Prince Edward Island: Final Day

Final day in PEI, and unfortunately a short day because of our flight! We managed to fit in some more sights while also doing all the admin (returning the car etc.). I started off my day with one final run through the downtown core, past the conference centre and the giant 2018 (in case folks forget the year). 

We decided to go back to Prince Edward Island National Park today, this time entering the park from another entrance. We wanted to access the boardwalk section of the park which involved a stroll through a sandy area, followed by a paved/bridge section. It was beautiful! It reminded me a bit of my trip to Newfoundland (see past blog posts several years back) in Gros Morne National Park. Finally, we ended off our trip with some seafood, because...why not!!!!! PEI, you were great!
-M

Prince Edward Island: Day 2

Today we had the full day to travel  and started off visiting the St. Dunstan Basilica in Charlottetown. Our Airbnb was literally a block and a half away; so we figured it would be neat to check out the interior! We then drove over to the Summerside area and took a look around. It was still pretty early so things were pretty quiet, but we fell in love with the colourful shops on Spinnakers Landing. I'm embarrassed to admit this; but we ended up getting food at McDonalds. Fish and Chips aren't on the Toronto menu at McDonalds so curiosity got the best of us and we had to give it a shot! I can't lie; it wasn't bad at all!

We then drove to an attraction called Bottle Houses- Maisons de Bouteilles; a collection of buildings made out of glass bottles. My photos don't do it justice whatsoever (Google it to see better photos), but it was beautiful! Had a bit of a fantasty feel to it all, especially when the sun came through the coloured bottles. Close by was the Green Gables Alpaca Farm which we decided to check out. Why not visit some Alpacas (and lamas)? Getting up close and personal with the alpacas was loads of fun!
On our way back, we passed by a view of the Confederation Bridge which of course we had to stop and look at! It's wild to see this giant bridge across the skyline...in a previous East Coast trip, I remember driving across what felt like an endless giant bridge, seeing all the potato trucks driving alongside our car xD. We ended off our evening with a musical - a production of Anne and Gilbert (because you can't go to PEI without paying homage to Anne of Green Gables!).
-M

Post-Conference Adventure in PEI: Day 1

This month I attended a conference in Charlottetown! Following the conference, my friend and I took some time off to travel around PEI. We kept Charlottetown as our home base, rented a car, and drove around the Island in what turned out to be a really fun little trip! During the conference we spent a lot of time exploring Charlottetown - my favourite morning run was along the Victoria Park Boardwalk along the water.

Our first post-conference day started out a bit later; we took the opportunity to sleep in and rent the car. We had lunch with some friends before they went back home to Toronto. Our first drive was about an hour out to Thunder Cove Beach where we went to see the Teacup Rock and other cool rock formations.

We spent a fair bit of time there, hanging out on the beach and taking in the rocks before we continued driving along the water stopping to enjoy the sights in the Rustico area. We ended up grabbing dinner at Blue Mussel Cafe and happened to be there during a "Best of the Sea" competition in which this restaurant was part of it! Unsurprisingly the food was fantastic :)

Finally, we ended off our evening at Prince Edward Island National Park. I didn't realize it until later; but this happened to be Summer Solstice (ie. the longest day of the year) which was perfect for catching the sunset off the water/lighthouse! 

 

 

-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