Day 20 - August 18, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today we completed our journey home.  We were on the road by 8:15 and home at 2:30 p.m.  So good to see our house again.  It looks so big after living in a 19 foot van for 3 weeks!  Thanks for journeying with us on our blog.

Love, Pete and Angela

Day 19 - August 17, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today we went to Old Quebec City.  What a beautiful spot!  We walked around for several hours and then had lunch on an outside patio in the lower City.  We then rode the escalator up and walked the governor's promenade to the plains of Abraham and back to the van.  It was a very hot day and we were completely wilted by the end of it. We then continued our drive home which was also very hot.  We spent about 1/2 hr. in an OnRoute Centre at supper time to refresh in air conditioned comfort. We then drove to Iroquois, ON on the St. Lawrence River. A beautiful little town.  It has a lock here on the seaway and a very busy train track.  We stayed in a municipal park right in town which is lovely.  It has paved biking trails to the marina and the swimming beach.  We first rode our bikes to the lock, but no action there.  Then to the marina where we sat with our feet in the water for a while, then to the beach where we decided we had to swim, so back to the campground to change and then a wonderful refreshing swim in the St. Lawrence!  A great way to end the day.

Day 18 - August 16, 2015

Today was just a driving day.  We left from Fredericton  at 9 and decided to stop on the way for church.  We chose Woodstock, NB to stop at as it was getting close to 10.  All the churches were gathered in about the same place in the town and the Baptist Church had lots of young families and young people filing in, so we went there.  We sat down with 40 seconds to spare before church started.  They had a count down on the screen.  We heard a great sermon on Daniel and were on our way again.  We stopped in  Levis, QC which is just outside of Quebec City.  We are at the KOA that we stayed at on the way out East.  We will go into Quebec City tomorrow.

Day 17, August 15,2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today we spent the morning at the Landscape of Grand Pre which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is a 13 square kilometre site located on the Bay of Fundy's Minas Basin.  It was a salt marsh that was drained by the Acadians starting in about 1680 by building  a dike around it.  It then became very fertile farm land.  They were deported back to France and other countries in 1755 by the British and their community was burned.  It really looks very similar to Holland.  A very interesting place.  We spent the rest of the day driving and are now in Fredericton at the Hartt Island RV Resort.  I'm afraid we're getting that horse to the barn feeling.  

Day 16 - August 14, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today we spent the morning in Yarmouth.  We did a walking tour looking at all the old houses built by sea captains and did a tour of the Museum there. It was quite foggy in Yarmouth but the sun was trying to burn through. Then we went to the Lighthouse there and hiked in a salt marsh on on the on the shore rocks formed by a volcano.  Our next stop was Digby.  We visited Digby 17 years ago with the kids and took the ferry from there to St. John's NB.  This time we decided to keep driving and following the coast.  We stopped for the night in Grand Pre in the Land of Evangeline Campground.  It was a beautiful park but full of seasonal trailers.  The washrooms were probably the cleanest yet.

Day 15 - August 13, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

This morning we went to Peggy's Cove which was beautiful.  It is such a different landscape.  The rocks are everywhere and so smooth.  It is also the busiest place we have been.  I think 3 bus loads of tourists arrived when we were there not to mention all the cars!  We stopped at Lunenburg next.  Also a very beautiful spot and very busy.  We had lunch in a great restaurant on the waterfront and walked around everywhere.  Beautiful!  We carried on driving down the coast and are now very near Yarmouth at Camper's Haven campground which is also a haven for mosquitoes.  I am currently outside to get decent reception on the WIFI and am being eaten alive!  No more to report as a result.

Day 14, August 12, 2015, Eastern Vacation

Today  we spent the day in Halifax.  We started  off with coffee  at the farmers  market.  Then we went to the  Immigration  Museum at PIER 21.  It was really interesting  and the movie they show of immigrants  and their experiences  was really moving.  We walked all along the harbour, but it was really raining and we only had one umbrella.  So our first order of business was to find a store to buy another.  We finally found a downtown  mall, bought an umbrella and had lunch there to dry out some.  We then went for a tour of Alexander Keith's brewing  house which  is done all in period characters and costumes from the beginning of the brewery in the 1800s.  Halifax is a very old and nice city that is easy to get around in and has tons of parking.  We then drove to Peggy's Cove and are camped at King Neptune's campground.

Day 13 - August 11, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

A Happy Birthday to my dear old Dad!  Hope today was a good day.  Today was another mainly travel day for us.  We went all along the Eastern Coast again.  We left from Sherbrooke this morning and stopped for coffee at the Moser River.  We stopped to take a picture of a hulk of a ship looming out of the fog near Liscombe. We stopped  for lunch at Lawrencetown beach, which is a Provincial day use park and spent some time walking the beach and just sitting and watching the surfers.  Then we headed to Halifax/Dartmouth and are now at the Halifax KOA.  We will spend the day in Halifax tomorrow,

Day 12 - August 10, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today was mainly a driving day.  We left Louisbourg this morning and had several stops along the way for coffee, for lunch and we also stopped in Port Hawksbridge to have our tires rotated as the van was not handling as well as it did last year and Pete had just rotated the tires before we left.  We had them put back the original way, but we're not sure if it made any difference.  We have had major winds every day here and the roads are not very good most of the time so it's very difficult to judge handling.  We also took a small ferry to save about 45 min. of driving. We arrived about 2 min. late for the 5:00 p.m. sailing and watched it pull away. While waiting in line we met the two gentleman in the car behind us.  One a retired Coast Guard who was 75 and one an 85 year old who did lobster fishing and owned a general store.  They were so friendly and talked cheerfully during our 1/2 hr. wait and during the trip on the ferry.  On the ferry which holds 12 cars, but we had only 5 aboard, everyone got out and came over to chat with us.  A couple from St. Catharines, and a couple from Washington, DC.  A very pleasant little trip!  .We stopped for the night near Sherbrooke in a little campground owned by the fishing and hunting association.  It is on a quiet little lake and you can camp about 3 feet away from it.  Very peaceful!
I don't think I mentioned that on Sunday night in Louisbourg we had a torrential rain.  We heard on the radio yesterday morning that parts of Cape Breton got 90 mm and the rest about 50 mm.  We stayed quite dry, but felt terrible for those camping in tents around us.  I saw a cup being used as a baler through the zipper of the tent beside us. Today we also included some pictures of our campsite in Louisbourg.  All the sites had a picnic shelter with them.  One of the shots of the harbour is from sitting in our shelter.

Lunch Break

Day 11 - August 9, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today we started the day by looking for a church, but all of them started so late we skipped church and went right to coffee time.  Then we biked out to the Lighthouse here in Louisbourg.  When Pete took our first picture we realized that the memory chip for the camera was still in the van so we biked back again.  This time we decided to drive to the Lighthouse and we spent several hours there hiking the trails and sitting by the ocean.  It was quite a windy day and it was a lovely rugged coastline.  So beautiful!  After supper we went to the local playhouse again and heard Celtic Drive.  They were so amazing.  Very talented musicians with wonderful stage presence.  They could head line any where and most of them have played professionally with many different artists over the years.  The people of Cape Breton speak with a lovely accent and are very warm and friendly.  We have really enjoyed our time here.  Now off to the mainland.

Day 10 - August 8, 2015 - Eastern Vacation

Today we drove to Louisbourg, NS and found a site in a great park owned by the Merchants Association.  It is right on the Harbour side and in the middle of town.  They are also very proud of their town and point out all the sites of interest when you register.  We will stay here for two nights.  We then spent the day at the Louisbourg Fortress which is a National Historic Site.  It was built by the French as a fortified town in 1713.  It fell under siege twice to the British before being demolished in the 1760s.  Reconstruction began in the 1960s rebuilding 1/4 of the original French town and fortifications as a means of revitalizing the Cape Breton economy and employing out of work miners.  It is really quite something.  It is all manned by people in costume and character.  We returned to the campsite at closing time and then went for supper at the local legion.  Steak and stein for $16/each.  It was delicious and we got to mingle with some of the locals.  Then we attended the Louisbourg Playhouse for the evening which was Celtic music by Anita MacDonald and friends.  It was really nice too.  A full day!