<<<snip>>>I used to not bring my birth certificate, but since Sept.
11 it is required to cross.<<<snip>>>

Chris, your post about crossing the US - Canadian border has some very
good information in it.  Points that many should take heed and follow.
However, the excerpt snipped above is wholly untrue - or at least untrue
as for my recent border crossing.  To wit...

My wife, our two kids, my sister, and her partner all piled into my
intrepid Phred for a day-trip to Niagara Falls on 12/1/01.  Crossing the
Peace Bridge into Canada from Buffalo, we were asked the number of people
in the bus and citizenship of each. And were waved through that simply.
Canadian side same thing.  How many, citizenship, going where, and for how
long.  And waved through.

We went to Fort Erie (closed) and then drove up a real nice road from Ft.
Erie to Niagara Falls.  Oooo'd and ahhh'd at the Falls for two hours, the
went into the city for some touristy-type roaming.  Ate dinner, then
headed back to the US via Ft. Erie and Peace Bridge, after a stop the
Duty-Free shop.

When US Customs asked what we were bringing back, the guy actually looked
like he could have cared less when we started listing the stuff we bought
at the Duty-Free shop.  In fact, we never finished the list (my wife
wanted him to know we were honest, and insisted on accounting a detailed
list).  The guy waved us through without even asking for ID, much less a
birth certificate.  Simply, a breeze.

And I thought we'd be in for all kinds of hastles, what with 9/11 AND a VW
bus...

Alan Bosch
& Phred ('88 Wolfsburg)