come out to vancouver and ignore the rest of the frozen wasteland (god knows we try hehe). right time of year you can ski in the morning and go wind surfing in the afternoon.

Sounds like California to me(just kiddin' Ehran!). Finaly, a non-flame thread about Canadian-US relations. May it stay that way. Neighbors may have disagreements from time to time, but that doesn't mean they have to be rude.

in california it's a big part of the day driving from skiing to surfing here it's about an hours drive unless you stop for lunch in which case the plank baked salmon is to die for.

How does the climate in Vancouver compare to Anchorage, Alaska? I lived there for a few years as a young child when my dad was stationed at Elmendorf AFB. What's your view of Canada-US relations in the aftermath of our disagreement over Iraq? Where I live, down here in the Deep South, I don't think Iraq has had that much of an effect. Whenever I hear anyone complain, it's always about France and Germany. I haven't really heard any complaints about Canada. We interact a lot with Canadians down here, and I think the view of them is generally favorable. Canadian visitors are very important to our local economies, especially during the winter months, so you are definitely most welcome down here. And Canadians are easy to spot. While we thin-blooded Americans are all bundled up in our coats and jackets freezing, Canadians are out on the beach in shirt-sleeves. You must have polar bear blood in you! ;) I don't believe Canada should be condemned for their decision over Iraq. You took a neutral view, and while disappointing to us, I think that's allowed within the framework of our friendship and alliance. It's not like you actively tried to undermine us. You simply said you disagreed and declined to participate. You did participate in Afghanistan, and I thank you for that.

As a destination you don't get to see them tear through on the highways. Those Quebecoisers are like lunatics on crack. White minivan doing 108MPH? Quebecois fersure.

I always thought that BC stood for British California? :-) All my time in Canada (a lot!) was in Ontario, Quebec and the maritimes (yes, I know how to tell Newfy jokes!) I am with you.....I have missed hockey (hate the NBA) and look forward to next season.

the climate in vancouver area is pretty temperate. we get a week or two of snow and such in january and that's generally it. downside is it rains here for months at a time in the winter which bites if you are an outdoorsy type. not sure i could visit the southern us as i would probably melt into a puddle as soon as i left the air conditioning. for me 75 F is getting uncomfortably warm especially if i am active. i am something of a mutant even by canadian standards as i find it perfectly fine to sleep with the windows open in january. george has a lot of people here worried over his security concerns and more particularly to his actions about security concerns. it's not so much that we feel he is out to "get us" as the casual getting stepped on that happens. his latest brainstorm (well someone in the administration's) involves vetting passenger lists of canadian flights from one canadian city to another if they pass over us soil at any point during the flight. this sort of thing doesn't "fly" well here where our perceived threat from the wot is pretty low. i think both our media do us a considerable disservice in that they tend to ignore the other side of the border unless there is something bad like that prat in the prime minister's office who said something unkind about americans with the mike open. or someone boos someone else's anthem at a hockey game. that sort of thing gets a lot of coverage which leads to coverage on the other side of the border of course. i seem to remember the gov't of the day spending some time trying to build bridges tween the us and europe over iraq but nobody was really interested in that. we may yet wind up in iraq if/when the un takes the mess over. great thing about the un is their desire to get canadians involved in other people's problems round the world. everyone i know in the canadian land forces has multiple tours of the world's funnest spots on behalf of the UN. we do a lot of bitching and complaining but push comes to shove there is little doubt where we are going to come down. even if i do spend a day or two a week thinking a maverick through the front doors of the federal trade commission would be a perfectly good expression of trade policy.

two factors lead to that shallow. first for some reason you folks have yet to embrace the metric system. second this leads to confusion amongst the mathematically challenged who convert the wrong way. incidentally this happens to american tourists up here from time to time. 100 or 110 kph is the listed speed on the freeways here and a friend who dated a highway patrol mountie said she pulled over a couple tourists a week who were "confused" hehe.

if you've been in the annapolis valley in i thnk it's nova scotia (those tiny little eastern provinces grr) their climate is similar to vancouvers though not so much rain in the winter i am told. trouble with the nba is there are no sticks of any sort and no personal contact. what the heck kind of a game doesn't have those things and the nba is kinda slow compared to hockey too. hmm wonder if anyone ever figured out how many miles a hockey puck moves during a game compared to a basketball or baseball?

You'll just have to visit the southern US during the winter months. We really don't want you to come down and "puddle" during the summer. That's really messy and not too good for international relations. ;) I heard about that proposal vetting passenger lists. I'm not sure what the rationale is. Sounds to me like some bureaucrats have too much time on their hands. The TSA really isn't too popular down here. I only fly occasionally, so I don't have to put up it too much. Speaking of hocky pucks, I believe they've clocked them going over 100 mph. That would be over 160 kph for you metric types, heh heh heh!