We got out the map and looked at a few other national parks out West--all campgrounds booked. Larry came up with an alternate idea to head east instead to Acadia NP in Maine and to see some national parks in Atlantic Canada as well.
I was in physical pain from the bike wreck and emotionally spent and depressed about our big trip being cancelled, so my enthusiasm was not quite up to par. Still I appreciated and admired his tenacity, resourcefulness, and spontaneity. We were headed for uncharted lands as far as we were concerned--we had no guidebooks or maps and had no idea what we were doing. We packed the car one night and left early the next a.m.
Off to see America! Again!
Larry surprised me with a night's stay at a gorgeous B&B in Niagara Falls. It was especially meaningful because my parents had honeymooned there exactly fifty-five years to the day earlier! I had always heard the Falls were commercialized, and they are but that's mostly on the Canadian side, and we were on the NY side. I wasn't prepared for the beauty and the raw power of the river. We walked to the falls from our place, taking a path next to the Niagara River, and it was the wildest river I've ever seen, so turbulent and blue and breathtaking. Larry was pleased with my enthusiasm. "If you think is beautiful, wait til we get there."
Cozy and charming night at the Hanover House Bed & Brekfast
Fireworks over the falls on Friday nights!
We stopped at a wine-tasting room in the local culinary school. Wines in the Ontario region are prized for the crisp wines they produce. We had dinner at an old pub then walked back to our lovely B&B where cookies and tea awaited us. The next day was an impressive breakfast menu.
We drove across NY and New England the next day. Stopped in Portsmouth, NH for dinner. (Dinner was ice cream.)
We stayed a night in Maine then headed to an AirBnb at St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in Canada, which looked exactly like Scotland, 100 years ago. Here's the old house on a Potter's Lake. We had an okay dinner in town (typical tourist trap fare) then went back to the house watched the sunset over the water as the hummingbirds and dragon flies came out to play. The next day we spotted loons in the lake and looked for moose on the shoreline.
The Wharf a low tide
The next day we were up early and back on the road to Fundy National Park!
I guess I covered all of this a couple of blogs ago, so I'll just post the pics and a few words.
Fundy National Park is known as the Land of Salt & Fir and is located in the pristine Boreal forest. Hardly anyone was there, and when we did meet fellow hikers on the trail, they were always so enthused to see other humans that they would chat us up. It was kind of fun being considered "exotic"--from Indiana. Ha! They kept asking, "How would someone from Indiana even know about this place?" They kept asking. "Well up until three days ago, we didn't know about it."
I loved our campsite, and I found Canadian hikers to be more polite than Americans, but then again, we were there off season during the week, so maybe we simply had the luck of being with like-minded people that had nothing to do with nationality.
We took many long hikes, some very rugged, and enjoyed climbing steep boulders and cliffs to get closer to waterfalls.
We hiked for several hours one day and began to tire of it and had the great idea to make use of the solar-heated salt pool. The swimming pool at Death Valley NP was fantastic (spring fed and a naturally occurring 99 degree water temp!) so we were expecting a similar experience. We expected wrong. Cold water, no chaise lounges, boo! But it did overlook a beautiful bay on the Bay of Fundy.
We took a side trip to Hopewell Rocks.
We took another side trip to Cape Enrage. The drive was pretty fun, as it felt identical to the English countryside.
Back at Fundy...
We had dinner at the Alma Lobster Shop. Delicious lobster rolls, crab legs, and oysters, caught just hours earlier in the Bay of Fundy!
Yummy locally made lobster chips!
In Alma, a tiny fishing town (maybe 200 people) in a remote part of Canada, people were aware of that asshole woman Kim Davis, the clerk from Kentucky who made national headlines for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, citing that gay marriage is against her religion. (She has been married multiple times and has had many children out of wedlock, btw.) When asked where we lived, Larry said, "Indiana," and the person working the lobster shop said, "Oh! That's near Kentucky where that awful woman lives!"
We were both a little sad to pack up our camp at Fundy but were excited to head to Prince Edward Island, of which I have heard only lovely things!
It was lovely.
And boring.
But lovely.
But boring.
And expensive.
And we had planned on eating like kings, feasting on fresh seafood, so we didn't buy any camping dinner food. We never did find a nice restaurant that was actually open. One night we found an ice cream stand and had a big ice cream cone and big hot dog. The other nights, I scrounged stuff back at camp, and I do say we still ate like kings!
We stayed in the Cavendish area, figuring the national park would be our best bet. It happens to be the most touristy spot as well, with a slightly Myrtle Beach circa 1989 feel to it, due to House of Green Gables.
Yes, I loved Anne of Green Gables, and I thought we might check out the museum and house, but what a tourist trap, full of buses and throngs of people. We skipped it.
PEI felt like a tiny French, English, or Irish (all signs in French, English and Gaelic and sometimes Chinese) tiny pastoral town from 1879 that was plopped down next to a beach on Mars. (Sand was the color of planet Mars and the water was deep brown.)
Now here was something strange. We were really hungry one day and against our better judgment stopped at a restaurant that had the word "Beach" in the name. (Telltale sign of mediocre over-priced food.) As we turned in, we noticed the marquee: Honk if you love Tom Brady.
WTF?
Tom Brady is a football player for New England and is known to be a cheater. My city's team pointed out something about the size of footballs and how Brady supposedly inflated and then deflated them, and the whole country seemed to go in a tizzy, which was stupid on all fronts. I don't care about the Colts or about the Patriots. In fact, I hate everything about the NFL.
Why would a tiny place in a remote seaside village on Prince Edward Island know or care about the NFL?
On your way off of PEI, you get to pay a hefty fee for using the bridge--something like $55 Canadian dollars. Money not well spent.
And with that we said goodbye to Atlantic Canada! Thank you Canada!
Up next:
Acadia National Park, Maine, US
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