Thanks again. It is really beautiful in this area. I've been fortunate that ever since I moved to Canada in 1973 I've always lived in a relatively secluded, beautiful place. The first was on Vancouver Island north of Victoria. I rented a log house on the property of a well to do lady and went to her house and cooked 5 nights a week. The house was on the ocean and a world away from Southern Calif. where I grew up. The first house my husband and I bought was on Salt Spring Island. That was a great experience for the time. We lived on a small lake. When our kids were small we decided it was time to move. A friend lived in Salmon Arm and when we visited him, we loved it. No taking ferries anywhere would have sold me on just about anywhere! Paul, we already have a McDonalds, A&W, Dairy Queen, Wendy's, Joey's Only, Dominoes Pizza, Subway and probably others that are thankfully slipping my mind. I call this the lousy resturant capitol of Canada. We are 45 minutes from a slightly larger town of Vernon that has everything except Cost-co. I'm perfactly happy to go there if I want to go to Wallmart or Home Depot but nobody asked me! The planning here is really pathetic. I've often felt that those in charge should be made to actually GO somewhere and see what is done in other places with a shoreline like ours. Where the wharf is in the pictures coming toward you is East. This area between the wharf and the nature preserve has been the subject for controversary since I've lived here. The person who owned the land between the wharf and the nature preserve walk wanted to develop it. I can't really remember what he wanted to do but whatever it was the city wouldn't let him. He was so frustrated at one point he was threatening to put an RV park there for spite. It was already zoned for that so they couldn't have stopped him. Gradually some buildings were built in this area. The first ones were government offices. That's where you went to get your drivers license and file claims about bad tennants. It was so weird. I pictured something like the Steveston area in Vancouver or Monterey in Calif. The vision was certainly lacking. Now there are a couple townhouse developments which are for retired people plus a big very expensive, care facility. The bay is very shallow and the railroad track runs between the town and the shoreline. That seems to separate the town from the shore in a weird kind of way. If you don't have particular buisness across the tracks, you don't go there. The property being fought over for wallmart is West of the wharf. I've been told it's the only spot large enough to accomodate the type of shopping center they want to build. I guess there are 'politics' to deal with no matter where you live. Sad....

Thanks Teresa.... Well by looking again at the leaves of the plant I photographed and comparing them with those that show up on a Google image search of Ageratum, I see that they are both very similar.....roughly heart-shaped and serrated, whereas the spirea leaves are narrow and lance-shaped. I noticed there are also quite a few different hybrid cultivars of ageratum so this one probably belongs to that family. Closeup of the bush I'm questioning: I guess I can always go back there and ask those gardeners lol. SharonCb

I've lived in suburban Orange County, California all my life. I'm only 23 and everything has changed since I was a kid. I remember when Huntington Beach still had swamp land full of trees and big oil rigs on it. Now it's full of million dollar town houses ON the swamp land and a few oil rigs that just sit there. Rarely do you ever see one that's actually moving. I just bought my grandma's house that's in one of the still unincorporated cities that most people who have grown up in the area didn't even know existed. Traffic is awful. During random hours of the day it can take me about 10 to 15 minutes to get to work but around regular commute hours it could take 20 to 45 minutes. You learn quick not to use the freeway unless necessary. There are many nature preserves and playgrounds. And I love the fact that I get the ocean breeze even on hot days and I don't have to actually be at the beach.

Thanks for that link - I've looked at it over and over (found it when searching myself) and Maddie copied from it, I believe. I realized I was confused because part way down the list, it switches to items allowed from other countries (not the US) and says milk is prohibited: Dairy products cheese: up to 20 kilograms per person Please note that quantities in excess of $20.00 may be subject to high rates of duty. The CBSA is responsible for determining customs and duties for items coming into Canada. These items are not allowed milk milk products (whey, cream, skim milk, butter oil, and so on) in these forms: dried, frozen, reconstituted, or fresh I didn't notice the heading change so was VERY confused! Now I think I have it straight. I tried to follow the link to inside the link to get specific fruit and vegetable info, but it's impossible to use (at least from my Mac). I'll just not spend $10 on organic cherries and risk having to discard them. I'll put some raisins and dried apples in his pack. I realized I'll want to go to the grocery anyway before we leave so I can get some Sultanas and Ketchup flavored potato chips to bring back for my friends!