I'll be the first to admit that I take Canada for granted, so much so that I call it "America's hat." Even though my first visit to Canada wasn't until my mid-twenties, it's such a familiar place for most Americans that many of us overlook it. As Jon Stewart says, the only reason many Americans think about Canada is as a place we could get more trees from once we've cut down all of ours.

For his part, Tim grew up on the border with Canada near Niagara Falls. He, more than any other American I've met, has a great appreciation of everything Canada. While I grew up on Mister Rogers, Tim grew up on Mr. Dressup. In high school he spent a fair amount of time skipping classes, opting instead for drives to Toronto with friends. In college he was disappointed to discover most of the bands he liked were Canadian and no one else had ever heard of them. And, of course, he has family who lives in Canada too.

(I say all of that so our Canadian friends don't disown us due to my "America's hat" comment.)

Since my inaugural visit to Canada when Tim and I took a road trip (our very first ever together) to Montreal in 2003, I've had the pleasure of visiting Canada a handful of times. And every time I'm impressed by its vastness, its beauty, and the number of Tim Hortons. Given Canada's largest fast food chain specialize in all manner of doughnuts, including Timbits (what we Americans refer to as doughnut holes), I think Canada is a country all Americans can get behind.

And so with visions of Timbits dancing in our heads (sorry, I couldn't resist), we headed to Canada earlier this year over the long Easter weekend. There we spent several days wandering the coast of the Bay of Fundy, marveling at the tidal flows, and taking in some rather gorgeous vistas.

For years I had seen photos of the Bay of Fundy and they always captured my attention. (Hopefully our photos below will do the same for you.) The area is home to one of the highest vertical tidal ranges in the world, which is a fancy way of saying it's a great place to see how much the tide goes in and out. If you wait long enough between tides, you can find yourself walking along a beach that mere hours before was the ocean floor. And it's one of the places in the world I very much wanted to see for myself.

Rather handy it's only a bit up north from us in Canada, eh?