Back from our holiday to the USA

[peach]

Some things I learned...
-your drivers are super courteous

-waiters always bring you ice water immediately at a restaurant! here, you have to say "can I have a water?" - it's not automatic

-animal crackers with the pink icing and sprinkles...heaven. We don't have those

-its almost impossible to find anything healthy to eat in your malls or fast food restaurants. Canada is definitely a cut above when it comes to offering healthy fast food and convenience foods. Is there anything you guys don't deep fry? We saw deep fried twinkies coated in chocolate, chocolate covered bacon, hamburgers with donuts instead of buns....barf. Everything was candy stores and corn dogs..here we have a lot of smoothie places, and most fast food places have sandwiches, wraps, salads as half of their menu.

-makeup is expensive! Our dollar is worth slightly less, and when I bought a new mascara I paid more American for it than I would in Canada. All cosmetics were higher priced in the drugstores than they are here.

-food is cheap! We bought food for 10 days, and it cost less than what I spend for food for a week here. So many items were at least half the price of what they are here. My husband could not believe how cheap beer was...almost half of what we pay here.

-Gas is wayyyy cheaper, so don't complain about high gas prices cause if you think you are getting gouged come to Canada.

-I love our money system. I was annoyed with the dollar bill because we have a dollar and also a two dollar coin. My wallet was jammed with tons of bills, but really it was only $11. And all the bills look the same! ours are all different colors so it's much easier to grab in a hurry, or to count. You guys should really get a dollar coin

Oh, and if someone wants to just send me cases of Payday bars in the mail I would be thrilled! yum

[thewop]

Well some of that is true, some not. It really depends on where you are. In West Michigan we have to ask for water, we have a salad bar and subway in our local mall, and we actually have dollar coins.

[thewop]

Oh, and we have smoothie places, frozen yogurt, wraps and pretty much every other mall food you have, we have too where I live. :-)

[wawa]

We actually have a dollar coin, but nobody uses it except vending and ticket machines.
I'm not sure why...I like them. I felt the same way about 1 and 2 euro coins in europe. You can have a handful of change and it's enough for lunch!

I think the only one I'm surprised at is the makeup. I wonder why it's more expensive here.

[emoflamingo]

I can probably work something out with the paydays AND the animal crackers.

And you just aren't in the right places for healthy food options and rude drivers haha.

My dad went on a motorcycle trip to Canada and discovered the looney. He was so confused lol.

[ssmjlm]

As pp said, we do have the dollar coin, it's just one of those mythical things that you know exists, but never see it unless you get change from a stamp machine.

[emoflamingo]

Isn't it a Sacagawea coin a dollar? I might have one of those somewhere. I also have a half dollar coin!

[Deleted]

LOL! That list was great!

Glad you had fun! Where were you exactly?

I live in a region where in 90% of the restaurants bring water, some don't.

My mall has pretty healthy options and I see a lot of healthier options in fast food in general. But I also live in a state that is voted "healthy" over all quite often and the metro area near me just hit 1st place on a list of the healthiest places in America. My sister's boyfriend lives 3 hours from us and I know she complains about the food not being healthy there...and it's only a couple hours.

The makeup surprised me too.

As for the money....I Visa card everything. I have like $3.68 in my wallet on any given day...lol.

[housegeek]

Lol we have dollar coins, most people I've met hate them. It's a PIA to carry around change I do wish we had pretty money though!
How was your trip?

[FoxInFiji]

We often vacation in Canada (IL's own an island with a vintage cabin on it) and I agree with pretty much everything you said.

We always bring our own food because it's crazy expensive up there especially cheese and dairy products. Coming from the dairy state where cheese is readily available and inexpensive there is a huge price difference. We also always stop for gas and bring gas tanks for the boats. Yes ice water is given to you everywhere and I love it since that is all I drink 90% of the time. Plus you don't have to ask for ice. I like my water cold and when we're in Canada I often have to specify that I want ice in my water.

[emjacobs]

I adore PayDays!!! Let me know if you ever need some and I can pop them in the mail for you

What area were you in, this is important before I comment on drivers

[Deleted]

Jul 11, 2012 13:52:06 GMT -5 peach said:

Some things I learned...
-your drivers are super courteous

What part of the USA were you in? I would like to know where all the courteous drivers are hiding.

[heygrey]

based on your comment about bad drivers, i've going to guess you live in alberta? ;-)

go to target or walmart for make-up in the states - it's more expensive at drugstores for sure. (although i find the same to be true in canada.) i miss chex mix the most. my mom buys me a huge back from costco every time i go home.

semi-related story: my bff visited me when i lived in nb and made sure to get all the different currency to take for a lesson in her first grade class. her students really love seeing the loonies and toonies and their funny names, so she was feeling pretty good about the lesson until one kid raised his hand and asked, "what's a canada?"

[Susie]

Jul 11, 2012 15:30:42 GMT -5 heygrey said:

semi-related story: my bff visited me when i lived in nb and made sure to get all the different currency to take for a lesson in her first grade class. her students really love seeing the loonies and toonies and their funny names, so she was feeling pretty good about the lesson until one kid raised his hand and asked, "what's a canada?"

:-(

I hate dollar coins - and other coins too, really. I don't like lugging the weight around. But I'm with dairy in the $3.68 club. I don't like paper money either. Visa please!

[heygrey]

see, i love the change. when i can buy something by only opening my change purse i feel like it's free! we use cash for variable purchases so with budgeting i round to the nearest $5 - once the bill is broken i count the change gone too, so it feels like we're getting extra treats! we just throw the change in the console of the car so we're not actually carrying around much weight-wise.

[emoflamingo]

Haha, I don't carry cash either. I spent like $4 at Target today and had to use my debit card. Actually, I have a dollar bill in my wallet right now plus some random change I need to put in DS bank.

[sailorgray]

Jul 11, 2012 13:52:06 GMT -5 peach said:

We saw deep fried twinkies coated in chocolate, chocolate covered bacon, hamburgers with donuts instead of buns....barf. Everything was candy stores and corn dogs..here we have a lot of smoothie places, and most fast food places have sandwiches, wraps, salads as half of their menu.

Where were you? I never even heard of this stuff. Yuck!! I never have issues finding healthy food. I am in the Philly area.

[hunniapple]

Jul 11, 2012 17:12:37 GMT -5 sailorgray said:

Jul 11, 2012 13:52:06 GMT -5 peach said:

We saw deep fried twinkies coated in chocolate, chocolate covered bacon, hamburgers with donuts instead of buns....barf. Everything was candy stores and corn dogs..here we have a lot of smoothie places, and most fast food places have sandwiches, wraps, salads as half of their menu.

Where were you? I never even heard of this stuff. Yuck!! I never have issues finding healthy food. I am in the Philly area.

Yeah I haven't heard of any of this either...

[natablue]

I don't think I've ever used the dollar coin - if I get one as change in a vending machine, I'm like "what the eff am I going to do with this?!" Haha. I also never carry cash in general - Visa all the way!

[Deleted]

Jul 11, 2012 17:12:37 GMT -5 sailorgray said:

Jul 11, 2012 13:52:06 GMT -5 peach said:

We saw deep fried twinkies coated in chocolate, chocolate covered bacon, hamburgers with donuts instead of buns....barf. Everything was candy stores and corn dogs..here we have a lot of smoothie places, and most fast food places have sandwiches, wraps, salads as half of their menu.

I live it Michigan (metro-detroit) and you can definately get deep fried chocolate covered twinkies at our malls though I haven't heard of donut buns...

Where were you? I never even heard of this stuff. Yuck!! I never have issues finding healthy food. I am in the Philly area.

[sailorgray]

Jul 11, 2012 19:39:45 GMT -5 @kjewell said:

Jul 11, 2012 17:12:37 GMT -5 sailorgray said:

I live it Michigan (metro-detroit) and you can definately get deep fried chocolate covered twinkies at our malls though I haven't heard of donut buns...

Where were you? I never even heard of this stuff. Yuck!! I never have issues finding healthy food. I am in the Philly area.

Have you had them? Are they good? Our local fair has a truck that sells fried oreos, but that's about it.

[TEM325]

I love how non Americans think our money looks identical. To us, I swear it does not. I've never mistaken a 1 for a 10 or a 20 for a 5!

[MrsAxilla]

Jul 11, 2012 16:17:25 GMT -5 heygrey said:

see, i love the change. when i can buy something by only opening my change purse i feel like it's free! we use cash for variable purchases so with budgeting i round to the nearest $5 - once the bill is broken i count the change gone too, so it feels like we're getting extra treats! we just throw the change in the console of the car so we're not actually carrying around much weight-wise.

Me too! I love when I collect enough dollars for a "free" Starbucks.

[amblor]

The new US currency is colored with watermarks! Tens are yellowish, fives are pinkish in the middle and fifties are pinkish at the edges, twenties are greenish.

[duckduck]

Haha! Great list.

Down here our drivers are awful and our fast food isn't that bad. I can't think of anywhere around here that doesn't serve salads, healthy-ish wraps, and/or smoothies.

I'm not a fan of dollar coins, myself. They're so heavy and take up so much more room in your wallet/coin purse. I spent a month in London when I was in college and I was pretty over all of the hard currency by the time I left.

And as for the "is there anything you don't deep fry"-- well, no. But I've only seen most of the stuff you described at carnivals or amusement parks, not the mall.

[maddysmum]

Where are you?

I find WA state drivers quite lovely compared to many places in Canada, but WA state sure likes to complain about the traffic and drivers here!

I didn't notice until you pointed that out but yes, we almost always get water at restaurants without asking and I love that.

I don't find mall food courts or fast food places less healthy, necessarily (I mean...neither are typically where one looks for healthy food, right? If I'm doing fast food, it's because I want McD's fries and those are better in Canada, by the way. ) but portion sizes in the US are HUGE. There's a second tier of "big kid" meals at McD's and I find overall that I need to order a size down because it's just way more food than anyone needs. And the drink sizes - holy lick!

Makeup is WAY cheaper in the US. Almost across the board. Mascara at Shoppers that's $12.99 is $8.99 at Target. Sephora is significantly less expensive across the board (my Laura Mercier foundation cost me $65 in Canada versus $45 here at one point!!). I love buying makeup and product here compared to Canada.

Food is SO cheap. Did you buy cheese? That's one that gets me every time. But on an average grocery shopping trip, I typically pay about half as much as I would in Canada. It amazes me. Gas too. And most importantly, booze. Oh my - my favorite wines are $19.99/bottle in SK. In WA? $8.99-11.99. Hard alcohol (which we don't drink so I only know this because of a recent discussion) is 1/3 to 1/2 the price in the US versus Canada.

And I miss Canadian currency. It's so much prettier, looks genuinely different and the new $50 and $100 bills are some kinda cool.

[sjh722]

Jul 11, 2012 17:12:37 GMT -5 sailorgray said:

Jul 11, 2012 13:52:06 GMT -5 peach said:

We saw deep fried twinkies coated in chocolate, chocolate covered bacon, hamburgers with donuts instead of buns....barf. Everything was candy stores and corn dogs..here we have a lot of smoothie places, and most fast food places have sandwiches, wraps, salads as half of their menu.

Where were you? I never even heard of this stuff. Yuck!! I never have issues finding healthy food. I am in the Philly area.

Seriously, were you eating at a county fair?