from Victoria. It’s strange to think that may be the last time I’ll ever be in Victoria, a city I have visited almost every year, and sometimes more than once a year, for most of the last 20 years. But with both my parents dead, and no personal friends there, I expect I’ll never return. Victoria is essentially a big little town, and the sidewalks roll up around 9pm, but it’s probably the prettiest city in Canada (I’m told Quebec City is in contention, in a completely different way, but have never visited it). It also has some of the best bookstores in Canada, a ton of other interesting stores, and some of the best weather in Canada, as long as you don’t mind rain.
And I miss the sea, and will miss it more.
Cujo359
I live on the Puget Sound. I’d hate to not be able to do that anymore.
Tina
cujo, some of my fondest memories of Tacoma are of Puget Sound and Pt Defiance Park. It is definitely something I could wake up to every day 🙂
Lex
Victoria’s lovely…and less rain than Vancouver iirc. Yes, the presence of the sea in that region is something powerful. Though for someone who grew up among the Great Lakes (and not the little Great Lakes) there’s something strangely dissatisfying about the ocean…i mean, it looks right but you can’t drink it.
Superior looks a lot like the PNW, though the trees are smaller.
Ian Welsh
Forests in Ontario are never green enough for me, and the great lakes feel off, for some reason. (and I’d never dare drink from them anyway, certainly not around Toronto…)
Jeff Wegerson
Sook Potholes outside of Victoria was a favorite moment and another was playing being British with our daughters at High Tea in Victoria. I began learning French, which I never got a real chance to even try out, for Quebec City, but still it had the real feel of being in a foreign country.
A huge hole in my travels is Toronto and Lake Ontario. While all the other lakes I’ve seen from land, I have only seen Ontario from the air. I have heard so many good things about Toronto that I almost ache to visit her.
Swimming in the Ocean in Miami where I grew up till I was 11 as a kid was great. But now as an adult my favorite swimming is when the wind is from the north at the end of July and August just over the Indiana/Michigan border on Lake Michigan. The water gets warm enough to loll in and when the wind has blown over the length of the lake the waves become big and dangerous enough to warn swimmers of rip currents. That’s fun. And no sharks or jelly fish and when you come out of the water you don’t need to shower.
Lex
I can certainly understand how Eastern boreal forests would seem pale after British Columbia. And i wouldn’t drink from Lake Ontario either, but i live on the other end of the chain. Our municipal water comes right out of Superior, is mechanically filtered and gets a touch of chlorine (1.6 ppm at the injector). There’s a little something to harden the water too, otherwise it’s soft enough to eat through galvanized steel.
And it’s delicious. Whenever i’m away i end up looking forward to getting home for a decent glass of water (and will sometimes take extra with me to lessen the time without it).
Ten Bears
Ian, you are a Cascadian, don’t wander too far.
perris
hey ian, haven’t been here for a while, hope everything’s going good
I just sent a tip off to jane over at firedoglake and I think this is a tip that would wet your lips too, maybe you can host a cross posted front page over there and here
I haven’t seen anyone write about about what’s happened with washington mutual about a year ago
their assets were bought by jp morgan, the commision allowed that sale without and let washington mutual take the assets without being responsible for the liabilities that were attached to those assets
therefore, whoever had bonds with washington mutual were left with no assets to sue against
so, if I bought a million dollars worth of wm bonds, that money was sold to jp morgan, but not the liability attached to it and washington mutual continued to hold my bond
I would have no recourse to recover the money I gave for my bonds
there is a law suit going on now but there is no public information being diseminated
here’s something about the suit
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10647840/is-a-wamu-jpmorgan-settlement-possible.html
this really needs to get the publics attention
if you do a piece on it please contact jane to cross post as I sent her the suggestio aswell
Tom Robinson
There was a three-part story on the Washington Mutual crash in the Puget Sound Business Journal, a Seattle-based weekly, during late 2009, with the last installment dated December 25.
http://bit.ly/5jrZ1d