Thinking of heading to Canada? Get this first

We’re feeling a little stressed these day and are thinking of heading to Canada.

And by that I mean we are planning our summer vacation.

We’ve been meaning to take a trip north for a year or two, but just haven’t made it. We have other, family-related travel that takes up a chunk of time each summer vacation and that makes it hard to carve out enough time for other big adventures. However, we have a brand new incentive this year: a free Parks Canada pass.

In case you didn’t know, this year marks Canada’s 150th birthday. To celebrate, our neighbors to the north have thrown open the metaphorical doors to their extensive national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas to everyone. Our pass arrived the other day and since then we’ve been happily pouring over the accompanying map, pondering the 148 different options.

Canada 150 passport

Here’s lookin’ at you, Canada.

Look, Canada is huge and I am not going to pretend we’re going to make it anywhere other than the Atlantic provinces. Frankly, if we make it all the way up to Prince Edward Island in the time we’ll be able to scrape together, it will be a miracle. But this little pass has inspired us to make heading to Canada a priority and that’s half the battle

You can order your own pass online right here. It takes about six weeks to arrive, so if you do it now, you’ll have it in perfect time for summer travel. They even ship it for free.

Canadians are just so darn nice.

Cherie Galyean

About Cherie Galyean

In a perfect world, Cherie Galyean would spend hours every day chasing her kids up hiking trails, pretending to garden, and baking things. Instead, she works full-time in the non-profit sector and fits those other things in-between loads of laundry in her free time. A Maine native with multiple hometowns, she currently lives on Mount Desert Island with her husband, seven-year-old daughter, five-year-old son, and the best shelter mutt in the world.