A First!

Today was cool (56) and drizzly so we decided to take a ride to Port Huron and cross the Blue Water bridge into Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.  Jay and Stella have never been to Canada so we thought it would be fun.

First up, the lady charged us $6.50 as a commercial truck on the way over which we didn't know was wrong until we came home and they charged us $3.50 as a non-commercial truck.  Then we were stopped to answer questions before entering.  First thing she asked for besides ID was Jay's camera in case he took forbidden photos of government buildings.  All he had was signs saying Canada!  

She asked if we had any firearms.  No.  Do you own firearms?  Yes.  Where are those firearms?  In MI and TX.  We were given a yellow Immigration card and told to pull over.

We were again asked if we had firearms, bullets, magazines, etc.  No.  They told us all to get out of the truck, stand against the wall at the front of the truck while they searched it all.  They found nothing because we had nothing. 

What struck me is they never directly asked me or Stella if we had guns.  They also did not search or frisk Ted or Jay who could easily have concealed a gun in their back waistband or ankle holster.  I thought that was dangerous for the officers.  Maybe I watch too much TV or too much USA news.  Anyway, they finally told us we were free to go.

Coming home we waited in line about 15 minutes to go through U.S. Customs to show our passports, identifying us as legal U.S. residents, to return home.  If we were in south CA, AZ, TX we could just walk in.  Doesn't seem right.

We stopped at a port park and saw some nice flowers and things.  The dreary day didn't make for good photos.

We stopped at the visitor's center where they had this beautiful fowl sculpture and pool.

We eventually stopped at Stokes restaurant for lunch.  There was a nice deck but that was not a good choice for today so we sat at a window table.  I chose pickerel (walleye for you non-Michiganders) and it was delicious.  We all agreed the food was good but things are more expensive in Canada and their taxes are high.

All in all it was an adventure.  It could have been a sunny, no hassle day.  Instead we got dreay and challenges.  But Jay and Stella had two "firsts" to our one.