Time to Go Home

We left Canada, driving into Maine for the last leg of our journey.  We spent the night in Bangor.  We thought we'd hit a couple of sights on our way through, but there's only so much you can do in less than a day!  We drove to Acadia National Park. It really is a beautiful area. We drove part of the scenic road and made the drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  That would have been great, except that day it was fogged in so the view was pretty much nonexistent!

Jim enjoying the "view" at the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Down low, Maine was very pretty, with signs of fall color showing in the trees.

We moved on, making a short stop at the L.L. Bean store. It is a huge complex, dominating the town.  After this we stopped in Portland for dinner.   In August there was an article in the Jackson Citizen Patriot travel section about a place called Duck Fat. They raved about the Belgian style French fries, cooked in duck fat, so we decided to check it out.  Let's just say it did not disappoint!!

We came home through New York, crossing into Canada at Niagara Falls.  We spent the night near Niagara on the Lake, had a great dinner at the Angel Inn in N-O-T-L, and drove the last leg home the next morning.

Three weeks, five Canadian provinces, five states, and almost 5,000 miles later, we're back home, ready to jump into the car again. This time though, we're looking forward to going to soccer games, football games, dance or whatever the kids are up to.  Thanks for coming along on our trip!

The Tidal Bore at South Maitland

Today was our last day in Nova Scotia, but we couldn't leave without a visit to see the tidal bore for which the Bay of Fundy is famous. We went to a tidal bore observation area on the Shubenacadie River, which is the longest river in Nova Scotia.  We got there early, but the tide was a little late!  Seems the full moon had an effect on it.  If you go expecting a giant wall of water coming in you'll be disappointed, but it was worth the wait anyway.  When we got there the wide flat riverbed was mostly mud.  It was interesting to watch as the tide came in and filled it in, covering the sand bars, creating some rapids and whirlpools.  The wind picked up, the temperature dropped, and it felt totally different.  Once the tide came in, it was followed by rafters riding the current up the river.  They looked like they were having a ball.

Before the tide...

After the tide came in...

Rafters on the river...

One bonus for this stop was seeing four eagles!  They come to the river when the tide comes in because it brings with it a lot of fish, and the eagles go fishing.

We got on the road and headed off the island.  We had a good time in Nova Scotia.  What was to be a two night stay ended up being a four night visit.  We still didn't get to see everything. Oh well.  So it was off to New Brunswick and then to Maine.  We're going to make a couple of stops tomorrow while we're here, but will still be aiming the Jeep toward home.

Peggy's Cove

One of the most photographed places in Nova Scotia, Peggy's Cove is a small fishing village with a big beautiful lighthouse.  It's a favorite tourist stop,  and we think all of them were there today! There were several big tour buses there, and it didn't take us long to get tired of all the people.  However, we decided to have dinner there, and by the time we were finished, all the buses had left.  Early evening was a beautiful time to be there.

We were greeted by a bagpiper.

The lighthouse.

Another way of seeing the lighthouse.

Scenes around Peggy's Cove.

Enjoying my lobster dinner!

Just down the road from Peggy's Cove.

Tonight is our last night in Nova Scotia. Tomorrow morning we're going to watch the Bay of Fundy tides come in, then head for Maine. Now that the weather is so glorious, it's hard to leave!

Lighthouses, Fort Louisbourg and the Cabot Trail

Time to catch up!  On our way to the ferry to go from PEI to Nova Scotia, we took a side trip to Point Prim.  It is the oldest lighthouse on Prince Edward Island.  When we got to the ferry, we were early, so we took a drive to see the lighthouse near the ferry.

Point Prim

 Ferry Lighthouse

Another really interesting thing we saw driving to the ferry was fishermen in one of the bays, searching for shellfish.  We're not sure if it was oysters, clams, or mussels, but it looked like hard work.

On our first full day in Nova Scotia we decided to visit Fort Louisbourg.  It is a National Historic site and it was a really interesting visit. The fort is actually a reproduction, but it is so authentic you'd never know it. It was originally built by the French, but was taken by the English, then eventually turned back over to the French.  There are craftsmen, soldiers and townspeople dressed in period costumes who tell you their stories and demonstrate their crafts - kind of like Williamsburg.

Close to Louisbourg is another lighthouse.  This one was a reproduction of the oldest lighthouse in Canada.  We could have spent days just visiting lighthouses. There are lots of them!

After our Louisbourg day, we spent the night in Ingonish. I'm not sure, but I think this is where we camped in 1973. I was excited to swim in the ocean for the very first time!

This time I only got my feet wet.

The Cabot Trail is one of the most beautiful drives in North America.  It winds around the coastline through much of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We read that there were 24 scenic pull offs on the drive. We kept track and we stopped 26 times to look and take pictures! Needless to say we spent hours on this drive.

We took a short hike at one of the stops and visited a reproduction of a Scottish crofter's cottage.  Jim liked it and decided it should be our next residence.

Notice the road stretching out ahead of us.

One of the prettiest stops on the drive.

We spent so much time on the drive around the Cabot Trail that when we got to the Glenora Distillery, where they make single malt whiskey, we were too late for a tour, but we had a really great dinner there.  We also thought we were too late to visit the Celtic Music Center, but they were having a Ceildh (a gathering). so were open later. We stayed and enjoyed some wonderful fiddle and bagpipe music. It was a long, really great day!

Prince Edward Island and Sleeping With the Foxes

For some reason the last two posts got reversed. We went to Perce before Prince Edward Island. Oh well...

We started our day yesterday driving up along the north coast of the island to Cavendish, center of the Anne of Green Gables area.  The drive was beautiful as we passed picturesque farms, coastlines and quaint little fishing villages.

French River -- where the farm meets the sea.

We visited Green Gables, where Lucy Maud Montgomery grew up. It is the setting for her beloved book, Anne of Green Gables. 

Jim made a new friend there.

There is also a whole village of Avonlea. Some of the buildings are original and some are recreations.

After we left Cavendish, we drove a scenic section of the coastline - rugged red cliffs,  beautiful beaches and too many photo opportunities.

Quite by accident, we stumbled upon a beachside eatery called Richard's Fresh Seafood.  We saw the people in line and thought it looked like a good bet. Turns out it's famous for its fish, and has been featured in many papers and magazines, including the New York Times.  The bonus was we also got to enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

Finally, the weather was so great we got to pitch our tent and camp for a night.  The campground was almost deserted - just us and the foxes.  We saw several, but they wouldn't pose long enough for a good picture.

This morning we woke up to a beautiful pink sky.  Hopefully that is a sign of a good day to come.

Sometime today we will take the ferry to Nova Scotia and continue our journey in one last Canadian Province before heading back to the U.S.A.

Perce

We got up this morning hoping to have a terrific view of the Perce Rock.  It is an imposing, elegant mass of about four million tons of limestone, and is reported to hoard multitudes of fossils.  It used to have two arches, but one collapsed in 1845.  On a beautiful day we might have taken a boat excursion to get a closer look, but today was not the day to do that.  There was a lot of mist and fog that would lift, and then close everything in again.  It wasn't a rainy day, just  gray day.

Our view today...

This is what we saw in 1973.

So, we continued our drive on down the coast, into New Brunswick - lots more beautiful scenery, and many quaint little towns.  It was an easy drive, although when we're driving in the woods in the dark and seeing the signs alerting us to the danger of moose, it does make us a little nervous.  I can't imagine what hitting a moose would be like!  We did have to make one short stop when Jim spotted a bald eagle.  This is not a great picture, because I have yet to purchase an expensive bird lens; it's just a "proof that we saw it" picture!

We're spending the night in Miramichi, which is a huge salmon fishing area.  This is not the salmon season, so Jim might not be looking for a fishing opportunity, but we're going to drive up the river tomorrow just to take a look.  Maybe someday...

We were surprised to find we had entered a new time zone.  We're now on Atlantic Standard Time. Oh darn, we just lost an hour of vacation time!

Prince Edward Island

It was nice to have a day where we had fewer miles to do.  We left Miramichi, opting to not explore the river because it's not salmon season, so we wouldn't see any fishermen, and the weather didn't cooperate.  We drove to Shediac, which is right on the coast of New Brunswick.  When we came through Shediac in 1973, we discovered a Lobster Festival was in progress.  We stopped and enjoyed the local cuisine -- every imaginable way of fixing lobster.  We had such nice memories of the place that we had to at least stop for lunch there.  After some delicious seafood chowder, we headed to Prince Edward Island.

 This was a new destination for us.  There is now a bridge to PEI.  We stopped at the visitor's center near the bridge and watched a film about the making of the bridge. What an amazing engineering feat.  This is a bridge to an island in the ocean!  It was completed in 1997. Until then if you wanted to go to the island, you had to take a ferry.

Confederation Bridge

There was an observation tower, and in addition to a great view of the bridge, we could see a lighthouse in the other direction.

What we have seen of Prince Edward Island so far is beautiful. It's very rural with beautiful farms and rolling hills.  We had enough time to drive around the coast part way to see a beautiful sunset.

Tomorrow we go exploring.  We still haven't decided whether to spend a second night here or go on to Nova Scotia.  Depends on how many places we want to see.  One place we plan to go is the setting for the Anne of Green Gables books.

It's nice to get back to the room in time to watch Ohio State play some great football.