The Canadian Riviera

While nobody would call Vancouver a tropical or even subtropical city, by Canadian standards it's quite a banana belt by virtue of the average midwinter temperature being above freezing...about 38 F in January. As a result it is a popular winter vacation spot for Canadians who want to stay incountry but don't want to deal with the subzero weather found in most of the Great White North. A guy across the strait on Vancouver Island was telling me that a lot of the locals there go to Mexico, Hawaii, or Arizona for the winter and rent their places out to folks from the prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) who are happy enough trading 20 below zero for 40 above. Incidentially, the sculpture to the right of the palm trees has been there for a long time; I took a picture of it over 30 years ago.