Lost and found

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Geo: 45.5918, -62.6434

Well, I have to admit to being tired yesterday. After catching up on a week's worth of record keeping and writing 2 blog entries last night, working until after 11 PM, I clearly missed something. I realized this morning that I didn't even talk about Saint John. My bad. So, I will begin where I left off.

Saint John is a large city with a very large working harbor. When I planned this trip, I was expecting it to be a small touristy area, but that is not the case. The port is very large, very active and very industrial. We struggled to find a place to get close to the water for some photos and, as you can see from the photos I posted, our success was limited. We had to drive a long way up the coast to a residential area to find a view of the Bay of Fundy. So, if you are thinking of being a tourist in this area, don't think Saint John. Move on up the road. There are better places in New Brunswick.

Today, we left our hotel at 8:50 AM and 61 degrees and headed east to Nova Scotia along the Trans Canadian Highway. We initially were headed for New Glasgow where we had reservations for our hotel, but before we got that far, we took a right turn and made a side trip to Halifax. The entire drive was very similar to Maine I-95. The roads were very good, for the most part, and the scenery was primarily rolling hills of various shades of green with lots of trees, some very mature and others that had been planted more recently. We saw many areas of blue spruce and pine, all the same size, planted in neat rows up and down the highway. There was evidence of a fire in one area where the trunks of the trees were singed black, while the tops of the trees were still green and healthy.

I love Canada. I can practice my French just by reading the road signs which are printed in both French and English. We crossed into the province of Nova Scotia at 11:10 AM and continued on east until we got to Truro, which is the "Hub of Nova Scotia". That's what the sign says. This is where the road forked and we were able to point the car southward toward Halifax. It was at this point that we began to see farm lands with fields of corn, still very young, not having flowered yet. The further north we get, the later the corn comes in, as anyone could reason to be the case. We saw a number of farms with rusty silos sitting beside old barns, located in the middle of fields and surrounded by stands of leafy trees. Some were dairy farms with Holsteins grazing in the fields, eating grass and making milk.

We arrived in Halifax around 1 PM and found our way down to the water's edge, right in the middle of the city, which was composed of many high–rise buildings, some old and made of brick and others very new and shiny, made mostly of glass. Halifax has a shipyard where we saw many battle gray vessels of various sizes. They also have a tourist area, a boardwalk, where we parked the car, got out and walked around taking photos and enjoying the views of the harbor. We saw ferries moving people around, pleasure boats, and fun cruises for hire. And on the boardwalk they were selling, among other things, poutine, which is a French Canadian dish made of French fries, cheese curd and gravy. One day I am going to blow the diet and try this delicacy. But not today. Everyone says it is wonderful.

After walking around the boardwalk for about an hour, we headed back for our car and pointed it north toward New Glasgow. When we arrived at our hotel, Steve decided that, before checking in, we needed to locate a restaurant, so we drove past the hotel and down the road only to get lost…and so did the lady in our GPS. She didn't have a clue where the heck we were any more than we did. It took a while, but we finally found our way back, only to be told by the hotel clerk that there was a restaurant right next door. Go figure! Well, in our defense, the name of it was Swiss Chalet, which happens to be the same name as a hotel chain in the US, so that is our excuse for the confusion. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticken' to it!

Tomorrow, we will explore more of Nova Scotia.

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