SAT 13AUG2011 = day ONE
We were 9.5 hours on the road from Rosemere to St-Stephen in New Brunswick. This route passes through the United States and Bangor, Maine. The trip felt like when we go to Devil Island.
The first place we stayed at was called the Blair House and David is the manager - we never did meet his wife.
This is the first time we use the GPS. It did a fine job for this portion of the trip.
We are in the room called the Henriette Room which is #1 on the second floor.
It is named after Henriette Blair, the original owner of the house.
Joe/I took some photos of our room...
Here are some pictures I took as we went to the "Bistro" for dinner where Lisa had a Veggie Stir Fry and I had the Haddock. It was in the "Old Chocolate Factory" with a look of a young artist with "good" seventies type rock, but better than CHOM of Montreal. It was quieter and smaller than we expected. One lady was laughing a lot and hard and when I commented, Lisa said at least there were people and they were having fun :-)
In the evening Lisa had a hot chocolate with ginger cookies and i had some more blue berry cookies from Peek Freans.
SUN 14AUG2011 = day TWO
We had a delicious breakfast with coffee. It started with a grapefruit and juice (orange and cranberry). Lisa had scrambled eggs and i had the full breakfast with eggs, toast, bacon, sausage and a sample black sausage, which is simply blood pudding. Chatted with the guests from Long Island during breakfast. They were from Port Jefferson and were also off to PEI.
When we left, the thing with the GPS started. We wanted to go on hi-way one and it kept us on #2. We saw hi-way one and went on it. It was NOT on the map yet ...
We took the off-road to St-Martin's , but did not go in the parc. It would have been a 25 km drive and then back. So, we stopped for some "award winning chowder". Lisa took some pics of me n my chowder.
As you can see here on the beach, there are not many people at all. This seemed to be par for the course ie we rarely saw people on the beaches!! Sometimes less than five (5) people on a two (2) mile stretch of beach.
We took another off-road to Cape Enraged, butt again did not feel the cost was warranted to look at the Cape and we were not about to spend much time there. We already saw a lot just from the car - in terms of the rough shore , high cliffs and sea.
We then went to the infamous Hopewell Cape Rock and it was at it lowest tide at 16h16. Right when we were there. Took some nice pictures and helped others take their family or couple pictures as well - as they did for us...We found it funny that they called the brown river The Chocolate River, which is a VERY good marketing ploy.
Then the trouble started again. The B&B seemed OFF the beaten trail from Moncton and was quite large just opposite a golf course. Something did NOT feel right, right off the bat. There was a young fellow in the living room on his computer with headphones and a central vacuum hose lying in a pile in the corner. As the young fellow brought us in the kitchen to sign in, a guest came down who was quite upset cuz there was NO water and he had shampoo in his hair. As a woman went to check on the water, he warned us that there had been a water problem for the last two(2) days.
We saw the room and there was NO water and Lisa did not "like" the room even though everything looked NEW. When we went back in the main area there were two(2) ladies looking upset. They said the water issue was bothering them for the last two(2) days as well. Since they had a German accent, I spoke some German with them later :-)
Even when the water got going, we decided to go elsewhere. The nearest place was $150 and we felt too steep. We were just looking for a simple replacement. We went to the INFO place just over the border and called a place 10 minutes from there. They had a room for $140 and we said we would check it out. It was in Amherst and Lisa did not like the look of it and had not liked the photos at the Info center either.
We also had a piece of paper with a "new" B&B which was to be a re-done farmhouse called Country Stiles. Lisa called and spoke with Sara, who she said was VERY friendly. Once again, it was only ten(10) minutes away. This was even more off the beaten track, butt Lisa loved it at the get go. Not only that, but the decor inside was Lisa style - down to the comforters :-)
We brought our stuff in as Sara made a reservation at the infamous PUB in Amherst called Duncan's. We had a fireside seat and ordered Artichoke dip with corn chips, stir fry for Lisa and fish n chips for me. Too much food and too much honey sauce for Lisa.
When we got back to the farm, we chatted with Mike n Sara until at least 22h30 and then got the royal tour of upstairs. They are both ex-military, who retired at 43 and on their second marriages, but together quite some time. They and Mike's family have the gift of "water witching". Mike's dad used to charge only a bottle of water per finding, butt it came in the 40 cc format :-)
MON 15AUG2011 = day THREE
The bed was comfortable and the temp okay even without a/c, butt i was up 4h30 my time just the same...
So here i am at 5h00 writing this journal :-)
Let us see what this day brings. Tuesday is supposed to be guaranteed rain and so, we are thinking of doing a piece of Cabot Trail today. It may be tiring and we will see..
Later that morning we had a wonderful breakfast served by Mike and Sara. Lisa says her name is Sari. We had a fruit cup with yogurt and maple butter. I had an omelet with brie and ham. As décor there was a slice of orange and many cherry tomato halves. There were some interesting spices that were from the garden. We went on our way with a “care package” of fresh home-made blueberry muffins, soda and water!!
As mentioned, it was supposed to rain on Tuesday and so, we decided to make a run at the Cabot Trail. Mike had suggested counter clock-wise and that we should be able to complete the run in about four (4) hours IF we did not stop too often…
We made it to Baddeck and stopped at a café, but both cafés in town were too busy. Lisa spotted the Bell Buoy Restaurant, which was known for veggie dishes. Lisa had a homemade veggie burger and I had a large fish chowder/soup. This was the busiest town in all of Cape Breton – from what we had seen so far.
Once on the Cabot Trail we stopped at various locations and took pictures. As we were taking them and later also, we felt the pictures did NOT do the place credit and it was difficult to truly capture the magnificence and magnitude!! Also, as I looked at the pics later, I realized that we saw neither the graffiti nor the garbage on the ground – we were so overwhelmed by the horizons.
The next shot seems to be a classic shot of the Cabot Trail. In case I have not mentioned it yet, we went through the trail counter-clockwise. This means we were always beside the rail. In the past this used to an issue, but not so any more...
We were surprised at the lack of stores and even the gas stations were old run down mechanic shops – like in the 70’s. There were NO chain stores at all.
When we arrived in Port Hook, we barely had time to run to the neighbour food mart before closing. Purchased some toast, milk, soda, cheese, cookies and butter to bring to our little cottage #3, the first in line towards the ocean. We walked to the “private” beach, but felt it was not looking like a place that is used much.
Cell service does NOT work here. Had our little snack and went up to the main house where WIFI is working. Met some people from Boston and Elvi of Haus Treuburg called it the Internet Café …
Borrowed a Sherlock Holmes DVD, butt the machine did NOT work in the cottage.
It is a VERY quiet cottage, butt felt a little damp, hot water drips in kitchenette and DVD does not work. The hot water in the shower is inversed too. There is also a fan running next door property continuously that is annoying when one is outside. These are all minor details that are tolerable. The cottage was clean and private – this is important to Lisa…
One odd thing was that one pulled up to the back of the cottage and had to carry the stuff around to the “front” of the cottage. It seemed awkward and perhaps ONLY done for privacy reasons??
TUESDAY 16AUG2011 = day FOUR
We woke up in the middle of the night. Lisa read and I worked on this blog/journal.
Got up a little later than usual in the morning and it WAS raining. We had our breakfast in the quiet and privacy of our little cottage #3.
Eventually it looked like it was gonna clear up and we decided to do a leisurely tour of the southern end of Cape Breton. We did not even get far before we stopped. We went to the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique where Lisa bought some music and I took some pictures in the picturesque field with the “Rankin Gazebo” across the street. There was also pebble art in the Centre that was being sold for big bucks – took some pics of that as well…
Then we continued on and had a subway sandwich at Port Hawksbury, which seemed to be the biggest town on Cape Breton Island. It did have the regular stores like Walmart, Canadian Tire, Dairy Queen, Kentucky Fried Chicken and obviously Subway.
Some people say it is NO longer an island due to the causeway, butt apparently the natives take objection to that. Speaking of “natives” (not sure this is politically correct) , one does see the influences of the aborigines in the southern parts of Cape Breton.
We went and tried to do a tour of Isle Madam, butt got lost and the GPS actually took us onto another island, down a dead-end street called Penny Lane, asked us to do a U-turn and go back $%^&*( That was okay, because we saw an eagle (identified as an osprey or fish hawk later) up close and a lookout spot dedicated to a young fellow who died at the young age of ten (10) due to ALD. The lookout was placed where he picked blueberries for the last time with his grandma. Lisa thought it might be a bald eagle based on the literature, butt I am not so sure. Neither one of us ever saw eagles that close before and Lisa was afraid the eagle might attack me since we had spotted his/her nest earlier down the road – on a telephone pole!!
After that it was off towards Point Michaud, which seemed to be out at the end of the road going nowhere. Joe/I had read somewhere about the possibility of people surfing there. As we headed there and earlier, I remarked how many people we saw walking on the main roads. There are many poor people here and not too many roads either…
The closer we got towards this surf haven, the foggier it got. Lisa joked that we might have to pay to get in. It was a little place for swimming and surfing. People gave lessons there by the hour. There was one fellow kite surfing, some kids practicing and another getting ready to go or untangling his lines. The air was 18 degrees and the water 16. We went for a little walk which curled Lisa’s hair and then we headed back. On the way back, we left the fog and were in the sun most of the way back.
In Port Hawksbury Lisa was able to get cell reception and made a quick call back to Nonni’s chalet. Brandie was behaving and enjoying his time with Alexa, his cousin. Marita was to come up with Dale n Karl tonight. These are Mickey’s dads. Niko and Mickey are there for the week – at the “white house”.
Thought we would have pizza for supper, but cannot find what Joe/I thought I had seen.
We decided to go to Mabou Mull which is well rated and only 10 minutes away. On the way out we stopped beside the main building to e-mail the B&B on PEI. Then, on the way to Mabou we saw the pizza place, but Joe/I had already made up his/my mind to go to the Mull. We passed the Red Show Pub of the Rankin Sisters, but continued. Lisa ordered sweet potato chips with a fried veggies n cheese sandwich while I ordered a Mull Burger with fries. As usual all was very good and I had to eat most of it!
Went to the Red Shoe Pub and had a brownie with coffees. Music only runs here from 5 to 7 and so, we missed it. Lisa was happy we had stopped in just the same! We took a small stroll through the town and Lisa decided she really likes this town. We tried to listen in to the local ceilidh, but all we heard was some-one on the microphone before they closed the door to keep the chill out.
In the evening went to the main house to check e-mail and ferry times:
July 1-Sept 5 (Peak Season)
8:00, 9:30, 11:15, 13:00, 14:45, 16:30, 18:15, 20:00, 21:30
WED 17AUG2011 = day FIVE
Here it is 5h00 and we are up again. This time it is because Lisa has a major headache and sore neck.
We aimed for the 11h15 ferry and judging by google AND the GPS, it should take about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Did they move something OR am i just a crazee driver ? It ONLY took us about 1 hour and 30 minutes!! We were the FIRST car in line for the ferry. There were already a few trucks n trailers, butt that was it. It rained on the way, but now was turning out to be a beautiful, windy day.
Believe it was here that on our way to the ferry that we saw the eagle, butt it was at a spot where one could not stop.
It was quite windy on the ferry and people tended to stay on the starboard side.
Once we got on PEI we decided to go around the SE corner since we were not to "check in" until after 15h00. It was interesting to see there are more people here and it is less rugged than Cape Breton. We decided to go to the biggest National Parc with water activities and windsurfing? We followed the "starfish trail" to Brudenell River Provincial Park. Weather was threatening to rain again. Two (2) people were SUPing and one woman was kayaking on the little river. There was actually a beat up BIC Dufour (ha ha).
We started our cheese sandwiches, butt went under a gazebo just in time...
We then dashed across the island to Charlottetown. The hosts were NOT there, butt their son Ross was. We started in a suite, but ended up in our room after the owner, Jay MacDonald explained that our room was free tonight. He showed us the fancy bath, which is an air injector rather than a jacuzzi.
Lisa and I went for a walk and found the boardwalk, a MicMac pow wow, a closed off street, butt NO good pizza joint..
Went back for a little rest, the daily call and a small soda. We looked at two (2) potential places and ended up walking to Dundee Arms. We went to the pub side and Joe/I had the customary chowder and fish n chips. Lisa had a potato and veggie dish that cost $1.50!! We should go there EVERY night :-)
Now we are back in the room resting ...
THURS 18AUG2011 = day SIX
Had a breakfast of eggs benedict and Lisa had an english muffin.
Headed north towards North Rustico. Near there is a beach called PEI National Park Brackley-Dalvay. Lisa spotted the Dalvay by the Sea Inn. We both liked the spot so much that we would spend a night at that Inn. The water was cold and there was no-one on the beach. Lisa felt the sand was extra-ordinarily red. We laughed and laughed when we discovered her glasses were tinted and as such affected the colour. I took a photo through the glasses to show the difference.
As we travel on PEI and peak to the people at the breakfast table some things odd are:
always crows in groups on the roadside - lots of road kill ??
many mannequins all over the place - make us feel like there are more people ??
everyone seems to cut their grass - no matter how the house seems to look ie rich and poor
We spotted a little lighthouse and a place where people can go deep sea fishing, rent bikes, etc while on our way to Cavendish. As marked in the book, this is one section of PEI that is just too touristy and we drove through quickly.
Stopped and took some pics of a very large church and monastery right beside the sea. That was one of the things that impresses us about the island. Beside the water there are fields, cows, houses, monasteries, you name it.
We hit another tourist trap where a fellow built houses with bottles. I was not into it and was tired - so, we did NOT go down the trail.
After that we hit West Point beach where the water was much warmer and there were people in the water and in the large tidal pool. One can actually stay in the tower and they have rooms in the adjoining building. A fellow at our next stop informed me that there was a BIG storm in December 2010 and there was water and sand damage. The place looked pretty good to both of us and it was my favourite beach for now - until later of course...
At this point we were starting to notice MANY windmills and this impressed us immensely. So now it seemed we could add windmills to our list of things to be found beside the sea. They are NOT actually windmills, but rather wind turbines.
When we arrived at the North Cape Wind Energy Interpretive Centre, we were informed that 5% of the hydro energy of PEI comes from these turbines and there are plans to go up to 10% in the near future. The cliffs at North Cape were impressive as well.
At a gift and craft /quilt shop we were informed that Skinner's Pond was even better than West Point. So, we did a drive by, butt were not so impressed. We were starting to get fussy since we now had SO many lovely beaches to choose from !!!
After that we decided to try and find a nice place to eat in Summerside - perhaps some Pizza ? Joe/I was not impressed on our first passing through and even less so on our way back!!
What about Victoria? Lisa had read about a small restaurant that was family run called the Landmark Café. It did not look like much from outside, but it was hopping inside. At first we were at a bad spot in terms of café traffic, but the waitress was kind enough to move us. Lisa ordered a veggie stir fry with tofu and goat cheese. I had a pickled herring starter with seafood chowder n black forest ham / cheese sandwich. The table next to us was boisterous and explaining to the waitress how to make B52's since it was Nancy's birthday. Well, the cake was a monster and they made us eat the last two(2) pieces of the delicious homemade lemon cake. Olivier Sauvé is the son of the owner and served us the cake. He works the restaurant in the summer and travels worldwide in the winter doing photography. His art is all over town as explained by him and other guests at the Elmwood B&B , who had passed through Victoria as well.. We ate very well at a very reasonable price in any case and were well entertained!!
We got back to the Elmwood around 21h30 and enjoyed the bubbles from the jetstream tub.
FRI 19AUG2011 = day SEVEN
Up early and at the table by 7h30 again. Guests are from Ohio, New Hampshire, St-Catherines/ONT and so on. Lisa is finding herself enjoying the breakfast chats and the lemon/ricotta pancakes this morning as well.
We had to hurry out cuz there was supposed to be the biggest parade of Charlottetown at 10h00. We JUST made it by 8h15!!
Stopped at an information centre and craft shop on our way to Greenwich Park. We walked down the paths and bumped into a young couple that was also staying at the Elmwood. Were they following us ?? :-) What were the odds of that happening ?? We did not want to spend too much time there- so, off we went again.
We eventually got tired of the NNE route and branched down to Souris. A town named after the too many mice back in the day. Lisa checked out some more craft shops.And yes, the ferry goes to Les Isles de Madeleines from here AND there is another small lighthouse.
After some chips, soda and coffee, we decided to continue on to the "Singing Sands". This is actually at the Basin Head Beach. It looks much better organized in terms of places/stores, boardwalks and life guards. There was a channel where the tide was coming in and the young teens were jumping in and getting carried away. Lisa and I walked down the beach. And we walked. And we walked. When we looked back we could barely see the starting point and NO people. We saw some jellyfish with some red/purple guts, but the life guard informed us that it only stung a little bit ie NO danger.
We went back to the car to see what to do next.
We continued on to the East Point lighthouse and wind turbine section, butt it was a little more quaint.
We rushed back to the B&B and discovered a lovely fruit n wine basket in our room - to celebrate our 25th anniversary - from the Garbarinos. Lisa called Anita and thanked her - for EVERYTHING.
We went out for pizza on Victoria Avenue. Did we miss Costello's last time ? We shared a pizza cuz we were NOT too hungry and it was a nice light meal - just perfect.
TOO bad i have to type this on the 2nd floor in the common room %^&*( The internet keeps kicking out on the 3rd floor. Between the shower and the internet, this place does NOT impress me !!
Now back to the room - we are off to see the wizard tomorrow - bright n early!!!
SAT 20AUG2011 = day EIGHT
Up at 5h00 and OFF. At the Confederation Bridge within an hour and paid the $42.25. What's the 25 cents all about ??
Stopped for gas, bagels n stuff and Lisa drove for about four (4) hours.
It felt like New Brunswick was very non-descript and then we did start to see some beauty.
Much of Quebec was in the same category and we did hit some traffic around Quebec City. It was a five (5) minute delay and was our biggest traffic jam of the holidays.
Got into St-Alphonse the GPS way, which was a little strange and back roady.
Brandie was NOT behaving and Lisa decided to go home.
That only seemed to make matters worse and so Joe/I ended up my day in a BAD WAY :-(
Too bad the holiday had to end this way :-(
