Bienvenue! Everything’s on Sale!

Before we left Ontario, we visited the 1000 Island tower to get a view from above.  The Thousand Islands were created when the roots of an ancient mountain range were flooded after the retreat of the last ice age 10,000 years ago.  There are officially 997 islands in the Thousand Islands, but the count is often exaggerated by including all of the shoals and rocks to make the total 1,867 islands. It is so funny to see a big house on a little island and that’s the only thing on it, with a dock outside.  It was beautiful looking across the landscape.  We could see the St. Lawrence River that extends on to the Atlantic coast.  We could see a castle in the distance…the Boldt Castle built on Heart Island by a man for his wife.  A sad story…she died at a young age before the construction was completed, and the man never went back to the island. 

Canadian Customs

We could even see the border crossing from the tower…this is where our eventful crossing occurred yesterday!
We are adjusting our mindset converting to metrics and Canadian dollars.  After the traumatic experience entering Canada, we were greeted with a nice surprise at the bank when we found out the exchange rate is very favorable.  For every US dollar, they give you $1.19 in Canadian dollars!  In my mind that means EVERYTHING IS ON SALE!  I love it!  
The new Canadian money seems like its plastic…I’m sure it lasts longer than the old fashioned paper money.  It is probably much more difficult to counterfeit as it has a very unique and complicated construction, with clear places and ribbons of color throughout.
We crossed into Quebec, where the primary language is French, so not only are we having to mentally convert miles to km, gallons to liters, and Fahrenheit to Celsius, but also English to French.  I wish my daughter in law, or sister in law were here to help with the translation.  We were able to figure out some basics, like directions, Sud, Ouest, Est; Stop = Arret, and Shopping = Magasinage.  (At least we know the important things!)
A familiar sight in Canada are Tim Horton’s restaurants, which are similar to our McDonalds—they are everywhere.  So, of course, we had to stop for a cup of coffee as soon as we crossed into Quebec.
We arrived at our campground amid beautiful weather—clear and pleasant—no rain for a change.  We will be staying at the Montreal Sud KOA, on montee Monette in St-Philippe de La Prairie.  We weren’t at the campground very long when a couple came by and introduced themselves.  They are from Florida, but grew up in Indianapolis, and went to Ben Davis High School!  There are Hoosiers all over the place!
We made a quick run to the hardware store which looks just like those at home, except it’s a green theme instead of orange.
The rain is coming again tonight, but tomorrow is supposed to be another pretty day.  We’ll explore downtown Montreal and see what we can find “on sale”!