Impressions on my first visit to the U.S of A

I do not want to sound like I'm bragging on my first blog, however I do feel like I am well traveled considering my age (mid twenties). Most of my travels are really thanks to my parents. You see my father was a member of Canada's armed forces and it is a true testament to his adventuresome character (a trait he still exhibits into his 50's) that he spent most of his career outside of our country. It was during his first posting to Germany that he had the good fortune of meeting my mother. They did move back to Canada and manage to have two children, both of us born in the capital region of our country. My dad took the next opportunity to move us all back to Lahr Germany. Now I won't bore you with all the details, but my parents were a lot more concerned with seeing Europe than putting money in the bank. Thus I can brag that I have seen a lot of continental Europe. I've also been as far west as Alberta and spent a week in the Dominican Republic this spring. However, in all my travels, I had never been to the United States, our closest neighbour and biggest trading partner.
Now the reasons for this are two-fold. Number one is that I have never had the need to enter the United States. Number two is that I haven't agreed with many of our big cousins policies or attitudes which I felt I would be furthering by filling their wallets with my measley dollars. The reasons for the softening of my stance are that we were driving to Ottawa and wanted a different route than through Quebec and the appreciation of the Canadian Dollar vs. the U.S.
I must honestly say that we could not have been treated better by the people in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York State. People were very, very friendly and the restaurants and hotels were super. The scenery was lovely and I really appreciated the pride that American's have in their country (even if I believe it's misguided at times). I really feel like the U.S is worth visiting and I will do so again. If they could only now vote in a democrat.......but that's for another blog.