Summer in the City

Really late post...but figured I needed one last taste of summer as winter is quickly approaching.  Although I spent the majority of my summer away from home, coming home was also really nice.  I managed to catch a couple festivals and events before starting a new full time job and school. 

Toronto Dragonboat Festival

Toronto International Film Festival! (The Riot Club)

Randomness in the TRL...No idea what's happening..

-M

Road Trip 2014: Heading Home - Halifax to Toronto

Somehow we made it home from Halifax in 2 days.  From Halifax we drove towards Edmunston taking a pit stop at Hopewell Rocks, a park which is located along the Bay of Fundy and features amazing rock formations caused by tidal wave erosion. We were able to walk around and view the rocks before we were kicked out at 2pm as the tide quickly rose (high tide was at 4pm that day). It was pretty neat to see the rocks, and also watch the water level quickly go up throughout our time there, unfortunately we didn't have enough time to say and see the entire tide cycle. 

Our plan was to drive from Edmunston to Montreal, and spend a night there before heading back to Toronto.  Now as most road trips go, you don't usually book hotels and such until a couple hours before, 'cause who knows what will happen.  (Un)Lucky for us, it was a long weekend and literally every affordable hotel within the downtown Montreal vicinity was booked.   So, we stopped in Montreal for about an hour to get bagels, and drove straight home.  New Brunswick to Toronto in a day....let's just say it was interesting?

Tide quickly coming in

Hopewell Rocks (also known as the Flowerpot rocks)

Anddddd back on the road

-M

Road Trip 2014: Halifax

Our stay in Halifax was relatively short, and most of our time was spent with my cousin who is doing her Master's degree in the city.  We used Airbnb again, and rented a cottage along a lake within the city.  During the day we spent some time on the boardwalk where Buskerfest was going on.  Due to the Ukraine/Russia conflict which is currently happening, masive naval ships were stopping in the Halifax port which literally looked like something out of a movie.  Although we didn't get to see much of Halifax beyond the boardwalk, we had a really nice taste of the city. Overall, although our time was short, it was quite a nice visit and having access to Netflix at our Airbnb house wasn't too bad either ;) 

MORE FOOD

Buskerfest along the Port

Massive Naval Ships

-M

Road Trip 2014: Sydney/Cape Breton

After taking the ferry back to Nova Scotia, we took some time to hang out in Sydney and Cape Breton as my sister had a friend who was staying in that area for the summer.  The ferry ride was generally uneventful; less painful than the overnight ferry, but it still felt pretty long.  We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon and took some time to hang out on the boardwalk and eat some amazing seafood.

We spent one day on the Cabot Trail which was quite interesting.  The Cabot Trail is scenic highway in Cape Breton.  It's essentially a loop.....a relatively windy loop which takes about 6 hours to drive without stops.  Of course, we took tons of stops, but in hindsight it was overall a bit rushed doing the whole trail in one day.  The day we chose to go was not the best day; it was pretty cloudy and grey out with occasional rain every so often. Nevertheless, the sights were gorgeous, especially once we got into the section of the trail cutting through the National Park.  It was neat to see some small towns along the way, and stopping for some amazing seafood every couple hours was of course a huge perk. 

We also spent a day in the Fortress of Louisbourg which was a French fortress in the 18th century and is now partially restored for tourism purposes.  The site was really neat as it was interactive with people in role and guided walking tours which were extremely informative.  Usually I would stray away from interactive type sites, especially now that I'm older; but everyone working in the Fortress knew the history down to a tee, and were able to answer a lot of questions about the site which was really nice (they also didn't mind breaking character).

Sydney's Giant Fiddle & SEAFOOD

Sydney Boardwalk

Views from the Cabot Trail (despite lousy weather)

Fortress of Louisbourg

-M

Road Trip 2014: Gros Morne National Park - The Tablelands

After my sister's camp officially ended, we packed the car and headed back towards the ferry at Porte aux Basques so that we could hang out a bit in Nova Scotia.  Along the way we planned a trip back to Gros Morne National Park, this time focusing on the Tablelands.  The Tablelands is made up of massive rock formations which make the area appear to look like more of a desert than a park.  We joined a tour at 10am lead by a park staff who took us through the main trail and explained some things along the way.  He explained the rock formations are parts of Earth's mantle and did many demonstrations pointing out unique plant life along the way.  He also told us that the Tablelands were studied by NASA who believe this area can be compared to what astronauts have seen on Mars.  

After the tour we stopped by the visitor's center and had a picnic lunch outside before heading over to Trout River, a small fishing village.  Walking around the village itself was really neat with lobster traps literally everywhere.  The village also looked as if it was built on different levels or plateaus which is another incredible land formation created by mother nature. After spending the day at Gros Morne, we drove back to the Porte where we stayed for the night before boarding the ferry the next morning.  

View of the Tablelands as  we drove into the park 

Patch of snow in the distance!

The Tablelands - looks like the Desert

View from the Visitor's Centre

Trout River

Another view of Trout River

-M

Road Trip 2014: St. John's

Our drive from Rocky Harbour to St. John's took about 6 hours which we pretty much did in one go.  Rather than staying in a hotel, we decided this time to rent a house using my favourite site: Airbnb.  The house was perfect, with tons of character and located right at the edge of downtown St. John's which meant we could walk wherever we wanted and easily access the sights via highway.  Unfortunately somewhere between Quebec and Moncton, a tiny pebble hit our windshield. By the time we got to St. John's the small little chip turned into a very big crack, and we had to deal with that during our stay.  Lucky for us, Newfoundlanders are lovely people and the windshield replacement place was more than happy to speed things along for us. 

Between attending my sister's open house and banquet, we had a chance to visit the main attractions which was nice for me since I don't actually remember much of my last trip to St. John's . We went to Signal Hill and Cape Spear, both of which were extremely windy.  We also had some amazing seafood including cod tongue, cod cheeks and Fish & Brewis (ick).  Even just walking around downtown St. John's was really nice, and taking pictures of the Jellybean Row Houses was quite amusing.  Needless to say, I really like St. John's and Newfoundland in general which I definitely need to visit again sometime soon!  

Fish & Brewis...didn't really have any taste

Cod cheeks and fish cakes NOMMM

View from Signal Hill

Cape spear!!!

Artsy fartsy

A whale was showing off by the shore

Jellybean row houses

-M

Road Trip 2014: Gros Morne National Park - Rocky Harbour

We left Quebec and drove to New Brunswick spending the night in Moncton; a city very close to Sackville where I spent a couple weeks last summer.  From there we drove straight to Nova Scotia and boarded a ferry to Newfoundland.  Quebec to Nova Scotia was basically a straight drive with very little time to look around.  Our ferry ride was overnight, and although the ferry itself was very nice, the extremely loud snorers made it a bit uncomfortable.  After docking in Porte aux Basques we drove to Rocky Harbour; an area right outside a section of Gros Morne National park; a UNESCO site.  

The park is absolutely massive so we chose to cover one section before heading over to St. John's.  The area we chose is called Western Brook Pond which is a fjord surrounded by amazing rock walls formed by Glaciers back in the day. The trail was nice with a boardwalk in the middle of marshland and huge rock formations in the distance.  We took a boat tour with a company called "BonTours' Western Brook Pond Boat Tour" which was interesting, but in hindsight wasn't really worth the price we paid.  The tour was about two hours long in a relatively slow boat, and although we had a guide explaining stuff to us, it wasn't as interesting as other parts of the National Park.  Still, the sights were nevertheless gorgeous 

Trail through Western Brook Pond

Boat Tour

View from the Boat Tour

View of the Tablelands from Norris Point

Rocky Harbour

-M

Road Trip 2014: Quebec City

For a long time I was convinced I've visited Quebec City before.  Turns out I haven't, I've just been to Montreal and Ottawa way too many times.  Anyways, on day two of our trip we drove into Quebec City in the morning and had amazing smoked meat sandwiches for lunch before heading to check out the fortifications of Quebec which was pretty neat to see.  We then roamed around old Quebec, followed a trail from one end of town to the other and overall just got a feel for the city. Quebec City was quite different from what I imagined and also very different from other places I've traveled.  I can't really describe it; but I felt like Old Quebec was very quaint and almost perfect feeling...which doesn't make much sense, but I guess you'll have to go there to find out.   Anyways, I had a really nice time in the city and I had some amazing food from baked goods to beef cheeks; it was just a shame we only had the one day!

Fortifications of Quebec

mmmmmm Beef Cheeks

Chicken xD

Old Quebec

Smoked Meat Sandwich

Old Port

-M