Canada is a magnificent place to visit if one gets the chance. With sites such as the upper Rocky Mountains, Great Lakes, and Niagara Falls, there is so much life and beauty to this country. British Columbia has some especially beautiful views nestled on the west coast with huge Provincial Parks and the thriving hub of Vancouver. In 2018, I took a trip with my family to this area where we stayed in the beautiful city of Whistler where the 2010 Winter Olympics were held. For about a week we traveled around the city seeing the historic market with its many shops along with taking a trip up the mountains in the Blackcomb ski lifts that took you between mountains. It was a surreal experience to be a 1,000ft up in the air in the middle of summer having a snowball fight and going sledding down the makeshift hills on the side of the mountain.

Along with spending many days touring the vibrant city of Whistler, my family also took many trips to Squamish nestled along Sea to Sky highway to get Tim Hortons coffee, a Canadian original. Winding through this highway in the mountains and alone the coast we also came upon many cascading waterfalls that rival some seen back in the states.

Vancouver was a strange city compared to that of one you’d typically see in America. With streets impeccably clean and bike rentals on nearly every corner one would feel that there is no need for cars in the city. That being said the city seems to have a rather confusing but practical way of conducting traffic so as to alleviate congestion. Going down the main road it is nothing to have 6-8 lanes for traffic separated by nothing more than dotted lines. While driving you can see each lane has its own stop light. This is to help, for say, if northbound traffic gets backed up, lanes going southbound could slowly converge as to allow an extra lane for northbound traffic.

In my couple of trips to Canada, each one has been marked with amazing sights and beauty to behold with changes that are completely different but still understandable to an American making it one of the greatest and easiest places to vacation with a passport!