First International Trip for Brie

On Sunday we went to the Thousand Islands region near us.  First we went for a drizzly walk at Wellesley Island State Park.  The person working the desk at the visitor center recommended a very lovely hike that started out on an asphalt path.  He supposedly had seen Brie, Maddy and I waiting outside the visitor center for Mat, but it quickly became apparent that this was not really a stroller friendly hike, even though our stroller is "the Bob".  (The Ergo would have been more suitable.)  I would have turned around if I'd been by myself, but Mat took it as a challenge.

Several miles later we were back at the trailhead after Mat showed he was up for the challenge.  Brie had a pretty good time too.

Then we hopped in the car and drove over the Thousand Islands Bridge into Canada and drove along the Thousands Islands Parkway to Kingston, Ontario where we wandered around enjoying the scene and finding a place for Mat to eat french fries and gravy.  I guess that's a Canadian thing, but all my time growing up and going to Medicine Hat to our cousins I do not recall once have french fries and gravy.  Kingston was a really nice town, much bigger and hipper than we expected.  Although it is where the radio stations come from that we listen to there so we should have expected it to be pretty big.  It was a REALLY well-kept town, no litter and very nice.

Then we caught a ferry to Wolfe Island to catch another ferry that took us back to the States and the smallest border crossing we've ever done!

We loved seeing the wind farms up close.  We even stopped our car to see how noisy they were.   And we found out these ones weren't terrible loud.  There was a definite soft mechanical whir, but was it.  No loud clanking or whirring, just very soft.

Anyway, we drove across Wolfe Island to catch the ferry across to the States and just made it on to a very tiny ferry.  Once we were on the traffic director asked for $15. We knew there was a fee, but we thought we were going to be able to pay with our debit card!  We were able to come up with $12 and the man told us we could go to the atm and bring the money back once we got off the ferry.  Awkward and embarrassing.  Lesson for us:  carry cash.  It's funny, but since debit cards have come into existence I really don't use cash, I find that it is much easier to just pull out the debit card.  But no more.  On trips I will now carry around some cash.

As the ferry was pulling up to dock, the traffic director came over and told us not to worry about the $15, a man in a white Yukon paid for us.  We looked around and asked if he wanted our $12 and/or we'd go get the cash and he said, "No, don't worry about it. Pay it forward."  Super nice of him, really embarrassing for us.  I'm not so great at accepting charity.  Wish I could say that we came across someone to help on our way home, but we didn't, so we still owe the universe. 

At this small border crossing, we handed over our passports and Brie's birth certificate and Maddy's rabies certificate.  The border patrol looked at our passports and then Brie's birth certificate and asked if it was for the dog.  I really don't think they even saw that we had a baby in the car.  They suggested that Mat might want to sign his passport before he travels over the border again.  (He just got a new passport.)

All in all, a relaxing first international trip for Brie (and for Maddy)!