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Home » Snapshots

A Drive To The Other Side

Written by on May 26, 2008 – 11:56 pm24 Comments

How can you tell I’m still Euro­pean? Because I get excited when I go to the USA!

On Sun­day after­noon, we decided to take a drive to the USA. Even though the bor­der is only an hour drive from Ottawa, I rarely cross it — last time was almost exactly a year ago, when my best friends in Ottawa took me along as they were get­ting their landed immi­grant sta­tus in Canada. We had spent a nice day in Alexan­dria Bay.

The day was per­fect. Warm but not stuffy, sunny but with mag­i­cal clouds which fol­lowed us all the way there. I loved the drive. The free­way was empty (prob­a­bly because of Memo­r­ial Day) and we felt alone in the uni­verse. Even the US Bor­der Offi­cer was friendly and… joked around with us. No kid­ding. See, it wasn’t a usual day.

The Bridge to the USA, from the Cana­dian side (Prescott, ON).

The nicest drive we had in a while: a per­fect Amer­i­can road trip.

Our first stop in Ogdens­burg, NY. A quiet lit­tle town with a beau­ti­ful view on the St Lawrence sea­way.

Alexan­dria Bay, NY. A small town with a beau­ti­ful marina (and a bunch of peo­ple lis­ten­ing to ACDC, drink­ing beer in their moored boats — a memo­r­ial day tra­di­tion, any­one?), a typ­i­cal main street and view on the Thou­sand Islands.

Related posts:

  1. Our South­ern Neighbours
  2. Alexan­dria Bay, NY State
  3. Pic­ture of the Week: Orange Crush
  4. Pic­ture of the Week: iSad
  5. Pic­ture of the Week: 9/11 and the Amer­i­can Embassy

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24 Comments »

  • Aiglee says:

    Some­day I’ll have to cross the bor­der to live some­thing else of the Cana­dian expe­ri­ence :happy: Looks like you had a great time! :D

    Aiglees last great read…Doors Open Toronto — Dis­tillery District

  • Zhu says:

    @Speedcat — Sorry about the pic­tures… yeah, must be the com­puter cause they dis­play fine here. You can always have a look at my Flickr widget!

    @Colleen — It was a nice day. Get­ting out of the city even for a lit­tle while is so relaxing.

    @Seraphine — I guess that’s why the USA is a free coun­try. You can drive a boat AND drink. Wow.

    @shionge — Same when I lived in France! Canada is such a big place that I’m happy to visit the coun­try though.

    @RennyBA — I didn’t know you had a bridge to main­land Europe — I guess I never thought of it! Take some pic­tures one day for me, please!

    @Froggywoogie — Well, the USA are actu­ally quite cheap now. I know, the flight isn’t…

    @Max Coutinho — Alexan­dria Bay is famous in North Amer­ica for being the gate­way to the Thou­sands Islands, a bunch of small and not-so-small island in the sea­way. I didn’t know it before either!

    @Deadpoolite — You should always lis­ten to ( and fol­low) your girl­friend. Basic rule. Besides, if she is a trav­eler, she must be an awe­some girl, lucky you!

    @Graham — Thank you Gra­ham! yep, I keep on tak­ing pic­tures… it’s a good excuse for a trip any­way! ;-)

    @Aiglee — Oh yeah, you have to do it! Besides, you’re so close in Toronto, it’s worth­while just to go shop there! Do you need a visa to go in the USA?

  • Celine says:

    I loved your open­ing sen­tences. :)

    This post reminded me of my 2 trips from Toronto to the Nia­gara at the US Border.

    Celines last great read…Fifty-Five Fic­tion

  • Mme. Meow says:

    It’s inter­est­ing that you admit that. Most peo­ple seem to think it’s ter­ri­bly fash­ion­able to hate the US openly.

    Mme. Meows last great read…Also, My Hair is Get­ting a Lit­tle Frizzy

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