Atlantic Canada & New England

A 32-day adventure by Betty Read more

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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Halifax, NS
September 22, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
On our way to Halifax we stopped at Rita's Tea House in Big Pond because we both liked her music. We were impressed with the food and the small museum that was created after her death in 2013. JS raved about his seafood chowder and lobster roll. I enjoyed a traditional Cape Breton dish, fish cakes and baked beans.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Lunenburg, NS
September 23, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
This morning we had a one hour drive to the picturesque, colourful town of Lunenburg, which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were fortunate in that the Blue Nose II was in port and we were allowed to go aboard and explore Nova Scotia's sailing ambassador. On our route we drove through the small town of Mahone Bay, which is known for it's 3 churches that greet you as you enter town.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Peggy's Cove, NS
September 23, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C
We had to drive back to Halifax in the afternoon as we had an appointment to have our 48,000 km maintenance done at the local Toyota dealership. From there it was on to the famous Peggy's Cove, an hour drive west of Halifax. Although there was a sign warning of rogue waves and we were both aware of a recent death, JS just had to explore with reckless abandon! We stopped at the nearby memorial for the 229 passengers that died when SwissAir 111 crashed at Peggy's Cove in 1998 killing all :(Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Wolfville, NS
September 23, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
An hour north of Halifax is Wolfville, a small college town in the Annapolis Valley. We're staying for 2 nights in an historic B&B on the main street of town within walking distance to restaurants.
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Annapolis Valley, NS
September 24, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
We drove down the coast about 100 km to a region which has the earliest European settlements in Canada. We toured Fort Anne National Historic Site and it was an interesting history lesson. Couldn't resist goofing around with the costumes but I'm pretty sure I have the hats on wrong even though JS reassured me they were on correctly. We drove another 50 km along the Bay of Fundy, stopping for lunch at Digby, "the scallop capital of the world", and at Sandy Cove. The weather continues to cooperate with us.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Grand Pré, NS
September 25, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
Awoke to another gorgeously sunny day. After another fantastic breakfast at our B&B, we spent the morning at the Grand Pre National Historic Site. Here we learned about the tenacious Acadians and how they were treated poorly by the British and French battalions. The grounds were beautiful and the flower gardens still thriving. Parks Canada places 2 red chairs at all of their historic, scenic sites as a great photo op and encourages visitors to place the photo on their Facebook page.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Halifax, NS
September 25, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
For lunch we met Irene, a Luxton School teacher that worked with John a few years ago and who has now retired in her old hometown of Wolfville. We had a delicious, reasonably priced meal at Luckett Vineyards. The wine was great, although pricey at $8 a glass, and the view was amazing. There are 6 vineyards in Wolfville, the main wine-growing region of NS. Before heading to Halifax for the night we stopped at Grand Pre to see the ocean when the tide was out, a real contrast to the lush vineyard down the road!Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Hopewell Cape, NB
September 26, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
We left the hotel at 8 a.m., which is darn good for non-morning people, and drove to the Halifax harbour so that I could get a quick view of the city. It's very congested and has narrow roadways. I wasn't impressed. After a 3 hour drive on the Trans Canada Highway we arrived at Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy, a provincial park that has recorded the world's highest tides. We arrived almost 2 hours after high tide and saw the height of the bay go from 42 feet down to 14 feet. It was expected to go all the way down to 2 feet but we couldn't hang around that long as we had already spent 3 hours here. After the water receded we walked on the ocean floor. There was no sea life like I had experienced on the West coast, just a gravel surface. The rock formations are mostly under water when the tide is high. It was all quite impressive.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Saint John, NB
September 26, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
Our route took us through the Fundy National Park, which would be a great spot for a camping trip. We made time for a short coastal hike, then tried out the Park's red chairs with a view of the Bay of Fundy at low tide. Then it was onward to Saint John, watching out for moose on the road as by now it was dusk. Saint John is another unimpressive city. It took us 11 hours plus 15,710 steps logged on my Fitbit but we sure crammed in a lot of great sights.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
North Conway, New Hampshire
September 27, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
It was time to close the book on our whirlwind tour of Atlantic Canada. This isn't our customary style of travel....a different hotel or B&B almost every night as well as many travel miles.....so we were both feeling a bit exhausted. Perhaps as a result, JS turned the air blue as we left Saint John early Sunday morning because the GPS couldn't locate the satellite as quickly as he would like. So we meandered a bit before reaching the Trans Canada Highway. Later in the morning we reflected on the past 2 weeks.

Likes:

- breakfasts, but not the beds, at most of our B&Bs
- the pastoral life of PEI and the ruggedness of Cape Breton Island
- fresh lobster, scallops and haddock that we ate almost daily
- warm, sometimes hot, sunny days
- beautiful scenery around every corner
- friendly, welcoming reception by the locals
- the historical significance of the people and places

Dislikes:

- the major cities, except for Charlottetown
- we kept missing the kitchen parties so sadly did not attend one
- rude Quebecois who ought to just stay home
- the high cost of lodging, meals, and gas
- the weight I gained from eating all that good food, not to mention the wine

The 7 hour drive went by quickly and we arrived in NH around 5. When we checked into our timeshare condo, we were assigned a regular hotel room with a small kitchenette instead of the studio suite I had paid for. Since they were full for the night we reluctantly accepted this room. The photo is of the main building but the timeshare units are located in a separate building at the rear. North Conway is situated in White Mountain National Forest and reminds us of a much smaller version of Banff. I was expecting vibrant Fall foliage but apparently it is slower than usual this year so the leaves are just beginning to turn.

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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Kancamagus Scenic Byway
September 28, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
After some negotiating with the front desk staff, we were able to move to the more spacious studio unit with a full kitchen that we had paid for. Once that was settled we were on our way to scout out the area.

"The Kanc" highway is a 55 km two lane, winding road through the White Mountain National Forest. It's a beautiful drive with many scenic viewpoints, waterfalls and short hikes. It would have been perfect if the leaves were at their peak. This area is known for attracting "leaf peepers" and is the main reason I had selected it. It was 26 degrees and sunny so we spent the whole day driving and exploring.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
More of "The Kanc"
September 28, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
It was such a relaxing day. Although the longest "hike" we did was 1.6 km, JS felt the need to check his heart rate :P
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
A Wash-Out
September 29, 2015 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C
It started to rain around noon on Tuesday and continued heavily for the next 48 hours....a total of 3.5 inches of rain. The weather office issued a flood watch for our area and were advising people to stay off the roads and highways. Since we weren't familiar with the roads and streams it seemed wise to comply and stay indoors. Doing laundry and watching TV was all that was accomplished. On Thursday the sun returned but the temperature dropped to the mid-teens for the remainder of the week. JS decided it was a good day to read and sleep. The reading came to an abrupt end when he discovered that his new book was missing 65 pages! I walked through town and browsed the shops, not spending a penny.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
This is New Hampshire
October 1, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
There are 54 historic, covered wooden bridges in the state. Decorating for Fall and Halloween is a big event here. Every year they have a competition called "The Return of the Pumpkin People" and they can be found everywhere in the region. The North Conway vintage train can be seen and heard frequently as it takes tourists on a short but scenic route.

We are back to our usual routine of me cooking all of our meals....pasta, stir fry, and tacos are our favourite easy dinners for travel and camping. When I came out of the grocery store I was greeted with this magnificent sunset. The colours are real and untouched.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
White Mountain National Forest
October 2, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C
The village of North Conway is tourist-oriented with shops, bars and restaurants. They even offer moose bus tours in the evening as there is an abundance of moose in this area and tourists are willing to pay $30 to hopefully see a real live moose ("96% success rate"). There are lots of roadside signs warning of "moose crossing" and "hundreds of collisions" but we didn't see nor hit any thankfully.

Apart from touristy North Conway is the beautiful and rugged White Mountain National Forest. There are serious hikers here and the 6288 foot Mount Washington, the highest peak in the NE USA, is considered one of the 10 most dangerous small mountains in the world. The weather at the summit is comparable to the Antarctic and has logged the highest wind velocity in the world at 231 mph! The Visitor Centre has a memorial to the 152 people who have died attempting to climb the mountain, often from hypothermia.

We continued to enjoy our short, scenic hikes! One of my favourites was Diana's Bath, a 1 km hike to a series of cascading waterfalls. We were well rewarded for enduring the heavy rainfall this week!Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
A hiking challenge for 60 somethings
October 3, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
Today we took another pleasant drive to a different area of the park. We selected a hike to Arethusa Falls....at 200 feet they are the highest in the state. The trail climbs 750 feet and the first km is rocky and steep. It took us 2 hours round trip and was tough on our aging, arthritic knees but we enjoyed the challenge and scenery.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
I'm a Leaf Peeper!
October 3, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
That is.....

"a person who travels in the Fall to areas wooded with deciduous forests, particularly New England, to view the changing colour of the leaves."
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Geneva, New York
October 4, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Today was the beginning of our long road trip home. We got an early start as we had a long drive through NH and Vermont to our hotel in NY. When I stopped at the Vermont Welcome Centre to pick up a map of the state I discovered that there were some interesting places along our route. JS shuddered at this news!

We stopped at the King Arthur Flour bakery, cafe, store and school. It was surprisingly interesting as we did a self-guided tour and watched the bakers in action making an apple strudel. They made it look so simple.

Next stop was the Sugarbush Cheese & Maple Farm. We sampled different cheeses and maple syrup and were free to walk around the farm yard where they had different displays on maple syrup production.

Vermont was special as we drove along a narrow secondary road that went through small, quaint towns. It was 24 degrees and sunny. Being a beautiful Sunday afternoon, everyone seemed to be out enjoying a perfect Fall day. We didn't arrive at our hotel until 8 pm but what a great day it was! JS even admitted that he enjoyed it!Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Finger Lakes Wine Country, NY
October 5, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C
When researching our route home I discovered that NY state had a wine growing region with 60 wineries. This area is known especially for its riesling wine. The growers are mostly small family run vineyards with limited production. We stopped at 7 different wineries and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the wines. The owners were friendly and informative and so were the other tourists. It was another wonderful day but now we have even more wine to declare at the border! Sipping on a nice riesling now :)Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Salamanca, NY
October 5, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Leaving the wine region the GPS guided us on a nice rural route through upstate New York, eventually leading to a main interstate. It was less than a 3 hour drive so we arrived in Salamanca early evening. I got a great Play and Stay deal at a very large casino resort seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Our good luck enabled us to earn enough to pay for our dinner. A nice ending to a very full day.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Shipshewana, Indiana
October 6, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
More trip research brought us to this small Amish community with a population of 658. The rural area is predominantly Amish farms. The town is beautifully decorated for Fall and there are as many Amish buggies as there are vehicles on the streets. This is in sharp contrast to the city of Cleveland which we drove through earlier in the day! We're staying in a nice inn that is decorated in Amish style, complete with quilts on the beds. We went to a local restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a typical Amish meal. It's been an interesting experience.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Saint Ignace, Michigan
October 7, 2015 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 9 °C
We started our morning with a visit to an Amish market that had a great selection of natural foods, cheeses and meats. I then went to the Menno-Hof Museum to learn more about Anabaptists.....the Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish. JS wasn't interested in either activity so he sat in the car and waited. His loss, as the museum was very informative.

Michigan is a large state so we didn't arrive at our destination in the Upper Peninsula until just after sunset. I was on deer and moose watch duty because there was a large flashing road side sign that said collisions with both were increased by 70% this time of the year. It's hunting season....aren't the deer and moose supposed to be hiding in the forest?! We arrived safely and enjoyed a delicious meal of fresh whitefish from one of the Great Lakes.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Duluth, Minnesota
October 8, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C
Brace yourselves.....I was up so early this morning that I got a photo of the sunrise!

That was my only glimpse of the sun today. We had a 9 hour, cool, dreary, rainy and foggy drive through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Duluth. It was a 2 lane highway with lots of trucks and RVs and a maximum speed limit of 55 mph. JS was irritable with how slow the drive went and how it never stopped raining or drizzling the whole day. He lightened up at one of the rest stops where he said he was "pretending to be a tree"! The scenery would have been even more awesome if the weather had been better.Read more
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Vibrant Colours of Fall
October 8, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
One of the Michigan highways in this region has just been voted "10 best scenic autumn drives". It is a well deserved award based on the rich colours we saw today.
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Atlantic Canada & New England Traveler
Southdale, MB
October 10, 2015 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
After declaring our surplus of wine (paid for with JS's OAS), the very kind Border Services Officer sent us on our way with no additional duties to pay. We had a short visit with Alyssa and arrived home at 8 pm. Total mileage driven over 33 days.....12,172 km!! We survived another excellent adventure. The internet is back up and life has returned to normal :)Read more
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Trip end
October 11, 2015