Cue the Crickets

(Insert Cricket Chirping)

Of course, we have no crickets in St. Anthony but if there were I bet they'd be right outside my window. I've been told that the deadline for November submissions to the CPSO Registration Committee was actually waaay back on the 5th which means my file won't be reviewed this month. So, the next opportunity is mid-December. While that could potentially mean a festive Xmas for my family and myself I can't help but wonder if they'll find something else to nit pick and ask for more info.

In any event, life goes on even if my professional life is stalled right now. Even though a rejection would really suck, it would at least let me move on and try to find a position somewhere else in the country. Unfortunately, the bad Anesthesia job market in Ontario seems to be holding true across most of the country. This is why I can afford to be patient right now.

So, I'm starting to make plans for travel this winter. I'll be back in Toronto for Xmas from the 22nd to the 28th. In February there's an Anesthesia conference in Ottawa in early February. I think that's during Winterlude which I've never attended. In addition, I've never had a beaver tail so I should get that out of the way as well. (Speaking of eating foods-that-will-eventually-kill-you, I'm planning to split a KFC Double Down with my brother -- maybe I'll have a quarter). I've got a friend in Winnipeg who I promised to visit and I'll man up and visit him in the middle of winter. So, this will likely turn into an Ottawa/Winnipeg trip.

The big news is that my father is planning on visiting China in April and he'd like me to tag along. This is momentous news because in my 34 years of life, this is only the 3rd time he has taken a vacation. The first was a summer in China when I was in Gr. 6 and the 2nd was a 1 week vacation in the Rockies/BC. He wants to go for a full month but I think I can only spare 2 weeks. Which is fine because my brother doesn't want to go for more than 2 weeks either so we can at least travel together.

Unfortunately, our travel itineraries aren't going to mesh well. My parents, naturally, want to hang around their hometowns in Guangdong province and aren't interested in touring the country. Now, I've been on a 3 week tour of China already so I'm not really interested in a cross country tour but there is one specific place I want to go see: Tibet. When I mentioned it to my Dad he immediately refused and cited health concerns (high blood pressure). Fair enough. I tried asking my brother and he's sitting on the fence about it. I'm in the early planning stages but I think I'll fly to Xining and overnight there. Then I'll hop on the recently completed Qinghai-Tibet Train. Hopefully, those 48 hours will be enough to forestall altitude sickness. So, the plan is 1 week for Tibet and 1 week to spend with my family in Guangdong and all those distant cousins I met 20 years earlier.

We had our first taste of winter in St. Anthony this past weekend with the first accumulation of snow. It was only a few centimeters and it'll all melt by tomorrow when the temp rises above zero. All in all, the meteorologists are forecasting a "normal" winter for us which hopefully means a good ski season. I've been shaving off the pounds for the last year and there's nothing like a 19.5 km cross country slog to get your metabolism going!

For the readers of this blog, I'll probably see most of you when I'm back in Toronto in December. Later!

Road Trip Post Mortem

Well, here I am at the end of my road trip and I'm going to be spending the next few days getting registered and organized (translation: do lots of paperwork). I won't truly be settled until I've moved into my apartment which should be available next week. The one-post-per-day pace I was trying to follow will ease up from now on.

The are some other nearby sites which I will definitely see before the summer ends: L'Anse Aux Meadows, Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, and, of course, the town of St. Anthony itself. In addition, I'll want to do the Western Brook Pond Boat Tour and a little more sight seeing in Corner Brook.

Nonetheless, my road trip is essentially over and I'm glad I did it! However, in hindsight, 2 weeks was nowhere near enough time -- I think 3 weeks may not be enough either. However, living out of a car for 3 weeks would have been quite rough. Hmm, maybe a month-long trek in a RV would be the best way to see all of Atlantic Canada.

So, should I ever revisit any of the Atlantic provinces there will be a number of sites that I've missed which I will want to go see. Here's a list (if you have any suggestions, please post a comment!).

NB: Hartland Covered Bridge, King's Landing, watch the Bay of Fundy tides, Reverse Falls (St. John), more time in each city

PEI: More time on the beaches, Rossignol Wine Estates (nice red cliffs)

Nova Scotia: Halifax Citadel, Point Pleasant Park, sailing on the Bluenose II (yes, even with the risk of seasickness), Kejimkujik National Park, hiking in Cape Breton/Cabot Trail

Newfoundland: St. John's (revisit the major attractions which I've already seen), Gander (there's an aviation museum there), Twillingate to watch icebergs (but I'll see them here in St. Anthony).
I'm not sure when my next post will be -- probably next week after I've moved in unless something significant comes up and I get the muse-mojo going.

Day 15: Gros Morne to St. Anthony

Touchdown! After 15 days and over 3000 miles I finally made it in one piece.

Well, as predicted, the morning was bright and sunny as you can see in this photo (you might recognize the distinctive colour of the Tablelands in the background). Blast it! Oh well, I'll just rebook the Western Brook Pond Boat Tour during a future trip to Corner Brook. I headed out and made a brief stop at Lobster Cove to take some pictures of Bonne Bay and Rocky Harbour.

It's really hard to see in this photo but Rocky Harbour town runs along the opposite shore.

After a few hours I stopped at Port-Au-Choix to check out the heritage site dedicated to the aboringinals who used to settle in Nfld. It was interesting how the settlement patterns of the various people coincided with climate changes. First the Archaic Indians settled and then when the climate cooled the paleoeskimos moved in and the cycle would repeat with the climate. They excavated a burial site in the area and found many stone-age artifacts. They were quite skilled with making stone tools -- apparently they found scalpel sized blades in addition to the usual arrowheads and harpoon tips.

Next it was on to a very little known attraction -- thrombolites. Apparently, Flowers Cove is one of only two sites in the world (the other being a remote Australian west coast location) where these "living rocks" grow. These microorganisms apparently cause calcium carbonate to precipitate out and ultimately create rock. They're sort of (but not exactly) like fossils and being 600 million years old it would make them among the oldest fossils/organisms on the planet. You'd think something like this would have a nicely developed tourist site for it, but no: if it wasn't for the guidebook I would have driven right past it. There was a 3x2 foot sign on the side of the highway indicating the turn off. But no other signage after that. I wandered down a trail, doubled back because I thought I was going the wrong way, and then finally persevered before finding a very simple information board describing the thrombolites. I snapped a few photos but to be honest...I had a hard time telling the thrombolites apart from the other rocks on the shore!

The cluster of cracked rocks in the middle of the photo are the thrombolites.

From there it was on to St. Anthony. While the day started out sunny, it became cloudy and foggy, but an hour outside of St. Anthony it became bright and sunny again. Hopefully a good omen!

Day 14: Gros Morne National Park

I didn't get to sight see much in Corner Brook and so it will be added to the "Nfld. to-do list". Since Corner Brook is the closest city to St. Anthony (4-5 hr. drive) I expect I'll be driving down to it for a few more times before the year is out.

I drove into Gros Morne National Park and it is a sight to behold. It, too, is a UNESCO site and during its induction the following comment was made: "As the Galapagos are to Biology so is Gros Morne to geology". Weighty words indeed. Newfoundland island is geologically very, very interesting. Not only are the rocks here very old (3 billion yrs with the oldest known rocks on the planet being 4 billion) but Nfld. is right on the edge of the North American plate which collided with the Eurasian/African plates in the distant past. That's why the eastern most fringes of Nfld. contain African rocks.

I went on a tour with a Canada Parks guide and he put it quite succinctly: "North America and Europe came close together and Gros Morne was born". The mountains, which used to be rock on the seafloor, were forced up and now have been eroding for quite some time. He took us on a tour of the Tablelands to see some of the geology and flora of the area. My guidebook described the Tablelands as being similar to the surface of the moon. I'll agree it looks quite out-of-this-world but the rocks had a funny yellowy-beige tinge (apparently the result of the iron-rich rocks being exposed to air and water, hmm, that's funny, I'm not sure which iron compound would be yellowy).
It's amazing that plants can grow on a really rocky surface. In Nfld., plants grow "low and slow". Indeed, the winds are so vicious here that you can see wind-damaged plants and flowers. The most interesting native flora include: an orchid (of all plants!), carnivorous plants (e.g. pitcher plants), and "old growth forest" with one juniper bush apparently being around 1,000 years old. He handed out cross-sectional samples of some of the trees and you need a magnifying glass to be able to count the densely packed rings.

The afternoon was supposed to be another highlight -- a boat tour of a "pond". A "pond" is essentially a fjord (created as glaciers cut into the rock to get to the sea) that later became landlocked. Unfortunately, the weather was not going to cooperate. It was overcast and intermittently raining. When I arrived at the dock there was also fog and the trip was cancelled because of poor visibility. Unfortunately, it will be bright and sunny tomorrow -- arrgh, bad timing.
At this point I was wet, sticky, and just wanted a roof over my head so I headed straight to my B&B to finish off the day. I had a traditional pan-fried cod dinner at a local restaurant before tucking in.

Day 13: St. John's to Cornerbrook

Man, another long driving day today. Three to four days won't do this province justice especially since the driving distances involved are much greater than in the other maritime provinces. In addition, I sort of planned on spending a less-than-adequate amount of time in Newfoundland since I'm going to be living here for the next year or so; I'll have more opportunities later to catch up on what I missed. I'm also starting to get a little weary from this 2 week road trip and I planned for the possibility of cutting the trip short in Newfoundland.

The only sight seeing I did today was to swing by Trinity, Nfld. for some pictures. For those who don't know, Trinity was the site for the movie "The Shipping News". Very little has changed in this little town for the past few hundred years which is why it was chosen.I stopped by in Grand Falls-Windsor for another important errand -- driver's license and vehicle registration. Well, I officially gave up my Ontario documentation and now I've got the Newfie documents! The only thing left is to register for a health card. Hopefully I can do that over the mail because I just discovered that there aren't any provincial offices that far up north!

I drove past Marble Mountain just outside of Cornerbrook -- I could see why it was hyped as "the best skiing in Atlantic Canada". I haven't seen any ski-able slopes until today.

Well, this will be a short post today since I didn't do very much other than drive. I'm looking forward to the last highlight of my trip: Gros Morne. Unfortunately, it's going to rain for most of the day tomorrow so that might throw a wrench into my plans...

Day 12: Cape St. Mary and St. John's

Sunlight is usually a very potent stimulus for waking me up and today was no exception. Despite being sleep deprived I still woke up around 7:30 AM local time. After a simple breakfast at the B&B I hit the road around 9:30 AM for my first stop: Bird Rock at St. Mary’s Cape.

The drive down the Avalon Peninsula was like déjà vu all over again – two-lane highway in old hilly terrain by the ocean. However, you can never get bored of driving this terrain as I was very sharp and alert despite having had only 4 hours of sleep. (I was also trying to dodge potholes while driving at 95 km/h!) It was nearly identical to driving the western side of the Cabot Trail but shorter.

There’s a 1.5 km hike to Bird Rock at Cape St. Mary and at first it didn’t look promising – there was fog everywhere. Interestingly, there was thick fog even with an almost clear and sunny day. However, as the air warmed up the fog started to recede. In retrospect, the fog worked to my advantage as I think it made the photos look more interesting:

Even at the beginning of the trail you could hear Bird Rock – almost like the indistinct sounds of rush hour traffic. As you get closer you begin to discern the white-noise sound of the surf hundreds of feet below and the sound of a whole colony of birds. The hike through the rugged meadows was very enjoyable – the air was very clean and crisp when ocean breeze picks up. However, it was also very sunny and I started working up a sweat when the breeze died down.

Bird Rock is quite a sight as you can see from these photos. The main pillar and every ledge along the cliffs were just packed with noisy, squawking birds. The most common bird there was the Northern Gannet which is notable for being a very “chatty” and “social” type of bird. It’s also quite large with up to a 2m wingspan. I only allotted myself a little over an hour for the trip (and it was a 15-20 min. hike each way) so I only had time for 10-15 minutes of picture taking. I’m not much of a birder but time permitting I would have liked to observe the bird behaviour a little more closely and also to try to see some of the other species that nest here.

After leaving I headed back onto the highway and into St. John’s. Just as I skimped on St. John I’m also giving St. John’s the short end of the stick. Again, it revolved around errands I had to do – I brought my Suzuki SX4 into the one and only dealership on the island for a much needed oil change, an underside/suspension inspection (after that off-roading incident in NB), and also to fix that broken license plate grommet which I stripped when I initially installed my license plates. That took an hour and a half and by the time it was over I couldn’t do any more (things start closing up early!). I'm checked in at a residence at MUN. Tomorrow I’ll have to get my Newfoundland driver’s license, license plates, and health card. Tonight, I’ll do laundry and go to bed early to get an early start tomorrow.

Next stop: Cornerbrook!

Day 11: North Sydney-Argentia Ferry

The nice thing about having low expectations is that you’ll rarely be disappointed -- today was one of those days. The threat of a ferry cancellation dissipated as Cristobal zoomed off into the North Atlantic hurricane graveyard. So, I had a 14 hour ferry ride with minimal driving and time to myself. The only potentially serious problem involved my stomach and vestibular organs. In my advancing years I’ve proven to be disappointingly vulnerable to motion sickness. Not only can I not go on twisty roller coaster rides but also bouncy boats. I decided to take my chances and not bring Gravol along for the ride…

The Loading of the MV Joey and Clara Smallwood (named after the 1st premier and his wife of post-confederation Nfld.) went pretty smoothly. Now, for those of you who haven’t gone on long ferry rides, usually the first thing you do after parking your car is to make a mad dash to the cafeteria to try to beat the lineups since most people forgo breakfast in order to line up early at the ferry terminal. Surprisingly, there was no lineup when I arrived so I was able to sit down and have breakfast while we were still docked – no sea-sickness so far! The meals were cafeteria quality but priced like restaurant entrees. Not surprising since there is a food monopoly on board the ship with a captive market.

I’m pleased to report that visiting all those museums had a very practical use after all: at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, the Titanic display taught me about where the various classes of passengers were located. The first class tickets were right in the middle of the ship where the pitching and rocking was at a minimum. The progressively lower classes were bunked farther and farther away from the middle with the worse seats (the 3rd class rooms for single men and women) at the bow and stern of the ship (and directly over the noisy engine room). So, I camped out in the middle of the ship for the whole trip and, although I had some brief and vague sensations of queasiness after meals, I wasn’t seasick for the whole trip. Nonetheless, there was a little choppiness to the ocean and you had to watch your step.

So, my whole trip consisted of the following: eating, napping, several walks around the ship, several movies, watching some TV, and reading “The Shipping News” given to me by my sister (which is quite good – I’ll have to try to rent the movie). Unfortunately, 2 events conspired to cause a very late arrival at Argentia: 1) We were 45 min late in departing North Sydney and 2) we were only running on 3 of 4 engines as they were doing maintenance on the 4th. So, what should have been a 14 hour ride morphed into a 19 hour marathon from terminal-to-terminal. I was wondering why they would use the crippled ferry on the longer of the two ferry lines (the North Sydney-Port Aux Basques run is only 7-8 hours). I guess the Port-Aux-Basques ferry has a busier (i.e. daily) and thus more strict schedule.

After leaving the terminal, I quickly pulled into the B&B which was just 10 min. away. It was 3 AM and I crashed for the night.

Day 10: Cape Breton Island - Cabot Trail

The weather was rough but apparently not as bad as Halifax which was hammered by Cristobal throughout the day. Although it was foggy, cloudy, and rainy, it tended to occur in patches up here in Cape Breton and, as luck would have it, the timing worked out pretty well -- it rained when I was in the car and driving and stopped when I stepped outside. Mind you, I was doing a driving tour of the Cabot Trail so I only left the car for a few minutes at a time.
The Lonely Planet called the Cabot Trail "The best road trip on the planet" and they did not exaggerate. Just as every Canuck should see the Rockies, I think the Cabot Trail should be on the "must see" list as well. It's roughly analgous to driving the Sea to Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler: no Rocky Mountains but you're inside a National Park with lots of lookout points, camping sites, trails, and a few towns thrown in along the route in case you need to hightail it back to civilization. It's also quite a fun drive as well with lots of hills, curves, and a few almost-haripin turns.
For physical geography buffs you have all 3 types of rock (metamorphic, sedimentary, and, igneous) and even a fault line running through the park. Flora and fauna are in abundance as well with even whales supposedly coming close to shore (I didn't see any unfortunately).

When I finished the loop through the park I headed towards Baddeck which is a nice resort town and also where Alexander Graham Bell spent many years working on his inventions. They've got a national museum there honouring him now and I spent a few hours in there. Interesting factoids about Bell:

1) He was like a speech therapist at the time and was quite skilled in teaching the deaf to speak.
2) Unlike Thomas Edison, he was an amateur inventor -- in fact, once one of his inventions became commericalized, he would lose interest and do something else.
3) He did a lot of pioneering work on aerodynamics and invented a hydrofoil which broke speed records (A replica is shown below).
4) I always thought he was from Ontario -- his family did move initially to Brantford from England. However, once he got his career going he moved to Boston, then Washington, DC, before finally settling in Baddeck, NS. When I left the museum it was raining fairly hard and I decided to nix any idea of exploring Baddeck which is supposed to be a nice resort town. I'm now at Cape Breton University in Sydney.

As for Tropical Storm Cristobal...well, it looks like it won't interfere with my ferry crossing yet. It looks like it's moving fairly rapidly and it will beat us to Newfoundland. I wonder if the Ferry captain is going to follow in its wake!

Well, I've got to get up early tomorrow to catch the ferry -- 14 hour trip!

Day 9: Annapolis Royal to Cape Breton Island

Looking back at all the driving I've done I'm only starting to appreciate how much smaller the maritime provinces are compared to Ontario. In a 3-4 hour drive I was able to traverse a good section of Nova Scotia.

Well, it looks like weather karma is starting to kick in. The beautiful sunny and hot weather I saw last week in NB and PEI is giving way to a good stretch of cloudy, foggy, and rainy weather. The rain continued overnight into this morning. I got my umbrella out as I left the B&B and gamely went to the 3 sites I came to Annapolis Royal to see.

To say the area around Annapolis Royal was contested by the British and the French is like saying the Greeks made a few attempts to take Troy. Apparently the area changed hands 7 times. The French were the first to settle in the area and they named it Port Royal. When the British conquered the French they named it Annapolis Royal after Queen Anne.

I first went to Fort Anne which was a British bastion-style fort (or star fort)which was common in that era. With the invention of gunpowder and smooth bore cannons the medieval 4 sided castles just wouldn't cut it any more. With the changing technology, defensive structures evolved to keep pace.
In the following photos you can see some of the techniques that were used. They not only made the walls thicker but also added bastions (which gave the fort a bit of a star or snowflake type shape). The bastions not only eliminated blind spots and created crossfire zones but also presented angled walls and sharp edges instead of flat walls.
The hill on the right is a ravelin -- a triangular mound that is detached from the fort. It's primary purpose to to defend the vulnerable flat wall behind it and also to provide supplementary cannon fire.
The whole fort was also sunken into the ground so the cannons of the invading army had much less to shoot at. This is the gunpowder room (an important target to hide...)
The funny thing about this scene is the flag -- it's a white flag. Doesn't that mean surrender? Well, actually, it's the white flag representing the French "Ministry of Marine" which begs the question...what did the French do if they wanted to surrender?

Next I went to see a more modern attraction: Annapolis Royal is home to one of only a handful (3 or 4) of tidal power generating stations in the world.
There wasn't much to actually see since the plant is underground. The technology is pretty much identical to other hydroelectic dams except this plant can only produce power for 12.5 hour periods when the high tide is ebbing. FYI, tidal kinetic generators have been developed which can producing power when the tides wax and wane -- they're building them over in Europe (I think the English channel was mentioned as one spot). Although this attraction had the fishy smell of corporate sponsorship (read: NS Power), it was nonetheless quite informative.

After lunch I crossed the Annapolis River to check out the French side of things: Port Royal. Samuel de Champlain himself helped found this settlement (he was the cartographer on the trip). The French initially tried to settle in St. Croix, NB but after a brutal winter there they abandoned that location, headed south across the Bay of Fundy, and arrived here.
This reproduction was built according to a plan that was documented by the original settlers and near where they think the original site was. The British attacked and destroyed the original settlement and the French moved the site to present day Fort Anne...where they were attacked again and again and again by the British. Apparently, Port Royal was the whipping post of the French Empire. Quebec city was too far away and too heavily defended so whenever the British wanted to take revenge for anything, Port Royal was the obvious choice.

These 3 sites kept me busy until early afternoon and then I made the trek to Cape Breton Island. I'm currently at the southern tip near Port Hawkesbury. Tomorrow I'm going to do one of the highlights of my trip -- driving the Cabot Trail. However, the weather doesn't look like it's going to cooperate with more clouds and rain in the forecast. I just hope there isn't much fog (the Canada Parks employee at Port Royal said that the Mikmaq name for Cape Breton Island was "land of eternal fog". Doh!).

Lastly...as I was flipping through the forecasts at The Weather Network...I saw a familiar corkscrew symbol off the eastern seabord...what the -- a hurricane?! Well, not exactly but Tropical Storm Cristobal is tracking northwards along the east coast. Based on current projections, it's going to be in the neighbourhood of my ferry crossing to Newfoundland! DOH! What are the odds....

I called Marine Atlantic (the company that runs the ferry) and they made no promises. It'll be a decision made by the Captain on the day the ferry leaves. This could be bad because either A) My ferry will be cancelled/delayed or B) it'll be a rough trip and I'll be seasick the whole time....

Day 8: Halifax to Annapolis Royal

This post is a day late because the B&B I was staying at didn't have internet access.

This morning I went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It's a good sized museum and I was there for most of the morning. They also had some real ships out back (a science vessel and I think a retired Canadian frigate) which I didn't have the time to check out. In addition to the sailboat and model ship collections they had exhibits on the Titanic, Halifax harbour explosion, and the fall of Louisbourg -- the penultimate French defeat before the Plains of Abraham. One interesting factoid was about the British General James Wolfe who was instrumental in pioneering amphibious assault techniques. They were used to great effect in Lousibourg and again for Quebec city. Here's a shot of one of my favourite exhibits: it's the light and lens assembly from a lighthouse. You can see how the small light is magnified immensely by the lens elements.
Next it was time to hit the road and leave Halifax. There are a number of picturesque little hamlets and towns within 1-2 hours of Halifax. First stop: Peggy's Cove.

Peggy's Cove definitely lives up to the hype of being a picturesque hamlet. However, it was crawling with tourists. There's a restaurant cleverly situated at the end of the road that charges $5 to park in exchange for a $5 voucher that's redeemable inside the gift shop. A little further down the highway is a memorial for the Swissair 111 disaster.
If you stand in the circle at the bottom of the photo, the left rock points toward the crash site in the ocean.

I briefly stopped in Mahone Bay -- another idyllic town. Unfortunately it was getting quite foggy and I wasn't able to take any decent photos.

Lunenberg is one of only two North American cities that are UNESCO heritage sites (the other being Quebec City). When Britain was trying to expand it's empire in the New World, they had trouble finding enough colonists and so they found French, Germans, and Swiss settlers who were willing to go. In addition to the varied mix of architecture found in the town Lunenberg was also a major fishing and ship building port. But, both industries have since declined although numerous sailing ships still dock here to take advantage of the ship fitting skills of the inhabitants. The most famous is the Bluenose II for which Lunenberg is its home port. Unfortunately, the Bluenose II wasn't there when I arrived.
I also splurged in Lunenberg and had my first real seafood meal since arriving in Atlantic Canada: haddock, Atlantic salmon, Digby scallops, shrimp, and mussles all locally caught. Awesome.

I finished Lunenberg at a good time -- during my drive to Annapolis Royal it started to rain and I was glad to get off the highways when I arrived at the B&B.

Day 7: Charlottetown to Halifax

Well, here I am in New Scotland and I'm at the midway point of my trip. I'm starting to feel a little worn down. I'm going to try turning in early tonight.

First, I went to see Charlottetown and I visited two historic sites in particular: the Hall of Founders and Province House. Although the weather was crummy with light showers I actually welcomed the respite from the sun -- my skin is starting to suffer a little bit from the past week. No sunburn yet though.

The Hall of Founders was basically a multimedia self-guided museum which presented the history of confederation right up until Nunavut. The format was a hybrid of a documentary and a mock news show. Although it was campy and cheesy in some places it kept me interested and it reminded me how little I remember from my Gr. 7, 8, and 9 History classes!

Province House (pictured below) is the legislature building for PEI and it was also the building where the Fathers of Confederation met. This is the more serious counterpoint to Hall of Founders where you can watch a 17 minute documentary and tour the inside of the building. The long green table was the exact same table and in the exact same room where everybody met. Two facts about Confederation which I never knew: 1) Nothing was ever signed at the Charlottetown meeting ("Gentleman's Agreement" to meet again in one month) and 2) The meeting was originally supposed to be about maritime unity and Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec) weren't even invited -- they crashed the party!

Then it was off to Nova Scotia via the Wood Islands ferry. Although it would have been $10 cheaper to drive back across Confed bridge it would have added an extra 100 km of driving distance. Plus, the ferry ride wasn't that long (1 hr. 15 min) and I welcomed a break from driving. I shot this parting picture of PEI:
Next I drove straight to Halifax and checked into Gerard Res at Dal. It was 4 pm and since most of the museums close at 5 pm I decided to have dinner first and then check out the other sites which were still open.

To all you ex-Kingstonians out there -- I ate at Curry Village. I had completely forgotten that they had a Halifax restaurant and I couldn't resist. Afterwards, I went a nice stroll around downtown. First to the Public Gardens which I think was the first Victorian-style park built in Canada.

Next, I walked to the harbourfront to check out the historic properties (which have been converted into a tourist trap) and the rest of downtown:

Once again I'm not going to get the full Halifax experience. However, I've been to Halifax before and I'm actually going to come back in a few months for a wedding so I'll have more opportunities to check out the sites I will miss. It's the non-big city sites in my trip that I want to focus my time on.

Tomorrow: Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, and Lunenberg

Day 6: The Rest of PEI

Drove out to Cavendish, PEI. Now this is the picturesque PEI I was expecting -- gentle rolling hills, farms, and red dirt roads. First, I checked out Green Gables -- the most interesting thing about the place is that the only "authentic" part of it was the house itself. Everything else (the surrounding buildings, the landscaping, the interior) was designed according to what was written in the books and what was thought to be historically accurate. The other realization I came to was that for the TV miniseries, they did not do any filming inside the house (way too cramped).
Next, I quickly checked out the site where "LM" (as the locals call Montgomery) grew up in Cavendish. The house is gone and all that's left is the foundation. They put up placards with quotations from her diaries. It's quite clear that Montgomery really loved living here and it's not hard to see why.

I ran into a reporter from Charlottetown who was working on a story about tourists coming to the Island for the Anne experience. She made an interesting comment: there are generally two types. First there are the tourists like me who come, quickly see the main sites and then leave. Then there are the pilgrims. They come and spend days running around trying to get as much Anne as possible. Sure enough, I ran into a Japanese tour group as I was leaving.

I then went to North Rustico Harbour, a small, peaceful town of 800 or so residents. Again, another tranquil setting fit for a postcard.


I then drove to PEI National Park (Greenwich) and attended a Sand Dune Tour. Apparently, PEI is one of only4 locations in the world with parabolic sand dunes. Not only did I get some much needed exercise in excellent weather but I also got my feet on a sandy beach.


Lastly, drove to Basin Head on the northeast corner of the island. The beach there is famous for the "singing sand" as the locals call it. Due to the high silica content of the sand, it makes a very characteristic crunch-squeak sound when you walk around in it. Although I wouldn't call it "singing", it was loud enough to make it impossible to sneak up on someone.

I then drove back to Charlottetown. I had hoped to head into the city itself but I had a semi-urgent errand to run and by the time I finished I decided to leave it until tomorrow morning.

Next up: Nova Scotia!