lunabug

This board seems a little slow lately...

so

I would like to know some of everyone's favourite places and views and perfect moments across our country. Here's a couple to get started ...

Sitting atop the Sulphur Ridge trail summmit in Jasper surrounded by hikers from around the world and superb vistas.

On a small boat in the Discovery Passage, early morning, slightly foggy watching a pod of orcas.

Any others?

BuffaloGirl

Does hanging out in a local bar near the old Maple Leaf Gardens after a hockey game count? I had more fun one night (during a quick weekend to TO several years ago) with my husband just hanging out with and watching a bunch of Maple Leaf fans enjoying some beers after the game. What a hoot!

I love Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City!

Of course, the Niagara Falls views are awesome.

NorthwestMale

How about, staying in a hotel that would seem little more than a downtown flop-house were it not situated in White Horse. How about getting to the room late at night, going to bed, and feeling on your legs what you're inclined to believe are BUGS. How about feeling horrified, yet strangely resigned to this fate for a night, then turning off the light, only to find that your own Aurora Borealis lights up beneath the sheets every time you move (due to the STATIC from the dry air there, and accounting for the bug-like feeling).

Then, if that isn't enough, how about awakening the next morning to find the Saddam statue coming down in Baghdad?

Kate_W

Vancouver: skiing in the morning and kayaking in the afternoon.

Vancouver: eating at the Keg Restaurant (a chain of moderately priced steak and seafood restaurants) and being told by your gorgeous, giant strawberry blond male waiter, "Hi, my name is Redwood and I'll be serving you, today." Well, sure, honey, whatever you say.

Toronto: In mid-winter, managing to spend the entire -20C day indoors, walking through the very long and mazelike set of underground shopping malls that link most of the downtown business district. Getting all of your Christmas shopping done, going to a spa, fitting in a few rounds of virtual golf, getting your teeth cleaned, seeing a movie, doing your grocery shopping, seeing all of your friends (who work in the offices attached to the PATH system), having dinner at a topnotch restaurant (Canoe) with superb views (on the 55th floor of one of the office towers) and then taking the subway home to your apartment, which is also linked to the subway - and never having to step outside. Successfully navigating your way through the PATH system without having to come up once for air and to find your bearings.

Toronto: Catching a view of (or participating in) the Pride Parade. Witnessing the wedding of a couple who can't get married in their home state.

Ottawa: Skating to work and having a beavertail (a doughnut-like thing) for breakfast.

Cruiseryyc

Sitting on your balconey at Emerald Lake Lodge, looking at the mountains and lake while the lady next door plays Ode to Joy on her harp. That was a spine tingling moment.

JQReports

...Waterton Lakes National Park from any angle...the Saguenay from Cap Éternité...Port-au-Persil and the view down the hill...the sunsets on the St-Lawrence River as seen from the south shore, anywhere from St-Antoine-de-Tilly east...the full moon reflecting off the water at Point-au-Pic...snowshoeing at night alongside the Lachine Canal after a big snowfall--so peacefull and calm with the bright lights of the skyscrapers only a kilometre away...savouring the view of Lac-St-Jean with a slice of 4-year-old Albert Perron Cheddar, followed by chocolate covered blueberries...buying a kilo of P.E.I. crabmeat from a shack and sitting on a deserted beach with a bottle of white wine watching the waves roll in...

semiramis

Taking the Marine Drive north from Halifax to Cape Breton and losing count after 20 rainbows.

First Glimpse of Clayquoit (spelling wrong I am sure) Sound

First time snorkeling in the incredibly blue, clear, cold waters of Georgian Bay near Tobermory

Saskatchewan - standing in a wheatfield that seemed to go on forever and ever with only a slough and a distant grain elevator breaking the view to the horizon

Seeing Balconville in Verdun Quebec where my mother spent the depression trying to raise 5 kids alone

Trying to decide whether to eat Ethiopian, Thai, Arabic, Vietnamese, Korean, Greek, French, Italian, Mauritian, Afghan or Indonisian food on a quiet night in Toronto - finally went with the Mauritian - Yummy

irecommend

Wow this proves that althought this board is quiet, there's obviously lots of us lurking about with some great thoughts about a great country!
Standing on the rolling hills in PEI and seeing the beautiful beach and ocean in the distance,
Walking the old streets of Quebec City on a blustery day in April
Lake Ohara B.C......anytime

BowenLinda

Sitting on my deck on Bowen Island. A small-window water view towards another Howe Sound Island, with perhaps a tug pulling its load going south and a sailboat ghosting along going north. If I turn my head ninety degrees, I look up at the slope of the mountain behind me. An eagle flies, a couple of hawks play, a family of deer walks through our yard for this is an old deer walk. Soaring Douglas firs, cedars, hemlocks. And it doesn't matter if it's sunny or cloudy or raining, for even sailers will embrace the rain.

bob_brown

Hmm. The Canadian Rockies have many sights. I like three a lot.
1. A view of the Yoho Valley and the northern side of the President Range from the high point on the Whaleback Trail.

2. A view over Lake O'Hara from any one of many places.

3. The views from the highline trail to Lake McArthur, particularly when the lake itself is in view.

Oops. Cannot resist a 4th one. The view of the Angel Glacier from high enough to see the surface of the glacier as well as that tongue of ice hanging down into the valley.

Of course Niagra Falls. That has to be included as well. And Chutes Montmorency, particularly from the pedestrian bridge where one can look straight down to the brink of the falls and follow the cascade all the way to the plunge basin. No place for the acrophobic!!

bob_brown

I suppose I should also include Moraine Lake and Lake Louise.

I was thinking of places where the reward for a hike was great.

Moraine Lake and Lake Louise make an impact from the view points near the parking areas. Of course, the Beehives and the Plain of Six Glaciers are good trails for more views.

bob_brown

'tis quiet. Let me throw in one more, one I bet most people never heard of.
Who has seen Kakabeka Falls?

faithie

The WHOLE of my darling, sweet, gentle, rolling, friendly, PEI!!

gannetmusic

Churchill Manitioba, June 1995.

I'm Canadian but had been living near Chicago for two years. Found myself in Churchill with a small group of birders from the U.S. Midwest. My first time west of Thunder Bay or north of Kapuskasing.

Since I was a kid my passions had been music, wildlife and Canada's landscapes. First the Bruce Peninsula, then all of Ontario, then Atlantic Canada.

But Churchill was my first time anywhere 'north'.

We had visited /birded Churchill for a couple of days and I had come to love the place. The landscapes, abundant wildlife and 'frontier' feeling touched me deeply and got me thinking about what it is to be 'Canadian' and how our landscapes shape our culture and National identity.

My friends headed off to Cape Merry that morning in our rental van. Cape Merry overlooks both Hudson Bay and the mouth of the Churchill River. A splendid, beautiful place.

The morning was sunny, cold and perfect. About two km from Cape Merry I ssked my friends to let me out so I could walk out to the Cape. They obliged and there I was. The amazing blue Hudson Bay dotted with white ice floes on one side and the ridges strewn with huge grey / orange lichen -covered boulders on the other. Seabirds wheeled and cried. The breeze was cold but gentle and the sky a pale milky blue.

I walked along and realized I LOVED this wild and beautiful place. And into my mind came an amazing song by the late Stan Rogers called 'Northwest Passage.' The images in his anthemic tale about a cross-country journey fit perfectly with where I was both physically and spiritually, during that wonderful walk along the Bay. Tears welled up as I enjoyed the perfect landscape and Stan's perfect song.

Approaching Cape Merry I saw my friends far out along the rocks. Much closer was a young Parks Canada interpretive naturalist who I had met briefly earlier in the week. A young woman from the west who came to Churchill five years earlier and had never left.

I tried to compose myself a little, walked up to her and said " Have you ever heard of Stan......?"

Before I could finish my sentence she reached out, touched my arm, and said just two words...."Northwest Passage."

Tears crept into her eyes as well as we spent a few quiet minutes together talking about our wonderful country, that mazing coastline, and Stan's wonderful music.

This was a defining moment in my life and is a story I've probably only shared with half a dozen people before now.

If you are not familiar with Stan Rogers' 'Northwest Pasage' I'm sure you can find it on the internet.

cheers

Jerry

toedtoes

Wow! Jerry, what an amazing story - the visualization is perfect.

gannetmusic

It was a memorable morning. A few years later I had the pleasure of working with Paul Mills, Stan Rogers' producer, and Paul accompanied a girl I was working with on Stan's twelve-string guitar on her rendition of Stan's 'Free in the Harbour'. Another spine tingling moment for me.

Jerry

NorthwestMale

Some of the other threads reminded me of being alone on the north shore of PEI, in what I assume was PEI national park, in the middle of March, with ZERO wind, zero waves, and the most still setting I can remember. It was a few degrees above freezing and I was dressed warmly, but very surprised at the lack of wind or waves on the north shore that day.

LJ

Jerry - thanks for bringing out the poet in the rest of us...

MY favourite place/experience is the contrast between sitting on the ege of a dramatic oceanview, listening to the scree-scree of the eagles, smelling the sea, the wild sage and the cedar, knowing the deer are just waiting for my departure as the only human in a 10 mile radius...then hiking for another half hour back to my charming cottage, change and into town for dinner at a sophisticated, elegant dining room.

Hello Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, land of contrasts.