Canada, Eh?

Jimmy and I went on a Canadian adventure last weekend to celebrate our birthday (35 and 30 respectively.)  Parker stayed with my parents and we hit the road for Winnipeg bright and shiny Friday morning.

 We made a quick stop for breakfast in Sauk Center (gotta love the food pictures!)

 We also stopped in Fergus Falls for a few quirky tourist spots.  The first was the continental divide marker.  They also have a statue of a Buffalo and a tepee.

 The main attraction was Otto, the otter!  He is 40 feet long and was constructed over 40 years ago by high school students.

 We were back on the road in no time.  I have known for a while that there is a town called " Buxton" in North Dakota, but forgot about it until we started seeing signs.  It is right off the freeway so we had to stop there as well!  It was little more than a dot on the map, but we were able to get some refreshments.

 We got to the border just before 1 pm and only had about a 10 minute wait.  Neither one of us has been to Canada, so we weren't sure what to expect.  They ask you several pertinent questions about your trip, which made sense.  Then they asked a few random ones, I assume they are trying to throw off anyone with questionable intentions.

Winnipeg was not too far from the border and we were at our first stop just before 3pm.  Of course it was the Apple Store!  You may know about our love for Apple and I couldn't pass of the chance to visit our first international store.  It was your pretty basic mall store front, but it was fun to be there.  We were thinking about buying something, but the prices were higher (even with a great exchange rate) and they had 13% tax!  Ouch!

 We grabbed a very late lunch at the food court.  I was dying to try some poutine (fries, cheese curds, brown gravy) and we got the chance with New York Fries.  The original is on the left, but the real stunner was the braised beef.  I already have plans to recreate it at home!

 We checked into our downtown hotel just before 5 and relaxed for a while.

 We had turned our data off to avoid international charges, but were able to Facetime with Parker and my parents on the hotel wifi.  It was a hot and steamy weekend, so he was having fun swimming in the pool!

 One of the first things I noticed about Canada is how polite everyone and everything is.  They say sorry a lot, even when something isn't their fault.  Even the buses apologize for not being in service.  My favorite was a political "attack" ad for the prime minister elections.  After listing a bunch of reasons not to elect a candidate, the final sentence was "I'm not saying never, but not now."  If only US elections could be that kind.

 We took a quick walk before grabbing dinner near our hotel.  The MTS Centre was just a block north.  This is where the Winnipeg Jets play.  We hope to get back again to catch a Wild game, but that will probably be a few years.

 Dinner was at Boston Pizza.  It seems they like to name things after US locations, but are very proud to be Canadian.  Jimmy had a Montreal smoked meat which had mozzarella, mustard and pickle.  It didn't specify the meat, but Jimmy said it was somewhere between pastrami and corned beef.

 I had the signature pizza burger.  A prime rib patty with sauce, cheese, bacon and pepperoni!

It was back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the whirlwind Saturday ahead.

Up Next: More Canada, Eh?