It has been 19 long months since we were able to freely travel to and visit with our Canadian neighbors.

As of yesterday, the U.S. has made the decision to reopen its land borders for all travel in November, as stated in an article in Fox23 Maine.

Prior to this move, travel between the two countries was extremely restricted to very essential travel. Canada was NOT messing around with this pandemic. Did you hear about their crazy fines?! My friend’s family got a $1,000 fine for standing outside talking to their neighbors too closely... you can't make this stuff up.

Anyway, this is a wonderful step forward in the midst of some very weird times. This allows loved ones to visit with one another across the borders, and for tourism on both sides to boost their local economies.

According to the Fox23 article, Maine tourism says that Canadians spent almost $1.2 billion in Maine just in 2019. Tourist season may be coming to a close, but our neighbors love to ski and we have plenty of options for them. This is a major win for Maine’s winter hotspots.

The catch? Well, you obviously have to be vaccinated. This shouldn’t come to a surprise to anyone but I’m sure it will ruffle some feathers. If we’re going to be making moves forward to get back to whatever ‘normal’ is, we have to do it safely.

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