10 DAY 63 - 67: SEPT 10 - 14 ~ PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

Quaint, charming, and magical. These are our first impressions of Prince Edward Island. You drive around the island and you see rolling green hills, fields planted with potatos with the seascape in the background. Beautiful, quaint homes surrounded by acres of land. There are no clusters of housing developments on this island (nor did we see any of this on New Brunswick). Also dotting the landscape are old steepled churches with graveyards next to them. This makes a very picturesque scene. We will be spending 4 days exploring this island.

 

Prince Edward Island is the "Land of Anne". Author Lucy Maud Montgomery was born, lived and wrote “Anne of Green Gables” here.


Other facts are:  In 1534 Jacques Cartier is the first European to land on the island, later named Ile Saint-Jean.  In 1758 Britain gains control of the island and deports Acadian settlers.  In 1799 the island is renamed for Queen Victoria’s father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent.  In 1864 the “Fathers of Confederation” meet at Charlottetown to discuss a Canadian union.  

In 1873 Prince Edward Island became Canada's 7th province and its smallest.  In 1997 the Confederation Bridge links Prince Edward Island to the mainland.  PEI has a population of 135,294 and is 2,184 square miles.  The capital of PEI, Charlottetown is Canada’s birthplace.  PEI’s motto is “The Small Under the Protection of the Great”.  License plate motto is “Canada’s Green Province”.  The Province Flower is Lady’s Slipper, and Tree; Red Oak.

After 5 hours and 213 miles we drove over the Confederation Bridge onto Prince Edward Island and arrived at Bayside RV Campground at Oyster Bed Bridge (in the Cavendish area of PEI.)





BAYSIDE RV CAMPGROUND

We had a bad impression of this place when we first entered.  We saw rows of permanent trailers, and the outbuildings looked pretty bad.  And they were bad.  The comfort station had a row of private showers that were in awful shape; filthy and old.  The area for the overnighters was nice, however.  Those sites are in an open field that is green and level.  The sites are spacious and you are not crowded in by your neighbors.  But we  found out on our 2nd night that this RV park was next door tro a race track and for 2 of our 4 night stay we were entertained with the roar of race cars in the early evening for about 3 hours.  We will not be staying here again.

 

CAVENDISH AREA

This area is the home of the “Anne of Green Gables”.  Green Gables stuff is everywhere.  Every store has dolls with red pigtails for sale.  The area is also very green with scenic landscapes and the area is dotted with art galleries and craft studios, especially glass and pottery.  We stopped at a lot of these galleries and saw the beautiful creations of the local crafters.  

 This is the area we ‘camped’ in during our stay on PEI. It is in the center of the Island on the east coast.  On our first night we found this wonderful restaurant to have dinner at.  It is called The Pearl.  Their foods are all fresh and organic and the best!

ANNE of GREEN GABLES

Green Gables Heritage Place is a farm house in Prince Edward Island National Park.  In the late 1800’s, this farm was the home of David & Margaret McNeill; cousins of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s grandfather.  As a girl, Lucy visited this farm often and played in the woods and the grounds surrounding the farm.  Lucy later made this farm famous as the setting of her novel “Anne of Green Gables”.  The farm house and outbuildings have been restored to the Victorian period and the farm house is furnished in the late 19th century style.

 

 

We spent some time exploring the house and grounds. We did a short hike on the walking trail behind the house; an area that “Anne” referred to as the Haunted Woods.

Lucy was born on this Island in 1874.  She was raised by her grandparents in Cavendish after her mother died. She never lived in this farm house, but she lived with her grandparents just down the street.  The house Lucy lived in was also the town post office during that time.  She lived half her life here and this is where she wrote Anne of Green Gables.  Today the house is gone, but a duplicate was built on the same site and is currently the post office as it was back then. 

CHARLOTTETOWN

Charlottetown is the capital of Prince Edward Island.  The Island was settled as a French fortified post called Port La Joyce in 1720.  Charlottetown was named after Queen Charlotte, consort of George III.  Today Charlottetown is a commercial and educational center. It is a big city with major industry and shops such as Wal Mart, Sears, Home Depot and even a Michaels. We checked out the downtown historic area.  It was mostly restaurants. 

 

 

We ate at a place called Dundee Arms Inn & Restaurant.  It is a Victorian style house with a very nice outside patio.  It was chilly, but we ate outside anyway (we were the only ones). 

POINTS EAST COASTAL DRIVE

We drove along the scenic Points East Coastal Drive and visited two lighthouses.  The East Point Lighthouse is located at the most eastern point of the Island.  It was a beautiful drive with gorgeous scenery of rolling hills dotted with quaint homes and farms and great views of the Atlantic Ocean.   The scenery is also dotted with art studios and galleries. 

At one point we saw a sign for “Local Crafts” and stopped. It was a private home with a cute little shack with some paintings, pottery and craft done by a guild of women who get together and worked on their crafts. The woman who owns this little craft shack was on her motorized lawn mower busy mowing the vast lawns around her property. She was a very friendly woman and stopped and opened up the shop for us.
I bought a small pottery tray where the profits would benefit their local Breast Cancer Society.

We did not drive the whole Points East Coastal loop drive.  Too many miles and we did not have the time.  We did half the loop and then turned inland to return ‘home’.  We stopped at this roadside market and bought some fresh fruit, mini pumpkins for decoration and the best berry pie you ever tasted.  That pie lasted three nights.

Our next destination is Nova Scotia.  But to get to Nova Scotia we have to go back into New Brunswick after crossing over the Confederation Bridge.  We wanted to visit a zoo in Moncton, New Brunswick.  Since it was on our way to Nova Scotia, we made an overnight stop there.   By the way, when we drove over the Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island, there was no charge.  But you pay a fee when you leave PEI.   It cost $42 for a passenger car.  For us, with our trailer, it cost $58. ($59.50 U$).

After 2.75 hours and 106 miles we arrived at Stonehurst Trailer Park in Moncton, New Brunswick.

MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK

Moncton is a large town with a population of 64,128.  Shipbuilding and railroads made this town the transportation hub of the Maritime Provinces.  It borders the Petitcodiac River and Nova Scotia is on the other side of this river.

Moncton has two natural phenomena; Magnetic Hill and the Tidal Bore.  Magnetic Hill is an area where you drive ‘down’ a hill, put your car in neutral and release the brake, the car moves backward up the hill.  This is  an optical illusion from the surrounding hillside sloping away from the road makes it look like you are going uphill, but you actually go downhill up the hill.  The Tidal Bore runs up the Petitcodiac River.  Twice a day the river basin rapidly fills with water and within an hour the bore passes 28.3 million gallons of water and the water level rises more than 25 feet. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to visit either place.  Instead, after we settled into our campsite, we spent the rest of the day at Magnetic Hill Zoo.

STONEHURST TRAILER PARK

This is a fairly nice place.  At least the bathrooms and showers are better than the last place, but not by much.  The park has mostly permanent residents.  The area for overnighters is not bad.  This is another place where the sites are on an open meadow that is level, but no trees.  But the sites are spacious and it is quiet during the day and dead quiet at night.

 

MAGNETIC HILL ZOO

This is a very small zoo, but a very nice one.  It is 40 acres and home to 400 animals representing more than 100 species from around the world; lions, jaguars, bear cubs, wolves, zebras, camels, lemurs, hawks, pythons, etc.  But no tigers, rhinos, hippos, or elephants.  The zoo has a nice layout with woods and gardens.  It is off season so there were no attractions such as zoo talks or animal feedings, and all the concession stands were closed.  The place was almost empty.  It is open all year, but there were not too many visitors this time of year.

Burchelli Zebra

 Przewalski Horse

We found a Costco near by and stopped to get some bottled water.  We also bought the 5-disc DVD pack of Anne of Green Gables.  Ever since we visited Prince Edward Island and saw Green Gable stuff all over the island we wanted to watch the movie again.  So now we have something to entertain us on those evenings when we have no TV.

The next day we drive into Nova Scotia.  This will be our last stop in the Maritimes and our last stop in Canada.

09 DAY 58 - 62: SEPT 5 - 9 ~ NEW BRUNSWICK

We will be in New Brunswick for 5 days, staying in the Edmundston/S. Jacques area, and Fredericton (the capital of New Brunswick).  After visiting Prince Edward Island we will return to New Brunswick to stay in Moncton overnight before heading into Nova Scotia.  As we entered New Brunswick we noticed that mostly French was spoken.  But all the signs were bilingual and the further we got from Quebec, English was the dominant language.

Some facts on New Brunswick:  In 1534 Jacques Cartier explores the coast of New Brunswick.  In 1867 New Brunswick enters the Canadian Confederation.  In 1969 New Brunswick becomes Canada’s first bilingual province.  In 1997 The Confederation Bridge links Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.  New Brunswick has a population of 729,997 and is 28,150 square miles.  The capital of New Brunswick is Fredericton.  New Brunswick’s motto is “Hope Was Restored”.  The Province Flower is Purple Violet, and Tree; Balsam Fir.

                                     

We drove into the Atlantic Time Zone when we entered New Brunswick.  We lost another hour and now we are four hours ahead of California time.   After 4.5 hours and 174 miles we arrived at de la Republique Provincial Park in Edmundston.  We had planned to stay here for two nights. 

 

Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were told that the Provincial Park will be closing the next day.  We could only stay for the one night.  So drove a short distance to Saint-Jacques and found room at Camping Panoramic.

SAINT-JACQUES / EDMUNDSTON

We will be spending two nights in this area.  Saint-Jacques is on the banks of the Madawaska River and is the gateway to the Upper Saint John River Valley.  The village was settled by Irish immigrants in 1834.  Next door is the village of Edmundston which serves as the honorary capital of the Republic of Madawaska, a mythical region evolved from 60 years of disputes over the location of the New Brunswick and Maine, US boundary.  This dispute was settled in 1842 but residents adopted the unofficial territory and they have their own dialect and flag.  

CAMPING PANORAMIC

This RV Park is poor.  We were not impressed and not comfortable staying here.  But it was convenient considering we were not able to stay in the Provincial Park. This place is a mobile home park with a few spaces for overnighters.  Some of the permanent trailers were old and trashy.  But the place was somewhat neat and very quiet.  The guy that checked us in was very friendly and helpful.

            

CRYSTAL

The morning (Monday) we were to leave for New Brunswick, we had yet another emergency with Crystal.  She started having seizures and wild behavior.  We could hardly touch her.  Her wild behavior started the night before and by morning she was having the seizures.  We called some local vets and some in the Saint-Jacques/Edmundston area.  As we were honoring Labor Day in the states on this day, Canada was too.  Everything was closed.  We finally found an emergency vet in Grand Falls, about 45 miles south of Saint-Jacques.  By the time we got to the vet, Crystal was having seizures every 10 minutes.  The doctor witnessed it. 

They kept her overnight to do some tests on her and gave her some meds to calm her down and control the seizures.  When we picked her up the next afternoon, she was fine.  All tests showed everything was normal and she was healthy.  Crystal was back to normal and stayed that way through the rest of our stay in Canada.  This has been one expensive kitty and she has been getting a lot of attention from us.  Now she is doing the happy dance.

NEW BRUNSWICK BOTANICAL GARDENS
This botanical garden has 12 theme gardens on 16 acres of scenic land, 8 of those acres border the beautiful Madawaska River.  The gardens have topiary creatures that I think may be mythical creatures of Madawaska. 

The gardens are very picturesque and makes great pictures, even though most of the flowers are now dying off. Summer is over and fall is upon us. There are more than 80,000 annual, perennial and alpine plants. You hear Classical music as you walk through the different theme gardens (the speakers are hidden in the shrubs). It really adds to the peace you feel as you explore the gardens. Because we are here in the middle of the week, and school has started, and possibly yesterday’s rain storm; we had the garden to ourselves. We only saw about 7 other people wandering around. We were the only ones in the enclosed Butterfly Garden. It was so quiet you could hear the sound of butterfly wings flapping. Awesome! It was a wonderful, peaceful day.



            

 

 

 

          

GRAND FALLS

When we went to Grand Falls to pick up Crystal, we spent some time visiting the Grand Falls and Gorge. The horse shoe falls of the Saint John River are considered the largest east of Niagara Falls.  The Grand Falls hydroelectric plant provides power to the provincial distribution system.        

As we stood at the railing looking over the gorge and watching these impressive falls we suddenly saw a body shoot by through the mist.  What the....  Then we saw the zip lines across the gorge.  As we saw the lines, we saw another body zip by....then another.  Looked like fun..to watch.

Grand Falls was a French settlement that became a British military post in 1790. More than 80% of its citizens are bilingual and this is the only town in the Atlantic Provinces with an official name in both languages; the French version is Grand-Sault.  The town is a major shipping point for New Brunswick’s seed potato-growing industry.  The area farmers supply potatoes to the McCain frozen food plant in Grand Falls.  They produce 10 tons of French fries per hour. 


Our next stop is Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick.  We will be staying here for three nights.

FREDERICTON

Fredericton is one of North America’s oldest settlements.  Named St. Anne by its French fur-trading founders, the settlement was burned in 1760 by the British.  Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution revived the settlement in 1783 and renamed it Frederick’s Town for the second son of King George III.  Fredericton is regarded as the pewter capital of Canada because of its many pewter smiths.  Quilters, potters and weavers also are well represented in the area’s shops.  The New Brunswick College of Craft and Design is located in the downtown Historic Garrison District. 

After 4.25 hours and 169 miles, we arrived at Hartt Island RV Park in Fredericton.

HARTT ISLAND RV PARK

This RV park is a dump.  It is a beach front RV park along St. John River and a summer destination during the hot summer months.  It has a water slide and a large pool as well as canoes to rent on the river.  All the sites along the beach front are taken by permanent residents or seasonal residents who have trailers parked there full time, but only come on the weekends in the summer months.  There is a loop of sites in the front of the park next to the busy road for overnighters.  The restrooms are horrible, small, dirty looking and in need of repair and updating.  The laundry room is a row of washers and dryers lined up on the outside of the building where the bathrooms and showers are.  However, there is a lot of construction going on and there are plans for new buildings (including restrooms) and campsites.  So this place will be very nice in a year or so.

      

HISTORIC GARRISON DISTRICT
In the historic section of Fredericton we visited the Beaverbrook Art Gallery were we saw local artwork; some were over 300 years old. We saw the Legislative Building across the street, but did not go inside. We found a very nice place to have lunch that was recommended to us called The Palate. They served fresh organic food. We visited the Barracks Fine Craft Shops that were housed in the barracks of the historic garrison. The crafts were done by local artists. I also found a bead shop called “beadin” where I bought some unique beads.



  

 

           

KINGS LANDING HISTORICAL SETTLEMENT 

In 1783, 15,000 United Empire Loyalists were granted land along the river based on their rank in the British army.  They were among the first settlers to this region.  The original Kings Landing was a settlement from 1790 to 1890 that was located further up the river.  The buildings were moved to this site to allow construction of a hydro electric dam on the original site.  The current site was restored and created in the late 1960’s

         

We spent the whole day exploring this settlement.  It is located along the St. John River and the restored homes and shops have people in period costumes playing the role that go with the home or shop; such as printer, blacksmith, baker, etc.  Each home and trade area at Kings Landing has been restored to a different time period.  You will see differences in style of clothing, technology, cooking utensils, etc.  You visit each building and the costumed person introduces him/her self and describes what he/she does, who their family is and where they live (from that period).  It is nicely done.  The homes are furnished with period furniture and the women in the homes are cooking something or doing a craft (knitting, weaving) from that period.  You walk into some of the homes and you smell delicious food cooking.  There are also farm animals included in this settlement as there would be in the 1800’s.

 

Had a delicious lunch here

 

 

Our next stop will be Prince Edward Island.  We had a very nice stay in New Brunswick.  We found the people to be very friendly.  People passing us would nod and greet us and we received lots of smiles.  One guy riding a bicycle rode by then stopped and chatted with us.  He told us about some sights to see in the area and a good place to have lunch in Fredericton.  We are always asked where we are from and they are very impressed that we have come from so far away.

There are two ways to get to Prince Edward Island, by ferry or drive over the Confederation Bridge.  You can also fly.  There is a small airport in Charlottetown. We drove over the bridge.

CONFEDERATION BRIDGE
The Confederation Bridge goes over the Gulf of St. Lawrence of the Atlantic Ocean and connects New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.  Construction of The Confederation Bridge started in October 1993 and was completed in May 1997.  It connects New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island replacing the ferry service which was the only way to get to Prince Edward Island.  It is 8 miles long and the world’s longest bridge that goes over ice covered waters.

     

     



08 DAY 58 – 77, SEPT 5 – 24 ~ CANADIAN MARITIMES

The birth of Canada was started in the Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Nova Scotia.  Before Canada became Canada, it was a nation that was inhabited and controlled by the British.  Then the French moved in and fought and got control.  Then the British got control again.  It went back and forth with both nations being enemies and wanting control. 

In 1864 a group of men gathered in Charlottetown (capital of PEI) to discuss a union unlike any other.  Delegates from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI assembled in the town to chat about uniting their colonies.  Before the meeting could start, eight politicians from the Province of Canada arrived in Charlottetown and crashed the Conference.  These “Canadians” came to persuade their Maritime counterparts of something bigger and better:  Uniting all colonies to form a new nation. 

Over the next three years the delegates bickered and bartered as they drafted blueprints for the new union.  Their final design, The British North America Act was created and approved in London, England.  In 1867 their vision became reality when the Dominion of Canada was formed; it’s founding members, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec.  The original design has since been amended, creating the Canada we see today.

For the next 20 days we will be visiting and exploring the Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and Nova Scotia.