Our neighbors to the North are very welcoming people. You can hardly tell they are from Canada besides the "'ey buddy"s and the "aboot"s. Needless to say, I did not get the same welcoming from the border patrol guard upon entering.
The night before we were scrabbling to pull together $6 in cash for the tolls into and from Canada (of course we forgot to bring cash and the toll booths only take cash), but thankfully we figured it out. In the morning we set off from Port Huron, Michigan to cross into Ontario, Canada. Since we got going early enough, there was no traffic at all and we were first in line for everything. At the head of the bridge you pay your $3 in tolls and then make your way across the bridge to the border patrol officer on the opposite side, who is in a booth similar to a toll booth.
With this being my first out-of-country trip, I wasn't sure what to do, so I handed him my passport. He just starred at me. So I went to hand him my I.D. thinking that he may need that too. Nope. He snarkily said, "I need TWO." Okay, sorry buddy. I handed him the other passport.
Then the questions began...
1. Where are you going in Canada? Niagara Falls, Toronto, Bruce Peninsula National Park.
2. How long will be you staying in Canada? Until Tuesday.
Then for the the weird, open ended question...
3. Do you have anything in the car?
This one took me by surprise, and it didn't help that I was already nervous having never done this before. I probably looked so suspicious, but after a couple moments of thinking 'Well duh I have THINGS in the car- food, clothes, hiking gear', I simply responded 'No'.
He hardly looked at us when he passed back our passports and told us to have a nice trip. Off we went.
Fast forwarding to the end of our trip.
We were heading back to the States around 3:00pm so there was a bit of traffic, not to mention a dummy in front of us who had a trailer attached to his truck, pulled into the lane that clearly stated "no RVS or trailers".
After about 30 minutes of waiting, we reached the border patrol officer to enter the U.S.
First the normal questions...
1. Where did you just come from? Bruce Peninsula National Park
2. Where did you go in Canada? Niagara Falls, Toronto, Bruce Peninsula National Park
3. Who's car is this? Mine
4. How do you know each other? Boyfriend and girlfriend
Then the abnormal...
5. What is your citizenship? (You have my U.S. passport in your hand, buddy). I was so thrown by the obvious question, I answered United States in Illinois.
6. Where in Illinois do you live? And where is that? I went to explain the geographic location of my hometown in Illinois.
7. Did you buy anything in Canada? (Similar to the 'do you have anything in the car' question) and after a while of thinking I responded 'Nothing but soda and food.'
Then he did a quick flip from my stern security officer and made a joke about driving through Chicago's traffic, as he waved us through to enter the States.
Overall, the experience was easy. I just need to remember to have a bit quicker answers to the obvious questions :)
