You guys didn't mention Leonard Cohen or Alan Thicke. OK, I can understand wanting to keep Alan Thicke a secret.
Back '01, we were in Victoria for Canada Day. We splurged big time and got a gorgeous harbor view room at the Empress and got to watch the fireworks from our window. Beautiful city you got there Pat.
We tried but weren't able to make it to Hyder Alaska for the fourth (we did make it by the 8th though.) The bordering towns of Stewart BC and Hyder AK give an interesting contrast. The only way to drive or fly commercially to Hyder is via British Columbia. Just off of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, you drive through the neat and tidy town of Stewart - nicely paved streets, quaint well maintained homes, and very clean downtown. You go through the most informal border crossing you'll ever see and enter Hyder (population around 100.) Hyder is like a town straight of Alaska bush country - dirt streets, old shabby buildings,and lots of rusty corrugated metal set along with Stewart at the end of a long fjord in stunning coastal scenery.
The Fourth of July is the biggest day of the year for Hyder and can be a pretty wild time.. They put on as big a parade as they can muster and the Canadians come over from Stewart to watch and be part of the antics. I gotta make it up there for the fourth someday - it's on my "things I must do before I die" list.
Hymns of the 49th Parallel by KD Lang is a must have album (buy it if you don't already have it.) I've touted it before in Thebe's music threads. Here is a part of a review that I clipped from Amazon that descibes it better than I can:
"The result is an intimate and warm record perfect for quiet reflection. Like the citizens of that country, the music is powerful but extremely understated, incisive and brilliant. From Neil Young to Leonard Cohen to Joni Mitchell to the vastly-underrated Jane Siberry, lang's voice provides a soothing glimpse into the stillness of the Great North."
