Happy Canada Day 2019

Canada Day, frequently referred to as "Canada's birthday", commemorates the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces (the Province of Canada being divided, in the process, into Ontario and Quebec) on July 1, 1867.

Canada Day is very similar to the  July 4th holiday in the United States.  Most communities across the country will host organized celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, such as parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, air and maritime shows, fireworks, and free musical concerts.

Learn more:  Official Website for Canada Day

We have had the pleasure of visiting several Canadian cities during our cruise vacations.  These included ports of call on multiple Alaskan cruises,  Canada and New England cruises, and even Transatlantic cruises.  One of the highlights was when we extended our Alaskan cruise with a pre-cruise exploration of the Canadian Rockies.

Have you ever ridden on a glacier?  You can while visiting the Columbia Icefield Glacier in the Canadian Rockies. Specially designed vehicles, Massive Brewster Ice Explorers, take passengers on a remarkable excursion onto the surface of the Athabasca Glacier.

Have you smelled flowers or gotten up close to thousands of unique flowers in bloom?  You can at one of Canada's botanical gardens such as the fifty acre Butchart Gardens located near Victoria, British Columbia. You'll see stunning floral show gardens and a National Historic Site of Canada.

British Columbia is known for floral gardens.  Minter Gardens, which has since closed, thrilled us with thousands of flowers and gardens.

Would you like to visit a fishing village, have some fresh lobster, or visit a lighthouse?  Nova Scotia has much to offer including the Bay of Fundy and many beaches where you can build sandcastles, fly kites, take a surf lesson, or just walk barefoot in the sand.

For the maritime lover, visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, where you can visit the Titanic ~ The Unsinkable Ship and Halifax, Nova Scotia exhibit and learn about the role the people of Halifax played that fateful day.

Would you like to walk where birds fly and squirrels hang out?  You can in Vancouver, Canada, at Capilano Suspension Bridge and Treetops Adventure.  I'm afraid of bridges, but I had a great time crossing a series of elevated suspension bridges, some reaching as high as 100 feet (30m) above the forest floor.

Capilano Suspension Bridge is one of Vancouver, British Columbia's most popular tourist attractions.  Odds are that unless you extended your cruise vacation in Vancouver, you probably didn't visit this attraction during your cruise vacation.

There is so much to see and do in Canada, I hope that you'll plan a visit in the near future and get to know more about this North American country.   We have only scratched the surface in this article.   There are other Canadian destinations featured in past blog posts and also on our Facebook Fan Page.

To all our Canadian friends .... Happy Canada Day 2019.