Maritimes - Day 37

8 provinces, 3.5 time zones, 14,000 km and our trip is done.  I didn't sleep very well last night, as I was nervous about this last long drive, but managed to get rested enough.  We packed up before church, went to a wonderful service, said our good-byes and then quickly drove to Winnipeg for lunch.

Then it was just the long drive home.  Traffic was busy from Winnipeg to Brandon, but light after that.  I forgot to mention that there is a noticeable increase in semi traffic once you leave Thunder Bay, which makes sense, given that it is the last port on the Great Lakes.  Most of the traffic today was semis, and often it was annoying, as they would be slowly passing each other and blocking all the lanes.  Also, Saskatchewan is full of bugs.  The front of the van is almost black, and I had to stop at a gas station to clean the window just so I could see.

We ended up stopping in Indian Head for supper, as it was 6:00pm for us by that time, and then we drove the last 45 minutes into Regina.  The kids were quite excited - Bradley was shouting out the kilometers on every sign we passed.

We arrived safe and sound, unpacked the van and then started unpacking all of our stuff.  Our trip to the Maritimes is officially over.

Maritimes - Day 36

As our trip slowly comes to a close, we spent a nice, relaxing day with Jen & Craig.  Nothing got done in the morning, except the kids playing with each other, and then we went for a late lunch at a local food truck that serves exotic food - kangaroo kebabs and frogs legs as appetizers, with various pork and chicken options for meals.  It was a very good meal, and a nice way to finish off our trip.

Then it was a quick trip out to an abandoned dam at Pinawa, where we walked around the rocks and watched a bunch of people run down the rapids in life jackets, tubes or kayaks.  Despite the temperature only being 24 degrees, we were all hot and tired by the end of the walk, so we returned for supper and watching the hockey game.

Tomorrow, after church, we drive the 7.5 hours home and bring our trip to an end.

 

Maritimes - Day 35

We finally got in our missed tour of the mint, since we had a free day in Winnipeg today.  We started the day slowly, though everyone was up earlier than I expected because we are still on Eastern time.  After breakfast in the hotel we drove to the mint and got there in plenty of time for our tour.

It was a nice tour - it's always interesting to see how things you use everyday are actually made, and we even learned a few things like how the original loonie had a completely different design, but the master die never arrived from Ottawa, so they had to design and all new coin to avoid the possibility of counterfeits.

After the tour, the staff gave the younger kids a scavenger hunt, as they had put large coins in the trees outside the mint and they had to find 10 of them.  With their parents help, it didn't take very long, and they got a sticker and a fact sheet as a prize.

Our next stop was the LEGO store, where the kids spent all of their saved money and received their character pack for dressing up as Anne.  I may also have spent all of my saved money (or prepurchased my next birthday and Christmas present).

After lunch and LEGO, we left Winnipeg behind and headed out to visit Jen & Craig.  For various weather related reasons, we haven't been out here yet.  We found their house, had a nice homemade supper and then went for ice cream and some pictures at the Seven Sisters dam.  Manitoba has lots of water this year, so there was a lot of water flying through the dam - very impressive.

Our trip is almost at an end.  We are spending tomorrow here and then we head home on Sunday. 

Maritimes - Day 34

We finally made it back to the prairies today, ending our very long driving day in Winnipeg.  After spending the last month elsewhere, it was interesting to see the flat land with new eyes, so to speak.  The massive amount of sky visible was actually a bit breathtaking after a month of trees and rocks, as was the sheer distance you could see.

There wasn't much interesting done today - just another long driving day, though I found this day a bit more frustrating, as the traffic was constantly a bit slower than I wanted to drive, and there was a bunch of construction early on that made the trip start off slow.  We pushed all the way to Kenora before stopping for lunch, which meant it was 2:30pm (for us - 1:30pm local) when we finally ate.  Right before Kenora we encountered a short but heavy rain storm that made driving icky, but the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.

We went back to the same hotel in Winnipeg that we started our trip at, since it had a pool and waterslide that the kids liked, so Sandra figured they would enjoy one last pool trip before we leave the hotels behind, and they had a lot of fun.

Tomorrow morning we are going to try and get in our missed mint tour, do some LEGO shopping and then head out to visit Jen & Craig for the rest of the weekend.

Maritimes - Day 33

We got up super early this morning so that we would make it to Thunder Bay (or more accurately, an amethyst mine outside Thunder Bay) around 3:00pm.  The kids, especially the younger two, were super excited about the mine, so it wasn't even hard to get them out of bed and onto the road.

The drive was nice and scenic, though just outside Sault Ste. Marie we almost lost the van to a row of geese that decided to cross the road in front of us.  I slammed on the brakes and tried to steer towards the back of the row, wondering how much damage hitting a goose would do.  We just missed three of them, with one of them flapping his wings to take flight as he cleared the front windshield.

The amethyst mine was a bit of a scary drive - gravel roads, steep grade, but once there, it was actually pretty fun.  One of the workers gave a bit of a tour and geology lesson, after which you went over to an area where they dumped rocks from the mine and you sorted through the rocks with a pail looking for interesting ones to buy ($4 per pound).  Bradley and Jonathan were the most eager, but Evan and even Alex ended up with a few rocks that they purchased, as did I.  For a tourist trap, it was strangely fun.

The kids had wanted to go to the mine because they had been told about it by Aunt Cindy, and as we were leaving, they were just arriving, on their way out to Nova Scotia for their holiday.  Sandra had been texting them all day to try and figure out where we would pass each other, and it more or less worked out for us to meet at the mine.  We spent a short time visiting and then headed into Thunder Bay to stop for the night.  Tomorrow is another very long travel day, but we'll finally be back on the prairies.

Maritimes - Day 32

I have come to the realization that Ontario is ridiculously big.  All the other provinces can be driven through in a day, but it takes multiple days to get out of Ontario.  Obviously, Quebec is pretty big as well, but no one has any reason to drive through the giant unpopulated area.

We started the day slowly, as we didn't have as far to go today and drove down to the harbour area in North Bay.  After a bit of time watching the water, we went to a nearby heritage area that had a mini-train and a carousel.  We bought tickets and rode both - the train was super fun (for me) and I really loved the yard area they had built for their trains.  Definitely somewhere I would volunteer, if I lived anywhere near North Bay.  The carousel was fun for Sandra.  I'm not certain all the kids (especially the motion sick kids) liked it a lot, though Bradley wanted to go on it a second time, so it must not have been too bad for him.

Then it was back in the car for more driving.  We ended our day in Sault Ste. Marie, in the exact same hotel we stayed in a month ago, and ordered pizza from the same restaurant as a month ago.  They still had me in their system, so I just had to update the room number I was in for the delivery person.

We shall see how tomorrow goes, as it is almost 8 hours of driving to Thunder Bay and we want to stop at an amethyst mine before we get there.  In order to go to the mine before it closes, we have to leave here very early, so it is early bed and early to rise.

Maritimes - Day 31

Today involved more stressful driving, but we've finally left the populated parts of Canada behind.  This was just a long driving day as we left the Drummondville area, drove through an extremely busy highway around Montreal and then headed towards Ottawa.  The highway traffic was lighter as we drove into Ottawa, but coming out of Ottawa is was once again quite crazy, and it was half way to North Bay before the traffic finally spread out and mostly disappeared.

This part of northern Ontario is a bit different than the rest - as you are in a valley, the road is flatter and there are far more farms, houses and other roads that branch off the highway.  I exclaimed quite a few times about the large number of red lights we encountered on the highway.

We finished the day in North Bay, where we visited Sandra's aunt and uncle for supper and had a nice evening in their house.  Tomorrow is another driving day, as we head back to Sault Ste. Marie.

Maritimes - Day 30

The drive back home is not as much fun as the drive out here.  On the way out there was the anticipation of all the fun stuff we were going to see and do.  Now I just want to get home, and everything standing in the way of that seems a bit of an annoyance.

We left New Brunswick early and drove through some light rain into Quebec.  Around Quebec City the traffic really started to pick up, and we were planning on driving into the city to see a waterfall that Sandra wanted to get to, but which required a car, as on our previous two trips to Quebec City, we didn't have a vehicle.

Unfortunately, the trip into the city was pretty stressful, as their is only one bridge across the river, it was under construction, and traffic was stopped along it, which is always stressful, as you never know if you are in the right lane or not.  After a long drive through the city, we arrived at the parking lot for the falls, which was backed up out onto the street.  A worker directed us to a secondary parking spot up on some grass, where we stopped for lunch before going to see the falls.

I think we underestimated how many regular Quebec City folk visited the falls on a warm Sunday afternoon, as most of the people there seemed to be locals out for a picnic and a walk.  Once we walked around and oriented ourselves, we realized we were at the top of the falls, where you can't see very much and that there was also a big parking lot at the bottom of the falls, but that wasn't where we ended up.

After a bit of discussion, we headed to a giant staircase so that we could climb down and see the falls properly.  Only Sandra, myself and Bradley walked down the stairs - the other kids stayed in the park at the top, as it was 487 stairs.  The view of the falls was quite good, but I was extremely tired by the time we got back to the top.

Then we left to head to our hotel in a small town outside of Drummondville.  The drive was icky - the bridge was quite busy, traffic was stopped and hard to merge as we got back on the Trans-Canada outside Quebec City, and then the highway was absolutely packed with cars all the way from Quebec City to the hotel.  I was quite happy to finally stop.

Tomorrow, if we survive going around Montreal and through Ottawa, we will end our day in North Bay, finally leaving the populated parts of Canada behind. 

Maritimes - Day 29

Our trip home began by driving through PEI and New Brunswick, though we spent a bunch of time today stopping at all the "World's Largest" things we could find.  Google continues to suck, as it tried to route us on a gravel road in PEI to get to the bridge, so I turned it off and followed the road signs.  The weather was beautiful and sunny and we quickly arrived in New Brunswick, where we picked up a lot more traffic.

Our first stop was Shediac, where we found our way around some construction to the World's Largest Lobster.  Then we stopped a what was, in 2005, the World's Largest Rooster, also in Shediac.  Then it was a drive through New Brunswick until we arrived at the World's Largest Axe.  There were some old cars on display at the arena near the harbour, so we walked by those before leaving.  Finally, we went to the World's Longest Covered Bridge, which was pretty cool, as you were able to drive through it, though it was only one lane, so you had to wait for the cars on the other side to go through first.

In between all of that, we stopped at Magnetic Hill in Moncton, where you can put your car in neutral and it goes uphill - it's actually a bit of an optical illusion, where you are going downhill, but it quite convincingly looks like you are going uphill.  However, they make you do it in reverse, and I didn't have the greatest visibility outside the van, so it wasn't as much fun for me as for everyone else in the van.

Also, the girl giving instructions was quite concerned that we had a plug hanging out the front of our vehicle - she brought it up a couple of times as I tried to reassure her that it was OK - it's just for the block heater.  I guess it doesn't get that cold out in the Maritimes, as I haven't seen a car with a block heater cord in a long time.

We stopped for the day in Woodstock, NB, where we went for supper, got some groceries for lunches and Sandra did a little bit of laundry.

Maritimes - Day 28

Today was our last full day in PEI and the kids spent the majority of the morning sleeping in, as we tired them out yesterday.  Once they woke up, we spent the morning doing fun tourist stuff with them.  Our first stop was a nearby mini-golf course that was lots of fun.  The scores were pretty close and Alex managed to get a hole in one.  The location also had a laser tag room, so we stuck around and did that, as the kids were pretty excited about the possibility.  There were two other groups of 3 that wanted to play around noon, so with us added in it made a full group.  Laser tag is pretty fun, though there were some upset kids at the end due to perceived injustices in play style.

Then it was lunch and out for some more adventuring.  There were a couple of lighthouses Sandra wanted to see.  We found the first one easily enough, though you had to basically walk through a bunch of long grass to get there.  After a few pictures we went to the nearby beach, which was absolutely beautiful.  It was a large red sand beach, with hardly any waves.  The next lighthouse was a bit sketchier to get to, as the final road to it was a rocky country access road that was only wide enough for one car, and there was a handful of cars at the lighthouse when we arrived, with a couple more that arrived after us.  There was also a wedding party taking their pictures there.  Luckily we managed to get back to the main road without encountering anyone and then we drove to our final exploration destination, another beach with a cool rock formation at the end of it.

This beach was much busier than the others we have gone to.  The access road to it was packed with cars, so we had to park a long way away, and lots of people were on the beach.  However, it was also a very nice, large beach, with waves, but it really looked like it stayed shallow for a long way.  Unfortunately, the rock Sandra wanted to see required you to walk around a rock formation that stuck into the water.  We weren't dressed for water, so I decided to stay behind, as did Alex and Evan.  On the rocks, Bradley immediately fell down, and as I watched, I got quite concerned that they weren't going to be able to make it on the rocks without falling.  Sandra paused for a long time and then waded into some deeper water, but by that time, the two younger kids were out of my sight, so I didn't know what was happening to them.

However, once Sandra was in the water, she looked much more stable, and she got the boys to walk back to me.  Bradley was actually hurt and crying, as he had scraped himself on the rocks, but it didn't take long before he was running back into the water.  It didn't hurt that a friendly dog with a ball wandered by and dropped it by the three younger kids feet, so they happily spent some time throwing the ball into the water for the dog.

On the way back to the motel, we had a bit of a momentous occasion as our van hit 100,000km, so we stopped for a quick picture.  Then it was supper, back to the first beach to play in the water for awhile, where Jonathan found a clam of some sort in a fist full of mud, and finally back to the motel for Bradley to swim in the pool, as he wanted to swim everywhere.  Tomorrow we leave PEI and head back to New Brunswick, as we start the back home part of our trip.

Maritimes - Day 27

Today's post is a little late, as we didn't get back to the hotel until 11:30pm and that was time for bed.  For our first full day on PEI, we went to all the Anne stuff in the morning, primarily because we didn't actually know where we were going.  At the tourist office, I had picked up brochures for the Anne of Green Gables Museum, which isn't the Anne of Green Gables Historic Site, which isn't the Anne of Green Gables whatever, because everything around here is named Anne of Green Gables something and claims some relevance to L.M. Montgomery.

Anyway, we drove out to the museum and toured the house, which is an old house owned by L.M. Montgomery's grandparents.  As we toured it, Sandra pointed out that this isn't the house we were at last time, so after leaving, we found the historic site, which is the big place that everyone goes to.  Unfortunately, travel now is much more common than travel 16 years ago, and it is way more commercialized, with a giant parking lot and a huge Parks Canada building you have to walk through to get to the house.  Still, it was the same house as before and it was nice to see it and to take the walks through the forest.

We then returned to our motel for lunch and then walked to a nearby amusement park with go-karts for Evan.  We walked more than we needed to so we could get to some traffic lights and avoid running across the busy highway.  At the go-karts, Evan and Jonathan each drove by themselves, while I took Bradley in a double kart.  As we were near the front of the line, we were able to watch the karts on track and pick the ones that looked faster, so Bradley and I were able to get in what looked to be the quickest double kart.

I was pretty excited to drive the kart and didn't hold anything back and Bradley only lasted about three laps before he covered his eyes.  I should have slowed down for him, but I was having too much fun.  After we got off, he pointedly walked up to Sandra and held her hand as we walked out of the park.  He says he's never getting in a go-kart with me again.

Then we did a bunch of shopping and ended up a nearby burger restaurant in an old church (that L.M. Montgomery attended).  It's called BOOMBurger and the ads were all about using local meat, potatoes, cheese and butter, so we thought it would be cool to try.  Upon entering the church and ordering, it was apparent that while the restaurant does use local ingredients, it is literally a rebranded Five Guys.  Other than the font and the logos, everything was identical.  So, not a bad meal, and Evan loved the fries.

After some ice cream, we rested for a bit and then drove out to a nearby drive-in movie theatre, because no one in my family has ever done that (and technically, I've only worked at them, I don't believe I've ever attended a movie).  It was a nice fun night and the kids got to watch the DC League of Super Pets movie.  As the theatre was about a 25min drive from our motel, it was quite late when we got back, so it was bedtime for everyone.

Maritimes - Day 26

I still like PEI.  It's so much like home, but with a coastline and roundabouts.

We left Nova Scotia behind and headed across the bridge to PEI, arriving around lunch time in cool and cloudy weather with light drizzle at times.  At the entrance area, we had lunch and then did a family Anne picture.  We couldn't get Alex to do it at all, but the other three were willing, for a price.  It was goofy and fun.  Then we drove down to the end of town to see the bridge from the coast before driving into PEI for groceries.

Our route immediately took us into rural PEI, and it was so nice.  Farms and farmland, growing wheat and corn.  A nice easy road to drive, with hardly any traffic.  After buying supplies, we headed to our motel, which unfortunately is in the heavily tourist attraction area of Cavendish.  The road became packed with cars, we passed a packed amusement park, but the motel is very nice and quiet.  We have a room with a back deck and a BBQ, so we ran across the street for buns and hamburgers and made those for supper.

Crossing the road was quite the experience, as there are no crosswalks for blocks on either side, and the road was the packed one we arrived on.  Luckily, on the way back, a dump truck driver slowed down and held up traffic on one side so we could cross.

After supper, we took Bradley to play in the ocean, which he had been looking forward to all day.  It was cool, but he didn't care.  Cavendish beach is a nice big beach, with beautiful sand and lots of waves to play in.  We splashed in the waves for a bit, but noticed that it didn't appear to be too deep, as a couple had walked out quite a distance and were still only about knee deep in water.  When they walked back in, they told us that there was a sandbar out there you could easily reach, so I took Bradley and Jonathan.  You had to walk through about a waist deep area (filled with rocks, which was tough on the feet), but you quickly reached the sandbar and could easily walk around as the waves crashed around you.  The kids loved that and we stood out there for quite some time before the rising waves chased us back in.  They then threw rocks (very nice red sandstone) into the ocean for some more time before we headed back to the motel.

Tomorrow we will continue our travels around PEI, though Alex has gotten sick again, so hopefully he feels up to doing stuff in the morning.

Maritimes - Day 25

Last night I realized that all the new stuff for me on this trip is over.  Everything from now on is taking the kids to someplace I've already been.  Though both Alex and Sandra pointed out things that were different today, so it's not like the rest of the trip is going to be boring.

Today started cloudy and rainy and with a bit of fog, as we left Halifax after grabbing some donuts at a fancy donut shop.  We then drove to Peggy's Cove, where it was very cool, put on our jackets and chased Bradley and Jonathan over the rocks, as they climbed and dashed everywhere with no regard for human safety.  Peggy's Cove was actually quite busy, despite today being a week day and with the weather not that great.  Once we had enough close calls on the rocks, we headed to the Swiss Air 111 memorial and then onto the highway to Mahone Bay.

This is a small fishing village near Lunenburg where everyone stops for a picture of three churches across the bay.  We stopped at the visitor center for lunch, and the man running it came out to talk to us as we were setting up - he has relatives from Regina and area, and he told us to check out the nearby cemetery, which is very old and one of the earliest in Canada.  After lunch, Sandra and I looked through a few of the marked cemetery headstones before we grabbed her picture of the churches and then headed into town to find a place to park.  There is a pewter store in Mahone Bay that she wanted to go to, as in addition to selling their works, they have a back area where they are making the items and show you exactly how it is done.

Essentially, they use a rubber mold and centrifuge, heat up the pewter and pour it in and then check the pieces to see what they look like.  Any that don't make the cut get dumped back in the liquid pewter and melted down for next time.  The ones that are good are then trimmed and polished.  Sandra bought a few things and then we drove down the road a bit to Lunenburg.

On the way in, we passed the B&B we stayed in back in 2005 when we were here, as well as the very odd three way intersection that I almost got hit at back then.  It wasn't any easier to drive this time.  In town, we found a spot to park and then walked down to the harbour.  It was quite warm in Lunenburg and the rain had stopped, so the kids weren't too interested in the town or the walk.  Alex actually wilts in the sun pretty quickly.

We viewed a bit of Lunenburg, but the big draw was the Bluenose II, which was out on a cruise when we arrived, but scheduled back in at 3:30pm.  We waited for it, and after it had docked, they let people on to walk around, which was a new thing that we didn't get to do last time.  The wood on the ship was really nice and it was interesting watching all the workers putting the sails away.

After that, we headed to Truro and our hotel, where we ate supper, played in the pool and then went to bed.  Tomorrow we are off to PEI.

Maritimes - Day 24

Today was a bit of a slow day, due to me.  My company has an office in Halifax, and I couldn't come all this way without dropping in and going for lunch, which ended up taking most of the first part of the afternoon, only leaving a little bit of time for tourism.  I also took the morning to get the oil changed in the van, since we've driven a long way since it was last changed.

So, after a nice visit and lunch with the Halifax crew, I returned home and we took off across the bridge.  Our first stop was the Mont Blanc Anchor Site, which is just a small display of a piece of anchor that flew almost 4km inland from the Halifax explosion in 1917.  Sandra wanted the kids to get a feel for how far it was, so she had them note when we got to the Halifax side of the bridge and then the time it took to drive all the way out to the anchor.

Then we drove down to Pier 21 and went through the museum there.  The Pier 21 section of the museum was nice and the kids enjoyed going through it, but the newer immigration section of the museum was pretty meh.  Lots of stuff about feelings and responses and not a lot of information - definitely not what I'm looking for in a museum.

It was raining slightly when we left, but it was rush hour, so I wanted to waste some time before we headed home.  Point Pleasant Park is nearby and we drove over there, where there is a beach near the parking lot.  Bradley enthusiastically jumped into the water and spent some time with Evan throwing rocks.  The rain was pretty light, so we walked part of the way into the park, took in some of the sites there and then headed home for supper.

Tomorrow we leave Halifax and head out to Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg. 

Maritimes - Day 23

Our second full day in Halifax started with a walk to a nearby church and then a trip back down to the ferry terminal, which Sandra discovered had a touch tank full of sea creatures.  After washing our hands with a foot pump water fountain, we went into a small shack that contained three tanks full of star fish, crabs, anemones, snails, shrimp, clams and probably some other things I've forgotten.  Bradley absolutely loved it and Jonathan was also pretty interested.  They spent a long time holding the animals, peppering the worker with questions and learning lots about the marine life in the North Atlantic.  When he was done, Bradley's fingers were wrinkled up from being in the water so much.

Of course, the older two boys were only mildly interested, and it was a small shack with other kids that wanted to see things, so I took them outside, where we looked over the Dartmouth marina and across the harbour to the Canadian naval ships docked at CFB Halifax.  We could see four frigates, what might have been a supply ship and a coastal defence ship.  After leaving the touch tank, I dropped Sandra and the kids off at the house and then went out for lunch with a friend here in Halifax.

After that, we tried to get back across to Halifax to continue exploring, but ran into problems, as we could not find any parking in downtown Dartmouth.  We ended up in a sketchy area near the terminal and rail yard and took the ferry across the harbour again.  We wanted to go to Georges Island, which is in the middle of the harbour, but the last ferry to the island left at 3:20pm, and we ended up on the 3:00pm ferry from Dartmouth to Halifax.  We arrived at Halifax at about 3:10pm, got to the ticket office at 3:15pm and just managed to get on the ferry.

Georges Island was used to defend the harbour and had extensive tunnels built in it to house the guns and to bring ammunition to the guns.  You could take a guided tour through the tunnels, as they didn't want people getting lost in the maze.  Once through the tunnels, we took a quick look around the top of the island, learned a lot about what WWI soldiers ate from a guide and then took the ferry back to the harbour.

It was then time for supper at a local family seafood restaurant, where Sandra had Digby scallops, a quick walk and shopping trip, and some ice cream to finish off our day.  Then the ferry back to Dartmouth and back to the house.

Maritimes - Day 22

After a long night's sleep (for me), we set off to explore Halifax.  There is a ferry that crosses the harbour and this summer it is free on Saturdays, so it was a super easy way for us to get to Halifax for what we want to see.  We also got there early enough that we got a spot in the parking lot.  After crossing the harbour, we headed towards the Citadel first, as it was supposed to be very hot today, and we figured we should do the outside stuff in the morning.

The Citadel is at the top of a very large hill, and it took a few rest breaks before we got to the top.  Luckily, while in downtown Halifax, there are enough tall buildings that the sidewalks are in the shade.  I will take some time to say that National Historic Sites have been awesome for the budget, as all four kids are free at every one, so only Sandra and I have to pay.  The Citadel, being of British construction, is full of soldiers in kilts and playing bagpipes, unlike Louisbourg, which had flutes and drums and pants.

We explored for the morning, melting in the sun, with me fighting heartburn because I forgot to take my pill when we got off the ferry, and then left shortly after watching them fire the noon cannon. They had a fairly nice and busy museum in the main building that we spent some time exploring, and while it didn't have a gift shop, they were selling regiment patches for a donation, so I grabbed a Regina Rifle Regiment one before we left.

We walked down to the park by city hall and stopped for our lunch.  The park is all setup for music and fireworks, which is occurring every weekend during the summer.  Then it was down to the harbour and over to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.  This museum has a big display on the Halifax explosion in 1917, a display on the Titanic and then lots of other stuff related to ships.  Fun to explore and nice to get out of the sun.

Just outside the museum, there is a docked WWII corvette turned into a museum - the HMCS Sackville.  It was fun showing the kids an actual ship that fought in combat.  The last time we were on a ship was the USS Missouri in Hawai'i, and only the older kids really remember that.  As we left, I wished they had a gift shop, as I definitely would've picked something up there.

For the last part of the afternoon, we walked along the harbour, looking at stuff in shops, learning about the leatherhead turtles that come up from Trinidad to eat jellyfish in the North Atlantic, and seeing tons of people (including two girls from SK who commented on my hat).  Halifax definitely seems to be a younger crowd.  Also, the hot temperatures never really arrived by the water - it got cooler in the afternoon, and by 3:30pm the entire harbour was covered in fog.

We left near suppertime, took the ferry back to Dartmouth and drove back to the house for supper.  After that and a bit of rest, we walked back into downtown Dartmouth to a creperie so that Evan could have his dessert crepe.  Then the day was done.  Tomorrow is another day in Halifax.

Maritimes - Day 21

I didn't sleep very well on this ferry ride, and ended up waking up tired as the sun had risen and made everything very bright.  Once everyone was up, I took the kids that wanted to up to the top of the ship to watch as it made its way into port, and we could see a cruise ship following us in.  Getting off the ship took some time, as they have to clear the one level of all cars before they can open the door to the basement and let the rest of us out.

Once out, we found some breakfast and then drove into Sydney to see their giant fiddle, as apparently Alex brought a book on the biggest things in Canada along, but hasn't been telling us where to stop.  What I didn't realize as we headed in was that the giant fiddle was located where the cruise ship was docked, and when we arrived, a security guard asked us what our purpose was.  We explained what we wanted and he let us park and take pictures, as long as we left after 10 minutes.  Then it was time to drive back into Nova Scotia.

The plan we came up with was to drive to Stellarton, where there is a museum quite like the Western Development Museum and a Jungle Jim's (a Maritime chain restaurant).  We were going to stop at the restaurant for lunch, spend a few hours at the museum and then get in to Halifax around supper time.  Unfortunately for us, we got stuck in construction traffic about 31km from Stellarton, where it took 2 hours to go about 10km. The two hours wasn't a total waste, though, as we got to watch the soap opera of "people in front of us going to the bathroom".  One lady ran 300m to a construction port-a-potty, and ran back while her husband yelled at her since the line was moving and she was driving.  Another guy ran to the bushes, then managed to drop his phone and lose his hat as he ran back to the cars.

Once out of the construction, we decided to quickly go through the museum, have an early supper at the restaurant and then drive to Halifax.  The museum was excellent and I was a bit sad that we had to rush through it.  It documented the industry and lives of people in Nova Scotia through the years, with lots of hands on stuff for the kids to do, so the younger two had a blast.  By the end of it, I was fading fast, so after supper, we drove into Halifax, found our place, made lunch plans with everyone I know in Halifax, rested for a bit, did some shopping and then called it a night.

Maritimes - Day 20

This post is a little late, as I did not get to it before we boarded the ferry.  Our day was pretty simple - drive down to Port aux Basques and get on the ferry.  We didn't leave until almost lunch time, as the forecast was for fog, and we weren't in a rush.

On the way up the road, we had noticed a number of restaurants and food trucks selling squid rings, so we stopped at one of the food trucks for lunch.  I purchased a moose burger and squid rings, which everyone tried.  They were good, but the batter had a lot of salt and pepper in it.  The moose burger was extremely good and definitely something I would have again.

Then it was on to Port aux Basques.  We arrived around 4:30pm, went through the railway museum (just to annoy the kids some more) and then headed to a local restaurant for supper.  Then it was off to downtown to see the ferry, do some shopping and listen to some local music.  After that, we got in line for the ferry and sat in the terminal for a couple of hours.

This time, we ended up in the basement of the ship, which means you have to go on to the one deck and then take a steep path down to the bottom, where they have you back into a few rows of parking.  Of course, with all the people everywhere and all the ship workers watching, my backing up skills decided to disappear, but we managed to get parked and find seats on the ship.  Then it was off to bed as the ferry took us back to Nova Scotia. 

Maritimes - Day 19

This was a bit of a stressful day, as we drove out of St. John's to Gander, which we skipped on the way down, as we knew we had to do something on the way back.  The ferry crossing is 880km from St. John's and we didn't want to drive that in one day, so we are taking two days to do it.

Unfortunately, right as we left St. John's, we ran into a decent rain storm that made it hard to drive - when it was raining hard, it was difficult to keep your speed down on the hills so you weren't hydro-planing into a corner, and after the rain stopped, we ended up so high in the hills that we were driving in the clouds, so it was quite foggy.  After about 130km of that, we left the rain behind and it was just overcast for most of the trip.

Upon arrival at Gander, I stopped at a park for lunch, but Gander was under a thunderstorm watch and dark clouds were gathering as we ate, so we ate fast and got into the van quickly.  The clouds all passed around the town, so there ended up not being any rain at that time.

We spent most of the afternoon at the aviation museum in Gander (which is the first and only place so far this trip that has required masks), which had a number of planes outside, including a Catalina that was used as a water bomber.  Inside it had displays and plaques that traced the rise and fall of the Gander airport and ended with a bunch of stuff related to 9/11, when 6700 people were stranded here after their flights were forced to land in Gander.  Gander was, for a short time, a very important airport, as all the trans-Atlantic flights landed here to refuel.  That lasted until the arrival of jet airliners, at which point enough fuel was carried that Gander was bypassed.

The museum had a flight simulator that Evan had read about in the brochure, so I got him setup in that and let him play for his 20 minutes.  I think he had some fun doing that.  We then headed out to a couple of memorials - the first was a memorial to the members of the American 101st Airborne Regiment, who died in 1985 when their plane crashed just after take off.  It was a very nice area, with American flags and a statue of an American soldier and two children (as the troops were on a peacekeeping mission) that is facing towards Kentucky (the home of the 101st).  The second memorial was a Commonwealth cemetery that contained all the kids that died in training accidents at Gander during World War II.  The same gravestones as they use everywhere else (including France).

After that, we drove back to Grand Falls-Windsor (where the Salmonid Interpretive Centre is) and stopped at our hotel.  I walked in, and there was one worker and about 20 people waiting to be served.  After waiting in the car for 15 minutes and then standing in line for 35, we were finally able to get checked in.  Apparently the highway south of here was closed due to a forest fire, so everyone out for the day could not get home and they were all trying to get a hotel room in a fairly small town.

The thunderstorms arrived after we checked in and tried to find a restaurant for supper.  We ended up at an A&W, soaked as we ran in from the van.  After supper, we tried to get unpacked between rain showers, got more wet, but got everything into the hotel.  Tomorrow we head to the ferry and take it back to Nova Scotia, where we will drive to Halifax. 

Maritimes - Day 18

Our well travelled van made it to the eastern-most point in North America today, as we arrived at Cape Spear, just outside of St. John's.  So far this trip, we have put 7100km on the van, even though Google tells me we are only 5000km from home.  The extra is our diversions to different areas and the trip through southern Ontario.

Cape Spear has great views of the ocean, a lighthouse, and the remains of the gun batteries and bunkers that were built to defend St. John's during World War II.  Alex liked the tunnels and concrete, and the lighthouse was pretty interesting, as it had a house built around it that was occupied until 1997.

Our next stop was Signal Hill.  Now, the road to Cape Spear was pretty hilly, and I wasn't super excited about driving it, but the road to Signal Hill is certifiably insane.  Not only is there a right hand turn onto a road in St. John's at the top of a steep hill, but the entire road up to the hill is just going vertically.  The van struggled to go up at points, but we made it to the visitor center, where we stopped for lunch.  Then it was up even higher to the building and paths area at the top.  We took in the views for a bit and then walked a steep path down to a recreation of a gun battery that would have protected the narrow straights that are the entrance to St. John's harbour.

Once we were done with the views, we drove back downtown and found a parking lot to park in, so that we could walk around and see St. John's.  We shopped at a number of stores, found a bunch of the brightly painted houses and spent an enjoyable afternoon in the sun.

As we got ready to leave, we realized we had forgotten to go to the Terry Fox Mile 0 memorial.  Unfortunately, it was too far from our parking lot to walk, but it appeared we had driven right by it on our way to Signal Hill.  We headed that way and made a couple of u-turns in pier entranceways before we discovered it, down at the bottom of the road with the scary hill and right turn, and with no parking anywhere.  The only way to go was up to Signal Hill (again!) and then back down, where we found a parking spot on the scary hill.  I'm not certain I've ever parked my van on a hill that steep, nor have I ever used the L gear in my van before.

Regardless, we found our way down to the memorial and then headed home for supper.  I must say that the St. John's harbour area isn't that interesting, as it is all locked behind fences due to customs.  However, the rest of the stuff was fun.  Technically we start our trip home tomorrow, just with a very long stop in Halifax and PEI.