Afterwards we headed off to start our 4-year anniversary celebrations. As we were approaching Detroit and Canada and the clouds started rolling in. We crossed over the Ambassador Bridge and waiting in line at the border patrol.
We got to the border around 2:00 and had no idea what to expect. Terry doesn't have a passport, so he brought his birth certificate with him. As we pulled up to the border booth (if you've never gone across the border before, it's just like waiting in line to pay a toll at a bridge). We handed the patroller all of our paperwork and was greeted with a sullen monotoned mildly obese man throwing a slurry of questions at us: How do you two know each other? Why are you going to Canada? (Terry and I laughed because his tone when he asked it made it sound like a "Why are you even bothering heading over here anyway?....Terry made a joke that there was really no reason and that I was making him....it was uncomfortably awkward silence for a second, no laugh or acknowledgment of the answer, we could have heard crickets if there were any, and then the continuation of questions), Why does one have a CA license and the other IL? Do you have any weapons? Lindsey, why does your passport picture make you look like you're 200 pounds? .... ok. You caught me. He didn't ask that one. But I ask myself that question everytime I take out my passport. Whomp whomp.
He gave us back our paperwork and closed the booth window. Terry and I looked at each other in confusion and then very VERY slowly started driving forward, completely unsure of whether or not we were free to leave. We should have known right then that it was all gonna be downhill from there.
We drove down the coastline of Windsor looking over the river to Detroit. There were lots of parks that had water fountains and Canadian Geese (Insert giggle that they were canadian geese IN CANADA). The homes on the water was enormous and beautiful. What we liked most is that there didn't seem to be any guidelines as to what type of home you could build. There were french chateaus neighboring ultra modern square cut stucco neighboring monster "cookie cutters" neighboring super-long ranches. It was a continual guess as to what we were going to see next, and it was a lot of fun.
Looking across to Detroit
The signs made me laugh...."Terry, we can go 100 down this little road!!"
Gloom and doom: We now know this was God's way of foreshadowing getting back into the US
We were in Canada a total of 45 minutes. We were both tired, we were both getting hungry, and we both just wanted to go see our swanky hotel for the night! (Priceline...I love you) We approached the border patrol coming back into the states with the same confusion and hesitation as when we left. There were two different areas that you could pull into, with no signs to say whether anyone could go in any lane or if there were special designations. We finally chose a lane and we ended up choosing poorly. VERY poorly. We pulled up to the booth, handed over our documentation, and then the patrolman started in: There were the few questions we were familiar with, "How do you two know each other? How long were you in Canada? Why were you in Canada?". Then the mans power trip began. "Terry, where is your passport? You knew you were coming to Canada today...Lindsey brought hers so you had to have known you were coming" (Sidenote, as I previously mentioned, Terry really has no passport. Other than Mexico, he's never left the country, and he didn't need one when he went there) "What do you mean you dont have a passport?!?!" At this point, his voice was just shy of screaming at us, and even though we were doing absolutely nothing wrong, my heart was racing. He then made us turn off the car, he went into the trunk, opened both or suitcases, rummaged through both bags, slammed the trunk so hard the whole car shook, and barked at Terry for the rental agreement. How Terry stayed so calm is completely beyond me, although I think the guys intention was to try and rile him. He was like a little bird trying to ruffle his feathers to seem bigger meanwhile Terry is sitting there like a big friendly (but inside FUMING) bear. He went back into his little anger hut for a minute, then came back out with our documentation and said, "Just so you know, I could be awful right now, and make you sit in a solitary room for the next 3-4 hours on a small metal chair while we contact the Department of Illinois (yes, he did say Illinois...once Terry started talking about the incident later in the day, he said "it was all I could do not to back-talk him and say Well it will do you no good to contact Illinois") while we verify you are both citizens. I'm not gonna do that because I dont think it's necessary, but go get a passport. You can leave now". ...Except our car keys were still in ego-trips jacket pocket. Thank god I wasn't the driver bc I would have lost it then with "Well I would leave if you didn't have my car keys still", but thank goodness for Terry that he was polite. We drove away. He didn't talk to me for a little bit. Understandably. I dont think we're going back to Canada anytime soon. Or ever again.
On to Detroit. We drove around the city a bit, mainly because we couldn't find our hotel. We saw a few of the touristy spots, took a few pictures, then redirected correctly to the hotel.
Home of the Redwings
We killed just enough to go to our first (and what turned out to be our only) Restaurant for Restaurant week!! We decided to start with Opus One. Let me just say; Bar-none: A little piece of Heaven in a Restaurant. We had an incredible experience. Every bit of the food was mouth-watering. If you are ever in Detroit, you MUST go there.
Shellfish Melange: Lobster, Shrimp and Scallops with Angel Hair pasta wrapped in Filo Dough with Lobster Vodka Sauce.
Braised Short Ribs of Beef, served with garlic mashed potatoes and sautéed julienne vegetable in a red wine demi-glaze
They surprised us at the end of our meal with a Happy Anniversary Dark Chocolate Bar. YUMMY!!!!
It was a very casual rest of the day. I went back and napped while Terry went and watched some football and a local bar. We decided we were both still full from Opus One and we didn't even eat dinner. We had to be up super early for our flight, so we were in bed super early to match.
I would definitely say it was a memorable anniversary. Not all so spectacular, but memories together none the less! Here's to a lifetime worth of more memories!!
Canada doesn't sound very friendly!
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