Blue-collar Ontario :tup:

Nice collection of historic buildings downtown.

Great photos. Lots of good looking houses there.

Very interesting tour. Doesn't look half bad.

I do think that the US needs to get an official logo, though :)
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...0166-00168.jpg

and partially covering the old building name is most unfortunate and tacky.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...2008/00114.jpg

..........and more snow coming tonight.:tup:

Nice photos! I would LOVE to visit various parts of Canada someday soon. I have been in and around parts of the Niagra Falls area of Canada, but nothing more. I definitely want to see Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, PEI, BC, and many other places in between and above. I just don't know if I could handle the extreme cold of Canadian winters though. A winter in Buffalo, NY, was more than I could bare. However, these photos are helping me gain a bit of courage once again. Thanks for taking time to not only post them, but actually brave the cold to capture them.:tup:

Winter's not too bad in Southern Ontario, not nearly as much snow as Buffalo and not nearly as cold as most of Canada. The temperature can be up and down, yesterday it was 12C, today it's -3C. This year we got a lot of snow, some years we don't get much.

And Boden, more snow does not deserve a thumbs up ;)

Interesting. Looks a bit livelier than I expected, in terms of downtown (Despite the cold), although like London, Ontario (where I currently live), there is still a long way to go.

Love the blue-collar cities, including this one. Looks in pretty good shape (though a tad too chilly for me). Great set flar, per your usual. Thanks.

btw, you DID buy a ticket at the Variety Club for the free meat raffle, right?

Just metres to the south of that rail tunnel on Imperial Oil property we were bringing up soil cores on a possible construction site. The control room had cleared us to drill there. We hit an old wooden storage tank from the 19th century and had to shut down until things got sorted out.

Nice job on Sarnia. I was thinking of covering it myself but now there's no rush.

jodelli

Great pictures! I have never seen Sarnia before. (By the way my spellchecker actually suggests Narnia instead of Sarnia!)

As MSPtoMKE stated, this is indeed a crime:

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...2008/00114.jpg

What were they thinking? Makes me want to email their head office.

The bank sign looks stupid, at least they're still using their old building, many old banks were replaced with ugly one storey modern buildings. Theses silly banks think it's cooler to be known by acronyms and shortened names: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commmerce-> CIBC, Toronto-Dominion Bank -> TD, The Bank of Nova Scotia-> Scotiabank, The Bank of Montreal-> BMO, The Royal Bank of Canada-> RBC.

Sweet man. Got to love those Great Lakes towns.

Greaqt photos Flar!

Incredible photos, I've spent some time in Port Huron. It's a nice little town.

hehehe, nice title.

i almost grew up in sarnia...almost. now i know what i missed.

Thanks everyone!

Can't wait to go to Port Huron, I haven't been there in a good ten years or so. I just have to remember to bring proper ID. Gone are the days when you could just pop over the border. As kids living just down the St. Clair River from Sarnia, we used to go across the Sombra ferry on our bikes to get candy and cheap toys at the Ben Franklin store in Marine City. We just had to say what town we lived in and they let us across!

honestly man, you get around!!! where have you all lived?

I know Sarnia, London, and Hamilton now, but is there any more places?!?

and i agree, border is a pain in the ass to get across now.

For any of you from the area, I'm just curious...how hard is it to get across the border from Ontario to Michigan just for a daytrip? or vice-versa?

How does your answer change for Canadian citizens vs. American citizens?

How much easier was it 10 years ago? (before 9/11 and the Bush administration)

These are all things I wondered after looking at this thread. I'm sure it's not easy to protect the borders while still keeping it easy for the vast majority of border-crossers who are just making innocent visits...

It's not difficult to make a daytrip to Michigan (or New York on the eastern border) but it is more difficult than it used to be. There is still plenty of interaction between Canadians and Americans living along the river as well. Right now you need at least two pieces of ID, soon you might need a passport. Pre 9/11 it was wise to bring your birth certificate, but they often wouldn't ask for it. The tone is a lot more serious now than it used to be, they ask more questions and it takes a lot longer. I'm sure there is a lot more surveillance and record keeping too.

As for the river, it is monitored now. If you try to cross you will be intercepted by helicopter. My parents live along the river and I usually see a helicopter when I visit. Also, before 9/11 you could take your boat into American waters without problem, you weren't really supposed to, but nothing would happen. Now you have to stay on the Canadian side of the river.


@go Leafs go: I never lived in Sarnia, I lived downriver in the Sombra/Port Lambton area so I'm familiar with Sarnia. I mostly lived in Wallaceburg which is also near Sarnia (and the border).

As far as day trips via land or river crossing you are required now to have two pieces of ID to enter the US, one of them photo ID such as a driver's license.
Or a passport, the requirement of this having been put back to 2009 because it hasn't been ramped up yet to fulfill the demand.

Passports are mandatory when entering the States via air.

Just a hint, at the border don't try and be smart, they won't react well.

Canadian entry is similar at least in my case, using the same ID although I don't know the official requirement.

The real hassle is not knowing how long it will take to cross at any given time. It could be five minutes, it could be fifty. I've seen both.

And the area on the American side of the Ambassador Bridge is all under construction at I 75 for the next while.

jodelli