Stacy: Day 12 - The Long Drive Home

Not much to report today, although I do intend to write a bit sometime after August 7th on my thoughts about the trip in general, as well to as mention things I forgot to post on the days they occurred.

We spent today driving, with a few stops along the way.

We left PEI, then Canada, and finally Maine.  We are spending the night in Hampton, New Hampshire.  I had to ask my sister where we were sleeping again, and she giggled at me.  Even though I remember most events, adventures, and places, they all run together.

Today we ate at a Tim Horton (a doughnut/sandwich shop all around eastern Canada and north Maine), saw Stephen King's house, and stopped by the Augusta, Maine, state house.

We also visited a chocolate factory at St. Stephen's, right on the border with Canada.  The border was literally 1000 feet away!  They had all you can eat chocolate samples throughout the museum......  The city was having their annual Chocolate Festival.  What luck, eh?

As usual on this trip, we checked in to our hotel at 11pm.  Abby got ready for bed, then Kim, Mom, and now me.  I write these posts while they are getting ready, but sometimes the Wi-Fi doesn't let me post until the next day.  Tonight's Wi-Fi is just as good as the Wi-Fi on the first night of our trip!  I wish it had been more consistent throughout.

Anyway, I'm going to bed, now.  We have another long day of driving tomorrow, until we make it back to Maryland.

:oD

Jeannie: Thoughts and Impressions

As stated earlier, we’ve had problems connecting to wi/fi so our posts have been spotty.  I just wanted to add some personal impressions on some of the places we’ve been to and some of the things we’ve done.  They may not be in order since at this point in any trip everything begins to run together in one’s mind.  You can’t remember what day it is, let alone what you did a few days ago.

--Providence, RI, is a pretty little town.  Being in Rhode Island was a first for all of us.  They have a cute little River Walk, but nothing like San Antonio’s.  Everything is close together and we saw all of the important things in only a couple of hours.  I’m glad we stopped there.

--I enjoyed our stop at the American Girl Store for Abby’s birthday celebration.  I’d never been in one and it’s a little girl’s dream world.  They are catered to and made to feel so grown up.

--I’m doing my best to make sure that my granddaughter is brought up properly.  Not only did we visit the Lizzie Borden House, but we went on 2 ghost tours!  ;-)

--Portland, ME, is another really pretty town which I’m glad we stopped in.  Our (non)whale watching tour was an experience.  The weather was gorgeous and it was a beautiful boat ride, and my girls had some good “sisterly bonding time” heaving over the back rail of the boat side by side.   Abby was the only true sailor in our group.  She was hopping around the boat like an old salt.

--We had a few early mornings in a row but they were well worth it.  Sunrises at both Cadillac Mountain in Acadia NP and at Lubec, ME, guaranteed us as being some of the first in the US to see the sun rise on those days.  They were both beautiful.  We weren’t sure about Cadillac Mountain.  It was foggy but we thought we’d give it a try anyway.  The mountain top was above the fog and there were about 100 people spread around. We are now official members of the “Cadillac Mountain Sunrise Club.”  In Lubec we just had to walk across the street from our B&B.  (We could have watched from our window but the screen would have ruined the pictures.)  There was only one other person also watching and she was at the end of the street, so we had peaceful solitude as the sun rose above Campabello Island.

--The highlight of the entire trip was the puffin watching tour.  I HIGHLY recommend it if you ever have the chance.  The puffins are so close that you could literally reach out and touch them.  We got Nat Geo quality photos.  Under these conditions, someone would actually have to work at getting bad photos. The puffins are so adorable, I could have stayed there all day.  Our 2 hours were up much too quickly.

--Kayaking in Hopewell Rocks comes in as a very close second.  That is another incredible experience.  To actually be paddling around and under those huge rocks and fully experiencing them at high tide, and then just a few hours later at low tide to be walking 40 ft. below where we kayaked is mind boggling.  I had a great time (despite what Stacy said!).

--I’m so glad that Kim brought along the CD of “Anne of Green Gables.”  We all listened to it together as we drove so we were well prepared by the time we reached Prince Edward Island.  We finished the story right before we arrived at Cavendish.  As we walked through the Green Gables House we were able to appreciate the details, like the bottle of raspberry cordial on the second shelf of the pantry, because the story was so fresh in our minds.  Abby is totally infatuated with Anne.

--We did the Tip to Tip tour of PEI (getting a ribbon at one end and a certificate at the other).  We really got to see what the entire island is like.  We rushed like crazy to get to the East Point Lighthouse before it closed at 6PM, only to find out after arriving that they’re opened until 7.  At least it gave us time to visit the site.

This is only a small taste of what we experienced on our THALAMAC adventure.  Today we begin our journey back home, making several touristy stops along the way.  It’s been a fantastic trip and a very special time spent with my daughters and granddaughter.

Stacy: Day 11

Poor Kim.  Today was spent driving, as will tomorrow and the next day.  Although, tomorrow and the next day are full days of driving back to Maryland.  Tonight is our last night in Canada!  It was fun.

Today, however, we drive the "Tip-To-Tip" driving tour.  Our hotel is located in the heart of "Anne Country," but that's really north-central PEI.  So, the tour took us along the northern roads that parallel the coast.

We stopped at a light house at each end of the island to obtain award ribbons, and at the second light house you visit, they give you a certificate to prove that you had, indeed, visited both tips of the island.

The drive took us about eight hours.  PEI is quite diverse geologically-speaking.  The northern tip starts out with cliff beaches and deciduous trees, which turn into rolling hills and conifers.  The eastern tip still had mostly conifers, but also had more plains than hills.  I think.  Days have really been running together.  I'm kinda glad I've been keeping this journal (even though I despise journaling) because we are all forgetting what we did just this morning!

After obtaining our certificates, we took a self-guided tour of the eastern light house, and went to the top!!  It was my first time at the top of a light house.  In Portland, Maine, we climbed to the top of the Observatory, but an observatory is different from a light house.

Anyway.  Today we also geo-cached, any and I walked on to the Singing Sands in the rain (didn't hear it sing due to said rain), and watched a lovely sunset at yet another light house.

So long, Canada.  It was fun!

Day 10 - PEI

We left our hotel (that had a great view of the Bay of Fundy), and relaxed in the car by listening to "Anne of Green Gables" on our way to Prince Edward Island (where Anne lived).

We crossed the neat 8-mile long Confederation Bridge (takes 12 minutes to cross it) into PEI.  After lunch at the welcome center (also a small strip mall), we trapsed around the area that inspired the writing of "Anne of Green Gables."  It was neat!

Mom bought Abby a cute straw had that has red pigtails attached to it.  She looked adorable.  :o)

Today was the most relaxing day of THALAMAC so far!

I'm going to bed, now.  I was promised sleep-in time (waking up time is 8am instead of 5:30am).

Day 9 - "Watching the tide roll in..."

Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy.  OH MY.  What an amazing place.  So full of science!  We had a bit more sleep last night, and started the day with a two-hour kayaking tour at high hide.  Now, please keep in mind that "high tide" is, on average here, 34 feet.

Tide is halway out:

That, and it's the largest difference between high and low tide in the entire world.  Amazing.  So, kayaking was... ok.  I was in the back, in charge of steering (and it seemed like most of the rowing), with my mother in the front.  I enjoyed the actual kayaking enough, but that's all I'll say about that.

Besides the fact that I'm DONE with boats for a long while.  I didn't get sick kayaking... but... I'm DONE.

However, seeing the tippy-tops of the rocks, being amongst them, touching them, gliding through passage ways--things that only insects and birds can do regularly--is, in all senses of the word, awesome and indescribable.  Then, halfway through the tour, the tide had already receeded 25%.  It was quite noticible since we had been through that area only an hour before.

After recooperating from kayaking, we walked around the park, did some geo-caching, and ate lunch at a restaurant.  Man, are the squirrels bold!  No sooner than we had stood up from the table, he scampered from the forest about 30 feet away, crawled up the deck and chair, and hopped up to the table and stole a French fry from one of our plates.  He gobbled it down and then scampered away.  We got a kick out of that--we were standing 2 feet away, at most, for the entire encounter.

A local/worker told us that the best time to view low tide was after lunch, so we made our way back to the water.  Again, words simply cannot describe the shock and awe of seeing all of that land.

We walked along the mud flats and shore.  Walking on the mud flats is prohibited, even though we saw many footprints.  A kid walked past us, in the mud, and he sank 3-4 inches!  Suffice it to say, he had trouble catching up to his family.

We had to climb over a lot of large rocks that had been underwater when we were kayaking.  If the seabed wasn't mud, it was sharp little rocks (golf-ball-sized).  The soles of my beach shoes are not very thick, so the soles of my feet got kinda sore.

Now, we were walking where we had kayaked earlier that morning, and we recognizing the tops of the rock formations.  Simply mind-blowing!!!  And, absolutely breathtaking.

I haven't seen a whole lot of amazing geological formations [throughout the world], but I do believe this will be hard to beat.  I don't know why Hopewell Rocks isn't a Wonder of the Natural World.  [Maybe it is--WiFi still isn't great, so we can't fact-check like we normally do.]

After witnessing these amazing tidal events, we prettymuch took it easy: saw another light house, geo-cached, had dinner and walked a Fossil Beach at Cape Enrage.

We got to bed an hour earlier than "normal," but we didn't have to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn the next day, either.

Stacy: Day 8

NOTE: I am running out of time right now, so I will (Wi-Fi permitting) add photos later tonight.

It turns out that the Lubec Public Library was quite literally next door. [Reference Day 7]

We all woke up extra early today to witness the sun rise over Lubec, Maine, the eastern-most city in the U.S.

Then, we packed up the van again, and drove ten minutes to the docks of a tiny city named Cuttler, where we then spent five hours on a Puffin-seeing tour.  They are considered the penguins of the Northern Hemisphere.  Oh, are Puffins absolutely adorable!!!  I believe this was Mom's most anticipated event for our journey.  We rode out to the island for 45 minutes, 10 miles out to sea.  Then, we stood in these little boxes [blinds], on the hilltops, made of plywood, where we watched the Puffins for two whole hours.  They were right outside the blind, no more than 3 feet away at time!

They are usually open sea-fairing birds, living their lives bobbing on the open sea water, but they migrate to breeding grounds (one of which happens to have the Machias Seal Light House [on Seal Island] on it.  They don't necessarily mate for life, but they do breed/use the same burrow for their entire lives.  Their song sounds like weed-whackers, and the Razor Beaks (who cohabitate on the same island) sound like chainsaws.

We had so very many nests near our blind!  Several different pairs were seen bringing food to the nests (they dive underwater for food).

Oh!  And, they were all over the roof of our blind!  Since they sit on the surface of the water for most of their lives, they made such ungraceful landings.  Rarely was our blind silent due to all of the landings and shuffling of their feet.  We could see their shadows on the rocks outside our blind, and I witnessed a squabble over a branch of seaweed.  It was funny, but I have no idea what they use it for.  Nest material, maybe?  The "winner" flew from our roof to the rocks right in front of us, and just sat there with the branch.  I suppose it was drying it out.  After a while it went into its nest with thebranch.  I could go on for a while about the cuties, but this would be waaaay too long.

Seaweed Winner:

The only blind near us (to our left):

On the boat ride back, the Maine-Atlantic Ocean kissed me goodbye!  [I was sprayed by splashes a tiny bit).  I did not get sick this time!

After the Puffin tour ended, we drove into Canada.  We stopped by St. Croix Island, New Brunswick, to stretch our legs (it is an international National Park, shared by the US and Canada), right on the border.

We had BBQ for dinner near St. John--it was the only not-fast food restaurant with cars in front of it.  It was OK for non-Texas BBQ.

And, then we continued to Hopewell Rocks, where we stayed the night  Our first night in Canada!!  This time we got a whopping 5 hours of sleep!  But, tomorrow should be awesome.  Hopewell Rocks is probably my most anticipated event.

Jeannie – the Mother: Day 9

What a gorgeous first day of August!  I’m sitting on the motel porch overlooking the Bay of Fundy in Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick, Canada.  It’s about 30 min. after sunrise and all is quiet except the birds who are beginning to wake up (along with me!).

This morning we’re going kayaking, a first for me.  The Bay of Fundy has the greatest difference in tide levels of anywhere in the world.  The rock formations that we will kayak around this morning at high tide, we will be walking around this afternoon at low tide.  

We’ve been running every minute and having a blast.  I’ll write more later to catch you up on my impressions of the trip.