In Vancouver: It has been a winter relatively free of rainy days. A Toronto-originating cousin and I will take what we can get. We don’t like rain! A Vancouver cousin would take the wet kind of cold becasue the lack of precipitation is wrecking havoc on her skin. Mine, too.
In Toronto: It has been an awful winter and the air is super dry in the winter. My skin felt it right away. So did – gross – my heels. I was miserable. During endlessly rainy Vancouver winter (fall and spring), I fancy that snow would be better. You don’t need an unwieldy umbrella. But bundling up, constantly salt-staining your boots, uneven packed snow on the sidewalks making for tentative walking and slushy conditions when it warms up are the unromantic reality. And super-parched skin. I heard Ottawa was colder but had more moisture in the air – I looked forward to the latter.
In Ottawa: We lucked out with the weather as the cold snap broke and it was relatively mild all weekend. It was really mess on Sunday and I resolve to get Hunter boots with a liner to double as winter boots as the latter typically have limited life. We felt the moist(er) air immediately as dry skin problems just didn’t get worse while we were in Ottawa.
Ottawa-Vancouver flight (5.5 hours): I gave up a seat with some extra legroom and took one of only middle seats remaining. It was so that I could guarantee I could stow some bakery items at my feet and not in the overhead bin. Since I packed/checked my winter coat and tall boots, a middle seat felt surprisingly spacious (on an Air Canada Airbus 320). But it has been almost insufferable how warm and dry the flight has been.
There is always something to complain about!
[Written during AC189 flight on Sunday, January 2, 2014.]