A Trip to Canada

A Trip To Canada

If you have never traveled before, visiting another state can be a great start, or if you want to get out of the country, Canada should be your go to destination. But, if you don’t want to go to a big city like Toronto, Montreal, or Quebec City, a good destination would be Sault (pronounced “Soo”) Ste Marie, Ontario. Sault Ste Marie is located north of Michigan (not to be confused with Sault Ste Marie in Michigan), by the US/Canadian border.

Flying is the fastest option to get to Canada for anyone who lives south of Michigan, Maine, North Dakota, and similar northern states (plus you get to avoid multiple toll booths.  For the least amount of people, and sometimes cheaper plane tickets, early morning flights are your best choice of flight. And if you’re lucky enough to get a window seat, you’ll be treated to a gorgeous sight of city lights contrasting against the dark  early morning.

As your plane taxis down the runway, gets into its lane, and takes off, those same lights shrink until they no longer look like city lights, but patches of bioluminescent plankton on an infinite long beach of black sand. Not only that, but as the sun peeks out over the horizon, you begin to see the atmosphere change right before your eyes. Those infinite dark beaches slowly begin to turn into green lands and bright blue skies, as if the Earth is waking up from its slumber. The prettiest sight you may see though, is the blanket of clouds that covers your sight from the ground. It’s  like floating on a blanket of the softest cotton candy in the world.

If you choose to drive to Sault Ste Marie, like I did, the entrance to Canada is breathtaking, whether you drive when the St. Mary’s River is fully frozen or not. Driving over the bridge from Michigan to Ontario, you see everything: the bright ice and snow still in the riverbanks, the smoke from the steel mills ascending into the clouds, and the docks where old ferry boats would transport people from Ontario to Michigan. Arriving in Sault Ste. Marie, you’re greeted with a building and little booths where police officers check your passport and ask you questions about what and why you’re visiting. After the border check, you have to navigate your way through residential apartments and small shops, not to mention snow covered roads at times, until you get to Queen Street, which takes you through the downtown area of Sault. There you will find the hockey stadium, home to the Soo Greyhounds, the Station mall, multiple hotels, a small city park, the library, a Tim Horton’s coffee shop and at the very end of the street is the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center.  Although the street doesn’t end there, it takes you to a three way intersection where you can turn left and explore more of the downtown district, or turn right and explore more residential areas, a bigger city park with an indoor skating rink, football field, and baseball field, the Sault golf course, and a highway that takes you to Sault Ste Marie’s National Park.

I stayed in a motel for the trip, a college student can only afford so much, and had good room accommodations.  But if motels aren’t what you’re looking for, they also have national hotels like Holiday Inn, Quality Inn, Days Inn, etc. My motel was located a mile away from the main street area, which is where I spent most of my time.

The highlights of my trip were visiting the Sault Ste. Marie Museum of local history and attending the local hockey game.. This museum is located in an old post office, which is three stories tall.  The whole first floor is dedicated to the military, especially to the platoons who were formed in Sault Ste. Marie during the first two world wars. As you walk to the stairway that leads you to the second floor, your are shown more information about Sault as you walk up the stairs. Most of it dealing with Native American history and Early steel mill workers. The second floor is dedicated to Native American history, with exhibits of how Native Americans made houses and canoes, and also history through the 20th century; including a small exhibit about Louis Armstrong’s visit to Sault and bringing Jazz music out of the United States. The third floor is dedicated to mostly sports history of Sault, including basketball, curling, football, hockey, fencing, and baseball, but it also has a small room dealing with music. They also have a early model of a motorized bobsled.

Attending the “Soo” Greyhounds was a very enjoyable experience. Since it was my first time visiting, I didn’t know where I was supposed to go to buy a ticket. I walked up to a gate and told the people who were checking tickets that I didn’t know where to go. They called a manager and he walked me to the ticket booth; the whole time I told him how I was a tourist and he told me a few places that I could go to get the “Full Sault Ste. Marie experience”.  The hockey game was intense, there was even a fight, but the Greyhounds won in the end. Unfortunately, I was only able to visit two of the places the kind manager told me about, the Games Nook II (a board game store) and a local bar which had a St. Patrick’s Day theme going on. All in all it was a great experience and I recommend anyone to go visit.