Much Maritime Meandering .....

Hello again!

We are just about finishing up the Canadian portion of our Adventure. It has been beautiful. We have experienced extraordinary good weather (with the exception of a notable downpour a week ago), and have had bright blue sky, crystal clear days to see the glories of the Maritimes. The mileage report shows just what we've been doing: covering a lot of ground!

MILEAGE:

Buster: Petit Rocher, New Brunswick to Hopewell Cape to Pictou, Nova Scotia, back to St. John, New Brunswick: 631 miles

Bella (Enclave): 1,125 (last week!)

TOTAL: 1856 miles IN THE LAST WEEK!

TOTAL MILEAGE: 6,705 miles so far on League's Excellent Adventure

This is FAR more than we ever anticipated going in a week, but there was so much interesting ground to cover and we had such great traveling weather. It was a little challenging for Liz but we did it, and now will slow our pace and get into the "home school routine" next week, where we devote 2-3 hours each day to some lessons.

Saturday, August 29

It really wasn't a very long drive from Petit Rocher, near Bathurst, NB, to Hopewell Cape (less than 200 miles) so we had an easy day. The notable thing about driving in the Maritimes is that everywhere you look it is beautiful ... from the farmland, to the neatly kept, tidy cottages and barns, to the forested hills to the coastline. And you are watching the scenery carefully because you are on constant guard for moose (more on this later!). The signage is daunting: pictures of a standard-sized car looking dwarfed by a towering, very long-legged moose. While we presumed that this was largely an evening or nighttime risk, we were vigilant. When we first entered New Brunswick traveling north on the Transcanadian Highway, there were high guard fences along the road for miles. Again, we were vigilant!

Hopewell Cape is south of Moncton, New Brunswick, and is the site of the Hopewell Rocks, a point in the Bay of Fundy where there are tall rocks and because the tide rises and falls so much, you can, at one point in the day, walk among them, and later, they are under water. The Bay of Fundy has the highest reported tides in the world.

Gary is waving in the blue shirt with Liz' arms typically wrapped around his middle!

The explanation for the high tides goes something like this: the Bay is just the right geologic size to take advantage of resonance. It is like a giant rocking bathtub, and when tidal action occurs at the mouth of the bay it is the perfect size to have the full part of the tub reach the shore at one point, and 6 hours and 15 minutes later, the water sloshes back and the low tide reaches the shore end "of the bathtub." On top the this the shape of the bay, being much narrower closer to shore, contributes to a funneling action that makes the tide higher and contributes to this unique phenomenon. It was really fun to learn about.

We had a peaceful campsite along Petitcociac River which joins the Bay of Fundy, but we were still alarmed when it started raining Saturday evening. It rained BUCKETS, very, very heavy for 8-10 hours, and Gary and I both got up about 1 am wondering if we should be fearful of flooding. We learned it had rained about 4 inches! But we were so close to the sea that all the water drained into the Bay and there was an amazingly little amount of standing water around us. So we took off for Prince Edward Island (PEI).

Sunday, August 30.

We stopped at what we have come to learn is the New England and Canadian equivalent of Brueggers and MacDonalds: Tim Horton's. They have the fancy coffees, bagels, muffins, breakfast sandwiches, etc. It's predictable. The coffee isn't as good as Starbuck's.

The drive to PEI took about two hours. We planned this to just be a day trip and wanted to be back by about 5 pm, so we hoofed it. There is a beautifully constructed bridge, Confederation Bridge, which connects New Brunswick and PEI across the Northumberland Straits. Otherwise you get over by Ferry. The round trip is $42.50, more by Ferry. The bridge is 8 miles long, and puts you right onto "The Gentle Island." There are no steep dramatic cliffs but just never-ending, restful rolling hills and farms. We drove through Charlottetown, and made our way to the northeastern coast where Cavendish and Green Gables are found. We had been to Green Gables on a New England cruise about 5 years ago this fall, but Liz was only two, and so we wanted her to see it when she could remember it. The lighthouse picture above was taken on this drive. We stopped for lunch at Richard's Eatery, a great seaside stand, for a delicious Fish and Chips lunch, and then made our way on to Green Gables.

I took this classic sand dunes shot with the light house right across the causeway from Richards, and placed it at the top of this blog post.

It was fun seeing Green Gables again; the charming house which actually belonged to the great uncle of Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the setting for Anne Shirley and her escapades. Liz is seen here in front of the house, in the garden, and then we have a shot of "Anne's room."

We drove back home to Buster after crossing that long bridge, and set out for our next location the next morning.


Monday, August 31

The days we break camp and move on to another campground are usually easier. It was only about 150 miles out to Pictou, Nova Scotia. We stopped to shop (and bought a heavier plush blanket at Walmart ... it's starting to get nippy up here!) in Moncton, and have lunch. Liz has developed quite a penchant for Chinese food, so here we are in the heart of Acadia searching out Chinese food. We found a reasonably good buffet for lunch! We were happy to pull into Pictou, on the Northumberland Strait coast, as our plan was to stay there for 4 nights. We had planned to travel to Halifax and the southwestern Nova Scotia coast on one day, and then take two days to explore Cape Breton Island, but found this was overly ambitious. So on Tuesday, September 1st, we settled for a day trip (still a 3 hour round trip drive) to Halifax where we had fun at the Citadel. Founded in 1749, Citadel Hill has served as the site of four different forts, each built during a time of perceived threat. The strength of the Citadel, its walls and moat, and harbor defenses have been such that no enemy has ever dared attack it.

We had a delicious lunch in Halifax and had planned to go the ancient port of Lunenberg, but time was too short, and we headed back. We knew we had a lot of driving in front of us.

Wednesday, September 2nd, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NANCY LEAGUE

We knew we did want to make time for a most beautiful drive .... circumnavigating the northeast coast of Cape Breton Island on the Cabot Trail. John Cabot landed in Aspy, reportedly, in 1497, just five years after Signor Christopho Colombo landed. We had heard that this was one of the most beautiful coastal drives on the continent, and having been along the Pacific Coast a number of times, I would have to agree .... we would turn each corner and gasp with visual delight. I'll share some of the images below. But before we reached the Cabot Trail we stopped for lunch at Mother Webb's. We had seen signs for "steak .... $9.97", but I decided to drive past when we reached Antigonish. However, we were impressed with the hoard of parked cars in the parking lot and decided to turn around. We were glad we did. It was very simple with the motto: Awesome Food, Instant Service. It was really close to that. Liz believes they had the best onion rings in her life's experience (!), and our rib eyes were really delicious ... not the most tender steaks we've ever had (they were only $18.95), but the most deliciously seasoned and grilled. All of the wait staff were super friendly, and fast, and gave us some great tips for our trip down the road. One of the things we liked the most was their mileage chart to Mother Webbs (on the table) with mileage to nearly everywhere! Also, had a great section in the table handout about "things to think about" like: "If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world." It was a refreshing and thought-provoking stop.

But on to Cape Breton. Even though we had steak for lunch, we needed an ice cream stop. They have delicious ice cream in Nova Scotia (and beautiful cows), and we had a chatty visit with the proprietress who told us that when she had travelled out to Edmonton on a trip through the states, that the most friendly people she met were from Minnesota. We agreed, and thought the same about the Nova Scotians.

Now, here are those promised pics from the Cabot Trail:

YES, we did see a moose, and not on the road!!! Yeah! A number of cars had pulled off along the side of the road, and as we were quite a bit more nimble being in the car, we were able to pull off and see that the excitement was about seeing this moose taking a few sips in the beautiful stream. It was, as you can see, very close to the inlet from the ocean. He/she stood there at the perfect distance for some time, and we were able to snap our souvenir pictures.

We had planned to spend our first night away from Buster while out on Cape Breton Island. The distances were just too great to try to get back, and we wanted to visit the Fortress of Louisbourg beyond Sydney, NS, the next day. We decided to just find something on Wednesday evening. We kept driving until 7 pm, though, as the weather was perfect and the sun sets late. The first place we stopped just south of Ingonish looked lovely, but we kind of set $150 as the point we would go to for a Bed and Breakfast type place. It was clearly the end of the season and we weren't even sure anybody was there. But the proprietor wanted $165 for his room with two beds, and we drove away. Then we started seeing signs for Helena's Housekeeping Cottages. Gary was certain this would fill the bill; I was less certain. But when we came upon the driveway, a sign said they were open, so we drove up. No one was home, but there was a handmade sign which said they had been called away, that the "first come, first served" should walk in the open door, make themselves at home, and they would return at 10 pm. So we did. It was very modest, but comfortable. Liz and I found pasta to make for dinner, we turned up the heat, Gary had a tin of herring, and we watched Roger Federer win his second round match at the US Open on their satellite TV. At 9:30, Eckert arrived (Helena was away), and collected our $69. We were as snug as bugs in a rug all night. Gary was right .... it filled the bill.

Thursday, September 3, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POSY KREHBIEL

The next (again) beautiful day we drove along St. Anne's Bay and around Sydney, out to Louisbourg. The is the largest restored fortification in North America. Obviously a French fort, it enjoyed a robust life in the mid-18th century. The ultimately victorious British hired local Cape Breton miners to destroy the Fortress in the late 1800's, and the progeny of these same miners were hired by the Canadian (British) government in the 1960's as an employment project to restore it! About 1/5th has been restored. It is a little more primitive but similar to Williamsburg with costumed folks sharing stories from the time. The lighthouse in one of the pictures below is the 2nd lighthouse on the new world coast (after Boston). We ate in the 18th-century "restaurant" with only a pewter spoon and diaper-sized napkins. It was fun. We were repeatedly made aware of how lucky we were that we had such a glorious, clear day as they often have cold and fog. See pics below:

Our experience in Cape Breton and our browsing in the Louisbourg gift shop reminded us of Evangeline, William Wadsworth Longfellow's lyric poem about love and devotion. The heroine is separated from her groom at the time of her wedding by the deportation (of the Acadians from Nova Scotia and this area, many of whom settled in the New Orleans area and came to be called "cajuns"), and the poem recounts her devotion in searching for Gabriel for the rest of her life. Gary read it that evening (as a poem it is challenging) and thought it was truly a lovely and endearing story.

Again, we had a long drive back to Pictou; Liz and I watched a movie while Gary got stuck behind an enormous amount of construction along a very bumpy and winding road along Lac du Bras d'Or. It was beautiful, but a very long drive. We couldn't resist sampling the advertised McLobster sandwich at the McDonald's near the Canso Causeway, but it should have been passed on.

Friday, September 4, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SUE KIM AND ALAN LEAGUE

So after our four nights at Pictou (with one on the Cabot Trail), we packed up and drove back toward New Brunswick, but first stopped at the Joggins Fossil Museum, also on the Bay of Fundy. Again, due to the very unique tidal action and the cliffs found at Joggins, fossilized trees containing many fossils, including the skeleton of the oldest reptile that crawled upon land 300,000,000 years ago, are exhibited at this center. You can imagine the rich fossil source this is by looking at this intriguing section of layered rock on the cliffs:

Saturday, August 5

We were entirely ready for a relaxing day of NO DRIVING after we arrived in St. John, New Brunswick last evening. We slept in, made pancakes for breakfast, played computer games, and went into St. John to the City Market and HAD LUNCH AT THE MALL (Brunswick Mall). Our only item on the itinerary today was to investigate the Reversing Falls/River. Again, due to the extraordinary change in tide height in the Bay of Fundy, the water into the St. John River here flows up into the river at high tide, and reverses, flowing back toward the Bay at low tide. We captured this phenomenon at both times. At about 1 pm today, it was high tide, and hopefully you can see the water flowing to the right, upstream, in the left hand picture. We returned at about 7 pm, and the water at the same spot was now flowing left, out toward the sea. It is really remarkable to see. Earlier in the day, Liz and Gary experienced this down on the water with the Jet Boat ride, guaranteed to get you soaked, which it did. They said it was extraordinarily fun! See Gary and Liz getting suited up and waving from the boat.

We took a tip from a local cabbie down by the St. John wharf (a huge Carnival cruise ship was in dock), and went for dinner a 25 km drive down the coast to St. Martin's. He said they had the best chowder in the world, and it was very good. I'm not sure it was worth the driving at night in moose country about which we are always aware! When we suggested Liz should change out of jeans, this is what she picked! You're right, I DID buy it for her! (Groves family note: her first wearing of her pearl earrings!)

Sunday, August 6

This is our last day in Canada, as we will camp in Acadia National Park in Maine, tonight. We had another beautiful drive through New Brunswick, stopping for a nice, gentile Brunch at the Fairmont/Algonquin in St. Andrews.

Being nicely stuffed, we ambled to Acadia, passing some beautiful fields starting to look like fall,

and look forward to really exploring the coast of Maine next week. See you later!

Julie, Gary and Liz