The US and Canada are so similar that I would almost say that they’re parallel universes.  The cars are mostly the same.  The license plates are the same shape.  They do and say things similar ways.  Even the accent doesn’t seem so strange if you’re from the northern US.

But if you look closer, little things start to stand out.  They call it the “washroom.”  Tim Hortons donut shops are more numerous than McDonalds.  The street signs are bilingual.

But for the average US citizen, a trip to Canada is probably the easiest foreign travel you can do.  Many things are familiar, you can bring your own car, and there’s not much of a language barrier.

I’ve taken a drive from Sault St. Marie in northern Michigan to Niagara Falls, a drive from northern Maine to Sault St. Marie, plus a few day trips in Ontario and British Columbia.  To amuse myself, I asked a few Canadians along the way what they thought of US accents.  Most didn’t notice much of a difference.  One said she liked the accent from South Carolina.

The CN tower in Toronto is interesting.  I went up and took a look, as it was more accessible than WizBurj Khalifa in the UAE.  In Sudbury, there’s a museum about mining, if you dig that that kind of thing.

Quebec has fewer English-language road signs than some countries in the Middle East and Asia.

I still chuckle when I think about that one Journey song set in Windsor, Canada, even though they call it South Detroit.