World's Largest Lobster

Billed as 11 meters long.

The light poles in this New Brunswick town proclaims it to be Acadian and French speaking. I've made a stab at figuring out some history, but it is very complicated. Here's a fact: New Brunswick is the only province of Canada that is officially bi-lingual. The country is bi-lingual, but not the provinces. I don't think we have seen a sign in English in Quebec.

A sign that got my attention.

Bridge to PEI

Confederation Bridge, from New Brunswick to PEI. I think it is 8 miles long. Completed in 1997. Difficult to photograph. There is also a ferry to PEI. The ferry and the bridge are both free going over. If you decide to leave, it costs $41 for the bridge and a bit more for the ferry. Clever marketing for tourism.

Can't Upload Photos Tonight

I'm connected to the internet, but I can't make blogger accept any photos, so I will try a bit of text. In the last two days, we cut across a part of New Brunswick to get from PEI to Quebec. We entered Quebec this afternoon and have started a drive around the Gaspe (that should have an accent, I'm sure) Peninsula. If you look at a globe or a big map, follow the St. Lawrence Seaway all the way from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. The Gaspe is the land to the south of the mouth of the Seaway. We have chosen to take a 500+ mile scenic drive around the tip, mainly because our AAA map put dots next to the road, indicating that it is especially scenic. When we were in Utah three years ago, we took a much longer route one day because of those dots and we still talk about the incredible scenery on that drive. We are on the south of the Gaspe Peninsula now, heading East.
The other positive thing I have to say about AAA is that in their tour books, they rate some attractions as "gems". Even though we are taking a 6 1/2 week trip, we can't do everything and we look at their gem listing as part of the study of upcoming places.

Trying to Keep up with Music

Its a tight squeeze, but I can practice my recorders in the trailer, even the bass, seen here. I hope to play with my Dames' Rocket Recorder Consort on the opening night of ArtWalk and I'm always in danger of mixing up the fingerings of the two recorders I play. So, three or four times Alan has gotten lost for a while and let me play.

Charlottetown, PEI

Today we took a walking tour of Charlottetown, the capital of Prince Edward Island. As capital cities go, it is very small, only 32,000 people. In fact, this whole province is amazingly small in all ways. Everywhere we go, we are surprised at how fast we arrive at our destination.
We aren't terribly far north, but the flowers and trees are at about the same stage here as they were in Albany three weeks ago.

Birthplace of Lucy Maud Montogomery

I visited this nice little house. Some wonderful scrapbooks kept by L. M. were on display. I learned that L. M. Montgomery was not an orphan like her character, Anne Shirley, but her mother died (age 23) of TB when L. M. was only 21 months old. Her father left her with her maternal grandparents and took off for Saskatchewan. She lived with her grandparents until she was 37 when she married a Presbyterian pastor named Macdonald and moved to Ontario. There is evidence that she missed PEI very much.

Lucy Maud Montgomery's Typewriter

Green Gables

The house and farm used by Lucy Maud Montgomery as the setting for "Anne of Green Gables". In her childhood, some elderly relatives of hers lived on this farm. I have very happy memories of watching the Anne TV series with Lauren and Rachel when they were about 8 and 14. This site is part of a national park and is tastefully presented. But the size of the parking lot told me that I wouldn't want to be in "in season".
"Anne of Green Gables" was published in 1908, so this is a big year on PEI. The book was an immediate hit and tourists started coming to the Cavendish area. L. M.'s relatives who lived in this house rented out tourist rooms. I took a nice photo of the bedroom called "Anne's room" and accidentally deleted it tonight. I always wondered how people could do such a stupid thing. Now I know!

Especially for Lauren

Lauren had a big crush on Gilbert when we watched the "Anne of Green Gables" TV series back in the 80s. He probably cured her of her crush on Dan Rather.

Beautiful Island

PEI is strikingly different from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. "The Gentle Island" is the catch phrase of the tourism people. It is very agricultural and the soil is surprisingly red. Many beautiful vistas. As always, I am frustrated in not being able to capture it the way I want. No dramatic lighting today.

What is it?

I saw big mounds of this stuff along a beach. It looked like finely shredded paper. I thought maybe it was Irish moss because I had read about it being collected after storms, but I looked at some pictures of it online and it didn't look like this.

Another Evening of Scottish Music

We moved on to Prince Edward Island (PEI) yesterday. Last night we attended the MacKinnon Family Scottish Concert near Richmond. There were 5 other people there. Reading the description, we pictured some young children playing along with mom and dad. We had a wonderful evening, but nothing like what we expected. Dad died in 1988. Mom and the kids are barely hanging on, with numerous medical problems. Mother is on the right. Floyd is in the middle. He walks with a walker and plays his fiddle by supporting his left elbow on his knee. Cecilia is on the left. She was dynamite, playing piano, bagpipes, guitar, fiddle, penny whistle and singing very nicely. Alan said that if he had known what it was going to be like, he would not have gone, but he's really glad he went.

For Your Protection, Do Not Climb

This is a wave statue, commemorating those who were killed by the tsunami generated by the explosion in 1917. I was amused by the sign in front saying "do not climb" and the man who was running up the side to join his children at the top.

Maritime Museum

I went to the Maritime Museum in Halifax. There were many interesting displays. Survivors and bodies from the Titanic were brought into Halifax and the museum has many artifacts. The poster above is for "the voyage that never happened", the return to Europe of the Titanic. The other big event highlighted at the museum is the explosion in the harbor in 1917 when a fast moving ship collided with a French ship loaded with explosives. Until the atom bomb, that was the largest man-made explosion.

Harbour Hopper Tour

We toured for an hour on this amphibious vehicle (built by the U.S. for the VietnamWar). 30 minutes on land and 30 minutes on the water. The narrator was so silly and his jokes were so bad. For organized travel, we think we should stick with Elderhostel.

Tall Ship from Mexico

I will never forget watching on TV as the tall ships from around the world came into New York Harbor in 1976. Today we had a chance to walk around the deck of the Cuauhtémoc, the Mexican tall ship, docked in the harbor at Halifax. I wish Aida and Pablo could have been with us. They would have been proud!
Update: Lauren left a comment saying that Eduardo has been on this ship in 3 ports, Nagasaki, Ensenada and Acupulco.

Tug Boat Theodore

Apparently, this tug is the star of a Canadian childrens' TV show.

Piper on the Harbor

On the Halifax Harbour. In memory of Norwegians who were lost at sea or buried in Nova Scotia during the Second World War.

Seen at the Halifax Saturday Farmers' Market

Macdonald with a small "d"

The Challenge of Change

I could hardly get the coin pocket on my wallet zipped shut. It turned out that I had accumulated almost $15 in coins!

The Big City, Halifax

We arrived in Halifax on Friday afternoon. It is a city of over 350,000. Last night we went to another Ceilidh. In this photo, I attempt to show the movements of the Virginia Reel.

Porcupines

(This image is stolen from Britannica online.) In 24 hours, we saw 5 porcupines. 4 were dead. My scientist husband says that this means 4 out of 5 porcupines in Nova Scotia are dead.

Another Beautiful Campsite

While staying at campgrounds in Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, more that half the nights we have had a site right on the water. What would it cost to rent a room with a view like this? When toting up the pluses and minuses of this off-season trip, getting the primo sites on the water helps on the plus side.

Love that Fish!

This haddock fish and chips dinner was so scrumptious that I was moved to take a photo well after I started eating.

Ferry Ride

We spent most of the last two days driving along what is called the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia. A very twisting road going from one beautiful view and quaint fishing village to the next. This ferry took us across here. Notice the cable to which the boat is apparently attached.

Quick Shot out the Window of a Moving Car

Sometimes Alan reminds me that we don't need to have a photo of every single thing and that we COULD just enjoy a view. True, but then sometimes he hears me begin to whimper when we are zooming along on a very narrow road, he checks behind us and slows down as much as possible. Today we saw at least 4 places with "folk art" on display, but it was always too late to stop. Our little trailer is easy to pull, but making a U turn is often impossible.

Queensport Lighthouse

Looks like a great price for gas, right? Wrong! This is for a litre. And we were told it was going up .03 tomorrow. Almost every time we fill up with gas, we break our previous record high. This fill was over $70 and we weren't even very low.

APOLOGY!

I have the first good WiFi connection that I have had in a week or so and I just went kind of nuts posting pictures and telling about the last 3 days. I'm afraid it may go on for 2 or more pages.

Alexander Graham Bell

I toured the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site in Baddeck today. I thought it included his home there, but it did not. But there were lots of interesting things to see. I knew about his teaching the deaf, but I did not know about all the other inventions he worked on. There was a lot relating to flight. Incidentally, Baddeck was the only town we have seen on Cape Breton Island which seems to have a thriving tourist economy. All because of old Alec, I'm sure.

In the 70s, in Ann Arbor, I knew a woman named Nancy Bell Bates who was the granddaughter of Alexander Graham Bell. This is a crop of a big family photo I saw today and from the dates, I think this is Nancy sitting on his lap.

Working Boats

We have seen hundreds of fishing boats. In Maine we saw a few pleasure boats, but up here it has been all business. These people must be very tough. Today it was cold and rainy and we saw fishing boats out being tossed around.

The Dickson Method

We met the Dicksons on our trip to Peru. They taught us a slick method of converting Celsius to Farenheit which we have been using a lot. Double the Celsius number. Subtract 10% of that number. Add 32. That's it! The math hasn't been too difficult for us since we have been dealing with lots of single digits in Celsius when we listen to a forecast.

Another Panorama