Happy Canada Day!

Today our northern neighbors are celebrating the 141st anniversary of their founding as a nation. July 1, 1867 is the day the Canadian constitution took effect.

If it falls on a Sunday, the holiday is celebrated on July 2.

I've never had the opportunity to visit our beautiful northern neighbor, and the closest I've come to crossing the Canadian border is looking at Windsor, Ontario from Belle Island Park. I would dearly like to do so one of these days.

So in honor of Canada Day, I thought I'd just note the places in Canada that I'd love to visit with time and opportunity.

1-Toronto

Canada's largest and most multicultural city. I want to visit the CN Tower, check out a Blue Jays game at Rogers Centre (aka Skydome) and see all of the other attractions in the area. I also want to do the Ontario Black Heritage tour.

2-Ottawa
Canada's capital. Would love to see Parliament Hill and the other attractions in Canada's capital city.

3-The Maritimes
Much of Canada's Black history is centered here as well. Many of the Black loyalists who departed New York after the American revolution settled in the Maritimes. I want to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia and the site where Africville once stood. I'd love to see PEI (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia as well.

4-Montreal
I've wanted to visit Montreal ever since I had the pleasure of seeing the city's various venues during the 1976 Olympic Games. There's also a certain surgical center just outside of town I'd like to have a little work done at as well. ;)

5-Vancouver
The host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Been to the US Pacific Northwest a few times and peeps who've been there tell me Vancouver's scenery blows that away. Would like to visit Victoria Island as well.

6-Banff National Park
It's in the Canadian Rockies and from what I've heard about it from people who've visited it, pictures don't do it justice.

7-Calgary
The host city for the 1988 Winter Olympics is compared by most people to H-Town. They have the similarities of being the largest cities in Alberta and Texas, embracing their western cowboy heritage (Calgary Stampede-Rodeo Houston), and being oil business centers. Calgarians will emphatically point to their winter sports pedigree and say they have more in common with Denver than Houston.

8-Edmonton
Calgary's provincial rival in everything, including NHL hockey and the CFL. Think the Dallas-Houston civic hatefest and multiply it. Only difference is the country and the mileage separating the two cities. In terms of the civic shadefest, Edmonton is the capital of Alberta, has more NHL Stanley Cups than Calgary and is home to the largest mall on the planet, West Edmonton Mall.

9-Quebec City
Would love to visit Old Quebec, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 2005.

10-Horseshoe Falls
You've heard of Niagara Falls? On the Canadian side of the Niagara River there's Horseshoe Falls (or the Canadian Falls as it's sometimes called. It's the more beautiful and impressive one.

That's my Canadian travel to do list. Hope I get to do it one day.