now that's running that teaches, eh?

"I recommend the Old English Pub in Gananoque." The Canadian customs officer handed back our papers (Polly and my passport and Genevieve's birth certificate) and sent us on our way. Polly and I quickly decided to take the officer's lunch suggestion. We had no reason not to. We were completely unfamiliar with the area. Forget southeast Ontario, I had never even been to Canada. Polly visited this area once but she was only a kid. Having a suggestion from a local was a benefit. Our plan was to find a random restaurant. After all, our whole purpose for grabbing lunch in Canada while on vacation in upstate New York was so I could finally leave the United States for the first time in my life (which is sad considering that I grew up about 3 1/2 hours from the Canadian border). We were going to Canada to say we went to Canada. So, I followed the signs for Gananoque and we were on our way. (It's also worth noting that this was Genevieve's first trip out of the country.)

Unsurprisingly, southeastern Ontario looked a lot like New England. That aspect didn't make me feel like I was in a foreign country. In fact, only two things really jumped out at me and reminded me that we were no longer in the U.S.A. as we made our way to the restaurant.

One thing that jumped out at me was the prominence of maple leafs and lack of stars and stripes on the flags waving high. I have noticed this phenomenon before while traveling through the Canadian waters of the St. Lawrence River during previous vacations to 1000 Islands, but this was my first time experiencing it while driving down the road. I have grown so accustomed to seeing the American flag that it was eerie to me not seeing one.

The other thing that jumped out at me was more significant. Within less than a minute I saw a sign featuring the speed limit. The speed was written in kilometers with the equated miles per hour listed beneath. I was immediately thankful that the miles per hour was listed. Why? Because I don't know the metric system! I am from the U.S.A. We are one of only three countries (Myanmar and Liberia are the others) in the world that do not use the metric system.

*Random Soapbox* I have never understood why the U.S. has been so stubborn and refused to move to the metric system along with nearly every other nation of the world. And it's not as though the world uses it for no reason...it's a better system. Why wouldn't you want to use a base 10 system instead of a system that has no true base. How many meters are in a kilometer? 1,000. That's easy. Why is it easy? Because the system makes sense. Now, how many feet are in a mile? 5,280. How does that make sense. (To be fair, I wouldn't have known the answer with certainty without Google's assistance.) I want the U.S. to switch over. It might be tough initially, but it will make all the sense in the world (literally) moving forward. *End of Rant*

Unfortunately for me, the first speed limit sign was the only that included the miles per hour as well. I suddenly realized that I had no clue what the speed limit actually was. We saw a sign for Gananoque: "14 KM". Awesome. How far is that? Then it hit me (actually, I think Polly brought it up)...I can roughly figure this out. How? I don't know the conversion for our stupid system to metric, right? Well, I actually do...sort of. Here's what I remembered I knew. I run 5K's. 5K is roughly 3.1 miles. That means that 14K is just under 15K which would be nearly 9.3 miles. Figuring that 1K is roughly .6 miles based on this knowledge, I decided that 14K must be around 8.7 miles. I saw a speed limit sign for 50 KM/hour. That was an easy one...roughly 31 mph. Suddenly I realized that running prepared me better for visiting a foreign country than my extremely American math class. Now that's running that teaches, eh? (We did actually hear Canadians use "eh." It humored me).

Now, you may have just read the previous paragraph and screamed my ignorance to me. What ignorance? Well, shortly after figuring out the conversion rate using my knowledge of 5K's, I realized that speedometers also include KM/hour. I'm sure I knew that before, but never having used it I clearly forgot. I felt pretty dumb when I realized this. What can I say though...such is life. I guess it's a good reminder that sometimes the most obvious answer is the one right in front of you. (I compare it to how many times I see something I previously missed while reading the Bible. That's why there's no such thing as reading it enough.)

For the record, our three-hour venture into Canada was well worth it. We had a great time. The Old English Pub proved to be a good recommendation. I ordered the Buffalo Pot Pie (made with locally raised bison). Polly got a burger. Genevieve tried her first pickle (which she seemed to like). The food was delicious. We walked around a bit and window shopped. The only store we bought something from was a candy store. We bought some good maple toffee candies to share, a chocolate treat for me and an ice cream for Polly. I paid with a $20USD and received Canadian change back at a 1/1 rate (which was slightly to my advantage based on the actual current exchange rate). I used some of the newly acquired Canadian money to get back over the bridge into the U.S. Lacking the desire to stop and exchange the rest (seven dollars Canadian), we opted to save it for Genevieve as a souvenir for her to remember her first trip into Canada (and out of the U.S.).

This blog post seems to have taken on a life of its own and didn't even include an actual run, but I will be sure to post about my actual runs as well as other stories/lessons from my vacation tomorrow.