Day 17: Tuesday, August 18, 2009

We had a complicated plan for the morning that involved putting on a load of laundry, then going out to a Where to Eat in Canada restaurant in Rocky Harbour for breakfast. It had rained overnight and was still drizzling, so we were happy to be going out - unfortunately we arrived there to find a sign saying “Closed Tuesdays”! So, it was back to the campsite for cereal and oatmeal... at least it had stopped raining.

We loved the rugged beauty of Gros Morne park; every corner was another spectacular view, and the road climbed over a couple of minor mountains as we wound our way up the coast. Having villages inside a national park seemed odd at first, but they add to the scenery once you get used to it. The low-hanging clouds over the evergreen-clad hills reminded us of Scotland again.

Up at Port-aux-Choix we stopped for lunch, at the Anchor Cafe. It was a straight-up casual seafood restaurant, with delicious chowder. Will had his usual salmon, Mike took a break from seafood with lasagna, and since I couldn’t decide I had their fisheries and ocean platter - scallops, shrimp, cod, halibut, and salmon, prepared in a variety of ways. Afterwards we stopped nearby to look at the site of an ancient Maritime Archaic burial ground, then to the Port-aux-Choix welcome centre to learn a bit more about the five waves of people arriving in the area over 5000 years; the Maritime Archaic indians, two types of Inuit over time, another First Nations tribe, and then finally the Vikings.

Continuing north we got almost as far as we could before dark; in the tiny village of Quirpon (which seemed to consist of a church and an RV park) we found a spot for the night, then drove up to L’Anse-aux-Meadows for dinner at the Norseman. We noticed that although we were seated right away, the service was a bit spotty; the table next to us got noticeably better service, getting to order first and waiting far less time for their bread, water, menus, and eventually food. We learned later that the party of four was the Honourable John Crosby, former Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland, along with his wife and another couple. (I still think an excellent restaurant would give everyone the same level of service.) The food was good, anyway; Will’s salmon came with red cabbage, and my squash soup and goat cheese salad were excellent. We shared a couple of desserts and bought a CD from Wade Hillier, who was providing the evening’s dinner music. As they were leaving both Mr. and Mrs. Crosby stopped to say a few words with us, both of them commenting on how well-behaved Will was during dinner.

Day 16: Monday, August 17, 2009

I woke up to bright sunlight and thrash metal at 7:20am, thanks to our charmed luck with weather and the 5 or so 20-something guys in the next site who felt the need to blast music while packing up. At least it got us up in good time, and we checked out the beach attached to the campground. They have a provincial park called “T’Railway”, which I think is an old railway line, now an ATV trail, and also a bit of a joke on the local dialect. We saw a couple of plovers and several kinds of seaweed, and walked along the fine sand avoiding the waves coming in.

We started driving north, excited about our first look at Newfoundland. For a couple of hours we just drove straight north to Cornerbrook, where there is a Where to Eat in Canada restaurant. It looked unpromising for a long time - the mall it was supposed to be in had no name on it, then the restaurant was in the basement, looked like a florist’s shop, and then when we found the cafe, looked full. Everything turned out fine from that point on. The Thistledown is a combination florist’s and cafe, and shares space with a restaurant, where they seated us. The waitress recommended a quesadilla for Will from the evening menu, and Mike and I had wraps and salad. They brought Will the wrong quesadilla at first, but brought him a new one right away and gave him a free cookie for dessert to make up for it.

There was a used bookstore in the mall, so Mike and Will went up to check out whether Will could stock up on reading material, and I paid the bill. We made another quick stop across the street from the mall at a grocery store.

We followed the “T.C.H.”, which is how they sign Highway 1 here (the “Trans Canada Highway”), but shortly turned north onto a smaller highway that would take us up the Northern Peninsula. We almost immediately made an impromptu stop at the “Insectarium”, which promised lots of butterflies, bugs and beetles, and spiders. I was expecting the kind of “Uncle Bob’s Reptile Farm” you might expect in a rural area, with someone’s moth-eaten up for display in an old barn. I was pleasantly surprised to find thousands of mounted specimens properly displayed and with lots of information, a tropical butterfly room with hundreds of live butterflies kept nice and warm, and lots of live specimens as well, including a glass honeybee hive and a colony of leaf-cutter ants in a big terrarium. Maritime trivia of the day - honeybees aren’t native to Newfoundland. Will enjoyed it; that’s a picture of him with a hissing cockroach from Madagascar!



We continued north to see Gros Morne park, which is a national park and a UNESCO world heritage site. Since we’re eating our way across the Maritimes, we figured the best way to see the park was through its restaurants; the park was formed around several existing communities, and there were several choices. We tried the Old Loft in Woody Point first, but it was closed with no explanation. We drove another 20km or so out to Trout River, and were glad we did - we drove straight through the Tablelands, flat mountains that are part of the earth’s mantle (the part below the crust) and sitting high up and exposed. It was a fascinating moonscape to be driving through, up and down these 500m high mountains. When we arrived at the Seaside restaurant in Trout River we found it bustling, but with a table right by the window for us to see the sun set over the ocean as we ate. I had my first taste of Newfoundland wine - a glass of “Funky Puffin”, a blueberry-based wine that was actually very tasty, a cross between a fruit rose wine and port. We split delicious scallops with partridge berries as an appetizer. I had the Steel Head Trout for a change, which was, of course, excellent, and partridge-berry pie for dessert.

The drive back was stressful since the sun had set, and it was a prime area for moose. We went only a little further, to Rocky Harbour, where we found an RV park and camped for the night.

Day 15: Sunday, August 16, 2009

Our ferry wasn’t until 3pm, so we had plenty of time to hang around the camp in the morning. It was nice to have a leisurely breakfast, do dishes, sweep everything out, and generally get re-organized. (Will found it a little boring, though). We were gone by the noon checkout time and headed into town, North Sydney. We had decided that we had to try the “McLobster” that we’d seen advertised at a couple of of McDonald’s, and North Sydney seemed big enough to have a McDonald’s. It wasn’t easy to find, but when we did, they didn’t have the McLobster - but once we’d promised Will McDonald’s, it was hard to go back on that!

We’d been told to be at the ferry docks by 2pm at the latest for a 3:30pm ferry, but we were there even earlier. Of course we compare all ferries to the Chi-Cheemaun that takes us from Tobermory to South Bay when we go to visit my parents in summer, and we could see immediately that this was a bigger ferry just from the size of the parking lot. There were lots of tractor-trailers and individual containers that were being shipped, reminding us that we were going somewhere that simply cannot be reached by road.

The ferry was fancier than we’re used to as well, with a fancy dining room, a buffet restaurant, and a swanky bar. There were cabins, as well, but those weren’t in use for this “short” sailing - only six hours, to the closer port of Port-aux-Basques. We settled in the lounge attached to the bar, so we could have a table to play cards. There were plenty of signs asking us not to eat outside food and drink, making us feel a little guilty about the sandwiches we’d made and brought on board with us.

The crossing was smooth, but did get a bit tedious. At some point when we could see Newfoundland in front of us, I noticed that we seemed to be barely moving. The captain come on and announced that there was a “technical problem”, and we were circling in the bay. We never did find out what the problem was, but I amused myself in the half-hour we were in the bay by comparing circling in a bay to circling over an airport where you can’t land.

I was quite excited as we drove off the ferry onto Newfoundland, and I realized that I had officially been to every province in the country! Since neither Mike nor Will have been to PEI yet, I can lord it over them for at least another week. It was 10pm by the time we were off the ferry and looking for the information centre, and thanks to getting a bit turned around we ended up going east out of Port-aux-Basques instead of north. It was a bit entertaining, and all we were looking for was a campground, but in the dark we weren’t getting much idea of the terrain. We ended up getting off the road into a community and stopping to ask a couple who were out in their side yard having a campfire. They recommended that we go back to Port-aux-Basques and head north, but at least they knew for sure that there was a campground not far along. We did find the J. T. Cheeseman Provincial Park with no trouble, which turned out to be small but well-staffed with someone in the booth and another person patrolling.

Day 14: Saturday, August 15, 2009

We continued driving up the Cabot Trail, taking a detour at the top part to head further north to Bay St. Lawrence and Meat Cove. In Bay St. Lawrence we went whale-watching on a boat called to Oshan, with Captain Cyril Fraser. We were out on the water for about an hour and a half, and did in fact see pilot whales, as well as a bald eagle and dolphins. I had been a little afraid that the whale-watching tour would be cheesy, but I ended up really enjoying it. If you haven’t been on one already it will be hard for me to describe, but seeing such remote animals in their natural habitat, and hearing their voices (the boat had an underwater microphone attached to a speaker for us) was quite remarkable. Even before we saw the whales, though, the tour had been worth the cost just to see the northern coastline of Nova Scotia from the water; the huge sheer cliffs of rock rising out of the water, the little hidden, inaccessible beaches between them, and the occasional high waterfall carving a niche out of the rock over thousands of years.

Emerald Beach, accessible only by water. Note the tiny waterfall. (Click on the picture to see a bigger view).

By the time we were back we were ready for lunch, and the Chowder Hut in Meat Cove was more than ready for us. Will had what he says was the best salmon he’s had so far this trip, and my haddock was excellent as well, in a very light coating of something crispy that wasn’t the regular fish & chip batter. The “home fries” (regular fries) were also good, although too much to finish.

It was a bright, sunny, hot day, and driving was less fun than it sometimes is. Coming back down southwards we saw a promising sheltered cove ahead, and after stopping to get directions we found the Petit Etang Beach, which was exactly what we wanted - a river separated from the ocean by a causeway, so we could choose fresh or salt water to swim in. We started in the river, which was clear and cold, then headed for the sea, which was clear and even colder. Finally we went back to the river to rinse off the salt and compare how much warmer it felt after the sea!

We had a long chunk of driving after that, making it most of the way to North Sydney, where we were getting the ferry to Newfoundland the next day. We found a RV park right off the highway (as always!) called the “Golden Arm” (near the Bras D’Or lake area). Although it was getting on to 10pm, they got us set up quickly with a site.

Day 13: Friday, August 14, 2009

We sped out of Wal-Mart in the morning, and made it to the Canso Causeway and into Cape Breton in the mid-morning. There was a delicious-sounding restaurant in Baddeck, so we went there, and because it was too early for lunch, we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site. I was a bit disappointed at first that it wasn’t at his home, but it’s still owned by his dependents, and if I were them I wouldn’t be eager to be donating that to the government either. There were really excellent exhibits, organized by his interests instead of chronologically - which was nice because each of us could pick the area we were most curious about. I spent my time in “Home”, seeing hundreds of pictures of Bell with his father, wife, children, grandchildren, and colleagues. I was really impressed with him as a jovial and gentle man who loved his family and spent tons of time with them, yet still managed to work a tremendous number of hours in a day. The move to Baddeck from Washington must have helped that immensely. The rest of the time I helped Will finish his scavenger hunt - they had given him a clipboard with a laminated set of items and a dry erase marker, and he had to find them all to win an unspecified prize. It turned out to be a free kiddie ice cream cone from the team shop, so we tucked that away to come back and get after lunch.

We struggled a little to find The Water’s Edge for lunch, but the cafe turned out to be closed. When I asked “what hours is it open?” the woman just repeated “It’s closed”. She was not very nice about it, and I really didn’t need that on top of the disappointment, as well as feeling like we’d wasted time in town just to be there when they opened (not that the Bell site was a waste of time - it wasn’t). We ate our sandwiches in their parking lot, and I took a smidgen of vindictive delight in dropping my breadcrumbs on their property. After that we headed back to the tea shop for Will’s free cone, where it fulfilled its purpose by convincing Mike and I to get ice cream as well.

There was nothing for it but to head for the Cabot Trail, which we did. I had decided that counter-clockwise would be the correct direction to go, so that we were on the outside lane (just that little bit closer to the views!) and that both passengers would be able to see the ocean. There wasn’t much ocean until after Wreck Cove, but the views when they came were very nice (the weather is still great - 26 degrees and sunny!).

We stopped at a waterfall recommended specifically by the woman at the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and Will was able to cool off by going swimming, and Mike and I amused ourselves by watching the teenagers jumping off progressively higher rocks. The waterfall was pretty, but I’m not sure it’s as cool as the Bridal Veil falls, where you can actually walk behind it.

At the Hideaway campground we got one of the remaining three sites, and settled in for an enjoyable evening of dinner (chicken noodle soup, cheese and crackers), showers, playground and a puppy (for Will, anyway), and watching a couple of bats who did endless figure-eights over our campground and the one across from us.

Day 12: Thursday, August 13, 2009

Our first stop of the day was at the Discovery Centre, where we were able to score free admission for being Ontario Science Centre members. It’s also a hands-on type of place, so Will navigated the hordes of day camp kids to try the various activities, appearing to have quite a bit of fun. We stopped by 11:45 to go the Grand Parade, a square in the middle of Halifax that’s used for various purposes; on this day it was for a noon-hour concert featuring a band called Grassmarket. One of the band members is an old high-school friend of Mike’s, so we really wanted to see them, and doing it in their own home town was a big bonus. The three of them put on a great show, with an impressive variety of instruments that they nonchalantly picked up and put down according to the song they were playing; guitar of course, but also double bass, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and fiddle. I liked the flavour of bluegrass that came through, although I guess you would categorize it as folk music overall.

After a quick sandwich lunch we let Will go back to the Discovery Centre to finish it up. Mike went with him, and I went back to the Loop for another hour or two of quiet knitting and socializing with the friendly owner and other patrons. I’m trying to finish the second sleeve of a baby sweater I’ve been working on for a couple of months, so I can start diving into the sock wool I’ve bought! I didn’t quite make it, but I only had five rows left to go when I left to meet the guys.

We were lucky enough to be invited over to the home of two-thirds of Grassmarket; Mike’s high-school friend Penelope and her partner Dan. We also got to meet their two-year-old son Clem, a classically adorable blue-eyed cherub with blonde curls. They also put in 16 square feet of garden this year, but their experiment has been much more successful - their tomato plants are over six feet high, and their peas were pretty close to that height too. We had a nice visit with them catching up on fifteen years or so of life since high school.

As we were pulling away we realized we were close to the “Hydrostone” district, an area of Halifax that was rebuilt after the 1917 Explosion with houses made of concrete blocks. We got to see some of those houses, and ended up at the Hydrostone Market, checking out the craft and antique stores. There are not just one, but two “Where to Eat in Canada” restaurants in that little strip of storefronts. We chose Salvatore’s for pizza, where they churn out thin-crust pizzas that appeared to be uniformly wonderful. My El Pomodoro special certainly was; the crust had sesame seeds, which I’ve never seen on a pizza, but worked well with the toppings of sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese, Greek Kalamata olives, and fresh garlic. (Mm... I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it). The guys split a more classic pepperoni-and-green-pepper pizza, and the bites I stole of it also seemed excellent.

Since we’d had an early dinner, we had plenty of time to drive. Rather than take the coastal roads, we headed north to Truro, then swung east to point ourselves towards Cape Breton Island. We ended up in Antigonish for the night, where once again Mike’s freeware GPS program led us on a wild goose chase looking for the Wal-Mart. Fortunately it led us through a very pretty town with what I assume is a gorgeous university campus (Francis Xavier, maybe?). The Wal-Mart was, of course, just off the highway, so eventually we got to see the town again, and later had more tractor-trailers trundling by during the night.

Day 11: Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Today was our full day to spend in Halifax. We started at the Citadel, poking our noses into powder magazines and sentry stations, and generally immersing ourself in 1869 military life. There are excellent films and exhibits there, that we didn’t really do justice to. We were up at the cannon for the firing of the “noon gun”, which was loud enough to satisfy even Will.

From there we went to the Cheelin restaurant, one of the few downtown Halifax “Where to Eat in Canada” restaurants that’s open for lunch. It’s a Chinese restaurant in the brewery market, which is an old building that houses Alexander Keith’s brewery, although they seem to only inhabit part of it. There was only one table seated when we arrived, but it quickly got busy, for good reason; it was noticeably better than your standard Chinese, even the lemon chicken, which I protested to the guys is not really Chinese food. Everything was very fresh and light-tasting, even the lemon chicken, which wasn’t too cloying and sweet. A former staff member from the restaurant was there having lunch with her extended family, and it was nice to see the owner come out and chat with them.

When we asked Will what he most wanted to do in Halifax, he looked over the “Doers and Dreamers” guide and picked the Clay Cafe, a place in the north end of town where you buy pieces of pottery and paint them; they take care of the glazing and firing. I’m not sure why they advertised in a tourist guide, because you need to come back later to pick up your pottery; however, they didn’t mind shipping it to us for a fee, so Will picked out a big mug and painted it with a mix of words and pictures. It should be waiting for us when we get home - his souvenir of the trip!

We didn’t want to head back to the campground until we were thoroughly done for the day, so we grabbed granola bars in the bus and drove back downtown. Will and Mike went back to Buskerfest, and I checked out the store I most wanted to see - “The Loop Craft Cafe”, which appeared to be Halifax’s knitting store. (The website mentioned crocheting and crafting too, but knitting is so trendy these days I was betting on it being the focus). The Cafe part closed at 5pm, right when I got there, but I was able to browse the store, then sit and knit for a bit to rest and relax. I had given up on finding a cross-stitch kit that I liked, but they had the best selection of Foxberry Cottage (Nova Scotia designs) I’d seen yet. I bought one of the Old Town Clock in Halifax, and I also had to buy a skein of Lucy Neatby hand-dyed yarn in the colour “Seashell”. Although the theme is good for a souvenir of the trip, the colours really remind me of cotton candy.

I had an hour to kill after the store closed at 6pm, so I went to the nearest pub for a cup of coffee on the patio. (Another beautiful day - patio weather!). The people at the next table - Kelly, Lindsay, and Lindsay - included me in their conversation, Kelly in particular wanting me to knit sweaters to sell in his shop in BC. He was pretty drunk, but still insisted on giving me his email address.

By 7pm we were ready for dinner, so we stopped at the grocery store and headed back to the campground, treating ourselves to baked beans for dinner.