<H1>Alaskan / Canadian Photo Safari - Day Eleven</H1>

Athabasca Glacier - Oh Canada!

I rented a car in Vancouver and crossed over to Vancouver Island in a ferry. It takes about two hours and those who live in the UK will find this ferry almost identical to the UK cross channel ferries, replete with screaming kids, over priced food and merchandise but the seas is not as rough as the English Channel. Driving up north and looking for Orcas all along the middle to the northern tip of VI. There are at least two resident pods here and the coves and inlets are simply beautiful, minus the snow and floating icebergs of SE Alaska.  

Canada is slightly larger than the US in land area but with about 1/10 the population. One can be forgiven for thinking one never left the United States when visiting this lovely country. To begin with, the people are friendly and the language and accent is almost 99% the same, the Canadian and US Dollar is trading almost at parity. The road system, highway signs, cars and trucks and many stores and fast food outlets are very similar, if not identical.

But that's the surface, dig a little bit deeper and one will find clear distinctions between the two countries. Canada has two official languages (English and French) and uses the original English form of spelling. They use the Metric system while the US has one official language and still retains the Imperial system, the only industrailzed country to do so.  Canadian road signs are in kilometers, gas is priced in liters, food is sold in grams and kilograms, temperatures are reported in celcius, etc. The Canadian government is a parlimentary democracy while the US has a Congress and Presidency, both distinct branches of government.

The next week will be spent looking for Orcas and getting to know the Apex Predator a bit better. Still have not gotten around to looking at all my Grizzly Bear photos. I will post a cute one soon but there are many to choose from. It's a tough job trying to decide which photo is cuter. Love them all. Bears are very near and dear to my heart, like Whales and Big Cats.