Archive for March, 2011

Literary Mileage
Migration Patterns of Snowbirds

Monday, March 14th, 2011

March 14
In the last week I’ve experienced life by the water in two completely contrasting ways…one here in Delray Beach, FL, where I’ve been since early January and the other in Victoria, BC, where I was in early March. I was surprised to hear someone in Victoria describe their city as “Canada’s Florida”—a popular escape for retirees and other northern Canadians seeking a respite from their cold weather.

Delray is a subtropical Atlantic Beach community along the gold coast of south Florida—its sandy beaches a magnet for retirees and winter escapees. Pricey watercraft are docked behind expensive homes that line the Intracoastal Waterway. Multiple varieties of palm trees and blooming hibiscus, bougainvillea, geraniums, and impatiens create a color palate that coordinates with the pastel colors of building facades. It is nirvana for anyone who gets depressed by gray winter weather.

Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia (the other Florida), is reachable by ferry. My friends and I took the passenger ferry, Victoria Clipper, from Seattle through Puget Sound to the harbor of Victoria, where the Empress Hotel is enthroned, overlooking the harbor and adjacent to BC’s majestic Parliament Building. Victoria is a compact city, easily walkable in the older section of town which hovers near the water.

Photo taken by Sheila Campbell

This city of 78,000 is a product of the water and the mountains that frame it. Water defines Victoria, but in a completely different way than the Atlantic defines south Florida. Its shoreline is rocky and rough looking—not an inviting place for a swim. I suspect the water would be far too cold anyway. A Canadian Coast Guard station is here. Seaplanes land and take off. Ferries come and go. A colorful houseboat community comprises part of Fisherman’s Wharf. Because of its hospitable climate, Victoria is also called the City of Gardens. We were about two weeks early for the blooming, which means I’ll have to return in early summer sometime. Lots of crocus, daffodils, primrose, etc., can already be seen. A couple of weeks of sunshine will push everything out of the ground and into bloom. We saw hints of Victoria’s flowering splendor at the Butchart Gardens—a destination that merits its own blog post.

This snowbird starts her migration back north this week—anxious to see my cats, friends, neighbors on Capitol Hill, Peregrine Coffee. But I am sad to leave my sunny alternate universe.

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