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Canada Day in America??!!??

By most-special-k - Posted on July 2nd, 2007
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Late last week, Neil and I, in a tizzy were all frantic trying to figure out what to do for the Canada Day long weekend. Our first instinct was to camp -- so I tried to find us a site in Canada. Most things were booked... so out came the maps and Neil and I decided to look into camping in the Adirondacks, a huge national park in upstate NY. Well, lo and behold -- not only were there lots of campgrounds to choose from... with the Canadian dollar performing as well as it is, you simply cannot beat camping in a State Park for $14 a night!! So we booked a site for two nights and went about planning a route. We decided to circumnavigate Lake Ontario. Our route looked like this.
We spent 2 nights in the Adirondacks, 1 night in Buffalo (so we could shop -- we don't often stay in the states long enough to be able to bring something back) and we stopped in Niagara-on-the-Lake to wine taste at a few more wineries (I'll write a review later -- we went to the MOST PRETENTIOUS WINERY we've EVER been to... boo to that!)

The Adirondacks reminded Neil and I of camping in Northern Saskatchewan; lots of lakes and trees. The only real difference, you see, is that the Adirondacks are home to the Appalachian Mountains. That said, there are no peaks above the tree line and Neil and I likened them to mere hills. Overall, the Adirondacks were beautiful and serene. Even the resort towns like Saranac Lake and Lake Placid (which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980) were still charming and not completely over-run with commercial enterprise (think Banff or Whistler).

Absurdities always abound whenever Neil or I are present thus enjoy these highlights from our trip:

  • All lanes on the 401 east bound are closed due to a Native Protest!! (so much for our early start!)
  • The goal of the day is to kill something!! This was spoken by our charming camp neighbours from the state of Georgia. Later in the day we drove by this sign and laughed and laughed:

I really wish this wasn't blurry -- it says:

"Special No Kill Area"

  • We learned that in Pickering, Ontario a side of sausage consists of 5 sausages and costs more than your breakfast.
  • Neil was amazed that our camp neighbours from Quebec, planted a CANADIAN flag on American soil and were celebrating CANADA's birthday.
  • Getting to eat Ben&Jerry's Americone Dream. Dr. Stephen Colbert DFA would be so proud!
  • A bird flew into our windshield and scared the CRAP out of me. Thankfully Neil was driving at the time as I would have swerved off the road. The impact was loud and terrifying -- mainly because I forgot about the windshield and thought the bird was coming right at me... man, do I hate birds. The fate of the bird is unknown as it rolled off the windshield. Neil, though startled by a) the sound of the impact and b) my intensely loud scream, maintained his cool and carried on driving....
  • Neil was pleased to be able to buy 24 beer (Canadian imported from Canada) for $14.99
  • Neil was also pretty pleased that the deal at the Duty free was 2 - 40's of Crown Royal for $35

Here are some pictures.