Thread: Greetings From The Great Northwest,

Greetings From The Great Northwest,

I just spent 4 days in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, for a Port Visit.

Aside from the beautiful lush green scenery, and cool crisp days I made the following observations about the city and its people.

Most all of the people working in all jobs appeared to be Canadians. I'll explain that more in that even though there ware many different races of people here, what they had in common was that everyone spoke English. I will clarify that one more way in that in the lower paid manual labor jobs, there were just as many Caucasians doing the work as any one else. In the restaurants, the busboys and kitchen help all spoke English. In the hotels, the cleaning staff were all definitely Canadian , no matter what their race. I even went to a Three in one Carwash that was also a laundrymat and gas station, and during the two hours I was there I noticed that the workforce comprised of Caucasian and teenagers.

In fact most lower paying starter jobs in the labor industry seemed to be held by teenagers and college students. This is the way I remember it when growing up in Southern California.

I do know that Canada is very welcome for Legal Immigrants just as the United States is.

I did have one disappointment about this visit to Canada. I spent a portion of my time growing up in Canada as that is where all of my relatives live. One of the things I always liked about visiting Canada was that all of the stores were uniquely Canada. Now every store we have in the U.S. is also in Canada. The difference between Vancouver and Washington is almost nonexistent except for the National Flags. It is sad, because I always liked Canada for being Canada. I can see where the push exists for the North American Union, but while Canada is similar to the U.S., certainly do not see that standard anywhere south of our border.

Well that's it for now, I will be back in a couple of weeks.

R/ Skip


http://www.victoria.ca/visitors/about_loc.shtml

Victoria is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, which is the largest of British Columbia's 6,500 islands. It is a community of choice for its temperate climate, natural beauty, recreational sites and superior economic opportunities. For almost every citizen, native born or "immigrant," the decision to live here is consciously made.


According to the 2001 census, about 325,000 people make their home in the Greater Victoria area. The population has increased from 148,000 in 1961 and is expected to approach 400,000 by the year 2020.

Greater Victoria has attracted people from all over Canada, the United States and other countries. Many of those moving here add to the high level of artistic, technical and professional skills as well as to the entrepreneurial activity. While the region is a popular retirement centre, each year many younger people also move here, bringing education, energy, skills and funds to invest in local business.

The region's strategic location as a gateway to the Pacific Rim, its closeness to U.S. markets, and its many sea and air links have made the area a hub for business development and economic investment.

Skip, I live in the "Great Northwest", NW Oregon. I am prejudice when it comes to the beauty and vast expanses of forests, which we regularly frequent.

Up here, we do have illegals working in some of the fast food and other industries, but I know it is nowhere near what places like SanDiego see. Up here, the workers are still expected to know English and if they do not, it won't be long before you do not see them working those jobs, so our language standards have still not been fully breached, yet.

I just spent 4 days in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, for a Port Visit.

BTW, Anchors aweigh (I assumed you were Navy, maybe I'm wrong?)!! My brother was in the Navy, and was stationed in San Diego for a bit, he retired in 2004. My father also spent time in the Navy during the Korean War, was stationed in San Diego in 1954, where he was stabbed by a Mexican gang member at a gas station (who escaped back to Mexico after the stabbing), nearly died in a Naval Hospital, and from that time on had a diffucult time watching what illegal immigration was doing to this country.

I spent 4 years in the Great Northwest in the 70s, stationed at McChord AFB. What a beautiful part of the nation. I visited Vancouver and was impressed with the hospitality of the people there. However, it rains alot there and I was raised on the beach. After separating from the AF, I went back to S FLA. Been there since and now have recently relocated to Georgia. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! South Florida is not what it used to be. I saw it go from paradise to what it is now

Rockfish, wow!! My husband was in the USAF, spent time in Vietnam (1970-1971) almost two years, and his first stateside stop was at McChord. He was a cryptographer for 11 years.

He is originally from Chicago, but was kind of floating around when he would up here in Oregon and we met.

Also had three uncles in USAF, one was in charge of the Armed Forces radio in Germany, and also spent time in Thailand, the other was only in for about 3 years, the third, I think, did something computers.

Small world that Air Force, huh? The one greeting eveyone has up there that I really like is 'Howdy Howdy'!

Funny! That would have been more my fathers generation. Now unfortunately the Great NW is being invaded by liberals and illegals, mainly liberals.

Know what the state flower is? Mildew! You can tell how freakishly enviromental people are up here when you have a laws that says you cannot pick certain flowers (the Trillium)!

The Air Force was on my mothers side (her three brothers), and my husband, and then on my fathers side they were Navy all the way. Only one Army man, my fathers younger brother, Vietnam, he was with a medical unit and went out to catch snakes to make anti-venoms!! Worse yet, he hated snakes, more so after he got back.

I love taking trips up towards Seattle, just to stop in Federal Way to be around for all the jets coming and going from McChord. We live fairly close to PDX where the Oregon Air National Guard has all of their jets, and we are within some flight paths and can tell when they are training for potential deployment as they will be zooming around, fairly low, scares our neighbors to death !

Several times my son has spotted a "Hercules" coming into the airport. That is one massive plane, cannot believe that thing can fly.

Though, I have to admit, when we stood on the floating dock near PSNS in Bremerton in 2001 when the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vincent came in after an extended deployement, and all the sailors were at attention on the decks, and "Anchors Aweigh" was playing from the base so loud the whole town could hear, it was really and awe inspiring sight. There is something about that tune, and of course, the National Anthem, that gets to me.

I spent an entire day on a raft in the middle of American Lake. I'll never forget it. Someone told me that a famous movie was made there. Out of all the things that I did when I was there, there is two things I wished I had done: 1) climb to the top of Mt Ranier and 2) Go to the top of the Space Needle, there's a restaraunt up there, right?. Is there still that Black Angus resteraunt on Pacific Highway (South, I think) in downtown Tacoma? Great steaks, great lobster!

There is a restaurant in the Space Needle. As for the Black Angus, I do not know, most of them have closed. Mount Ranier, right now is mostly inaccessible to hikers and such as this last November there was a lot of heavy rains and flooding, wiping out many main roads and bridges, which they are working to repair ASAP.

I think I have been to American lake? We mainly do a lot of hiking in Oregon, near Mt. Hood.