It’s late after a night of dining and hob-nobbing, but let the world know I kinda like it up here in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. For one thing, there’s not a lick – and I mean not a lick – of heat or humidity in the air. Just a pleasant, dry 71 degrees with bright sunshine. The city of Richmond, where the airport and our company offices are, seems to be kind of a bedroom community with a huge Asian community. So far, from a dining point of view I’m not amazed at the number of Southeast Asian restaurants, which are everywhere – that shouldn’t come as any surprise given the population mix – but I am surprised at the number of Greek restaurants, which seem to be quite prevalent as well. Also, I can’t believe the number of Starbucks’ stores – in Vancouver’s downtown especially, they’re everywhere – sometimes on both sides of the same street corner.

Some other casual observations:

* It would appear the moist climate is perfect for growing hedges, as they are everywhere in all shapes and sizes, and seem to include every kind of greenery imaginable.

* I love the various dark green firs, spruces, pines and hemlocks. They are really beautiful.

* The wild rabbits that appear in the parks here are kind of cream-colored and very cute.

* There are no interstates or main highways as we know them in Arizona. Everything is very compact – the main routes seem to be two or three lanes at the most. The city proper has many tall condominium buildings – I don’t know how expensive they are, but the views from them must be an amazing thing to wake up to in the morning and cocktail to after a long, hard day of work.

It is quite beautiful up here, and if you’re looking for a refreshing change from the summer, you can do a whole lot worse than checking out Vancouver.