Maritimes Part 1

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The Maritimes / The Atlantic Provinces of Canada Experiences: Part I

May 3, 2013- Today began our 7^th week of this North American Safari – 2013. We have had quite the adventures already and look forward to more great experiences. We left Bangor Maine and drove to the Calais Border Crossing into Canada. The Boarder Inspector was very pleasant and efficient – telling us we were OVER the legal limit for the amount of alcohol that we are allowed to take with us, but he smiled and wished a good time while in Canada; nice guy! We motored towards St. Johns, New Brunswick where we had picked out a campground. After driving about 200 miles we got to the ferry crossing that we needed to take to the campground. Onto the ferry we got, 5 minutes later we were across the water and into the campground, EXCEPT it wasn’t open for the season yet! Hmmmm now what? We had pulled right off the ferry into the driveway of the campground to a closed gate. Luckily there was someone on the grounds that was able to open the gate for us to pull through, turn around and get back on the ferry. This was just the beginning of our experiences of “closed for the season”. While this did limit some of our places to stay, eat and things to do, the good news was that things are not crowded and what were open, people seemed very happy to see us. We had to drive about another 100 miles, but we found a good campground to stay in the small community of Shediac, N.B.  Shediac is a small beach town that really must bustle in the summer. This part of Canada is quite Acadian – French speaking.

Ferry to closed campground

Saturday – May 4, 2013 we drove to the Hope Well Cape – where the Petitcodiak River empties into the Shepady Bay, on the Bay of Fundy. This is a very interesting area where tides rise and fall as much 50+ feet per tide cycle. We walked the path down to the mud flats – the ocean floor. Surrounding us were some very unusual eroded sandstone Hope Well Rocks some 60-70 feet tall that looked like something out of Dr. Seuss. We were able to enjoy this experience under absolutely beautiful blue skies and warm weather, how lucky are we?

Low Tide on the Bay of Fundy

Steps to the ocean floor

May 5, 2013 – Happy Cinco de Mayo!! We celebrated by driving to Prince Edward Island (another Maritime Province). This was about 50 miles from our campground, across an 8-½ mile Confederation Bridge.  The day was amazing – more perfect weather.  We drove through picturesque farm lands to the town of Cavendish, where we walked around the home of Anne of Green Gables.  The author Lucy Maud Montgomery grew up in this area and based her stories on many of her own life experiences. The house itself was not open, but we walked around the grounds and on the Lover’s Lane and Balsam Trails. There were only 2 other cars in the parking lot. For lunch we made our way across the island to Charlottetown. We found a wonderful restaurant on the wharf where we sat on the deck and had the mandatory margarita.  We enjoyed a ½ dozen oysters, 1 lb. of mussels and two – 2lb lobsters! What a fabulous feast and all locally caught.   We returned back to camp and enjoyed a nice evening out by the campfire.

P.E.I. and the gulf of the St. Lawrence Seaway

Anne's house of Green Gables

Charlottetown seafood feast on Cinco de Mayo