Over the weekend my family and I made our first international trip! We've done so much USA traveling (long-time readers likely came here back when we were full-time RVers) but this was a whole new experience for us.
I'm detailing it all below but you can also just watch a quick YouTube short if you're interested but not that interested.
First, passports. We first started this process in 2013. We got our passport photos taken and started filling out applications, then moved further from the Canadian border and stopped pursuing it all. We kept having babies and then even when we moved up north again we never pursued it because of the cost for each new child.
But!
A few months ago we learned two very helpful tidbits
1- A passport card, good only for driving and not for flying, is much cheaper than a full passport that allows you to fly
2- Children under 14 can accompany their passport wielding parents for FREE using only a birth certificate
That changed everything!
We had passport photos taken (Hubby used Walgreens and had to have his remade because they sized it wrong, I used Staples with no problems) and we took those + our applications to a post office to complete the process. FYI, they do take your original birth certificate (+ marriage license, in my case) and mail that in. The paperwork said 6-8 weeks but we both got our passport cards + documents in 3 weeks.
After carefully triple-checking checking the website for what's allowed to cross borders, we packed lunches and hit the road!
For this first trip we stopped in Creston, British Columbia. It was a cute small town and a perfect place to practice international travel. It was very similar to the US with only minor adjustments (kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour, for example) that I am sure will gradually be more profound as we travel up the country/across provinces in the future.
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Saddest story: Creston has not one but two bookstores and we missed both of them, not realizing they closed at 4pm! :(
Epilogue: I announced before we left that I hoped to find a Canada fridge magnet or Christmas tree ornament, a 100% cotton touristy sweatshirt, and maybe a mug. I came home with none of the above.
Fun things:
- Customs was super easy both ways, 10-15 minutes with no problems
- We didn't stay for the show but we walked past a band setting up for their show- an ACDC cover band called BCDC!
- We recognized about 10-50% of the brands represented in each grocery story aisle, and quite a few of the brands we did recognize had different labels! (Many with French subtitles)
- Overall the processed food seems slightly "healthier" in Canada... better oils, fewer additives, etc
- I saw a Canadian version of a redneck and I'd love to know what they're called! He was essentially a USA redneck (dirty pants, work boots, inappropriate joke to the cashier, belly poking out of shirt) but his shirt had a Canadian flag instead of a US flag.
- Bathrooms are called washrooms.
- Only our border patrol person had an accent.
Canada books we have loved: The Adventures of Phillippe (middle grade secular) // Anne of Green Gables (middle grade, secular) // Good Morning, Sunshine (picture book, secular) // Juddie (middle grade, secular) // The Meeting Place (adult, Christian) // Mystery at Chilkoot Pass (middle grade, secular) // No Ocean Too Wide (adult. Christian) // Out of the Woods (picture book, secular) // Owls in the Family (middle grade, secular) // The Trumpet of the Swan (middle grade, secular)
Have you been to Canada? What places do you recommend?
