Happy Thanksgiving to our Northern friends

In Canada, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed...

"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed  ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.

In Canada the holiday bounced around a bit from October to November for a number of years.  But it's celebrated for similar reasons as the American version of Thanksgiving.  Read a short history of it at:  Twighlightbridge.com 

In honor of this Holiday to the north...here are some pictures from the trip we took last fall up to Canada...

We drove up to Ione, Washington and took the scenic fall color ride on the train.   

Go to SpokaneMama.com's event calendar to find out more about this fun fall adventure for your family.

There are closed cars and open cars on the train.  It's chilly, so I highly recommend you get there early for a spot in the closed cars!!

The closed cars are very comfy and there are nice big windows for seeing...

things like this!

and this too!

When you get to Metaline Falls, the train doesn't turn around.  The engine jumps off, turns around, passes us on another track then rehooks to the back end of the train to pull us back to Ione.  That part was a big hit for all the kids on the train.

While the engine is doing it's flipping around trick...the local gang of thieves hops on board and steals all your money!

This old lady was the leader of the band of thieves.  I can't remember their real name, but they should have been called the Band of Brothers Grandkids!

Apparently the flu had hit the theater arts group up there this particular weekend...so she had grabbed a bunch of grandkids and their friends to help her out!

After the train ride, we were only about a half hour drive to Canada.  The girls had never been, so we decided to take them across the border--birth certificates in tow. The kids got a kick out of the idea of being "in a different country", but tell me what you think....

This was Washington...

This was Canada...

Not a huge difference?!  But maybe it's breathing air based on the metric system that makes a difference.  Whatever it was the girls thought it was cool.  And that's what one of the jobs of being a parent is, to make their lives cool!

Just so you know we really were in Canada, here is the Subway parking lot where we ate a late lunch.  Does it look like Canada now?

We took this one so you'd for sure know we were in Canada!

One tip I want to give everyone that goes to Canada. If you plan to come back to the U.S., be sure to read your map carefully to plan your route!  Don't plan to be at a border crossing station at 5:04 if it closes at 5:00!   The border guards vanish at exactly 5:00!  Then you must drive an extra hour and a half to get home again because you have to find another border entrance that is open 24 hours a day...oops!