St. Martin, New Brunswick

Big Salmon River

Fundy Trail

June 28-July 4: Toured the Chocolate Museum and Ganong Chocolate Store in St. Stephens on our drive to Saint John, New Brunswick. (The city is always spelled out in full so as not to be confused with St. John's, Newfoundland.) Toured the Atlantic Salmon Interpretive Centre near picturesque St. Andrews by the Sea, This is one of many places we visited along the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world. The bay is located between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, so we had many opportunities to view the phenomenon of the rapidly changing tides.

In Saint John, we visited the New Brunswick Museum, toured the beautifully restored Imperial Theater and the Loyalist House. We visited the famous Reversing Falls at both high and low tide (more dramatic at low).

We drove east to St. Martins, then toured the Fundy Trail and Parkway. Only 11km. of the Parkway is currently complete, but it will eventually connect to Fundy Park to the north. Wonderful trails and views. We climbed down a cable ladder to view a waterfall and had lunch along the Big Salmon River, near the site of a former logging mill. See pictures to the left and below.

Went to Irving Nature Park to hike along mud flats and rocky coast; saw one seal. Visited Cherrybrook Zoo in Rockwood Park, which has an interesting exhibit of extinct species called the Vanishing Kingdom.

July 5: More along the Fundy Bay coast: visited Hopewell Rocks where you can walk on the ocean floor at low tide and take a kayak around the rocks at high tide. The tides have carved lots of different shapes into the rocks along the coast. We drove through Alma and Fundy National Park.

Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island

July 9: Tom golfed at Fox Meadow Golf and Country Club while Dee toured the east end of Prince Edward Island, including the towns of Wood Islands, Murray River and Montague.

We loved Prince Edward Island; Tom is anxious to try its many golf course, so this is on our list for a return trip.

Cabot Trail

July 10-11: Drove from PEI to Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island via the Sunrise Trail, route 6, along the Nova Scotia coast. Stayed in beautif ul Baddeck along the shores of Bras D' Or Lakes, and one entrance to the famous Cabot Trail, which we drove counterclockwise. Visited the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site. The coastline and waters her (both salt and fresh) are spectacular. This is another place to come back to.
Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site

July 12-13: Went to the Louisbourg National Historic Site, a reconstructed 1744 French fort. Very well done with lots of re-enactments, done as well as the USA's Williamsburg, VA. All hosts remain in character. Attended a performance of local musicians in "Lyrics and Laughter" at the Louisbourg Playhouse.

Waiting in line with other RVs and trucks.

July 14-17: We traveled by ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Newfoundland; first stop, Gros Morne National Park.

July 15-17: Stayed in Rocky Harbor in Gros Morne National Park. I was unable to capture the beauty of this western part of Newfoundland; go to this site and click on pictures. We especially enjoyed beautiful Bonne Bay and the Western Brook Pond.

We went to the town of Cow Head to attend the Gros Morne Theater Festival productions of "Effie" and "Ed and Ed Do Florida." The dinner theater included bakeapple cheesecake featuring Newfoundland's unique tart, orange berries called bakeapples.

One of the most entertaining evenings we have ever attended was pub night at the Anchor Pub in the Ocean View Motel. The local band Anchors Aweigh performs there 3 nights a week during the summer with outstanding Irish/Newfoundland-style music and humor.

July 18-19: Traveled north along the western coast, stopping at Port aux Choix National Historic Site and Phillips Garden archaeological excavation site, occupied by the Dorset Paleoeskimos 2000 years ago.

We saw a moose on our way into the L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.

At the site, there is an excellent film and tour of the area which was settled by Vikings in the 11th century, the earliest evidence of Europeans in North America.

Viking Longhouse (Outside and inside showing double bellows used in ironworks)

Near the town of Raleigh, we hiked on the Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, a limestone peninsula featuring sea caves and plants that grow nowhere else in the world.

July 20-21: In St. Anthony, we visited the Grenfell Historic Properties, documenting the life of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell who provided medical services to remote locations of Labrador and Newfoundland. We then drove to St. Barbe and took the ferry from Newfoundland, to Labrador.

Drove to Red Bay and toured the Red Bay National Historic Site where a Basque ship sank in 1564. We visited and climbed the L'Anse Amour lighthouse, stopping on the way at the site of the earliest known grave in North America.

July 22-24: Drove to Grand Falls-Windsor and toured the Grand Falls Salmonid Interpretive Center with an excellent Atlantic Salmon ladder.

Gander, which was host to thousands of airline passengers stranded on 9/11, is a town built around its airport, which was originally built as a fuel stop for International flights. The town grew up around the airport. In 1985, a DC-8 crashed at Gander, killing 256 people including 248 members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.

We drove to Boyds Cove to visit the Beothuk Interpretative Centre and to the beautiful town of Twillingate which bills itself at the iceberg capital of the world. Tom took a whale-watching ride and we attended the musical "Georgie" based on the life of Twillingate's opera star, Georgina Stirling (aka Marie Touringaie, Nightingale of the North).

July 25-26: Beautiful Trinity, where the filming of The Shipping News based on a novel by Annie Proulx. Ms. Proulx actually lived in L'Anse aux Meadows (above), but Trinity was the location of the movie. Also, the series based on Random Passage and Waiting for Time by Bernice Morgan, was filmed near Trinity. The movie set remains as a tourist attraction.

We attended the Rising Tide Theater to see "The Innocence of Catherine Snow;" moving story, professionally done. We hiked the 5.3 km Skerwink Trail along the cliffs above Trinity Bay between Trinity Ease and Port Rexton. Magnificent views in every direction.
  

We took the Ocean Contact Boat Tour in a zodiac pontoon boat; rough water and rain. Only saw 1 whale at a distance, some puffins and a swan!

July 26-29: Final town -- St. John's, the capital of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and Canada's oldest city (1528). We discovered a leak in the diesel fuel tank of the motorhome, so this problem took most of our attention, unfortunately. We couldn't go on the ferry with a fuel leak, so it had to be fixed. It was, thanks to The Tank Shop!

We did visit The Rooms Provincial Museum and the Geo Center on Signal Hill.

On July 29 we boarded the ferry for the 14-hour return trip to North Sydney, Nova Scotia. From there, we would head back south towards home. A wonderful trip!