The Land of the Ice and Snow

Jason took me to Canada because his good friend was getting married (in a very extravagant wedding, might I add. Cait, I thought your wedding was a big deal. Just kidding.) and to see where he grew up. It was only a few hours drive north of the lake and we even opted for the scenic route through Glacier National Park.


We didn't stop to take pictures because Jason had to be at his friend's sealing in Cardston that morning, but here are some pictures I took from the moving vehicle. It was beautiful there! But boy, I thought driving through Donner Pass made me nervous. We were pretty high up there on the skinniest, windiest road. Eventually we made it all the way to the Canadian border where all of a sudden everything is in both French and English. How convenient. What is Canada like, you might ask? Well gather 'round, and let me tell you. Canada's a lot warmer than I thought it would be. I always imagined people walking around wrestling polar bears, ice fishing for dinner, and wearing viking hats with braids. Okay, so that sounds more like Alaska, or Greenland, but really, anything that far north on the I-15 basically is Alaska, right? Wrong! Canada was awesome. As the Simpsons so eloquently put it, Canada is like "America Lite." I really liked it there. I still don't really get how the exchange rate works, but I think stuff is maybe cheaper there. That, or I spent $7 on that bag of ketchup flavored chips I bought.

This is us in front of the Cardston temple. Notice how we are not wearing fur coats like I thought we would have to because of the frozen tundra all around.We had a lot of fun driving all around Cardston. That took about 3 minutes, so then we wen to Calgary to see where Jason grew up. I liked Calgary better only because not as much stuff was in French. Surprisingly, it looked like a big, normal city! With tall buildings and everything! I'm assuming that all the igloos had melted because it was summer. We walked around downtown and went to this little outdoor market area called Eau Claire, which is French for "Crowded Canadians." They just happened to be having this little festival called "Tastes of Calgary" where you buy some tickets and then walk around at all the different booths where restaurants from around town were showing off their most delectable items. It was kind of like a county fair, but fancier and without fried twinkies or tiger's blood snow cones. Canadians don't know what they're missing. One of my favorite parts about Canada was this place called Tim Horton's. It is a little donut/coffee/sandwich shop, but there are about 7 million of them throughout the city of Calgary. I'm not even exaggerating, we never drove past the same one twice. There was one on every street and they were all busy and crowded. The donuts were very tasty and cakey, similar to Dunkin's and just how I like them. They even have little donut holes called TimBits. I thought they were called TimDinks, and that made Jason laugh because a dink is a bad word in Canada. But I thought that it sounded like something delicious you could dunk in your coffee. Another one of my favorite places was the Real Canadian Superstore, Canada's answer to Wal-Mart and Target (even though they have Wal-Mart there). It is just as inexpensive as Wal-Mart and has the cleanliness and organization of Target. What more could you ask for? Here are some things I learned about Canada that you might not know:
-The maple leaf on the flag has 13 points, one for each province.
-The name Canada means "village" or "settlement."
-The money there is called "dollars." But sometimes Loony or Twony.
-Avril Lavigne is from Canada, who was in Over the Hedge with Bruce Willis, who was married to Demi Moore, who was in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon!
Also, did you know that Canada has delicious chocolate? And that their Gummi Worms, Nibs, and Skittles are more delicious than ours? And that they, like Mexico, use real cane sugar in their sodas so that they taste sweeter and (I like to think) are better for you? Our neighbors to the north and south really know what's going on. Now you know, too.
And that about sums up my trip to the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. See everyone? Canada's not so bad. Thanks for proving that, Jason. To learn more about Canada, go to your local public library. Or click here, here, or here.