Monday, July 1 is Canada Day – which means it lines up perfectly with my next baking plans! Given my love for Canada, it’s hard not to want to bake Canadian stuff and praise them mightily.

I will indulge others in Nanaimo bars and some maple-related goodies.

My first and only experience with Canada Day was a few summers ago when I went on a road trip with a friend across much of the US; when we got tired of America (somewhere in Michigan), we drove up to the Great White North, visited Niagara Falls and Toronto – without realizing that we had arrived smack in the middle of the long Canada Day holiday weekend. I have no idea if Niagara Falls is always that crowded or if the hordes arrived en masse due to the holiday – but it did not give me the urge to return. We were in Toronto on Canada Day itself – and it was thus difficult to find anything that was open, although the world’s worst coffee chain, Second Cup, was open. (In fairness, though I have never had a good coffee at any branch of Second Cup anywhere in all of Canada – seriously, coast to coast, the one I had in Toronto was decent, and the barista was friendly and helpful.) Oh, memories – so very long ago.