What should I do in Canada?

[ChildhoodObesity]

ive never had poutine and ive lived in canada my whole life!!!

[Potjeh]

Damn immigrants refusing to integrate

[LadyV]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7a2isL48Zs

Be sure to watch the end...

[jordancoles]

ive never had poutine and ive lived in canada my whole life!!!

[MagicManICT]

it's also the off-season for the Northern Lights. And anyway, do the Northern Lights show up at that latitude? I've only ever seen them once at 50°N.

Actually have seen the Northern Lights at 37 deg N latitude. There is no season for them. It's just based on solar activity. Though the longer nights of winter does give more hours to get a glimpse of them as they can sometimes only last a couple hours, other times for days. The pole towards the sun (ie summer months) tend to produce stronger auroras if I recall my reading from years ago.

TBH, I'd have loved to seen the ones I saw at home on the shores of Hudson Bay. They surely were spectacular to be able to be seen this far south. And there are several agencies that issue solar forecasts which can somewhat predict the appearance of the Auroras.

[Miss_Min]

MagicMan - yes, I mostly meant that shorter nights mean less chance of the sky getting dark enough to see auroras.

Hopefully I will at least see some stars though, and it won't just be cloud or fog. I have once upon a time seen a rainbow at night, which I didn't even know was possible. That was cool

[Trappin]

The quality level of artificial maple syrup extract, as noted, varies. All exttacts are the same in that way. Vanilla extract versus fresh vanilla beans, Almond extract tastes nothing like real almonds. MS extract can be found in most NA grocery store spice aisles.

I've seen people pour maple syrup on steamed asparagus and artichokes. If you like maple syrup, you'll find all sorts of foods and drinks to mix it with. Pipe tobacco is infused with maple flavor. The extract can be mixed with sage-herb pork breakfast sausage meat or cured ham and then baked, drip some into candle wax for aroma.

[YukiNitta]

So, here's a thing, next month I will be spending some time on various bits of the Atlantic / Gulf of St Lawrence / Bay of Fundy (WHY DO I HAVE TO GO THERE?) coasts of Canada. I have never been to Canada before (I'm British, I can understand and speak a reasonable amount of France-type French but have no idea what Quebecois sounds like). I've only ever visited the USA briefly, so answers that work for North America in general are also useful. What should I do / eat / buy?

I will have two days of complete touristy freedom in Quebec City, and then I'll mostly be working in other places with occasional chances to e.g. nip to the shops or go out for dinner (most of my meals will be provided through my work so I don't need to go forage all my food).

I will definitely buy some maple syrup (but is real maple syrup a thing you can buy for half the price in a supermarket instead of somewhere tourist-focussed?), but are there other things made from/with maple syrup that don't normally get exported, that I should look out for?

What other touristic shit should I buy? What should I buy for my sister's kids that says 'exotic foreign stuff from the cool auntie?' What artwork or jewelry should I get for my house and myself that says 'incredibly well-travelled and tasteful grownup'? (If I wanted a carved wooden dick, they sell a lot of them in Spain, and I would probably have one already. Thanks.).

I imagine I'll go to at least one Tim Hortons somewhere, they seem to have wifi - it feels like I've visited a McDonalds in every country of Europe looking for wifi, so a bit of variety would be nice. Anywhere else that's particularly Canadian? And what's so significant about Tim Hortons anyway?

[HAHA WHOOPS wrong account. will leave it here anyway.]

Yell at Trudeau for bein an idiot.