Vacationed in Canada one time! It was wonderful. But when I went to get gas I had no idea how much I was getting (due to the fact that I couldn't convert gallons to litres....or however thats done). And the speed limits seemed ludicrous to me. I am used to MPH........I had no idea how fast I should be going till I tried to keep up with a little old lady in front of me and discovered I was going much too fast. The nice officer explained it very well!

I also had more money in Canada then if I had stayed in the states to vacation. WooooHooo! Bonus!

The people were extremely friendly! We camped at a provincial park (state park in the U.S.) and took a camp site called "boating in" where you got a canoe and rowed the lake till you came to a site you liked and then you set up camp. Hubby and I thought we found a really secluded site and we set up camp. During the evening it started to rain and our tent filled with water and we had to move to higher ground. While doing this we found that a boat had docked at "our" dock. No one was around and so we figured they were aboard sleeping. Next day we rose and started breakfast and dressed and cleaned up camp and went for a swim and fished.....and still not a peep from that boat. Somewhere around 2pm the boat came alive. Four guys disembarked and started hooting and hollering and partying like crazy! Here I was on a secluded island with 5 men. Could a girl have a better fantasy? They were the cutest guys (all 4 of um) and they were so nice and so fun to hang out with! They had the best beer and pot I have had in years! Oh, that's another thing......in the states the alcohol content of a specific brand name of beer (Labatt's in this case) is less than in Canada. I have never gotten drunk on 3 beers in my life.....but I did on this vacation!

BTW! Those guys would periodically quiz us on what we actually knew of Canada as well. Did we know the current president's name.....etc.? To be honest (and to prolly reveal my stupidity here) I had thought Canada was a parliment and I didn't know at the time that they had an elected president. Boy was my face red! They told us they knew that American's weren't required to learn as much about other countries in school unless they chose to take specific courses on them, but that they (Canadians) are REQUIRED to learn nearly EVERYTHING about America. They joked that they are better citizens of the U.S. than we are, as they knew more about our constitution and the laws of our land than we did. If you think about it, any alien trying to become a citizen of the U.S could make this claim. Tests have proven it!

Also, we noticed as we entered the country that almost everyone seemed to drive with their headlights on. This was around the time when car manufacturers started making cars that when you started the engine the lights would automatically come on and stay on. Now either we hadn't noticed this saftey precaution in the states and it was more pronounced in Canada as we were typical tourists and looking and taking in every site, or this saftey precaution hadn't made it's debut in the states yet. I am not sure to this day about that. But when that nice officer stopped us and explained the "lay of the land", we asked if it was a major holiday in Canada and to show respect all Canadians turned on their headlights while driving. The nice officer (with a grin on his face) explained the saftey precaution to our embarrassed selves.

Anyway........this was also the trip that unconditionally proved to my hubby that I did indeed know my north from my south (I have a terrible sense of direction without a map) and that I could navigate an unknown country and get us back home safely with the help of a map. Perth was beautiful....BTW!

TY for your hospitality Canada!

Oh...and one more thing. Wherever I go I usually pick up the accent almost immediately. I still to this day, say ya'll when I am drunk....from my travels down south. I also now say, eh, alot! Those party boys (from the boat) said it all the time and other than watching The Mckenzie Brothers on Second City TV (The Great White North) I would have never known that. Pretty interesting....eh? LOL!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~