I’m watching the Merchant of Venice in a huge tent after the Pacific at Bard on the Beach in Vancouver. The back of the set is open to the sky, and just beyond the service provider’s head, a bald eagle is being mobbed by a flock of gulls. A flow plane is winging throughout English Bay, and a cruise ship sails beyond on her way to Alaska. As the solar units, the lights pass on up at the summit of Grouse, Vancouver’s winter ski mountain, and all the while, the joggers, cyclists, and skateboarders pound the direction along the nearby ocean. That’s Vancouver – cultured, stunningly beautiful, and with its wild origins wandering through a scene from Shakespeare every so often. No surprise Vancouver has regularly been voted “World’s Most Livable City” by the United Kingdom’s Mercer Institute.

Apart from Chinatown, a traveler to Vancouver does nicely live to the west aspect of the metropolis—close to that royal blue Pacific. A favorite journey is on one of the bath-toy ferry boats to the suitable Public Market on Granville Island, where the tremendous sockeye salmon at the fishmonger’s stands are a reminder of another of BC’s wild creatures.

But perhaps Stanley Park, Vancouver’s 1000-acre woodland right next to the center of town, sums up the spirit of this town. I hire a bike and experience across the park’s 6.5-mile seawall, passing Chinese households on roller-blades, totem poles, and the dense, dark woodland – scene of so many “X Files” episodes. There are great sand beaches here; the Japanese modern-day sweeps in and makes it warm sufficiently to swim. At the give-up of the seawall, I determine that I’ve earned a forestall at one of the many gelaterias or coffee shops that line neighboring Denman Street in Vancouver’s vibrant West End. As I leave the park, I forestall recognize an English rose garden – British Columbia – when I see a sign cautioning me about coyotes.

If Vancouver is a baby boomer who has stayed in shape doing yoga and biking to work, Whistler is a skiing kid in saggy pants, and Victoria is the prim grandmother in pearls. But they all share the backyard. This is astounding British Columbia.

The Sea to Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler is probably one of the most lovely stretches of an international avenue, with the royal blue, fjord-like Howe Sound to 1 aspect and the mountains on the opposite. If you discover yourself in this avenue between November and February, quickly stop at Brackendale, which is simply north of Squamish, where the most important accaccumulation of bald eagles in North America occurs each iciness. The Brackendale Art Gallery and tea house host the eagle count number.

At first look, Whistler would appear to host another sort of wildlife. To host the 2010 Winter Olympics with Vancouver, the village draws snowboarders and mountain bikers who like their beer cold and their track loud. But peace can be determined on one of the four championship golf courses or the gentle signposted hikes from the village center. Better still, experience the gondola to the top of the mountain and take the marginally more strenuous Harmony Loop path to deliver a feeling of being on the top of Canada.

Whistler is named after its neighborhood resident, the hoary marmot, whose name is a shrill whistle. But for an actual wild existence journey, join neighborhood “undergo guy” Michael Allen on one of his summer twilight excursions to view his loved wild black bears on their evening forage for berries. Whistler’s Traveler Office offers information on hikes and could put you in contact with Michael.

After all that desert, it’s time for tea. The most exciting and romantic course to afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria is to journey on a floatplane out of Vancouver Harbor and be deposited in Victoria Harbor minutes from the enormous opulent tea room in the Empress. Vancouver’s glass skyscrapers abruptly seem a long way away as you fly over Victorian cottages and dock along with the venerable vintage lodge.

If Victoria is the prim dowager of this trio, perhaps this is the location for a few extra sedate activities. The Royal British Columbia Museum, right across the road from the hotel, is one of the finest museums in Canada. They have a first-rate First Nation exhibit that recounts the poignant tale of Canada’s aboriginal human beings. In the overall evaluation, the Emily Carr House on a pretty road of cottages between the Empress and the Pacific Ocean gives a flavor of Victoria’s Beyond and of one splendid lady. Emily Carr was a painter and creator- a feisty modern-day Georgia O’Keefe who has emerged as a Canadian organization.