calgary, vancouver or elsewhere?
Dec 29th 2009, 5:33 am
#46
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jul 2006
Location: Cochrane, Alberta
Posts: 7,864
Re: calgary, vancouver or elsewhere?
Hmmmm. Calgary is certainly not 'typically brown for most of the year' at all. it is true that spring is very brief, but there is a terrific 6 month growing period where plants and trees grow very quickly - I am an avid gardener, and as long as I use plants suited to the climate/soil etc, I can easily get the same growth as in the UK.
But there is barely a leaf or scrap of colour till the third week of May. So that leaves June, July and August looking pretty good and by the end of August, the lack of rain leaves all public grassed areas quite brown again (think roadside verges and parks, and distant hills and landscapes)(gardens with irrigation still look good), and by the end of Sept/first week in October, we are back to brown again.
I must sound like a broken record - but I struggle with the landscape here a little bit and I am somewhat anti-irrigation systems which waste a precious resource in these parts. That mountainous horizon and stunning blue skies keep me going.
Dec 29th 2009, 5:37 am
#47
.
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 20,185
Re: calgary, vancouver or elsewhere?
None taken but for US and our criteria there are 2 massive similarities....Whistler and Banff within similar distances and both cities have good riding within the city. You see my other half and I both freestyle snowboard (on a weekly basis in the UK) and the children are getting up to that level.....so if we can snowboard every day we absolutely will! Thats one of the main reasons we're emigrating and although Vancouver is exactly where I would like to live for the amazing scenery and summer activities that we could do, the lure of more affordable housing in Calgary is so tempting.
So Grouse Mountain covers the freestyle snowboard aspect in Van, they have a great park with night riding and then there's Olympic park in Calgary. They would both give us the opportunity to practise our sport midweek and then head off to the bigger mountains at weekends.
It really DOES boil down to good access to snowboarding in winter. Just trying to weigh up the pros and cons of both cities aside from that criteria.
We would be looking at spending $400,000 on a home....and I don't want a condo as we have children and would like a garden for them to play in. That wouldn't even get us a tiny house in Greater Vancouver, but in Calgary it buys a really lovely family home (and much larger than what he have now!)
I'm sure that for you the cities are very different....but for our reasons they tick both boxes hence my original post.
We spoke about it at length last night and we think that the bitter cold in Calgary winter might be a little too much for the children. With Vancouver it might be cold on the mountain but similar to the UK back down at near sea level. We might not be able to afford the kind of house we want, but we can spend our summers renovating!
So Grouse Mountain covers the freestyle snowboard aspect in Van, they have a great park with night riding and then there's Olympic park in Calgary. They would both give us the opportunity to practise our sport midweek and then head off to the bigger mountains at weekends.
It really DOES boil down to good access to snowboarding in winter. Just trying to weigh up the pros and cons of both cities aside from that criteria.
We would be looking at spending $400,000 on a home....and I don't want a condo as we have children and would like a garden for them to play in. That wouldn't even get us a tiny house in Greater Vancouver, but in Calgary it buys a really lovely family home (and much larger than what he have now!)
I'm sure that for you the cities are very different....but for our reasons they tick both boxes hence my original post.
We spoke about it at length last night and we think that the bitter cold in Calgary winter might be a little too much for the children. With Vancouver it might be cold on the mountain but similar to the UK back down at near sea level. We might not be able to afford the kind of house we want, but we can spend our summers renovating!
Dec 29th 2009, 9:09 am
#48
Beep
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Here
Posts: 8,311
Re: calgary, vancouver or elsewhere?
Just a thought. What happens if you or your partner breaks a leg or buggers up your/their knee and can never snow board anymore? If one partner is left out of the family fun, it might cause unforeseen problems. I can see a single person in their early 20s doing it, but it does seem a rather large lifestyle change for a family to take, just so they can go skiing.
