- everything is big in Canada – even the milk comes in 4 litre bags
- milk comes not only in bags, but at 1%, 2%, etc
- the cheese is orange
- the roads are long and fairly straight
- the bugs in the Canadian woods are mean and relentlessly BITE
- bald eagles appear when you least expect it
- ground hogs are a novelty, except to the locals
- woodpeckers are tiny
- go with your original destination in mind and don’t be put off by locals who think you must have a car to get somewhere – you don’t. Public transport works fine.
- strangers can be helpful and kind but sometimes they just want money
- expect to be disappointed by places you have always wanted to visit, but be surprised by places you never thought you would go
- the east coast of Canada is just as amazing to visit as the rest of the country – don’t be put off by distance
- thankful to our friends and friends of friends who put us up in their homes and took us sight-seeing
- skunks really do stink…and stink for days later
- driving on the right side of the road was pretty cool (keep right, mate – thanks for the post-it, Cidy)
- we legally drove through a red light (similar to our “free” left-hand turn)
- we had forgotten how to drive on our return to NZ and tried to drive on the wrong side (we had been warned this would happen, thanks Beth)
- karaoke Canadian style is not quite “10 guitars”
- Lake Huron is enormous and it is only the third largest of the great lakes
- Lake Huron has sandy beaches
- we swam in Lake Huron
- the northern night sky is distinctly different from the southern sky
- the sun is in the southern sky – quite disorientating
- public toilets have huge gaps on each side of the door. Not so much privacy as in NZ
- the toilets were scary. The water sits half-way up the toilet bowl and the bowls are wide. I thought the toilets were all blocked.
- take a field guide to birds as the locals don’t seem to know what they are
- place furtherest north visited – Grousse Mountain, Vancouver
- we touched the Atlantic Ocean
- thickest fog ever – in St John (and Air Canada land planes in this fog!)
- there are dog parks in San Francisco and in Canada (“Must like dogs”)
- you can see the Rocky Mountains from the plane trip from Toronto to Vancouver
- mission to see a moose in the wild and the Mounties in Ottawa was accomplished
All up, a fantastic trip!
