Oh Canada

This picture was taken on the seawalk that surrounds Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC.

Vancouver is a short 45 minute jaunt from Lynden, so when it's time to get away, we find Vancouver to be a convenient and fun city to visit. Like San Francisco, it's surrounded by water and filled with an abundance of great restaurants. Here are some more facts about this city:

-Vancouver is located on the Pacific west coast of Canada in the Province of British Columbia, known for its environmental appeal. The city is surrounded by water on three sides and mountains part of the Coast Mountain Range.
Canada's third largest city, Vancouver has the most temperate climate in the country and is consistently rated one of the top three of the world’s most livable cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit survey.

-Vancouver is probably the only place in the world where it is possible to ski, play golf, and go sailing all in the same day.

-Howard Hughes, the famous reclusive billionaire, spent a couple of years in the early 70's secluded away in a suite in the Bayshore Hotel at the entrance to Stanley Park. He moved here after having the pants scared off him by the devastating earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua in the 70's.

-Errol Flynn, the swashbuckling actor and heartthrob from the early days of film, died in a West End Apartment in the 60's. It was rumoured he was broke. It is also rumoured he stashed away a fortune somewhere in Vancouver, that has never been found, and is likely a myth.

-Despite Vancouver's reputation as a "wet" city, it actually has a lower average rainfall than Boston, Mass

-Vancouver is the birthplace of the one of the worlds largest environmental organizations - Greenpeace.

-Despite claims by Toronto & Montreal that they are the most multicultural cities in the country, 35% of Vancouver's population is foreign born, the highest figure in the world. This makes the city technically even more multicultural than New York, although maybe its not so obvious, probably since we have heavier concentrations of 2 or 3 ethic groups rather than a wide cross-section as is the case with Toronto or New York..

-Settlement: Coastal Indians settled in the region by 500 B.C. In 1792, British naval captain George Vancouver explored the area. The city was incorporated in 1886, the same year the Canada-wide railroad was completed, and named after Captain Vancouver.

-Drinking age is 19; no smoking in restaurants & bars; possession of small amounts of marijuana may be decriminalized.