As one flies over Vancouver during the decent into the Canadian citys airport, the surrounding beautiful natural scenery is already noticed with mountains on one side and the sea on the other.
Once inside the baggage claim area of the international airport, visitors are greeted with large Pacific Northwest Coast Indian art carvings. This adds to the overall flavor of nature and the environment that makes Vancouver so different from other major cities. When driving along Granville Street towards the city center, one cant help but notice that the trees and hedges in the residential areas are so much larger and taller than the ones we normally see elsewhere. One of the locals claims that the superior growth of the areas plant life is due to the huge amount of rainfall. Vancouver is close to both the ocean and the mountain range so lots of rain is expected. In fact, the rain here can actually be a problem as grey skies, especially during the winter months, are one of the few negatives of living in Vancouver. Fortunately, there is very little snowfall within the city so for Vancouverites, it is a trade off of some sort to have to deal with rain rather than shoveling snow...