Summer 08

So, today starts the real summer 2008 - my husband and I left for British Columbia.  Hoping to beat the choking smoke in Redding, CA - wildfires are consuming most of the surrounding hills and much of the area in the upper Sacramento Valley.  However, while driving through Oregon (we've stopped in Salem), the smoke is all the way up here in the Willemette Valley.  So much for breathing better.

I noticed a number of things today as we were driving - the item I noticed most was the number of ads for motels that included the note:  free internet or free wi-fi. How the times have changed.  We've traveled with a laptop for at least ten years and have run the gamut from no internet, high priced internet, bring your own ethernet cable -  to almost universal free internet access at the hotels/motels where you choose to stay.  We checked to make sure that every place we are staying - even the B&Bs - have internet access.  Times have changed tremendously in a very short period of time.  

This phenom has reminded me of what I try to tell my teaching colleagues - our students are growing up in a very different world with myriad expectations beyond what we ever thought when we were young.  Wi-fi is expected from them - they are surprised when you tell them that they will have a problem with cell phone access out of country.  We are using Skype to get in touch with loved ones while we are gone because ATT cannot figure out that people are not going to pay the outrageous prices they want to charge when we head across the border into Canada.  Young people today expect to send messages, call friends, and keep in contact regardless of a border.  The change in internet access says to me that hotels/motels have figured it out.  Maybe the cell phone companies should check it out.

Will post again tomorrow from beautiful Linwood, Washington.

7/2/2008