.
To be continued....!!
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