Come in summer -- for a day walk, week walk or to finish the whole lot (about eight weeks) -- and you might see the benign fin of a basking shark cruise by the shore.

BBC: Walking Great Britain��s great coast

Ask for a harbour mountain-view room and you can watch seaplanes take off from Coal Harbour or see the first streaks of light hit the snow-capped North Shore mountains as you sip your morning coffee.

BBC: Business trip: Vancouver

During much of the 24-mile trip you can't see the other shore.

NPR: Postcard from Slidell, La.

Is that what we see as a potential here, or are we talking about a thin slick of oil that might come onto the shore?

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing on Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico