Potatoes, Lobster and High Tides

I'm sure I've said it before, but Mike's current job has some truly excellent perks. One of those perks is a week off every 4 weeks. That's how we've managed to surf at Tofino, see The City That Never Sleeps, ski the Rocky Mountains, breathe fresh air in Haida Gwaii, and road-trip Georgian Bay this year. Not bad!

Let the streak continue! Recently, Michael and I visited New Brunswick and PEI. Because there's just so much of the East Coast to see we decided to focus on these two provinces now, and then do a follow-up adventure to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the Fall. I'd say that Part I started off well!

First in Shediac....

First encounter with the maritimes: getting eaten by the Giant Lobster!
....we exact our revenge not long after...

There's always fun to be had when someone installs a sturdy set of stocks!

Then we drove on to PEI over the Confederation Bridge....

No trip to PEI is complete without a visit to Anne of Green Gables house! It was closed.

We spent a couple nights in Charlottetown with appropriate levels of antics. Sir John A MacDonald is a sassy dude!

..more antics

Went for tea at Dalvay by the Sea- or The White Sands Hotel if you're a Road to Avonlea fan!

For the record, PEI has the prettiest ditches around!

 ...as an aside, Mike determined that the provincial pasttime of this province is lawn-mowing. Everyone has a massive lawn (even farms), and they're all meticulously mowed...and oftentimes cross-hatched.

 While visiting the Charlottetown Art Gallery, a helpful lady told us just how to get the best lobster supper around. "Don't bother going to a restaurant!" she says. "Go to the Atlantic Superstore. Buy two cooked lobsters each from the seafood counter. That'll cost you $25. Then buy two rolls baked in-store. Then get Johnson's potato salad from the deli counter. Not the pre-packed stuff. Get the stuff in the bulk case. Get some butter (we found a small bar of garlic butter, even!), too. That'll cost you maybe $35-40. Far less expensive than the restaurant, and I just did that for myself earlier this week!"

She was mother effin right.

Just one example of delicious lobster revenge.

After a few good days on the Island, we returned to NB. One of our most interesting stops was to the Bay of Fundy and to the Hopewell Rocks. The bay has some of the highest tides in the world, so we came back twice - once to see the water in action, and again at low tide to much about on the bay floor. We later stayed in a little town called Alma, where the boats have little buffers on their bottoms so when the water all runs away at low tide their boats don't fall over!

The signs say "Danger, falling rocks. Do not enter." We read it as "Danger, extreme yoga in action"

so muddy!

At low tide, there's another 5-8 feet of rock to be seen below those pillars, and you can walk on the "beach"

We drove mostly along the southern edge of NB and visited the Bay of Fundy National Park, Frederickton, St. John, and Sussex. Lots and lots of wonderful Canadian landscape to see!

Cape Enrage Lighthouse. Yet another landmark we visited after hours...

View over St. John, which is also the location of the "reversing waterfall" - really, it's where the tide rises so much that the rapids level off and then flow inward. If you miss the middle part, it isn't nearly as interesting...

Yet another example of lobster revenge. This time, in the form of a McLobster! (fyi, probably the only item not cooked or fried)

This is the Public Market in St. John. We wanted to check out this building for it's nod to the local ship-building industry in the ceiling.

We put over 1300km onto our rental car that week. Just as many cool things, too! One of our favourite days was hitting up the Cavendish Beach at PEI National Park. It was a beauty of a sunny day and even though  the water was super cold we made sure to go for a quick dip (and everyone was saw after that dropped their jaws). The beaches themselves were totally worth the visit, though, for their pristine white sand and dunes that stretches for ages. I imagine they're quite busy in high season.

We also opted to stay in a hostel in Charlottetown - always a great idea if you're feeling social - and we met up with a group doing trivia at a local pub. Mike nearly went nuts because the trivia was really, really hard.

Mostly, though, we stayed at B&B's or with family - who I'm greatful for! Some of them I haven't seen in a very long time and it was kind of them to open their homes to us. (Plus the home-cooked dinners while travelling were a treat!)


Spectacular.