Thurs. Oct. 11  Home Again, Home Again, Road Trip is Done

Another beautiful morning, but chilly...in the 40s. We had another great breakfast, Gary's version of the croque monsieur. Some informative conversation about living in Canada occupied the 5 of us until we left at shortly before 10.  After a stop at Honey Beans for coffee, we drove toward the US border at Calais (pronounced callis by locals).  We changed drivers every hour or so until we got to Freeport Maine at 2:30 for an hour stop at the outlet mall. Each of us made purchases!

Back on the road about 3:45 we headed for Boston and Santarpio's for our last meal together. Thank God again and again for a GPS; how easy to get in and out of a city!!!  We found East Boston guided by the GPS and went through areas none of us had ever seen. Usually we go to Santarpio's via south of Boston; this time we came from the north through Everett and Chelsea. But we found it easily by 5pm. 

Of course we all had pizza and enjoyed it thoroughly. Our waiter was a true Boston sports fan and regaled us with stories from his days of playing football at East Boston High and scrimmaging the Boston Patriots to his serving Tom Brady's family in the restaurant. 

Finding the Osentons' hotel in Dorchester was a bit more tedious, going on and off the Expressway and then wending our way back and forth under the Expressway!  Our last vacation adventure!  We said our goodbys at the Comfort Inn about 6:45, headed for the Cape and arrived home by 8:30. 

What a trip!  We traveled well together and shared so many new experiences. Canada is an awesome place to visit; the people are SO friendly and the Maritimes are so beautiful....forests, rugged coastline, farmland, ferries, bridges and so much more!  We'll be back!

Wed. Oct 9  Our Last Day in Canada

What a way to end our road trip!!  At a lovely B&B, in a picturesque seaside town, with an afternoon siesta on the lawn of a beautiful park overlooking  the Bay of Fundy under a perfect sunny sky!  We started our day with a delicious breakfast in the dining room at Kingswood B&B in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. We met a Canadian couple who were also staying at Kingswood and we had lots of interesting conversation. 

After breakfast Francine and I walked to Minister's Point across a dirt causeway that is inaccessible at high tide. We hiked up to the "cottage" which was built by the man who started the Canadian Pacific Railway near the turn of the century. It's a 50 room lodge-like summer retreat built on a hill overlooking the Bay of Fundy. The place is now a historic site and needs some TLC but the location is magnificent. We met the men on our way back, took a short hike through the woods and retrieved the car to drive back over the causeway. 

A tour of the town included the Algonquin Golf Club, a walk around the quaint town, a coffee and some photo ops. We got some apples and almonds at a supermarket and drove through the rest of the village to a park at the tip of the peninsula where we snacked, dozed and just enjoyed the day. Interesting real estate here....some very modest houses, some historic homes and some mansions. 

We returned to the B&B for some cards and a drink before dinner. At 6:15 we left to see the sunset over the coast of Maine at Niger Reef Restaurant.  It had been a beautiful, sunny, warm day but with the sun setting there was an chill in the air. The restaurant was small and intimate, a log cabin. The food was particularly good and well prepared. Sirloin, shrimp and lobster casserole, salmon, strawberry and apple crisp and carrot cake. We paid in US and Canadian dollars so we'd use up the last of our Canadian money. Our last game of cards ended quickly with Peter and Bill winning yet AGAIN!!

Tues. Oct. 8  Completing the Loop!  

We wanted an early start today so we packed and all met at 8 for breakfast ready to checkout.  An interesting British couple ate with us as did a shy Japanese woman. The Brits were having a longer road trip than ours but were touring many of the same places in the Maritimes. They started in Quebec and also did Newfoundland. We shared some photos of nature, ate breakfast and bid "adieu" to all at Heritage Harbor House Inn, a very comfortable, pristine and well located B&B. 

After our am coffee stop at Starbucks for some and the local coffee place for others, we were on the road at 9:45, ready to close the loop on our road trip by ending our day back in New Brunswick almost at the Maine border.  Pretty soon it started to POUR!!  Our first soaking rain of the trip!  We were headed for the Confederation Bridge, one of only 2 ways to leave PEI (the other being the ferry). The bridge is 8 miles long and is the longest bridge in the world over icy waters. Because of the rain it was hard to appreciate the view and the bridge itself. We began to wonder if we'd be able to do all we wanted to accomplish today. 

In spite of the rain, once over the bridge into New Brunswick, we headed for Hopewell Rocks. By the time we arrived there at noon, the rain was over and the sun was shining in a brilliant blue sky!  What luck!  And, we arrived just in time to take the shuttle to the beach to explore the ocean floor before the tide came in. There are amazing rock formations there that have eroded because of the amazingly high and ferocious high tides in the Bay of Fundy. They are called Flowerpot Rocks, are exceptionally tall and at high tide they look like islands in the water!

A guide at the interpretive center gave us some great advice about our next destination and we were back in the car by 1:30 ready for our next adventure. We continued driving along Fundy Bay with vistas that were incredible. Our destination was Cape Enrage where a lighthouse dominates the cliffs overlooking the Bay and the rising tide. We were the ONLY people there and we were ecstatic to climb to the lighthouse, walk along the boardwalk and just bask in the glory of nature. Peter said it was the highlight of the trip for him. 

Ann, the Hopewell Rocks guide, had also recommended a stop in Alma for lunch at the Harbor View Restaurant, a local place with local food. So, off we drove to Alma, a town that supplies everything for the Fundy National Park. We found it easily and by 3:45 we were eating local mussels, clams and seafood chowder. Delicious!!  And we still had to drive to St Andrew's where we had reservations at the Kingswood B&B.   

We arrived there shortly after 7 and, thus, completed our loop of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.  Ten days ago, we had passed the village of St. Andrew's, just over the border from Maine, on our way to Saint John. The sun had just set when we arrived and Gary, our host, met us in the driveway. The B&B is just outside of town, an imposing 160 year old home. We were tired, had a drink, some grapes and peanuts, played a game of Hand and Foot and retired in our spacious, fireplaced room.  A highlight of the day was The Osenton's Christmas gift to us, a water color painting of the PEI fishing village of French River that we had admired yesterday. Thanks, Bill and Francine!

Mon. Oct. 7  Where the Farm Meets the Bay

Up at 7 for a great walk along the water. We were back at 8:15 for breakfast in the dining room with Peter and Bill. We planned our day to do the Green Gable Scenic Drive along the north central coast of PEI and met at the car at 10. We stopped at a local coffee shop for a cup to go and wended our way to the beginning of the drive. 

Kensington seemed to be a good sized town and after that, for several miles, we saw rural areas, farms and a few small fishing villages along the coast where the farms meet the Bay of St. Lawrence. We stopped in Malpeque and spoke to a fisherman who was filling long nylon nets with spat (mussel seed); the mussels grow in the nets for 4-6 years before they are ready to be consumed. In French River we stopped for a photo op of the small, brightly colored fishing village.  We saw a lighthouse or two, took a walk along a beach in PEI National Park where the sand has a red tinge and the dunes are pretty high. 

At Stanley Bridge we found Carr's Seafood Restaurant, famous for its oysters so we stopped there for lunch. The oysters were delicious and the waitress who opened them gave Bill and Peter a lesson on an easier way to do it.  A side road took us to an interesting artist's gallery where Peter bought a framed painting typical of this area of PEI. 

At the other end of the National Park we found a cute lighthouse and a pretty tame fox. It seemed like he was posing for a photo!  We also found the shabby chic Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site, mansion built in 1895 by a former president of Standard Oil. Apparently his heirs squandered the inherited money and they, the granddaughters, sold it to the caretaker for$486.57, the amount that was owed for back taxes!  And then in 1938 it was sold to the government so the park now uses it as a hotel. The place is HUGE but was closed for the season so all we could do was look in the windows!

By this time we were almost back to Charlottetown so when we arrived back at our B&B, we played some cards, walked to a pizza place for dinner and then back to the B&B for the Red Sox game and bed!

Sun. Oct 6  The Road Less Traveled

Up fairly early for breakfast so Francine and I could go to St. Michael's for 9 am mass. What a treat!  The congregation was welcoming, the priest was outstanding and the music was impressive. We sat in the third pew not realizing it was for choir members. They told us not to move, just to sing!  The celebrant was folksy and had an important message concerning the ups and downs of relationships, even our relationship with faith. And EVERYONE sang along with the pianist and violinist. 

After coffee at Bean There Cafe, we were off to PEI about 10:30. We were hoping to make the 1 PM ferry; our designated arrival time was 12:52 so we weren't sure if we'd get on. However, we drove onto the ferry dock at 12:54 and right onto the ferry.  It took 75 minutes to cross the Northumberland Strait from Caribou NS to Wood Islands PEI.  Ate lunch and played some "Hand and Foot" to pass the time. 

We arrived on PEI about 2:15 and started our drive to Charlottetown, the provincial capital.  Shortly after leaving the dock we discovered on the map a 4.2 km drive called Jack's Road. It wasn't much out of our way so we decided to have an adventure!  Jack's Rd. is on land that Jack MacPherson farmed in the early 1900s. The road is actually a dirt road under a canopy of sugar maples and hemlocks where hares, foxes and muskrats feed their babies on a carpet of moss. Once again we saw NO wildlife!  However, the road did get muddy and was pretty narrow but it was tranquil. Fortunately we didn't meet another vehicle on this "road less traveled!"

After driving through verdant, prosperous farmland we arrived in Charlottetown and found the Heritage Harbor House Inn very near the center of town by 4 PM. After checking in, having a cocktail and watching the Patriots lose, we walked a few blocks to the Mahan House, a pub that had been recommended. 

We sat at the bar, chatted with the bartender and a couple sitting next to us and had "a pint!"  The bartender suggested the restaurant next door, Sims Steak and Oyster Bar, and she even called to make a reservation for us.  We dined on PEI oysters, scallops and beef....delicious.  It was refreshing to walk back to our B&B....temp in the high 40s and the weather, although threatening in the am, had turned out to be glorious again!  More football and then to bed in another lovely room in another very imposing B&B.