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Published: June 26th 2019
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Ann's horse, Cape BretonUgh! As usual, I am way behind blogging. Right now we're on the train to Winnipeg - a 34 hour trip. Hoping I can catch up a bunch.
PEI and New Brunswick (6/1-6/4)
We again landed back at North Sydney and again ate dinner at Bette’s (a hole in the wall with great inexpensive homemade food – lots of carrots and turnips (have I mentioned the carrots and turnips? The only vegetables they seem to have in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia). We headed south through Cape Breton and stayed at Ann’s Airbnb halfway down the island. Ann was quite a character who lives in a charming 100 year old house. She had 2 friendly horses and even a cranberry bog on her property. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to check it out, nor did we want to climb the hill to reach it. We’re on our way to Prince Edward Island. We stopped at Glenora Distillery in Glenville, Cape Breton, the only single malt whisky distillery, using only 3 ingredients – barley, yeast and water, and got a personal tour and learned lots about whisky making. We were hoping to catch some Celtic music they offer at lunch,
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Glenora Distillery, Cape Breton but again, it was too early in the year. Later caught the ferry to PEI – a shorter one than to Newfoundland – just 1 hour 45 minutes and pretty smooth.
Prince Edward Island is the smallest of the Canadian Provinces and is known as the birthplace of the Confederation. We’re staying with our Marriage Encounter friends Jamie and Connie McNeill in Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island. We met them when they were the Canadian National Leaders and came to Austin for a meeting, They are such a welcoming couple! They even gave up their bed for us and are staying at their “summer” (we use the term summer loosely) campground. After Mass at St. Dunstan's Cathedral (lovely) they showed us around the countryside north of Charlottetown and parts of Prince Edward Island National Park.
The next day we met Patty Noonan, half of the other ME couple on PEI. She took us on a walking tour around Charlottetown At the Confederation Centre of the Arts we saw a very informative video on “The Story of Confederation” on meetings held in Charlottetown which eventually led to the formation of Canada as a nation – we learned
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With Jamie and Connie McNeill in Prince Edward Island lots about Canadian history. We also saw a beautiful little Anglican chapel, All Souls Chapel and walked through the historic center of town. Later we drove out to see the original Cow’s Ice Cream Factory. Unfortunately there were no tours that day, but we did get an ice cream cone (Mooey Gooey for me). Cow’s Ice Cream is frequently listed as one of the best in North America. I’m not sure if it’s better than Amy’s though. Later Patty’s husband Shawn joined us for a delicious dinner at the McNeill’s trailer at the campground. Afterwards we went to Trailside Café and Inn, an intimate little dive where we saw Tim Chaisson. We really liked his music, which has been variously described as independent/country/pop/folk and a touch of Acadian when he played “jigs and reels” with his father at the end. A great show.
We headed back to Halifax to catch the train to start our train across Canada adventure. We passed through New Brunswick on our way back to Halifax so we could witness the tides at Hopewell Rocks. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, changing as much as 46 feet. We got to
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Tide coming onto the mud flats. Hopewell Rocks just in time to see the tide come in. We walked out on the mud flats, and within an hour the place where we had been walking was inundated.
Back in Halifax just for the night and ate at Salty’s, a great little seafood restaurant on the harbor. We turned our car into the rental company and unfortunately had to report that we had 2 cracks in the windshield from a gravel truck passing us. That’s never happened with a rental before. We still don’t know what that’s going to cost us.
And now - the start of our cross-Canada train adventure! Our first stop is Miramichi, New Brunswick. Our original plan for our train trip across Canada was to stop in each province (except the northern ones). We picked Miramichi because we wanted to visit the Village Historique Acadien Village north of Miramichi on the Acadian Peninsula. It portrays a rural Acadian village between 1770 and 1948, with over 60 restored historic buildings. After the deportation of the French from Canada 1755-63 (many to Louisiana), many Acadians made their way back to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We especially wanted to hear the music there.
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Before - Hopewell Rocks But shortly after arriving we were disappointed to learn that this year it will open later, June 9. However, Mirimichi has turned out to be a surprise. It is a major vacation destination for the eastern provinces (and even northeast US), situated along a world-famous salmon fishing river. Who knew? Not that we’re going fishing. Miramichi has a great waterfront, a national park nearby and even has a basilica!
We started our 2 day stay picking up a rental car and visited St. Michael’s Basilica. Somehow I don’t picture a relatively small town in New Brunswick as having a basilica. The ones we’ve been in are major pilgrimage and tourist destinations, but this one, although beautiful and huge, is very much just a local parish church. No signs, no tours, no tourist brochures. We took a walk along the riverfront (Ritchie Wharf) and then went to French Fort Cove Park for a nice walk in the woods.
The following day our train did not leave until 7:30 pm and so we drove down to Kouchibouguac (Koo-shi-boo-guac) National Park on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The park includes barrier islands, sand dunes, lagoons, salt marshes and forests. We took
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After - Hopewell Rocks several short walks through the salt marsh, across a lagoon to sand dunes (and crazy Canadians sunbathing in the cold), and a boardwalk through a bog. I was surprised to learn that over 14%!o(MISSING)f Canada is covered in bogs. In fact, I’ve learned a lot about Canada I didn’t know before. Canada is vast – the 2
nd largest country in the world and has the world’s longest coastline.
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Sam Miller
non-member comment
Some catching up!
Thanks for taking us with you. We'll know more about Canada when you're finished with your trip too! Blessings and happy trails! SamnWayne