Oh how I love the Maritime Provinces! They are seriously magical. Everything I’d ever heard and expected to see was there. Such an amazing part of our world! So amazing I felt they deserved their own post, and as Paul and the kids are at the new Spiderman movie as a treat to them for putting up with all my nature stops, I have some time to myself where I can hear myself think without noisy kids butting in and the trailer constantly rocking from 6 big, moving bodies. It’s a bit too quiet though, I’m used to everyone being around!
Before we arrived in Canada we had a hiccup in the
planning. Without double-checking the
itinerary, we thought we had one less day there than we actually had. So we stayed in Amherst, Nova Scotia which
was kind of centrally located so we could hit a few things as fast as
possible. I think it was the night of
the first full day there we realized our mistake, that we actually had another
full day in Canada before we needed to return to the US. So that changed things up a bit and gave us
some breathing room.
The first full day there was my birthday. I’ve had some pretty good ones but this may
have been my favorite so far. We started
the sightseeing in Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site due to the fact that
a large portion of the city is still the original buildings from the early
1700’s. It was a pretty city but I think
the best part was the feel of how old it is.
As we drove down the very narrow streets with the windows down we
decided it smelled old. Like your
grandma’s house. Seriously. It was pretty neat. We followed the jagged coast east along the
Atlantic Ocean. The small fishing towns
were amazing! They were so
picturesque! Some were more contemporary
with yachts moored in the harbor and gorgeous homes along the banks, while
others were frozen in time and everything I was hoping to experience. One of the more modern towns was
Chester. I was ready to drop everything
and move there right then and there. I
seriously would love to retire there. Or
at least summer there. Unbelievable! Such a gorgeous place. And then we got to Peggy’s Cove, the small
village completely frozen in time. The
only thing missing was the old fisherman in his sweater smoking a pipe. The lighthouse setting was so gorgeous and
the weather was beautiful and it will probably forever be one of my favorite
memories. The fog started rolling in as
we were leaving and even that added to how wonderful it was. Such a great place! Nova Scotia is amazing! After Peggy’s Cove we went to Halifax, the
capital city. We felt so comfortable
there. The people all over Canada were
so nice and respectful and kind and the city felt like that too. We got in free to the Atlantic Maritime
Museum because it was going to close in 45 minutes, and we were able to see the
Titanic display. The dead were brought
to Halifax because it was the closest large port to the disaster. The search and salvage operations were also
centered there. That was a sobering
display, as they had pieces of the ship that sailors fished out of the sea, and
also a little boy’s shoes. He didn’t survive.
We walked around on the waterfront and found a food court where I had
poutine for my birthday dinner! It was
actually pretty good. Fries and cheese
curds covered in gravy. Yum! We topped it off with Beaver Tails, or as we
know it, elephant ears. We found the
Halifax temple, which we had originally planned to do a session in before got
our timing mixed up. It was still nice
to see from the outside. Like I said
earlier, definitely one of my favorite birthdays.
Sunday we went to church at the branch in Amherst. It was so good! We were all squished into a room the size of
the relief society room at home and we had to split up to find seats but what a
service! It was such a great experience
to attend church outside of the country and have it be the same. But it was so different in ways too. It was just a very uplifting experience and
we all walked out of there with huge grins on our faces. What a blessing that was for our family.
After church we headed to Prince Edward Island to complete
the Maritime Province trifecta. PEI was
beautiful red, rolling fields of potatoes!
I had no idea that’s what it would be like. We headed all the way north to the PEI
National Park in Cavendish to find a nice beach for the kids to actually
swim. We had made plenty of 2 second
stops all along our route before, but never took the time to really swim. It was amazing! I even changed into my suit and was in the
ocean for almost 2 hours. The water was
great and the weather was just warm enough that it was a perfect mix. So crazy that we were swimming in the North
Atlantic! That was a great day too. Though I’m convinced all days are great in
Canada. Though we never did see a moose
the entire time. So disappointing! How do you travel all over Vermont, New
Hampshire, Maine, and Canada and never see a moose!? We finished the day in Charlottetown, the
capital, where we finally tried some lobster and had one more Beaver Tail for
good measure. Good times!
Monday the 8th was Darcy’s birthday and
unfortunately, it was mostly just going to be a very long driving day. We did, however, see the Hopewell Rocks on
the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick. The
highest tides in the world happen there.
It’s a 40 foot swing from high to low tide! We were there at exactly low tide because I
didn’t want to miss a thing, and we were able to walk on the sea floor and find
little hermit crabs everywhere. That’s
about all the life we found because I think it gets too dry off and on for
anything else to survive. Bree was
having a field day teaching us about the plant and animal life because she just
finished a huge ocean life lesson at the end of the school year. She was our guide and totally in charge! Love that girl. We walked around a bit and got our shoes
muddy but I thought it was a beautiful place.
The water pretty much hits the tree line at full tide. We didn’t stick around to see the tide rush
in but someday when I’m at my summer home in Chester I’ll make the drive over
to see it from empty to full. That’s a
promise! After that we high-tailed it to
Augusta, Maine for the night. It was
hard to leave Canada. And I mean that
figuratively and literally. We were
stopped at the border crossing and they searched our trailer and gave us a
warning because I forgot about the tomatoes in the fridge so I never mentioned
we had them. Sorry! We have tickets to the White House next week
and I hope we aren’t flagged now for getting stopped at the border. They may not let us in! For dinner that night Darcy chose McDonalds
(gross) and she got a chocolate milkshake while the rest of us went without a
treat. Happy Birthday Darce! She actually celebrated her birthday at home
on June 8th and got a bunch of gifts so she really had 2 birthdays
but she was still disgruntled that we didn’t throw another surprise party or
something for her. Oh its tough to be
11!
So I would go back to Eastern Canada in a heartbeat. Throw in Newfoundland next time. And there was so much more to see and do,
especially in Nova Scotia, that I can’t wait to go back. Paul felt that New Brunswick overstated its
beauty though. To be fair, we mostly
were on the freeway in NB except for the Bay of Fundy, which wasn’t as accessible
as the brochures and websites lead you to believe. It was mostly forested, rolling hills. Pretty tough on the Expedition some of us
have named Han (Chewy was our last vehicle).
Others call him Max. For some
reason we can’t come up with a good name yet and we’re over a year into owning
him! What I do know is that he had
hauled us around 5984 miles by the eastern-most part of our trip. My guess is we’ll break 12,000 miles by the
time we get home. That’s a lot of
togetherness!
Things I have learned this week:
. 1. Taco
Bells are few and far between in “The Maritime.” (I sound like a local!)
2. You have to be really good at Pictionary to
follow the road signs in Nova Scotia. They
never say anything, just pictures. Like
a weird long black thing with a yellow background that I think was to warn us
of bumps in the road? Which really,
their touristy roads on the coast felt like one huge, long, bumpy, road
system. It was pretty awful. The freeways in all 3 provinces were
wonderfully smooth though. And who knew
there were freeways there!? I guess I
didn’t give them enough credit for being contemporary before I got there. Preconceived notions were quickly
squashed. There was another sign I never figured
out. It was a tipped square black thing
with a red crossed out circle. No idea
what that was for. And then there was
the really shaggy moose and the animal that looked like a leaping cow with dear
antlers. Thankfully we never saw any of
those in real life.
. 3. There are no wild blackberry bushes on the side
of the roads in the northeast and Canada.
It was kind of disconcerting once I noticed what was missing. I guess its nice though, they’re a torment in
the Pacific Northwest. But the northeast
makes up for torment in the form of mosquitos.
They are so disgusting and it gives me the willies thinking about
them! They are so vile and they are
everywhere! Darcy counted over 20 bites
at one time. And the grossest part of
all is when you kill them and there’s blood everywhere. Whose blood is all over my hand!? Who were they just eating!? SO DISGUSTING!
4. I could totally live in Nova Scotia. I will someday.
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