Maritime Canada - Fall 2007

Day 1 – Friday, September 21, 2007

Left home about 8:30 am and flew United via DC/Dulles to Boston. We took the shuttle to our hotel, arrived about 2:30 pm, greeted by our guide, Charles Holmes. After dropping off our luggage, we walked around the area – to the Prudential Center, the Christian Scientist Church complex, and window shopping/people watching along Newbury Street. Our guide provided a bit of orientation, as we joined the rest of our group for a welcome dinner. Everyone headed to bed early, in anticipation of an early start tomorrow.

Day 2 – Saturday, September 22, 2007

We were on the coach and underway by 5 am – not our finest hour. We stopped at the Maine visitor center for fruit and muffins and then onward to Portland to board the CAT for a 5.5 hour ride to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The CAT is a huge aluminum-frame catamaran powered by four 9500-horsepower engines that funnel huge volumes of water to move the boat at 55 miles an hour. The ferry skims over the surface of the ocean, carrying 750 passengers, 250 cars and 14 motorcoaches. Inside, there’s plenty to do – 3 snack bars, 4 TV/movie lounges, and a casino. The promised spectacular views didn’t quite materialize due to heavy fog.

It was a long ride, but at last we were officially in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia became a British possession in 1710, after 100 years of struggles between the British and the French for control of North America. In 1867, it joined with New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec to form the Confederation of Canada. Nova Scotia was settled by French, English, Irish, German, Scottish, and African peoples – it’s quite an interesting mix!

Canadian customs officials came on board the coach and in no time, we were on our way for a quick orientation tour of Yarmouth. Yarmouth’s first encounter with Europeans was Champlain’s arrival in 1604 when he named Cape Forchu and explored the harbor. The town was founded in 1761 and was settled mostly by New Englanders from Massachusetts. The soil was too rocky for farming, so the settlers turned to the sea and took up fishing and shipping in a big way. In the 1870s, Yarmouth was the second largest port in Canada. Even today, much of the town’s livelihood focuses on the sea, with tourism becoming an important industry as ferries from the mainland have made Yarmouth the “Gateway to Nova Scotia.”

We rode by an interesting old house – a Gothic revival house built in the early 1800’s. It is owned by a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman and his teacher-wife; the owner came onto the coach and told us about the history of this interesting looking house – he spends all his spare time doing maintenance!

We made it to the Rodd Grand Hotel, where the staff had a nice reception for us – delicious caramel crumble cake. We dumped off our luggage and headed out to walk around town a bit. Yarmouth is a small town (about 8,000 residents). It was founded in 1651 by French colonists and today is a hub of fishing, shipping and transportation industries.

Near the waterfront, we saw lots of wild roses – just about finished blooming, but loaded with beautiful red and orange rose hips.







We also saw fishing trawlers – sitting far below the docks since it was low tide. Tides on the Bay of Fundy are quite dramatic; in some areas, the tide changes as much as 50 feet.






The Killam Brothers Shipping Office Museum is in an old building dating back to the 1800’s when it was a key player in the coastal shipping business.







And of course, there were lobster traps – piles and piles of them.









We headed over to the Colony Restaurant to try their ‘famous’ hot lobster sandwich – lobster in cream sauce over toast, with PEI mashed potatoes on the side. We also tried another local delicacy, something called rappie pie – chicken, salt pork and potatoes. Both were mighty tasty, as was the seafood chowder that we tried as an appetizer.

Day 3 – Sunday, September 23, 2007

We were joined today by a step-on guide, a French Acadian woman named Mauritta. She took us on an architectural tour of Yarmouth, accompanied by funny stories about her family and the town’s residents. We saw all manner of giant Victorian houses that were built by sea captains and bankers back in the 1800s. One of them was the summer home of the Fuller brush man – the real guy who founded that business. We saw the home of the town’s most eligible bachelor – 36 years old and drop-dead handsome – only to learn that he’s the parish priest; they call him Father What-a-Waste.













Before we left town, we stopped by Acadian Glass Art for a demonstration of making stained glass. We saw how they cut and polish the pieces of glass, then wrap each one in copper tape before soldering the pieces together. Lots of pretty pieces.









We headed north out of Yarmouth, along the Evangeline Trail. This route passes through many picturesque French-speaking villages. The bilingual inhabitants along this shore are descendants of the first French settlers, who came over in the early 1600s. They, too, turned from farming to the sea for their livelihood. Many homes were flying Stella Maris, the tri-colored Acadian flag with a single gold star.


One of the finest and most celebrated Acadian churches is Saint Mary’s Church at Point de l’Eglise. St. Mary’s was built between 1903 and 1905 in the form of a cross; its steeple rises 185 feet above the countryside. It is located on the campus of Universite Sainte-Anne, Nova Scotia’s only French language university. Saint Mary’s is the largest wooden church in North America.

Not far down the road, at the village of St. Bernard, there is an awesome granite church which seats 1,000 people. It was built by local residents between 1910 and 1942.




Around lunchtime, we rolled into the town of Digby, which was founded in 1783 by Loyalists from the New England colonies. Today Digby is known as the scallop capitol of the world; it is the home port of one of the world’s largest scallop fleets, harvesters of the famous Digby scallops. We saw scallop-draggers tied up at Digby’s floating marina, which rises and falls with the 30-foot tides every 6 hours.

We stopped at the Fundy restaurant for lunch, and most of our crew tried the scallops – said to be delicious. Just by the restaurant was a restored scallop dragger, the Lady Vanessa, which has been made into a museum highlighting the local fishing and scallop industry.

We traveled though more small villages to arrive at the town of Annapolis Royal. The town contains over 150 Canadian heritage buildings, including the oldest wooden house in Canada. It’s a lovely place of gracious large homes, colorful gardens and broad tree-line streets.




Not far from Annapolis Royal, we stopped to visit the Port Royal National Historic Site, also known as The Habitation. It is considered one of the most historically important sites in North America – arguably the oldest European settlement on the continent. After the explorer Champlain discovered this beautiful location, a small colony of Frenchmen lived there from 1605-1613, until an English expedition from Virginia looted and burned the Habitation. The survivors lived with the local Indians, the Mi’kmaq for a while, but they eventually returned to France. Port Royal is the place where Champlain started the Order of Good Cheer – prominent members of the community took turns providing food for a banquet and arranging entertainment.

The historic site is staffed by French Acadians in period dress, complete with wooden shoes, or sabots. A member of the Mi’kmaq tribe described the history of the place and showed us how her people made use of moose, from hide to hoof.







After Port Royal, the Evangeline Trail heads into the Annapolis Valley, known as Canada’s first bread basket. This fertile valley has been farmed for over 300 years and is filled with orchards and rolling farmlands. The valley has pretty towns and gently winding rivers, and it is sheltered on both sides from heavy winds and Bay of Fundy fog by the North and South Mountains. Evidently, the sunshine and red soil combine to produce excellent fruit – we enjoyed some locally grown Canadian Honey Gold apples.


We stopped at Grand Pre’ National Historic Site – it was the site of the church and cemetery of the 17th /18th century Acadian village that became the setting for Longfellow’s narrative poem, Evangeline. The visitor center has lots of exhibits and a movie that describes the tragic tale of the expulsion of the Acadians by the British in 1755.





The poem tells the story of a young Acadian girl from Grand Pre’, who was separated from her betrothed. It is not particularly accurate historically, but it became a rallying point for the Acadian people after its publication in 1847. The place name (Grand Pre’) refers to the extensively diked lands and means “the great meadow.” It is a beautiful, haunting place.







From Grand Pre’, we headed into the little town of Wolfville – it’s a charming college town, with lots of trees and beautiful old homes. Dominating the center of town is Acadia University, one of Canada’s top undergraduate schools and the alma mater of our tour program director.

Our next little town was Windsor, known as the birthplace of hockey in Canada. It also is home to North America’s oldest agricultural fair, which has been held in Windsor for more than 230 years. The fair was in full swing when we came through, and we were very disappointed to hear that Martha Stewart had to cancel her appearance there – guess we’ll have to come back if we want to see her ….

As we came into Halifax, we learned that Anna Leon Owens, a local schoolteacher, was the “real” Anna of “Anna and the King of Siam” or “The King and I.” Her home is now the Five Fisherman Restaurant.

Halifax is known as the City of Trees, but it’s also known for three horrific events: the 1921 sinking of the Titanic, the 1917 explosion in the harbor, and the 1990 crash of SwissAir Flight Number111. On that cheery note, we arrived at our hotel, the Lord Nelson Hotel – it’s in a great downtown location, right next to the public gardens.



After a long day’s ride, we headed out for a walk around the neighborhood. Lots of young people from nearby universities – great place for people-watching. We eventually ended up at the hotel for a late, light supper and then to bed.









Day 4, Monday, September 24, 2007


Halifax was founded in 1749 by Edward Cornwallis and his company of 2,500 settlers. The city has a long history as a bastion of British strength in the New World. Built to counteract the growing strength of the French in North America, Halifax was recognized the world over for its strategic importance and excellent ice-free harbor. Today is our day to get to know the city.

There were a couple of cruise ships coming into Halifax today, so our group opted to get an early start on our tour of the city – before the hordes of people descended upon the place. We had some free time in the afternoon and took a walking tour as well – at this writing, it’s hard to remember what we saw in morning versus afternoon.

Whatever time it was … we saw it all: St. Paul’s Church; the Halifax Citadel (a huge star-shaped stone fort on a high in the center of town); the Grand Parade (a military parade ground from the city’s earliest days); the Halifax City Hall; the Old Town Clock; the Province House; the Historic Properties (a restored waterfront area of 10 buildings now housing all sorts of shops and restaurants); ships along the waterfront; and the Casino Nova Scotia. We also rode past Point Pleasant Park, for which the city pays the Queen the grand sum of 3 shillings per year – at least it gives the Lt. Governor something to do….

St. Paul’s’ Anglican Church was built in 1750, just a year after the founding of Halifax. It is the oldest building in the city and the first Anglican Church in Canada.










St. Mary's Catholic Church has the tallest granite steeple in North America. It is TALL.











A statue of Winston Churchill dominates the grounds of the public library.











The Town Clock , viewed here from atop Citadel Hill is one of the city’s most famous landmarks. It was constructed in 1803 at the request of Prince Edward, a man renowned for his love of punctuality.









The Halifax Public Garden is a 17-acre tribute to Victorian elegance and beauty. It is a formal English garden begun by the Nova Scotia Horticultural Society in 1836, with trees, flower beds, fountains, duck ponds and a bandstand. We saw a special floral tribute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in honor of its 75th anniversary.




Along the waterfront, we saw some nice sailing boats, large and small.














Down near the waterfront, Nova Scotia crystal is being made on site – with the working area open for visitors to watch.











The Fairview Lawn Cemetery is a municipal burial ground that now hold the graves of 122 victims of the sinking of the ship Titanic in 1921. The city was much involved in searching for survivors and victim, many of whom were buried here because they were never identified or because their families were too poor to bring their bodies home. The graves are laid out in the shape of a boat’s hull; initially all had identical headstones, but some families paid to have additional stone work. Unidentified victims are listed only by a number. It is a place of great sadness.

Last but not least, we visited Pete’s Fruitique – a wonderland of grocery stores – filled with all sorts of exotic and local foods. We bought some snacks and got a good look at some Canadian delicacies that we hope to try along way. Nanaimo bars, Cape Breton pork pies (date tarts), and butter tarts.

In between morning and afternoon riding and walking tours of the city, we went to visit Peggy’s Cove, a small fishing village about 30 miles southwest of Halifax. It is said to be one of the most photographed places in Canada. Huge granite boulders are scattered throughout the village and the old lighthouse stands on a huge granite ledge.











Fishing boats moored along weatherworn wharves are part of the atmosphere that makes photographers go crazy snapping pictures in every direction. During the summer, the lighthouse serves as a post office – the only one of its kind – it even has its own special stamp cancellation and passport stamp, both in the shape of a lighthouse.












One of the highlights of our visit to Peggy’s Cove was a demonstration of the workings of lobster traps. Our tour program director dressed for the occasion and drew quite a crowd.








Music was all around us – an accordion player out by the lighthouse, a fiddle player and a piper.

Peggy’s Cove is surely a charming spot, but hard to appreciate when it’s overrun with tourists. It would be nice to visit another time – in the off season.







Day 5 – Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Today was lots of driving – all the way from Halifax to Baddeck, on Cape Breton Island. We headed inland, towards the town of Truro, with a rest stop at an Irving Big Stop, complete with a Tim Horton’s Coffee Shop. This is a chain of coffee shops (all over Canada) started by a famous hockey player who hated airplanes – he drove everywhere and thought there should be more coffee shops to keep drivers awake and alert.

We stopped for lunch at the Mariner’s Dining Room (the Cove Motel), just before crossing over Canso Straight to Cape Breton Island. This was a beautiful stop – right on the waterfront, and good food, too.











We drove on to the village of Baddeck, on the shore of Bras d’Or Lake. There we spent some time at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park, which has exhibits dealing with Bell’s numerous fields of experimentation. There are displays on his work with the hearing impaired, the telephone, medicine, marine engineering, and aerodynamics. Across the water, we could see the lighthouse and just get a glimpse of his home, Beinn Bhreagh.

Our hotel for the next two nights is Auberge Gisele’s Inn. It’s a pretty spot, overlooking the Bras d’Or Lake. All our meals are included here; the chef is top-notch – it's a 4-star restaurant.






After checking into the hotel, we went walking along the waterfront. On the way, we passed the Baddeck Building Supply Company and noticed a cute emblem over its name – it was a picture of 5 aces, with the word “Baddeck.” We stopped to take a picture and a man came out of the store to talk to us – he was pleased that we caught onto the joke (bad deck of cards = 5 aces) and sad that this was the emblem from a World War II ship known as a corvette and named after this village, Baddeck. The sailors didn’t know anything about the village, so they created this picture as the emblem of their boat. The store owner had it specially made to hang it on the front of the store.

We then walked across to a boat dock to look at an interesting boat docked there – and who should appear but the boat’s owner and builder, the owner of the building supply company. We had a nice chat with him about his sign and his boat – it’s a small tugboat that he and his son built. They named it “Tug of War” and they use it to tow folks who get stranded or run out of gas. He took us aboard and showed us around. What a nice friendly fellow – a good ambassador for the village and the whole province!


We walked on around the harbor at Baddeck and saw all sorts of boats, some in the water and some not.

We had dinner at the hotel and were joined by our program director’s mom (Jean) and sister (Lorna). They live about 40 miles away at Sidney Mines, on Cape Breton Island. They stayed overnight with us for the trip along the Cabot Trail.

Day 6 – Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Today we’re off to explore the Cabot Trail, a 180 mile loop around the northern end of Cape Breton Island. It winds along the Margaree River and through the rugged highlands of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada. The trail was named after Italian explorer John Cabot, who was first here in 1497; the paved road connecting previously isolated communities was completed in 1932. It has been recognized as one of the top ten scenic drives in the world.

The first stretch of the trail follows along the Margaree River and the Margaree Valley – we passed miles and miles of beautiful rolling farmlands before reaching the harbor and beaches at the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Margaree River was designated as a Canadian Heritage River and is popular for fishing, canoeing and hiking.

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The northwest coast of Cape Breton is windswept, with trees and plants that struggle to survive in a rugged climate. The road curves around the coast on one side while mountains rise on the other. In between sit colorful, tidy houses, often displaying the Acadian flag.

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This is another area of Nova Scotia where there are many people of French descent. The village of Cheticamp is particularly well known for its hooked rugs, so we stopped to visit Les Trois Pignons (The Three Gables), which houses a museum dedicated to hooked rugs. It is operated by the Society of St. Pierre, an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the Acadian language and culture. The museum features all sorts of hooked rugs with historic themes, many by Elizabeth Lefort and others by other local artists. We particularly enjoyed a demonstration by a delightful young woman with a thick French accent.

We entered the national park at its western entrance and words aren’t adequate to describe the scenery. It’s a roller-coaster ride over forested mountains, opening onto spectacular vistas of ocean and rocks. The road makes its way up the side of the massive Cape Breton Highlands (the last remnants of the Appalachian chain) and then dives down again to meet the sea. We saw lighthouses and fishing wharves, sandy beaches and waterfalls – every turn promised a new surprise.

We stopped several times along the way, at places with nifty names like French Mountain, Wreck Cove, and Pleasant Bay.

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We stopped for a picnic lunch in the park. It was a nice setting, but the best part was a surprise furnished by Charles' Mum - she made oat cakes for the whole gang. These were served with a slice of cheddar cheese and were absolutely delicious. She gave us the recipe to try our hand at this Cape Breton delicacy.

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We stopped for a while in Neil’s Harbor, a picturesque fishing village on the eastern shore of Cape Breton Island. There were only a few boats left in the harbor, as fishing season is just about over and many of the boats have already been pulled out for winter storage.

Lobster traps and crab pots are piled everywhere and will be repaired during the winter to be ready for the opening of lobster season in mid-May.

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High atop a hill overlooking the village is a small lighthouse.

High atop a hill overlooking the village is a small lighthouse.

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Our next stop was Black Brook Beach - a sandy beach at the mouth of a small river with dark brown water stained by some of the trees upstream.

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We saw Ingonish Beach, a popular resort area and stopped for a walk around Keltic Lodge, a grand resort hotel operated by the government of Nova Scotia. The hotel is perched on a rocky cliff, with beautiful views in every direction.

The birch forests were lush and green – but should be quite colorful in a few more weeks.

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After leaving the Keltic Lodge, we drive throught the St. Ann's Bay area and got a glimpse of the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts. It's the only instituion of its kind in North America, and people come from all around to learn traditional Scottish disciplines such as Gaelic languarge and song, bagpipe, highland dance, step dance, fiddle, and weaving. Wish we could have stayed for a "celidh" to hear some of the talented performers here.

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We headed back into Baddeck with time to walk around town and rest up for another gourmet meal – salmon was on the menu tonight. We were pretty well stuffed after dinner, so we took off for another walk along the waterfront – it was especially pretty with a full moon overhead.

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On the way back we stopped by the local church to listen to the choir practice for their Christmas concert.

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Day 7 – Thursday, September 27, 2007

Off again in the coach – we retraced some of the roads we’d covered already, then headed over to Antigonish, a little harbor town that was settled by Highland Scottish immigrants and American Revolutionary War soldiers and their families.

At Pictou, the Dutch cargo ship Hector arrived in 1773 with the first 179 passengers from Scotland – a replica of this ship is in the harbor. For us the harbor meant it was time to board the ferry to Prince Edward Island (PEI).

We weren’t alone – there were lots of cars and trucks leading across the Northumberland Strait. It was about 1.5 hour journey and we had a ‘picnic’ lunch onboard.

Prince Edward Island is located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It is the smallest province, just over 2,000 square miles. The island is 40 miles wide at its broadest point, 4 miles wide at its narrowest point, and 140 miles long. Charlottetown and Summerside are the only cities in the province – the island is known as the million acre farm. There are only two ways for cars to access the island – via the ferry (Nova Scotia) or the Confederation Bridge (New Brunswick).

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When we arrived on PEI, we headed first to the Province House National Historic Site. It was here in 1864 that the first meeting was held leading to Confederation, the coming together of four British colonies that would become the beginning of the Canadian nation. Much of the interior of this building has been restored, but is still today is the seat of the provincial legislature – it meets in the east wing, just as it has since 1847. We watched an informative movie, which was followed by a guided tour of the building.

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We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and headed out to walk the famous Charlottetown boardwalk. We were joined by Joe the bus driver, who has been here on many previous trips – he’s a Irishman from upper New York State and we never tired of his funny stories and delightful Irish brogue. So we walked and walked and walked – covered every inch of the boardwalk, and ended up at ‘Lobsters on the Wharf” for an early dinner. The salmon was outstanding.

We walked back through town, old churches and beautiful homes, with a stop at Cow’s Ice Cream. This is a company founded in Cavendish, PEI in 1983 and now with locations all over the place. Pretty good ice cream.

We got back to the hotel in time for a special event arranged by our tour director – Canadian television and recording star Catherine McKinnon came to our hotel to do a special concert just for our little group. Charles and company set up the Provinces Room with little tables, candles and a fire in the fireplace – pretty snazzy – and Ms. McKinnon was a real delight. She had everyone tapping feet and clapping hands – a good time was had by all.

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Day 8 – Friday, September 28, 2007

This is our day to explore PEI – the good news is that we had a local guide, Glenna Smith; the bad news is that it rained most of the day. We first rode around Charlottetown – really a charming little city of about 33,000 people. There’s lots of history here, with none of the hustle-bustle of big cities elsewhere – we heard that this was a laid-back place and it’s true. After seeing the same buildings we saw yesterday, we headed west into the countryside.

We rode through rolling hills, huge farms, quiet communities, and quaint fishing villages – red dirt and green everything else. There are over 100,000 acres planted in potatoes and we’re here at harvest time. PEI potatoes are grown for eating (table stock), seed potatoes and processing factories. Other crops include grains, carrots, turnips, corn, soybeans and lots of berries.

We reached the coast at Stanley Bridge and then headed to the town of New London, the birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author who gave us Anne of Green Gables. From there, we went to Silver Bush, the home of author Montgomery’s aunt and uncle – their descendents live there today. We saw the old home, had tea and cookies and a carriage ride around the grounds – it was a bit damp, but a pretty place to visit.

We took off again – now along the coast, the north shore of the island. We saw several mussel farms – long lines of buoys, each with a ‘mussel sock’ hanging from it. These are seeded with a cupful of small wild mussels and allowed to mature for 12-18 months, at which time they yield 80-90 pounds of mussels ready for market.

We rode through the coastal town of Cavendish, an area steeped in “Green Gables” lore, but now pretty much turned into a tourist trap. PEI’s most famous literary heroine, Anne of Green Gables, made her home in Avonlea, a fictional village easily recognizable as Cavendish. Author Lucy Maud Montgomery grew up here and is buried there.

We went through part of PEI National Park, along the northern shore of the island – it’s a beautiful area of sandy beaches, sand dunes, ponds, woodlands, and salt marshes. Many years of wind and wave erosion have carved spectacular sandstone cliffs – we stopped for a closer look – it was worth the effort, in spite of the rain.

We went through the Acadian fishing village of North Rustico, where lobster is king. Other types of fishing include mussels, oysters, mackerel, halibut, and herring.

At New Glasgow, we stopped at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company, where we were greeted by the owner, Bruce Alexander McNaughton. He and his family make all sorts of preserves in a restored old building that used to be the local butter factory. We got to sample the goods and watch the preparation of ‘Very Berry’ preserves.

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And then it was back to Charlottetown, to the 160-year old Zion Presbyterian Church. The church as wonderful stained glass windows, but we were there to hear the organ, a 2-manula Casavant pipe organ. We had our very own organ recital and old-fashioned hymn singing, compliements of Sara Bryant, one of our group from Wilmington NC, where she is a church organist. A very talented lady and an unexpected treat for all.

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We had some free time back in Charlottetown, so we did some more walking along the boardwalk before dinner. The sun was shining when we left the hotel, but the rain was falling again before we got back into town. .

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We met our first Newfoundland dog – and boy, was he BIG. He was only about a year old and his owner said he was still growing – he expected him to gain another 60-70 pounds and he sincerely hoped that the dog would also grow a lot calmer.

We had an early dinner at the Pilot House before heading back to the hotel to figure out how to come back here again for a much longer stay. Maybe just a week, but a month would be nice …

Day 9 – Saturday, September 29, 2007

Here we go again – time to leave Prince Edward Island – we headed southwest to the Confederation Bridge. This engineering wonder is 8.1 miles long, the longest bridge in the world across ice-covered water – it was built in 1997 to connect PEI with New Brunswick. We stopped briefly on the PEI side to get a look at the bridge and the lighthouse nearby.

When we stopped at the PEI visitor center we were greeted by none other than Charles of Green Gables. Gotta hand it to the guy – he does like to have fun and does his best to keep us entertained along the way.

And finally, we made our way across the bridge – wow. It has a slight S-curve to keep drivers alert and exterior concrete walls to prevent rubbernecking; in our coach, we could see over the wall, so we had a grand view of the Northumberton Strait. The bridge’s state-of-the-art traffic management system includes 310 street lights, 17 closed-circuit TV cameras, phones and fire extinguishers, a weather monitoring station, electronic message boards and 34 traffic signals. The hollow interior core carries electrical, telephone and other utilities and has space for workers to move around and monitor everything happening on the bridge. The locals are understandably proud of this long-awaited link between PEI and the mainland.

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And so we arrived in the province of New Brunswick, which was discovered by Jacques de Cartier in 1535. It was established as a province in 1784. New Brunswick has a rich history of Acadian settlements along the coast, beautiful scenery and quaint fishing villages, but may be best known for the Bay of Fundy, which features some of the highest tides in the world and a great variety of whales.

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Once in New Brunswick, we headed southward down the coast. We pulled into a little amusement park called Magnetic Hill. This was an interesting optical illusion, where your vehicle appears to roll uphill.

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We stopped for lunch at an Irving Big-Stop, a glorified truck stop. Prices were reasonable and it turned out that we had a chance to try a couple more uniquely Canadian foods. For an appetizer, our table shared something called ‘poutine’ – a pile of French fries, smothered in gravy and topped with melted cheese. It sounds awful and it looked awful, but … it wasn’t bad tasting (as long as you didn’t think about all those arteries clogging shut). For our meal, several of us shared a couple of ‘donairs’ – spiced beef, lettuce, and tomatoes piled on a piece of flatbread and then drenched in a sweet-garlicky salad dressing. These were really good – we’d do them again, but ask for the dressing on the side.

After lunch, Charles was at it again – he made his way through the coach with a little bag of strange looking stuff for us to sample. The taste is hard to describe, except to say it was very salty, very chewy and very disgusting. It was a kind of dried seaweed, known as dulce.

We stopped for a while at the town of St. John to have a good look at the St. John River, which has a pretty dramatic tidal interaction with the Bay of Fundy. The tides are so forceful that the river becomes salty for 100 miles upstream at high tide; this is the large amount of water moved by tides anywhere in the world.

We got a nice demonstration of this at a place called Reversing Falls. At a curve in the river, there are some rapids, about 15 feet high. The force of high tide is so great that the water runs UPSTREAM over the rocks – quite an amazing sight. It was even more interesting to watch some intrepid kayakers out there, paddling like crazy – they were facing downstream, but the current was so strong that they could only manage to stay in one place for a little while, before getting pushed on upstream.

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We chatted with one of the paddlers. He said that today was a particularly rough day, but that it was a challenging ride every day. He noted that it is much more dangerous at low tide because the water is moving downstream with terrific speed and there are some wicked whirlpools at the bottom of the rapids. Guess we’ll have to come back to check that out.

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After another short ride, we stopped at the best ‘attraction’ yet – a roadside stand (near St. George) selling all manner of wild blueberry products. Most of our gang tried the blueberry sundae, but I went right for the blueberry pie – outrageous. Others got frozen yogurt and muffins.

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One of the owners told us about the challenges of ‘encouraging’ wild blueberries – they have a constant battle with weeds and trees overwhelming the very small bushes and have had to rent bees to ensure pollination. It sounded like a lot of work, but it tasted like it was worth the effort.

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We rolled on into the old resort town of St. Andrews by the Sea, an area that was explored by Samuel de Champlain and later settled in 1783 by Loyalists from New England. This seaside town is on a peninsula projecting into Passamquoddy Bay, which is part of the Bay of Fundy. There are many islands offshore, and across the water we can see the coast of Maine.

There are lots of beautiful homes on the hillside overlooking the harbor, and our hotel perched on the very top of the hill visible for miles in every direction. At least we shouldn’t get lost around here.

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It turns out that the hotel manager is a friend of Charles (we’re not surprised anymore – it seems like he knows everybody), and the hotel staff met us at the bus and gifted us with a genuine New Brunswick Sou’wester rain hat. We all gathered on the lawn, in our slightly ridiculous bright yellow hats, were sworn in as honorary maritimers, and drank a toast to New Brunswick, our home for the new few days.

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After the greetings and festivities, we took off (on foot) down the hill to explore the village a bit – and to walk off some of those blueberry calories. We joined some of our traveling companions for a light dinner in the pub, known as The Right Whale.

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Day 10 – Sunday, September 30, 2007

It’s Sunday and we’re not in a hurry to get somewhere this morning – a chance to sleep in for once! We had a huge breakfast at the hotel – it was the biggest buffet we’d ever seen – with everything imaginable on it and a lovely sun porch for dining.

Sufficiently stuffed, we took off for a tour of the town of Saint Andrews. We went down to the waterfront to have a look at the world of low tide – the high tide mark is right along the walkway and right up near the top of the wharf, but at low tide, we could walk for quite a distance ‘on the ocean floor.’ It was even more amazing when we went back later in the day (at high tide) and saw that 20 feet of water had covered our footprints.

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Back to the town – more than half of the town’s 550 buildings were built before 1880, with so

me as old as the American Revolution. It’s really a nice little town, with charming cottages, big mansions, and old old houses.

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Our main stop for the day was a Kingsbrae Garden, a 27-acre garden that has been named one of Canada’s top ten public gardens (for reasons not clear to this visitor). The garden was created on the grounds of several grand old estates and includes a cedar maze, ponds, streams, a functional Dutch windmill, and lots of trees, shrubs and plants. There also was a display of scarecrows, including this bride and broom.

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While at the garden, we had a watercolor lesson with a local artist. She gave us step-by-step instructions for creating a whimsical waterfront scene – everyone’s pictures looked so good that we agreed that we had a pretty talented instructor.

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We got back to the hotel in time for high tea – complete with scones and clotted cream. We were with 6 other women on our trip and everyone had a good time getting stuffed full of exotic little sandwiches, scones and rich desserts. A few even topped it off with champagne.

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Clearly, it was time to get some steps to address all those calories. We walked with some of our group down the hill – back to the spot where we’d walked out onto the ocean floor. As noted earlier, it looked like a whole different place.

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We walked on into the village, where our companions descended upon a yarn shop and we headed on down the street.

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We saw some murals depicting scenes about town.

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We walked along the wharf and waterfront to check out the boats and the buoys. There were plenty of both.

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We walked through town and out to the site of the old Pendlebury Lighthouse, which is being restored to its former grandeur.

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From there, we walked to the very tip of the peninsula to see the Celtic cross that was placed there by the Canadian-Irish Cultural Association.

We headed off-road into the Pagan Point Nature Preserve, a protected stretch of land along the Passamaquoddy Bay. The trail goes first through Acadian coastal forest and then along the coast, between a salt marsh and the Bay, with Ministers Island in the distance. Ministers Island was purchased by the founder/CEO of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He built 50-room summer estate on the island, which is accessible only at low tide.

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From there we trudged back up the hill to the hotel for a light dinner and to pack for the trip down to Bar Harbor.

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Day 11 – Monday, October 1, 2007

Our departure today was a bit different – we hopped a boat at the wharf on Saint Andrews. Our craft was the Quoddy Link, a wildlife adventure vessel engaged to transport us to Campobello Island.

Leaving the Saint Andrews harbor, we once again saw the dramatic signs of the highest tides in the world. Because of the funnel shape and dimensions of the Bay of Fundy, the tides move fast and reach great heights – actually as high as 48 feet in some parts of the bay. As the tides move, the tidal currents form whirlpools, eddies, and all sorts of turbulence; the world’s largest tidal whirlpool, the “Old Sow,” is here just off the tip of Deer Island.

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As we headed out of Saint Andrews, we went through some narrow passages between rocky islands. We saw northern gannets diving for fish (same plunging technique as the boobies in Galapagos); porpoises, harbor seals, gray seals, cormorants, loons, and some black guillemot. Note that the black guillemot is a little black and white duck-like bird with red feet – it is a close relative to the puffin (as close as we’ll get on this trip).

We also spotted a couple of Minke whales. They were feeding on a school of herring and surfaced multiple times, giving us a good look. This baleen whale is about 30 feet long, weighing about 10 tons.
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We also got a look at a couple of bald eagles – apparently a pair – just sitting on top of the rock cliffs keeping an eye on us, it seemed. They are impressive in flight, with a wingspan of 7.5 feet.

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We rode past some herring weirs, traps for catching herring (and sardines). A series of wooden stakes in a circular pattern are wrapped with netting from the high water mark to the sea floor. As herring move along the shore feeding, they are guided into the weir and can’t find their way out. This technique was developed by the First Nation peoples hundreds of years ago; it is still widely used today as the most efficient way to catch these fish.

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We also saw several large operations for “farming” Atlantic salmon. The salmon are raised directly from eggs in fresh water hatcheries ashore before being transported to these sea cages. Most of the Atlantic salmon that we’ve been eating all week came from this aquaculture process.

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And of course, we went past several lighthouses – these three include the Pendlebury Light, the Green Point Light, and the East Quoddy Head Light (on Campobello Island).

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We landed on Campobello Island and went to the Roosevelt Campobello International Park. This park is on Canadian land (New Brunswick), but is jointly managed by the US and Canada. The highlight of the park is the 34-room ‘cottage’ that was owned by the Roosevelt family, first by James and Sara Roosevelt and later by their son Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. From 1883, when Franklin was one year old, until he was stricken by polio in 1921, FDR spent most of his summers on this rugged and beautiful island on Passamquoddy Bay.

After leaving Campobello, we drove into Lubec, Maine and made our way through customs. Next stop was for lunch at Machias ME, home of Helen’s – arguably the best lobster rolls and blueberry pie in these parts.

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Finally we made our way into Bar Harbor. This resort town lies at the entrance to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. The beauty of sea, mountain, lake and forest were made famous by a couple of Hudson River Valley School artists, who came to the island and painted landscapes and seascapes that attracted visitors to see this fishing village and beautiful coastline for themselves. By the turn of the 20th century, Bar Harbor had become the summer playground for America’s wealthy. The institution of income taxes, World War I, and the Great Depression nearly removed these folks from the island by the 1930’s. A disastrous fire swept through in 1947 and destroyed thousands of acres and most of the many grand hotels and mansions. The landscape and the nearby Acadia National Park prevailed and today the place is still a huge tourist attraction.

After checking into hotel, we walked around a bit doing some window shopping and admiring the fall colors. Downtown Bar Harbor is lots of shops. Then we joined most of our group for dinner at Poor Boy’s restaurant – reasonable prices and good food – lots of people tried the lobster feast. Stuffed again ….

Day 12 – October 2, 2007

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We were up early this morning to visit Acadia National Park. One of the earliest national parks, Acadia was established in 1919 as the first national park east of the Mississippi. This is the most-visited national park on the east coast – it is unusual because it was neither carved out of public lands nor bought with public funds. It was envisioned and donated through the efforts of private citizens. John D Rockefeller made large donations of land and built the 57 miles of carriage roads that criss-cross the park.

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We stopped at the visitor center at the Hulls Cove Entrance – watched a nice movie there to get a sense of the grand combination of cliffs along the sea, towering forests, and meadows and marshes filled with wildflowers. We drove by Eagle Lake – you can see the hints of fall colors around the lake.

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Then we headed up – to the top of Cadillac Mountain. This “mountain” soars to 1530 feet – the highest eastern mountain that is right on the coastline. It was pretty chilly up there – nice views of the town, the harbor and the islands beyond.

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After coming down the mountain, we headed onto the Park Loop Road – designed by JD Rockefeller to ensure that visitors didn’t miss his most favorite scenic spots. We got a glimpse of Sand Beach from the road above.

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We stopped at Thunder Hole – a crack in the rocks. When a wave hits just right, it’s pretty noisy – and splashy.

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More interesting was the path toward Otter Point – good views of the rugged coastline.

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Jordan Pond seems to be everyone’s favorite stop – the lake is lovely and there are nice trails all around the area – walking trails as well as carriage roads.

We got a good look at one of Rockefeller’s famous granite bridges. Others are much more complex and ornate, but this does the job.







At the Jordan Pond House, we did what ‘everybody’ does – we had tea and popovers. Not on the lawn, as shown here, but in a nice warm room with a fireplace and windows overlooking the pond.

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Back in Bar Harbor, the place was crawling with people – two cruise ships in town – one Holland America ship and the Queen Elizabeth II. We should have stayed in the park!









We headed for the Shore Path, a one-mile trail along the coast. We went down by the hospital to reach the farthest end of the path – the private property owners along the way have built lovely stone walls to discourage folks from wandering where they’re not wanted. .

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Along the way, we spotted a huge rock that appears to be a glacial erratic – it sure looks out of place amidst the sea weed.







In an effort to evade the hordes of people on Main Street, we took a 2-mile history walk through the village. This is the Bar Harbor Congregational Church, built in 1888.

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This is the side view of St. Savior’s Episcopal Church, just next to the Village Burying Ground. This cemetary was established in the 1700's and contains many marked and unmarked graves - sea captains, fishermen and farmers, shipwrights and hotelmen, state and local legislators, wives and children, and an occasional sailor dying far from home.

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This is the most interesting of many, many inns and B&B’s along this route. This one is named the White Columns Bed and Breakfast; it was built in 1937 as a Christian Science Church. Most of the other inns were in grand old homes, some dating as far back as 1860.

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We hopped on the free local bus, the Island Explorer – this is a nifty operation featuring 8 different bus routes that link hotels, campgrounds, ferry terminals, the harbor, and the downtown area with multiple destinations in Acadia National Park. We got back to the hotel in time to get ready for dinner.

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For our last night in Maine, everybody went to the lobster bake. It was quite an operation – some huge steamers for mussels, lobsters, corn on the cob and potatoes. There was also a table full of side dishes – slaw and such; folks who didn’t want lobster could get grilled halibut or steak.

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Margaret tried her first mussels – did she like them or not? Fran even broke down and tried the mussels, in spite of her aversion to eating bivalve mollusks – what a nice surprise to learn that these little things were delicious!

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And of course, we both did the lobster thing. There was lots of good and bad advice given about just how to eat these things and everybody had a good time.








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Day 13 – October 3, 2007

Off we go – last day of the tour and we made our way back to Boston. It was a long ride, with just a couple of ‘comfort’ stops. Charles played the movie “Anne of Green Gables” to keep us entertained – or at least distracted.

We got to Boston in time for lunch – in and around the area of Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. We went with Lucy (Boulder CO) and Cate (Hilton Head) to Legal Sea Food, down by the harbor. There wasn’t much time for shopping, thankfully.

Back on the bus for one last hurrah – we had a step-on guide to give us a one-hour overview tour of Boston. He packed a lot into that time – a bit of history and a lot of sights: the USS Constitution, Old North Church, the new bridge, Boston Garden, the Holocaust Memorial, the Union Oyster House, the Old State House, Kings Chapel and burying grounds, Boston Commons and Public Gardens, the State Capitol, Beacon Hill, the Bull and Finch (Cheers),the Esplanade, Trinity Episcopal Church, Copley Square, the Public Library, the New Old South Church, Fenway Park, Boston University, the Prudential Center, and the international headquarters of the Christian Science Church. Whew – enough already.

And so we got back to where we started – the Back Bay Hilton. We got our bags ready for early departure and headed out with some of the gang for dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. We said our good-byes and headed to bed.

Day 14 – October 4, 2007

Travel day – trip from Boston to Columbia was blessedly uneventful.