Cape Breton, Nova Scotia!

 We landed in Cape Breton late in the evening at about 8:00pm after a long 6.5 hour drive from Prince Edward Island.  The next day we went into Sydney to pick up some groceries and see some of the area.  We stopped a local fried chicken restaurant called Lick a Chick that was recommended by several people.  After $37.00 we got 9 pieces of chicken,coleslaw,french fries and 4 rolls!  Ouch, that seemed like an arm and a leg for some chicken. The chicken was great and we sat outside under a beautiful sun filled sky with outside temps of 75 degrees.  Karen and Kaylee found a stray dog and decided they were going to catch him and find his home, because he was right next to a busy street.  After many failed attempts at getting close to the dog a local came out of the restaurant and told them the dog lived down the street and hangs around the place often.  They have brought him back before and the owner insists on letting him run free.  Hope he stays off the road...

Off to the store for some food for the fridge.  Man, we should have brought food with us!  Boneless chicken breast $7.00 for 2 small breasts!  I bought as little as possible to avoid having to sell one of the kids to pay for the bill.  The next morning, we headed for the Cabot Trail, a 200 mile loop around the coast of Cape Breton.  On the road, we found a Celtic school that teaches bagpipe music and I just happen to see a guy outside with his bagpipes.  I whip the truck in the parking lot, pull right up in front of him and ask him to play for us.  He gladly does and we listened for a song or two and I handed him a $2 coin for his time.  Back on the trail - Karen spotted a glass blowing store, so we pull in and find two guys working on a vase.  They gave us a very informative class on their craft we stayed there for about 45 minutes!  Back on the trail -  I spot a bakery so I stopped to grab some homemade biscuits and a cinnamon bun.  Outside, the kids had fun taking turns standing in between a set of moose antlers mounted on a stand.  The entire day went like this, pulling off whenever we saw something neat as we rolled leisurely around the cape.  Karen and Kaylee started getting frustrated with me, because I would see this great photo opportunity and stop the truck sometime 5 or 6 times in a single mile.  I told Karen how about you drive and that would free me up to snap pictures and get in and out faster.  She needed one of the kids booster seats, to see over the steering wheel, so I snapped a picture of it.  After less than 20 miles I was walking back from a store and Karen is sitting in the passenger seat saying " My seat belt is on, so you have to drive now."  Back in the drivers seat again I stopped at a small store asking where we could see the moose on this drive.  After some quick tips from a local on where to look we were on the road again.  Kaylee spotted the first moose and calf and pulled over for some pics.  Less than 10 miles, down the road Karen spotted the next mother and calf. We really enjoyed seeing these giants as we have been wanting to see one since we got into Maine!  All in all we spent 10 hours traveling this magnificent coastline and mountain range.  By the end of the day, we were all wiped out and ready for bed! 

The next morning, it was gloomy and overcast, so Bryson and I went into town to get one of the truck tires patched from a screw I picked up on the road the day before and to see if we could buy some lobster fresh from the boats at the docks.  I found the docks and struck up a conversation with a local lobsterman about the same age as me and he spent an hour with me talking about Novia Scotia and his job.  Although we didn't buy any lobster that day, they were all sold right before I got there, I had a great time speaking with a local and learning about his life! Cape Breton is a beautiful place to visit and reminded me of being in Alaska!  Next stop Halifax!.

PEI (Prince Edward Island) Canada

 Prince Edward Island!!!!  We started our journey onto the island with a car passing us and pointing to the trailer.  They actually pulled in front of us with the hazard lights on and slowed down in front of us to slow us down.  I thought "Oh crap one of the bikes fell off" but one of the locking doors on the side had opened and was flapping in the breeze.  We thanked the people who were also RV'rs and started back on our way.  We arrived at the campground around 2:00pm to a very strong wind blowing in off the water.  When I say strong, I mean 40mph and enough to rock the camper while its sitting on the stabilizers.  After setting up camp we headed to Charlotte town to see what was going on and to our surprise Prince William and Kate we coming in for a visit! I decided that I was going to snap a picture as it would make for good blog material!  So we waited about an hour and then they arrived so I reached up over the crowd and snapped a few pics with my phone and wallah, a pretty good shot of them!  The next morning it was gloomy and still a little on the windy side so we went to see more of the area attractions and see a lighthouse  One thing I can say for Canada is they are not as strict about a lot of things as the USA.  You can see by the pics of us on the cliffs next to the lighthouse and also the picture of us by the GIANT wind turbines.  We drove right to the base of these turbines and the kids and I got out to here the awesome sound of these giant blades cutting through the air.  In the morning the wind had calmed and we were off to the famous Anne of Green Gables village.  At first I wasn't feeling the whole thing but once inside the environment was fun and full of things for the kids to see and do.  The built sand castles with Maurice Bernard a local artist.  They had potato sack races,stilts,carriage rides a petting zoo and the whole time they reenacted scenes from the movie through out the day. Kaylee even got her hair braided by the character Anne herself!  My favorite was the music which was a Maritime/Acadian style wrapped up with a Nova Scotian twist!  It was such a good show I went back 2 hours later to catch the second!  In between the music I got to talking with an original Acadian gentleman with the muttonchops and everything!  He told me his version of the Acadian history and how they were deported by the British and only a handful of families managed to stay in the area as the rest were sent back to France or fled to other countries.  He went on to say they fled to Louisiana before the we purchased it from France and some went to the Canadian Rockies.  Needless to say he wasn't excited about the visit from Prince William and Kate!  After leaving the village we headed for a must see attraction of a PEI which was a sand dune that was constantly moving and swallowing up the forest.  So we drove and drove and drove to the park of this sand dune.  By this time the sun was starting to go down but we still had spring in our step and started down the path to the dunes.  The mosquitos had a different plan!  They were thick and we had flashbacks of the mosquito mugging down in assateague state park.  While walking to the dunes we crossed paths with a few people heading out and they said the dunes are about 2 kilometeres down the path so on we went through the woods and over a specatular floating boardwalk to the dunes.  Evidently sand is not that easy to come by in PEI as it looked like a normal sand dune to us. We were like thats it? Oh well suns really getting low in the sky and the mosquitos were sharpening there fangs. We turned the kids around and headed back through our roughly 1-mile walk back and the mosquitos were waiting for us! Now I know knowbody dies from being attacked by mosquitos but deep down you start to think man how many bites can I take!  We litterally stated jogging with the kids to keep them off from us and all the while Bryson is stopping asking questions about this that and the other.  My job was to keep him moving  and keep the mosquitos off of him.  Then of course "daddy I have to go to the bathroom" in the middle of it all. Bryson litterally came out of the portolet with hundreds of mosquitos in tow and his pants and underware down around his ankles!  Luckly we made it back to the truck without losing anyone!  The next day we were up and at it headed to Cape Breton Nova Scotia to see the Cabot trail!

Good Bye BarHarbor! Sadly we must move on!

Bryson found the mud holes!

Well sadly, we have to say good bye to Bar Harbor!  I put it on the list of places that are definitely a can't miss to anyone traveling this way!  As we were driving out of town, the smell of the local lobster pounds were in the air!  You see they use a wood fire to heat 55 gallon drums of salt water for cooking the lobsters. These pounds are scattered up and down the main highway leading into Acadia National Park right on the sides of the road.  We pushed back our departure date several times due to the beautiful scenery and quaint little towns full of jellies, jams, ice cream, fresh lobsters and the list goes on and on.  Time is ticking and we must get on our way!

Bay of Fundy is the next stop on our trip.  We pulled into our campground late in the evening around 7:30, so we setup and called it an early night.  The next morning, we traveled to the Hopewell Rocks about 2 km down the road!  The whole Kilometer thing takes some time getting used.  We walked down to the rocks which they call Flower Pots, because the trees grow out of the top of the rocks that are surrounded by water during high tide.  Once getting down on the sea floor we had a great time walking through the caves and looking at the beautiful scenery.  The kids had fun playing around chasing each other and trying to see how much mud Bryon would get into.  Well Bryson got pretty dirty, so we had him rinse off in the bay with Norman who was just as bad! "My poor truck" is all I can say about that. We noticed the water seemed to be moving back into the bay, so we decided to build a little marker out of stacked rocks and see how fast the tide was rising.  It took less than 30 seconds for the water to cover 6" of rocks and just to make sure we weren't seeing things we did it again making sure the rocks were not in the water to start with. Once again the tide swallowed up the rocks right before our eyes! From here we went up and cleaned off in the designated wash area. You see, the Bay of Fundy has a lot of clay on the bay floor.  So much that the water is stained red and there are even local artists who make pottery from this stuff.  It reminds me of good ol' Georgia red clay! After cleaning up, we headed out for some more exploring of the coast.  We found a scenic Bay of Fundy drive that runs along part of the coast. On this drive, we stumbled across a place called Cape Enrage which had a nice beach, so we decided to stay for awhile.  There is no sand just smoothly polished rocks that lead right down into the water.  We let the kids skip rocks and Norman even did some swimming in the cool water.