There is that air of casual sophistication in Vancouver you seek, usually unsuccessfully, in so many other major metropolises, the sense that people here enjoy where they live, celebrate it, but don't cop an attitude about it. Copping an attitude would be easy to do in this city at the base of the magnificent snow-capped mountains of Canada's Pacific Range. It is tucked along the coastline, facing the Strait of Georgia, which is scattered about in islands that seem to play with the light changes of the arcing sun simply for the benefit of those lucky enough to be in this space at any given point in time.

O.K., but why was I going north in the dead of winter? I had come to British Columbia because of something I'd read about called "storm-watching," out along the ruggedly beautiful coasts that face the Pacific. I enjoy the wilderness experience, and while storm-watching sounded like a marketing ploy to get some measure of people to cold country during low season, it also sounded too intriguing to pass up. However, before getting deep into the wilderness thing, I decided upon a bit of acclimatizing prep in the city, especially given what friends had told me was Vancouver's bent toward the arts.

I began with the visual arts and a tour about downtown with Madeleine Wood, an accomplished painter, who also works for an organization called Alliance for Arts + Culture helping to find gainful employment for colleagues, so they can have the wherewithal to continue their work. We spent the day walking about, Wood pointing out examples of how artists had helped decorate the exterior of this decorative city with water gardens, all manner of sculpture, even works embedded in the sidewalks. Then she stood me before a huge mural on a wall in a heavily trafficked area, two large panels of which were my tour guide's own work.

Float down the Squamish produced only 150 eagles on a slow day.

At the Vancouver Art Gallery, in what was once a turn-of-the-20th-century courthouse, we wandered about the works of modern Canadian masters and finished up with a remarkable collection of paintings by Emily Carr. The display takes you through more than 20 years, depicting the development of the artist's unique style, directed at subjects close to her western Canadian heritage, its dramatic landscapes, original inhabitants and settlers.

Then I visited Wood's studio, the walls hung with her intriguing oils and their concentration on the near-liquid qualities of light in isolated close-ups of flowers, fruits and vegetables, even bedclothes. I couldn't resist buying the next in a series she is doing on roses.

During any B.C. cultural infusion, there is no better place to base than the Listel Vancouver. A recipient of the "Connoisseur's Choice" designation by the "Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best," this hotel has a unique focus on the arts, with paintings showcased throughout, top-notch Canadian jazz acts in O'Doul's Restaurant and Bar on the main floor, and programs for bibliophiles. It also hosts culinary events showcasing Canadian chefs. The rooms and suites are beautifully appointed in modern furniture and furnishings with all the whiz-bang phone, internet and cable TV connections demanded by modern travelers.

But the time had come to head out. So, before dawn, I joined a group boarding BC Rail's Cariboo Prospector bound for Brackendale, "The Eagle Capital of the World." Skiers crammed the waiting room, headed for the popular Whistler Resort, further up the line. Skiing I'd done; heading for a river route where eagles were as plentiful as seagulls over a garbage barge, well. . . En route we hugged the coast of Howe Sound, a magnificent fjord, fringed with pyramidal peaks and spotted in small islands, the rising sun turning the snowcap on the peaks a vivid pink.

The eagles along the Cheakamus and Squamish Rivers are a national – if not international – treasure. Drawn to the river by the feast provided when the chum salmon species spawn here and die shortly thereafter, bald eagles, who are normally very territorial, relax their no-trespassing policy in light of the embarrassing bounty of food available from November through January each year. More than 3,700 were counted one year.

With the professional guidance of our hosts from Canadian Outback Adventure Company, we put in two large, glaringly yellow rubber rafts for the easy float down the Cheakamus to its convergence with the Squamish, then down that river. From the put-in and throughout the float, our guide, Effie Baker, pointed out these magnificent raptors, something over 100 of them this particular day, late in the salmon kill. Salmon carcasses beneath the crystal clear waters of the river, blanched on rocks along the shore, or draped over tree limbs protruding out over the water, were evidence of the weeks-long feeding frenzy.

Thor Froslev, who built and operates the Brackendale Art Gallery is passionate about the eagles. An émigré from Copenhagen, he fell in love with the area, then the eagles he saw congregating in the trees along the river while he played out his passion for fishing. Over the years, he has studied the delicate balance between the eagles, the salmon and their relationship to the environment.

Guide Effie Baker

"Count the number of eagles," he says, "and that will let you know the quality of the water." Wary of the inevitable decline in natural habitat as the human population invades any area, Froslev was instrumental in gaining refuge recognition for the 1,500-acre Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park to help assure the protection of the eagles here. Aside from his gallery, which is devoted to artists celebrating the natural attractions of the region, Froslev conducts guided tours of the area. "Two hour walks and they pay me," he says. "I don't have to go to the gym."

The early morning flight on North Vancouver Air over to Vancouver Island placed me smack in the midst of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, an ecosystem marked by temperate rainforest. The terrain here is laced in dramatic examples of hemlock, cedar and sitka spruce, many hundreds of years old, their great green limbs hung with stringy beards of lichen. A walk through these forests, with their moist greenery and shafting light, creates a sense you are part of some woodland fairy tale.

View of the sunrise from the dining room at the Wickaninnish Inn

The best way to experience all this is with Bill McIntyre, the owner/guide of Long Beach Nature Tour Co. Formally educated in wildlife conservation, McIntyre is also an informative, self-taught botanist, whose on-the-job-training was his countless travels through the woodlands of the Canadian west, where he served as the chief naturalist of the Pacific Rim National Park for almost a quarter-century.

McIntyre will explain how the coastline closest to the beach is fringed in younger sitka spruce, anchored by a loamy bedding built up amid great driftwood logs, washed ashore over the decades by the battering surf and/or the 12-foot tides. He will point out "nurse logs," fallen trees that literally serve as nursemaids for new growth needing to anchor above a forest floor which is sometimes just too wet to sustain the tiny plants. He will scoop up a handful of soil, point out miniscule growth and tell you the vast majority of this plantlife hasn't even been scientifically identified.

Do not even think about dying before you have seen both the sunrise and the sunset from the 240-degree panoramic dining room of the Wickaninnish Inn in Tofino at the north end of the Esowista Peninsula on West Coast of Vancouver Island. If the sight, sound and smell of crashing breakers, their foamy brows lit in the yellow light of morn, blasting against the striated black rocks, then sliding up the grey sand of Chesterman Beach to refresh glistening-glass pools don't invigorate you, have someone pull the plug, because, truly, there cannot be anything else on earth that is ever going to move you.

Am I over-writing? You may think so, but only if you have not stood where I stood on a morning in the heart of winter in this part of the world … yes, storm-watching. It was true what the literature had said about the moderate winter temperatures on the coast of British Columbia – days generally a dozen degrees above freezing, give or take a few degrees – and the fact that it seldom snows. While the effect was deceptively tranquilizing, the sea was an eye-opener, taking on an angry disposition that certainly does add to the drama of the experience at this inn, your sense of cozy security enhanced behind plate glass windows capable of withstanding hurricane force winds. There is no finer place to take in no finer show of nature's grandeur.

Sunset, Pacific Rim National Park

It also helps that management at the inn understands how to house and treat its guests, in every aspect of its physical plant and its operation. Directing it all is manager Charles McDiarmid, a native Vancouver-islander, who left home to train at some of the world's finest hotels. When he returned, McDiarmid incorporated all the good stuff he had learned to create this first-class property, within the setting of his childhood, a setting he knew would compete with any place on earth and would draw visitors from just about anywhere.

The Wickaninnish creates daily dilemmas, all having to do with choices you won't want to make, beginning with deciding to leave your room. All rooms at the inn face out onto the spectacular seaside view, with balconies where you can place yourself beyond the glass and into the scene. All have fireplaces, beautiful furnishings and artistic touches in keeping with the theme of rustic elegance, including details down to the binoculars that will allow you to zoom in on the seaside birds flitting about the old-growth conifers.

Once you cross the threshold, you will have to decide among such choices as hiking in the rainforest, walking the beach, sea kayaking, trekking about shooting spectacular photos at every turn and/or allowing yourself to be pampered with one or more of an array of treatments at the in-house spa.

The spectacular beauty of the area has inspired local artists and artisans. One of the most acclaimed is Roy Henry Vickers, whose work is on display at the Eagle Aerie, a gallery he owns in Tofino. A native British Columbian, Vickers's father was a Tsimshian fisherman, his mother of British ancestry. His paintings, lithographs and prints all incorporate a signature, very-fine-line approach, describing individual elements filled in solid colors, most bright and bold, some in more muted greys and earthtones. The gallery also includes the bold carvings of Vickers and his protégé, Henry Nolla, the latter a prolific woodcarver with a style of his own and works displayed throughout the area.

There are other galleries scattered about the small town, including the House of Himwitsa, which displays a wide range of local arts and crafts, including jewelry, woven blankets, masks, carvings, paintings and prints.

After only a few days exposed to the area, you may find yourself overcome with an urge for some sort of real estate attachment. If you fight a low resistance level to that sort of investment, don't stop in at Tauca Lea by the Sea Resort at Ucluelet, just south of Tofino along this beautiful coastline. The resort's sale of condominium units is almost too good to pass up. If you can manage to keep your hand off your wallet, you will nonetheless want to consider a stay here when you return, for the drama of the place will haunt you until that happens.

Air Canada operates the premium air service between the U.S. and Canada with more than 300 nonstops each week, more than any other carrier. It offers service between Vancouver and major U.S. gateways. It also features connecting service in conjunction with its partners in the Star Alliance, the largest integrated air transport network in the world. Air Canada has received numerous accolades including "Best North American Domestic Airline" from the Official Airline Guide and "Best Business Class to Canada" by Business Traveler International.

For more information on the British Columbia and/or Canadian travel experience in general, including a free copy of Great Canadian Adventures, call toll-free 1-877-8CANADA or visit on the Web at www.travelcanada.ca/fun.