On our way home from our Palmyra we decided to stop off and see Niagara Falls...cool huh?...yeah but we decided to do it one better and go see the Canadian side since we both had only seen it from the American side...using our basic knowledge of relations with our neighbors to the north we thought it would be no big thing....
So at the booth (which looked very official what will all the flags flapping in the wind atop it's buildings) just before you cross the bridge we asked all the seemingly appropriate questions...what do we need to prove citezenship?...drivers licenses? check!...is it okay if we don't have documentation for our kids? yeah, they don't usually care about kids if its just for the day (should have been a huge red flag but we were to blindly excited by the idea of our cross country trip to really think about it)! So we paid our $3.."how weird that it costs money to cross the border...but hey it's cheap!" and we merrily proceeded to cross the "big big bridge" (Oscar loves Thomas the Tank Engine) to the booths on the Canadian side.
Up walks the "Border Offical" in full S.W.A.T. style outfit with bullet proof vest on...a little intimidating even though the "official" was a girl! She then asks us for our passports...ummmm huh....so we then explain what the nice gentleman in the previous booth told us about it being no big deal, just show our driver's licenses and let them know that the kids are ours and we'll only be there for an hour or so! With big smiles on our faces we waited for her response.....
Without a smile on her face she began to correct our idiotic view of crossing international borders...told us that the "gentleman" who told us otherwise was merely a toll-booth operator, and let us know that there was no chance of just backing up and making a U-Turn (Steve suggested that!)...told us that we were having our license plates photographed and she was writing us up a ticket (I forgot what she called it...it was more official) and sending us over to immigration to be interviewed and photographed....WHAT?????
The "border official" then pointed out the armed guards that were waiting just at the end of the booth lines that would be watching us as we pulled "DIRECTLY" into the immigration office headquarters. Just for kicks, Steve (who is blown away by the formality and authority high "border official") decides to ask what would happen if we didn't pull into the immigration office headquarters and just decided to do a falls drive by....without enjoying the suggestion ONE BIT...the "border official" tell us that we would be promptly apprehended and prosecuted as internations criminals! Nice Steve...way to warm up the Canucks to the Ward Family!
So we pulled into the immigration station and told our story...pulled out every piece of info in my wallet (luckily I carry a large wallet with LOTS of stuff in it) licenses, children's shot records, insurance cards, a random copy of a Birth certificate I had for doctor's appointment, Social Security Cards, some pictures and our old Florida Insurance card that had everyone's names printed out. Once we dumped all of our "proof" we had to wait until it was examined and a file was created and serviced (about 20 min...thank goodness it was a slow day). Then Steve and I were called up and interviewed...they asked us various questions from our documents like past addresses, phone numbers, doctor's names etc. Next, the asked the kids who they were, asked them to point to their mom & dad, asked them what each other's names were.
Essentially we passed...we were reminded that crossing international borders is a serious issue... we were told that they would not be so lenient again...and they wished us happy viewing!
Phew!
So the next challenge was finding parking and braving the falls... Piece of Cake
The falls were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was really cloudy out so the mist was so heavy and we didn't get to see all the rainbows from the mist but it was awesome...the kids even appreciated it! We had just enough battery lest to get a few pictures then our camera died! So we have to treasure it in our minds! We will not soon forget our brush with the Canadian Border Patrol! Luckily the US was much more understanding (it helped that we had all the immigration documentation from Canada proving that we had been grilled once already!) They did ask us some US history questions to prove our citizenship which we both got...phew...and they did do the interviewing of the kids again!
All & all worth the 3.5 hour trip it turned into and next time we'll bring out passports
So at the booth (which looked very official what will all the flags flapping in the wind atop it's buildings) just before you cross the bridge we asked all the seemingly appropriate questions...what do we need to prove citezenship?...drivers licenses? check!...is it okay if we don't have documentation for our kids? yeah, they don't usually care about kids if its just for the day (should have been a huge red flag but we were to blindly excited by the idea of our cross country trip to really think about it)! So we paid our $3.."how weird that it costs money to cross the border...but hey it's cheap!" and we merrily proceeded to cross the "big big bridge" (Oscar loves Thomas the Tank Engine) to the booths on the Canadian side.
Up walks the "Border Offical" in full S.W.A.T. style outfit with bullet proof vest on...a little intimidating even though the "official" was a girl! She then asks us for our passports...ummmm huh....so we then explain what the nice gentleman in the previous booth told us about it being no big deal, just show our driver's licenses and let them know that the kids are ours and we'll only be there for an hour or so! With big smiles on our faces we waited for her response.....
Without a smile on her face she began to correct our idiotic view of crossing international borders...told us that the "gentleman" who told us otherwise was merely a toll-booth operator, and let us know that there was no chance of just backing up and making a U-Turn (Steve suggested that!)...told us that we were having our license plates photographed and she was writing us up a ticket (I forgot what she called it...it was more official) and sending us over to immigration to be interviewed and photographed....WHAT?????
The "border official" then pointed out the armed guards that were waiting just at the end of the booth lines that would be watching us as we pulled "DIRECTLY" into the immigration office headquarters. Just for kicks, Steve (who is blown away by the formality and authority high "border official") decides to ask what would happen if we didn't pull into the immigration office headquarters and just decided to do a falls drive by....without enjoying the suggestion ONE BIT...the "border official" tell us that we would be promptly apprehended and prosecuted as internations criminals! Nice Steve...way to warm up the Canucks to the Ward Family!
So we pulled into the immigration station and told our story...pulled out every piece of info in my wallet (luckily I carry a large wallet with LOTS of stuff in it) licenses, children's shot records, insurance cards, a random copy of a Birth certificate I had for doctor's appointment, Social Security Cards, some pictures and our old Florida Insurance card that had everyone's names printed out. Once we dumped all of our "proof" we had to wait until it was examined and a file was created and serviced (about 20 min...thank goodness it was a slow day). Then Steve and I were called up and interviewed...they asked us various questions from our documents like past addresses, phone numbers, doctor's names etc. Next, the asked the kids who they were, asked them to point to their mom & dad, asked them what each other's names were.
Essentially we passed...we were reminded that crossing international borders is a serious issue... we were told that they would not be so lenient again...and they wished us happy viewing!
Phew!
So the next challenge was finding parking and braving the falls... Piece of Cake
The falls were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It was really cloudy out so the mist was so heavy and we didn't get to see all the rainbows from the mist but it was awesome...the kids even appreciated it! We had just enough battery lest to get a few pictures then our camera died! So we have to treasure it in our minds! We will not soon forget our brush with the Canadian Border Patrol! Luckily the US was much more understanding (it helped that we had all the immigration documentation from Canada proving that we had been grilled once already!) They did ask us some US history questions to prove our citizenship which we both got...phew...and they did do the interviewing of the kids again!
All & all worth the 3.5 hour trip it turned into and next time we'll bring out passports
4 comments:
The funniest, most random things seem to always happen to the Ward family... Who would've thought Gordon would go to the ER for the toilet paper holder or your whole family would encounter the brutal way of crossing the border? Can't help but laugh!
those blasted canucks! Forget you, you maple leaf lovers! HILARIOUS! Perhaps they could sense Gordon wasn't your average 4 year old!
looks like a fun trip minus the drilling from the canadians! lol. maybe it was a slow day for them!
hey it's brooke and Jon nielsen from long ago...found your blog on Kristen's and thought I'd say hi! Your family is way too cute! Hope you guys are doing well and say hello to Steve for us!
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