I don't think you'd want the old Vancouver - it used to be a LOT colder in the past than it is in recent decades, thanks to the global climate change you don't believe in.I want my old Vancouver back.
A few interesting factoids I stumbled across during the last few years, entirely by accident:
1) My 83 year old friend remembers skating on the frozen Fraser river near Fort Langley when he was about ten years old.
2) My 68 year old friend remembers watching ice-floes float down the Fraser river in Vancouver in winter. He never saw the river freeze solid, however.
3) The same 68 year old friend tells me that there used to be a restaurant at one end of the old Portola bridge called "The Flying Dutchman". It was named after a local character, who acquired his nickname because he used to take his goods for sale to Vancouver, by sled, over the frozen Frazer river.
4) One of the local city newspapers (it might have been the Langley Advance) occasionally runs a column containing snippets of old newspaper columns from the area - usually 25 years ago, 50 years ago, 75 years ago, sometimes 100 years ago. One of the "100 years ago" snippets described how Langley farmers were waiting anxiously for the ice on the Fraser river to be thick enough for them to sled their produce to the Vancouver market for sale, as they did every winter.
I've been in the general vicinity of Vancouver for six years now, and I've never seen a trace of ice on the Fraser.
-Gnobuddy
Yes I have seen floes on the Fraser many times in my 57 years. I live close to the river and look for them when it gets cold.
Pattullo bridge called "The Dutchman Drive-in Restaurant"
Not much recently but if you cross the Port Mann bridge everyday, you're bound to see upriver ice makes its way down here a few days a year.
Cheers.
Had a once a decade thing just happen. Out for the afternoon walk in the snow with my furry friend when about half way through, there was a crack in the clouds and out came the brilliant sunshine. Still snowing lightly but we were graced with the golden opal to guide us for the remainder of our walk. I must have done something right recently. Sure feels like it.
It's ok Chris, I believe Gnobuddy is referring to when the temperature is well below normal and I say: "global warming my (rear end)"