Yarmouth, NS

Rain, rain. We left Cruiser in the campground and headed to the Yarmouth County Museum hoping that the day would clear up; after two wonderful hours looking at paintings of ships, shipbuilding tools, ship décor, First Nation relics, lighthouse relics, musical instruments, carriages, toys- you’ve got the idea: museum artifacts – it was still raining so we headed to the Cape Fourchu lighthouse anyway; did the inside memorabilia but really couldn’t walk outside on the slippery rocks; had tea and lobster roll at the café. Then drove to Stanley’s Lobster and received a wonderful tour of the area where the really, really hard-shelled lobster are kept, cleaned out (they aren’t fed for three months so as to clean out their innards), and shipped to Boston and internationally; these are really special lobsters! This tour also included a walk to the beach where they have gatherings and feasts. We had just eaten or we sure would have had Brian W. prepare us a feast; we also had a great conversation with him; love these Canadians! Now we are sitting in the library using a guest pass to do wifi. The rain is supposed to last a few more days so don’t know how much we’ll see along the way. ‘Til later…
6.22.10 notes
Left Digby and ½ hour later we reached St. Bernard and the granite church that seats 1,000; it was constructed between 1910 and 1942, one layer of granite each year; quite impressive; the stations are of pewter; the pews are magnificent wood. Just down the road in Church Point we toured the museum in St. Mary’s Church, constructed (between 1903 and 1905) of wood in the form of a cross 190’ long and 135’ wide with an impressive 185’ spire; the museum had exquisite chalices, ciboria, vestments, and such from the 1800’s; the stain glass windows are magnificent and many. Website http://www.baiesaintemarie.com/ste-marie The campus of Nova Scotia’s only French-language university, Universite’ Sainte-Anne, is adjoining and as a center of Acadian culture plans to open a new Rendez-vous de la Baie in the next month. It was just a few more miles to Yarmouth. Today we visited the Firefighters’ Museum of Nova Scotia exhibiting almost every type of fire engine used in NS from the 1800’s to the 1930’s.

The fog was so thick this morning we wore rain jackets walking along the Digby harbor. Lunch at O'Neils was excellent: scallop sampler, scallop spinach salad, sweet potato fries, and carrot cake. Right off the boat scallops - YUM! Yesterday we walked Annapolis Royal, Fort Anne, and Port Royal - also and excellent day with lunch of lobster roll and sweet potato fries at Ye Olde Towne Pub. Ferry from St. John, NB, to Nova Scotia was comfortable and we even saw a few whales. We're having way too much fun.

Happy Father’s Day – on Sunday 20th; that is the real thing! It has been raining since 1 am; thank heaven we are parked on gravel. We are at Rockwood Park Campground in St. John, NB, with great wifi and some antenna TV. We really enjoyed St. Martins with the caves, Fundy Trail, and walking on the ocean floor; Regina collected quite a few rocks and some driftwood. Pictures tell the story. On Wed, after we set up camp, we climbed the Carleton Martello Tower which also has a fine museum; the Walmart, as most north of MA are not supercenters, doesn’t really have the groceries we need so we went to Sobeys and found good food including organics. We spent the evening watching our videos of where we’ve been so far.

Fundy Trail Parkway today: we went at low tide and returned at high tide = 6 hours 13 min. What a difference - 35' This is truly a remarkable area - you gotta see it to believe it. We are back at our Century Farms campsite; the wind has been constant today - 30 mph gusting to 40 - we are rockin' and rollin' - Paul even put the front window awning down; we can still see the bay and the caves from our side windows. We are enjoying our travels because it is still early in the season; kids are still in school; sites are not crowded and a few don't even open until the 20th; campgrounds are not full; and we have much more to see.

St. Martins, NB

St. Martins has wonderful views of the Caves: note the change in water level. We are at Century Farm Family CG and can look across the bay and see the caves, as well as a lighthouse and the harbor. Tomorrow we do the Fundy Trail.

Happy Father’s Day! Paul’s gift was clean laundry and I made the tuna salad. We are busy during the day checking off the list of museums, tide changes, and all the sites mentioned in brochures; by nightfall we check email and do a bit on facebook (which is very easy to update). If you are coming here for updates, I’ll aim for at least once a week; wifi can be spotty also which is what this site needs. We can do facebook on the iPad and the 3G network; life with technology is so very easy. Myphotoalbum is easy to update also and the pictures are probably more interesting; be sure to do them as a slideshow because it is quicker and then you can go back to pictures of particular interest.
Currently I am sitting on my bench looking out over the Bay of Fundy and over into Maine. The Kiwanis Oceanfront Camping is at the point of the peninsula where St. Andrews is situated; we have truly been enjoying the view. Today we drove to the Fairmont Algonquin and checked out the lobby with pictures from 1915 to the present, dining area, pool, and gift shop; again – the views are magnificent. Also tried to see Katy’s Cove, the beach area but it was all gated; so we drove past the several cemeteries: St. Andrews Cemetery – nice drive through looking at headstones past and present, the Loyalist Burying Ground – all locked up, and the Historic RC Cemetery. Yesterday we walked through Kingsbrae Gardens at the head of King Street for a few hours; also saw the eleven sculptures vying for the $10,000 first prize. From there we walked to Downtown (five blocks) and walked the five blocks along the waterfront; St. Andrews First Annual Seafood Festival sported several canopied vendors and in the larger tent the chefs from the Kennedy Hotel and Fairmont Algonquin prepared salmon and lobster dishes – we were around to try two of them. We did buy some salmon jerky; now that’s different. Lunch was a lobster and swiss sandwich at Sweet Harvest. We walked out on the pier and looked back at town; yep, there is a 28’ tide here; high watermarks on the rocks and pilings and the floating docks make that very evident. At the end of town is St. Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site built during the War of 1912 to protect the town from American privateers; Navy Island is about a mile away in the bay and Maine (don’t know what town, if any) is just about a mile further – yep, I can see the USA from here! On Friday we drove a few miles to the Atlantic Salmon Interpretive Centre; didn’t even know there were Atlantic salmon and Pacific salmon; but the Atlantic salmon must be smarter – they don’t die after spawning and can return several times if they survive the hazards of ocean migration. The website for more info is http://www.asf.ca It was time for lunch so we stopped at a roadside stand, the ClamDigger Seafood Take-out in Chamcook and ate at the picnic benches; cute little girl named Chloe and her brother Xavier kept us company while they played on the swing set. Fortified with fish and lobster, we drove to the Saint Croix Island Historic Site and looked across the bay at the island first settled in 1604 but then moved to Port Royal, NS, because of the terrible winter storms (very good presentation boards along the paths) and made plans to visit Annapolis Royal near Digby next week. We had to check out Ministers Island, which can only be reached by driving over the access bar road when the tide is low; we happened to arrive at low tide but decided against looking at another rich man’s estate that we can probably view online. The grocery didn’t have diet Dr. Pepper so we drove to the convenience store – yes, Regina is in luck. Well, I guess that about covers the last few days. Time for another meal. BTW, pictures are of sand bar to Ministers Island, St. Andrews downtown, and St. Croix in background.

5.29.10 Our visit with Carole and Jon included dinner with Donna and Larry, too. On our tour of Doylestown we saw the Moravian Pottery & Tile concrete building at Font Hill Pond, fieldstone houses, James Michener house, Peace Hill Park area, Delaware Valley College, and the former Burpee homestead. The drive through the area is beautiful with trees, hills, flowers; we saw turkey in driveways, deer along the wooded areas, and fieldstone houses everywhere. Our private campground was very comfortable for two days. We spent the Memorial Day Weekend at the Circle CG Farm in Bellingham, MA; we drove along 109 through MA towns to West Roxbury for a visit with Lisa & Dennis, former Tallahassee Latin students. Amazing how kids grow up; we exchanged news since Colleen’s wedding last year, had lunch, and got directions to the new Liberty Mall in Dedham hoping to find some small size shoes at LL Bean; no luck – we will head to Freeport next week; and heard all about the Boston Red Sox, a favorite pastime around here. FYI, Ellen’s spine operation has helped her leg pain and Rachel is back from Haiti.
6.5.10 We are having way too much fun. Paul found boat shoes and cargo pants. Highlights of our visit to Warren and Thomaston, ME, included the Owl's Head Transportation Museum, Pemaquid Lighthouse (which is on the Maine quarter) and steamed lobster with Harlean and Bob. Go to myphotos for visuals.

Updates

5.26.2010
Update: Since last report we have traveled US 301 through NC, VA (did take I-295 around Richmond!), MD, and DE. Jenny met us at a café in Hanover, MD, where we caught up on BPW (we were housemates at FSU) and life news; isn’t it amazing that it doesn’t matter how long it’s been we can just pick up as if saw each other just yesterday. Thanks to all our friends who allow us to pop into their lives during our travels. We enjoy the slower travel (averaging 33 mph) that allows us to take in the fields, farms, and little towns – that is, until we reached MD and DE where 301 is the alternate route for I-95; lots of traffic. Cruiser allows us to pull into almost any gas station and shopping area for a break; this is good. Lums Pond State Park offered a pleasant respite from the typical private campground; glad we at least had electricity, though. Looks like our travels north from here are going to be on interstates unless we have a month to get to the Maritimes…NOT!
5.29.10
Our visit with Carole and Jon included dinner with Donna and Larry, too. On our tour of Doylestown we saw the Moravian Pottery & Tile concrete building at Font Hill Pond, fieldstone houses, James Michener house, Peace Hill Park area, Delaware Valley College, and the former Burpee homestead. The drive through the area is beautiful with trees, hills, flowers; we saw turkey in driveways, deer along the wooded areas, and fieldstone houses everywhere. Our private campground was very comfortable for two days. We spent the Memorial Day Weekend at the Circle CG Farm in Bellingham, MA; we drove along 109 through MA towns to West Roxbury for a visit with Lisa & Dennis, former Tallahassee Latin students. Amazing how kids grow up; we exchanged news since Colleen’s wedding last year, had lunch, and got directions to the new Liberty Square Mall in Dedham hoping to find some small size shoes at LL Bean; no luck – we will head to Freeport next week; and heard all about the Boston Red Sox, a favorite pastime around here. FYI, Ellen’s spine operation has helped her leg pain and Rachel is back from Haiti.
6.1.10
Reached New Hampshire and the wonderful Barrington Shores campground of Gail and Don; even the Quebec fires smoke couldn't hide the beauty of the woods and water. Also had lunch with Angelynne and Ed (Ed was a student from the 1970's in Gainesville...)in Portsmouth. Paul, another G'ville student, was busy teaching Latin so his visit was a phone call.