Maritimes 2015

I got back yesterday from a 10 day tour of the Canadian maritimes region (ie the East coast). It was my first time visiting, and I have to say, I don't know how future vacations will beat this one. It was wonderful.

 

We drove up to Riviere-du-Loup the first day, Thursday, finding a cute little motel to stay at, the Auberge Amerilys. 

Friday, we drove along the coast to Percé, stopping in Gaspé for supper. 

In Percé, we stayed at the most amazing motel and cottage place, called Au Pic de l'Aurore. Our little cottage had a real fireplace!

The name fits the location perfectly. I got up at 5:30 to see the sunrise, and I don't know how it gets better than that. The motel is located on the top of a cliff before you go down into the city of Percé. There's 180° of water, facing almost directly east. There was one unfortunate tree that got in the way of some pictures, but regardless, I loved it. Breakfast there included freshly made muffins. I had a carrot one, and it was delicious. We had wanted to walk over to the Percé rock during low tide (about 8:30 AM), but we slept through it. We did walk along the beach later in the morning, and through town. 

The Cercle des Fermieres was celebrating their 100th birthday, so they knitted the Percé rock!

Night three found us in Miramichi. We stayed at a hotel with a small pool, which was surprisingly salt water! They also had a pancake machine at breakfast, and it made pretty good pancakes. We passed a yarn store on the way to the hotel, but at that point it was closed for the night. We passed again on our way out of town, only to find out it's closed on Sundays. No trip is complete without a visit to the sketchy half-abandoned local airport. The GPS brought us to the commercial side, which looked totally abandoned. The opposite side had cars and planes parked outside. After visiting the airport, we followed the GPS through more sketchy roads to find a small zip-lining place. It was so much fun! It was my first time, and after I got past the butterflies at the top of the first departure gate, I had a blast. I would definitely recommend it to anyone going through Miramichi. $15 for two runs, and each run has two lines, so you get four in all. 

Day four brought us to P. E. Island. We crossed the bridge and I fell in love! The Confederation bridge though... I never realized it was so long! I thought it would never end. PEI is so small that we crossed through it at the narrowest part in one afternoon. Our plan was to go camping at the national park on the East coast, but it closed at 6 and we got there at 8. I had remembered reading about another camp ground, but we were pretty far away from that one, so we found a motel to stay at. The Bayview motel was cute, and our room looked out towards the pond. 

The breakfast house

Our view

What we didn't realize when we checked in was that there were two little hyperactive kids staying next door with their parents. They woke us up in the morning as they ran back and forth across the deck. We had Chinese takeout for supper, because it was just about the only thing open at 10 pm when we got hungry. Breakfast at the motel was really good, because they had instant oatmeal packets, and those are my favourite.

Our plan for day five revolved around lighthouses. There were supposed to be four near where we were staying. However, two were in the middle of private property, one was supposedly down a single-lane red dirt road, but we found the last one. We also found one in Charlottetown, along with some good pizza. 

Impossible lighthouses

Before leaving the island, we went for a tour... Of the PEI brewing company factory! I don't drink, but it was cool to learn about the process, and compare the experience to the Ben and Jerry's tour I did in the spring (ice cream always wins). 

Back over the bridge we went, stopping in Moncton for the night. We stayed in another motel. It was unassuming from the outside, but the beds were super comfy. We went to a small pub, the Pump House, for supper, again because it was one of the only things open at 11 pm. Garlic fingers seem to be a huge thing in the maritimes. It's basically pizza dough covered in garlic, parmesan, and in this case, bacon. Absolutely delicious. It comes with donair sauce, but I preferred eating that with French fries.

In the morning, I finally found an open crochet shop, the Cricket Cove. That story will come in a future post. We stuck around Moncton long enough to see the tidal bore come in. Yes, people were surfing it. Apparently that's a thing.

Then, off to Nova Scotia! We visited Peggy's cove, and climbed around a little. I was in a skirt, so we didn't go too far. In Halifax, we had supper at another pub, the Split Crow, and the servings were huge. We went for a long walk after to make up for it.

Day 7 started with breakfast at Cora's. I didn't think my waffle and fruit would be filling enough, but I was wrong. We took an informal driving tour around Halifax, before returning to Peggy's cove to climb again. We also saw the memorial for Swiss Air flight 111 and then drove along the coast to the national park. This was probably my first real camping experience, and it was back country camping at that! (For those of you who don't know what that means, the campsites are not accessible by car, so you have to hike anywhere from 0.2 to 8+ km to get there). I put up our tent all by myself!

After leaving the campground, we visited the aviation museum in Greenwood. 

Now comes my favourite place of the whole trip: Jonah place. I more than recommend this B&B. We stayed in the fancy room, with such a tall bed that I kind of had to jump into it! There was a nice, big tub, a perfect reward for spending a night in the woods (I've learned that I'm not much of a camping person). Breakfast was delicious. The Victorian decor was spot on. Everything was perfect. 

Take me back. I want to stay there forever!

Our last tourist activity was the bay of Fundy. We saw the flower pot rocks during low tide, and then went over to the national park to see some of the bay from the mountains. 

We spent Friday night at a small, funny motel in Edmunston. Nothing matched, and it seemed like the room fixtures were bought at garage sales. It wasn't a bad motel at all. Really, all we needed was a place to stay. It was just very different than the night before. 

We drove home Saturday, sad that our trip was over, but very glad to have gone!