We drove up to the North Shore to Cape George. It was gorgeous and for once all of the trails were marked. We couldn't even get out of the car. Nancy did drive up to the lighthouse so I could take a picture out of the window. We drove along the coast and then headed across N.S. in the rain. We are going to the coast of Bay of Fundy (Amherst), the entrance to get into New Brunswick. It rained on us until around 3 today. I still tried to take pictures of the beautiful leaves. When N could, she would slow down so I could stick my camera out to take a picture.
Hopefully some of them will turn out. We're in a new Super 8 tonight. pool, whirlpool, and the works. We walked down to the shopping center and walked around the Target (only clothes) and a few other stores and then went to the Pizza Delight. We split a pizza again. There were no other restaurants, only fast food places. We hope to get some pictures on our blog tonight.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Last of Cape Breton
We headed out of C.B. hoping the weather would clear up. It didn't rain today but was cloudy, not good for picture taking. We took some of the changing leaves and hope they turn out.
We wanted to go to Egypt Falls but the Dreamers and Doers (their travel book) didn't explain where it was. We asked several people and they all said it was a very wide and beautiful waterfall..but they'd never climbed down to it. The last guy we talked to said he had done it. He said it was long and very steep to come back up--but not to worry, they had ropes to help you up--after just a little bit of considering we decided it wasn't for us. so we keep on driving. We did find a nice trail back into the marsh to walk. This 2 mile trek was boring, flat and uneventful.
We are finding more and more that roads, lighthouses, trails are not marked. It's very frustrating to not be able to find them. We see many cars parked along the road and guess they're on a trail but don't know where the trail leads to.
Each house in N.S. that we see along the way has it's own designer garbage holder. Some even put flowers on them. It must be hard for the trash men to have to open up each one to get the garbage.
Most homes, even small ones have green lawns with flowers. Some have acres of green grass. Americans would hire someone to cut these huge yards usually high on hills.
We are finding if there is a New Harbour, there is also a North, East or West New Harbour too.
Ice Cream is big up here. There are ice cream shops but it's also sold in craft stores, etc.
We see many old wooden boats in yards, don't know if they are there during the off season or beginning used as decorations
We're staying in Antognish. Went across the street and treated ourselves to ribs.
We wanted to go to Egypt Falls but the Dreamers and Doers (their travel book) didn't explain where it was. We asked several people and they all said it was a very wide and beautiful waterfall..but they'd never climbed down to it. The last guy we talked to said he had done it. He said it was long and very steep to come back up--but not to worry, they had ropes to help you up--after just a little bit of considering we decided it wasn't for us. so we keep on driving. We did find a nice trail back into the marsh to walk. This 2 mile trek was boring, flat and uneventful.
We are finding more and more that roads, lighthouses, trails are not marked. It's very frustrating to not be able to find them. We see many cars parked along the road and guess they're on a trail but don't know where the trail leads to.
Each house in N.S. that we see along the way has it's own designer garbage holder. Some even put flowers on them. It must be hard for the trash men to have to open up each one to get the garbage.
Most homes, even small ones have green lawns with flowers. Some have acres of green grass. Americans would hire someone to cut these huge yards usually high on hills.
We are finding if there is a New Harbour, there is also a North, East or West New Harbour too.
Ice Cream is big up here. There are ice cream shops but it's also sold in craft stores, etc.
We see many old wooden boats in yards, don't know if they are there during the off season or beginning used as decorations
We're staying in Antognish. Went across the street and treated ourselves to ribs.
Highlands National Park/Cape Breton
We bundled up (43 degrees)this a.m. I had on twice as much as Nancy did. We headed down the East side of C.B. We found cups of coffee and hot chocolate to eat with our muffins from yesterday.
Our first trail was walking to the end of White Point. It had rained off and on but wasn't when we began. We walked to one of the end, high on rocks above the Atlantic. It started to sprinkle and we were a long way from the car. Nancy "hauled buggy" and I only sauntered down because I'm not taking any chances with my knee. We both were at the car when the rain really started. We headed back up the Cabot Trail/ We had to stop many times because men were working on the road to get prepared for winter.
All this time we looked for a place to have breakfast. We like to start out with this especially if we're going on a hike. No luck. We proceeded down the road stopping at a lot of the coves. The sun finally came out when we got to Green Cove. We walked up (of course)to the top of a bunch of pink, white and grey granite. Can you believe it was finally high tide. The waaaaves crashed on the rocks before us, making great pictures.
At 11:00 we finally found a place for breakfast. They can't mess that up. After that we filled up the car with gas and headed for the Keltic Lodge, a gorgeous hotel, convention center up on a penisula. We used their powder room but thought the penthouse for $1,600 was out of our range. We did the Middle Head trail behind the lodge.(2.5 miles) Again the trail went up and down mostly rocky. It was well worth it though. We were high on the point, waves crashing and the sun was still out !!!!! We met some other hikers on the way down they said they had seen a bald eagle and a golden eagle flying around up there but by the time we got there they were gone. We had worked up such a sweat, Nancy had taken off one sweatshirt, I had taken off two.
We continued on down the road to Baddeck, a fairly large town.(1 street) It was getting late and we were tired and didn't know what accommodates were around the corner. We treated ourselves to the Lynwood Lodge. We walked down the street and found a small diner and had fried chicken and mash potatoes. Potatoes are grown up here so they're served at each meal
The whirlpool in our room helped our aching body. We tried to get something on t.v. but all there was was sports. That seems to be true on most of their stations. Sorry if I have repeated myself. It's difficult to type something that I wrote several days before.
Our first trail was walking to the end of White Point. It had rained off and on but wasn't when we began. We walked to one of the end, high on rocks above the Atlantic. It started to sprinkle and we were a long way from the car. Nancy "hauled buggy" and I only sauntered down because I'm not taking any chances with my knee. We both were at the car when the rain really started. We headed back up the Cabot Trail/ We had to stop many times because men were working on the road to get prepared for winter.
All this time we looked for a place to have breakfast. We like to start out with this especially if we're going on a hike. No luck. We proceeded down the road stopping at a lot of the coves. The sun finally came out when we got to Green Cove. We walked up (of course)to the top of a bunch of pink, white and grey granite. Can you believe it was finally high tide. The waaaaves crashed on the rocks before us, making great pictures.
At 11:00 we finally found a place for breakfast. They can't mess that up. After that we filled up the car with gas and headed for the Keltic Lodge, a gorgeous hotel, convention center up on a penisula. We used their powder room but thought the penthouse for $1,600 was out of our range. We did the Middle Head trail behind the lodge.(2.5 miles) Again the trail went up and down mostly rocky. It was well worth it though. We were high on the point, waves crashing and the sun was still out !!!!! We met some other hikers on the way down they said they had seen a bald eagle and a golden eagle flying around up there but by the time we got there they were gone. We had worked up such a sweat, Nancy had taken off one sweatshirt, I had taken off two.
We continued on down the road to Baddeck, a fairly large town.(1 street) It was getting late and we were tired and didn't know what accommodates were around the corner. We treated ourselves to the Lynwood Lodge. We walked down the street and found a small diner and had fried chicken and mash potatoes. Potatoes are grown up here so they're served at each meal
The whirlpool in our room helped our aching body. We tried to get something on t.v. but all there was was sports. That seems to be true on most of their stations. Sorry if I have repeated myself. It's difficult to type something that I wrote several days before.
Cape Breton
Nancy drove most of the day in the rail. The sun would come out for a minute and tease us. Again we took roads that ran along the water. We saw beautifully colored trees (finally had a high tide) and water crashing against the rocks but it was so gray we hardly took any pictures. It got colder as the day progressed. Nancy was fine with the cold but I was freezing. I bought 2 more sweatshirts (I have many at home). We are staying in Cape North(two t.v. stations) no coffee pot) which is almost at the top of Cape Breton Island. There are 2 motels, 2 B&B, 1 restaurant, 1 sm. grocery store, and a few homes. We drove to Bay of St. Lawrence, the highest point in Cape Breton. There was nothing these. Then we drove to Dingwall. It had a small cafe so we split a pizza for supper. We didn't walk today.Tomorrow is suppose to be 40 degrees with wind but if its not rainy there are many trails down the east coast that we want to do. Middle Head Trail behind the Keltic Lodge is the trail we really want to do. We needed gas so we ask a man and he said that it was 1/2 click down the street. Anyone know what that means?
As we drove today we noticed that the rock formations changed. Many were boulders, then others were like big flat rocks. We drove out to Cheticamp Island. Down a wet, clay road to the east end we saw Enrage Lighthouse. The lighthouse come in various sizes depending on where they are but they're always red and white. Maine lighthouses are much taller, don't know why.
Facts: no rye bread here, gravy on french fries, no crackers for soup, great ham, different tasting sausage, speed limits seems to change more often than ours (it's still scarey to see speed signs saying 100 (52 for us)
As we drove today we noticed that the rock formations changed. Many were boulders, then others were like big flat rocks. We drove out to Cheticamp Island. Down a wet, clay road to the east end we saw Enrage Lighthouse. The lighthouse come in various sizes depending on where they are but they're always red and white. Maine lighthouses are much taller, don't know why.
Facts: no rye bread here, gravy on french fries, no crackers for soup, great ham, different tasting sausage, speed limits seems to change more often than ours (it's still scarey to see speed signs saying 100 (52 for us)
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Going North
We are having a very difficult time find computers. Most of the motels don't have them, no internet cafes.
It rained most of the night and most of the day. "Riding the Tide" was not in the works for us today because of the rain and day. Do this means going out in a zodiak at low tide, waiting for the high tide to come in, and then riding the waves. It is more fun than white water rafting. We had to change our plans. We picked back roads, mostly were maintanced ones. The roads went up the mts. and then into the valley and it was my time to drive. Driving in the rain on windy roads was tiring. We had no sun therefore no pictures. It was hard to see the roads with the rain and the mist from the other cars. I was glad when we stopped for lunch and Nancy started driving. We stopped at the visitor center when we got to Cape Breton. They made a reservations for us at Inverness Lodge, waterview--we though this was going to be super. Well--when we got there around 4 our image was squelched. Couldn't see the water. We drove down to the boardwalk near the beach. We couldn't get to the beach because there was 6-7 foot cliffs down to it. We finally found one entrance to the beach. It was covered with rocks- good thing we had shoes on. We didn't really how lucky we were to have such beatiful beaches.
For those of you that know me will know I love hamburgers. But no more for me. The beef taste so different, evidently not their best meat. The best food we've had was pan fried haddock--it was delicious. On one of our back street, we saw probably 100 Cana. geese rest from their flight south. I scared them so they took off flying. Got a great picture of that! Not edited.
It rained most of the night and most of the day. "Riding the Tide" was not in the works for us today because of the rain and day. Do this means going out in a zodiak at low tide, waiting for the high tide to come in, and then riding the waves. It is more fun than white water rafting. We had to change our plans. We picked back roads, mostly were maintanced ones. The roads went up the mts. and then into the valley and it was my time to drive. Driving in the rain on windy roads was tiring. We had no sun therefore no pictures. It was hard to see the roads with the rain and the mist from the other cars. I was glad when we stopped for lunch and Nancy started driving. We stopped at the visitor center when we got to Cape Breton. They made a reservations for us at Inverness Lodge, waterview--we though this was going to be super. Well--when we got there around 4 our image was squelched. Couldn't see the water. We drove down to the boardwalk near the beach. We couldn't get to the beach because there was 6-7 foot cliffs down to it. We finally found one entrance to the beach. It was covered with rocks- good thing we had shoes on. We didn't really how lucky we were to have such beatiful beaches.
For those of you that know me will know I love hamburgers. But no more for me. The beef taste so different, evidently not their best meat. The best food we've had was pan fried haddock--it was delicious. On one of our back street, we saw probably 100 Cana. geese rest from their flight south. I scared them so they took off flying. Got a great picture of that! Not edited.
Driving along Bay of Fundy
We left Annapolis Royal to go to a wilderness trailhead. We haad filled up with gas in Digby and were really glad abecause we hardly saw a station. They don't have them on every corner like we do. We paid $1.02 a liter. We were told by a aCanadian that was abouta $4.00 a gallon. (Sounds like last yr. doesn't it) We found Delap's Cove after driving down 2 mi. of very steep garvel road. We began our walk to the waterfall and cliffs. The trail went through an old growth forest going up, then down. In places we had to dodge the roots and others had to make our way through the rocks. During the walk Patty had a serious discussion with a Cana. about Health Care. We agreed to disagree. Nancy of course was aheqd of me (I take 2 steps to her one) and she's fast and I'm slow. After 20 mins., she came back to find me thinking I had fallen but only found me talking. The tide was low again (the tide's abeen low since we got to N.S.) so all the rocks are exposed with seaweed. We're hoping for a high tide so we can see the water crashing on the rocks. We then headed on #1 which runs along he Bay of Fundy. Because we were so high up, the leaves showed color. We drove on other roads that neither had names or numbers. We just hoped we were going the right way. We went up to Lookoff. We could see the beautiful valley abelow. The leaves had more color in the valley, various shades of green, orange, red, maroon. We drove through many "coves" each having about 10 homes. Saw healthy horses with their winter coats, but we saw hardly any people. Each little cove, village, town had their own cementry some with only 10-12 headstones. We had to stop on many of the roads because men were repairing the roads for winter. We saw many ornate churches, sometimes two next to each other. We saw one hanging off of a cliff. We joked about where the preacher stood--on the side on land. We found most Cana. people so gracious and willing to help. They stop when you walk up to a street to let you cross, same as in Maine. I know I drink too many diet cokes but I can't here. There are no free refills. Someplaces don't even have ice for your water. We're staying in Windsor, the birthplace of Hockey. We have seen more Canadians on vacation than people from the states. Won't have time to edit this so forgive me.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
The Cat/Nova Scotia
We bought muffins again and waited to get on the Cat. Many cars, buses and walkons were right along with us. We found us good seats with a table in the middle of the catamaran. After 3 1/2 hr. we arrived in Yarmouth, N.S. We followed Rt. 1 up the coast to Digby Neck, a peninsula with 2 islands sticking out into the Bay of Fundy. It took us a long time to drive to the end of the peninsula, then caught a ferry to Long Island, then another ferry to Brier Island. We had made reservations at the Brier Island Lodge. This is an lobstering island, everything seemed to be old. Because we didn't get there until 7:00 we didn't have time to check out any trails. We did some blogging with our wine and then turned in early. Today we were up early but you couldn't see past your nose. The fog was so thick! We were going on a whale watching tour but they didn't go out until noon because of the fog and we didn't want to waste the rest of the day. We did drive down a gravel road to the lighthouse, parked, then walked to Seal Cove. By the time we got there the seals had gone back to the sea to feed. We walked down to the Balancing Rock. The trail had a boardwalk over the bog and 235 STEPS down to the water. That wasn't bad until we had to go back up those 235 STEPS. It was almost to foggy to see much of anything when we got there. We did all of the ferries again and ended up in Digby, N.S. where we had a late lunch. The haddock was the best piece of fish that we've had so far. We drove on the Anapolis Royal and found us a room. lWe wanted to be close to where we will walk tomorrow.
Acadia National Park
It was 39 degrees this a.m. I was so cold! The heater in the room didn't work so well so we like to have frozen before we even went outsde. We started off this morning with breakfast at the local Exxon station. We bought muffins to eat later on. We tried Thunder Hole today but this time the tide was too high for it to blow. Better luck on our way back to Acadia. We parked our car there and started our hike. We took Otter Cliffs trail to Sand Beach. We were going to ride the trolley back to the car but Patty said that she thought she could make it. Then we drove to Jordan's Pond. We went upstairs on the balcony overlooking the pond. Many tables were set ulp on the lawn and we serving lunch. Our muffins and drinks were just as good but a lot cheaper.
We bought ball caps to wear so we didin't have to mess with our hair. It's so windy here. Bar Harbour was our next stop. We shopped around and each bought another sweatshirt. We have many at home but didn't pack any because we never dreamed it would be so cold/windy. We had dinner there and then headed back home. It had warmy up considerably so we took our wine/snacks and sat on chairs on the lawn.
We bought ball caps to wear so we didin't have to mess with our hair. It's so windy here. Bar Harbour was our next stop. We shopped around and each bought another sweatshirt. We have many at home but didn't pack any because we never dreamed it would be so cold/windy. We had dinner there and then headed back home. It had warmy up considerably so we took our wine/snacks and sat on chairs on the lawn.
Acadia National Park/Bar Harbour
We left Rckland headed north. We first drive to the summit of Mt. Bettie and took pictures of Penobscot Bay and Camden Cove. Then we drove through Ducktrap, Northport, Lincolnville, Bayside- small villages that you'd miss if you blinked. We found a room in Bar Harbour just one mile from Acadia. In the park we checked out Sand Beach the only sandy beach in the park) It was very cold but many were in the water. We drove to Thunder Hole hoping that it would blow but the tide was too low. We didn't drive the entire loop road because we wanted to go to Bar Harbour to buy our tickets to go on the Cat across to Nova Scotia. We had our regular glasses of wine and snacks for supper.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Lighthouses
Forgot to tell you this! In Boothbay I was using the office computer...and after i did the blog, i accidently went to another blog....well all we saw was a bunch of nude BUTTS! I got out of there so fast that we didn"t see anything else. I guess the guy working the front desk occupied himself very well. From Boothbay Harbour we headed up the coast to Rockland. We visited Pemaquid Litehouse whi ch had huge slabs of rockjs going into the sea. It was low tide so we were able to climb down on the rocks. We also climbed to the top of the litehouse. Then we walked up the many stairs to Owl's Nest lithouse. Below the shoreline was very rocky. BUT the Rockland Breakwater one was the hardest to get to. It was 7/8 's of a mile out in the bay. To get to it we had to walk on a rock walkway. These rocks were placed on the water supposedly in a line. Some had openings between them, some higher than the ones next to them.We had to watch where put our feet or we would have fallen beteen the cracks. It seemed like we were going UPUPUP..whether we were in the car or walking. This was much different walking for to Fl gals.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monhegan Island
Our first morning in Maine was in the 40's. After we bundled up we headed for Monhegan Island. The boat ride was an hour and a half of rockin' and rollin'. The island has only sand roads and 65 permanent residents, most of who are artists. People go over there to paint or hike. We hiked the Whitehead trail that went across the island to the high cliffs. We ate our snacks sitting on the cliff overlooking the ocean crashing into the many rocks. The trails were steep and rocky and many were difficult to manuveur around the roots and rocks. Some of the trails were only 2 ft. wide. We both did well with our "bumb" knees. We're staying in Boothbay Harbor right on the water. Tomorrow we're heading up the coast towards Acadia National Park.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Time for another trip
It's a great time of the year for two Florida gals to go to the north east. We are looking forward to some cool weather and hope to see the beautiful colors of a New England fall. I hope you will join us on our trip and enjoy it as much as I know we will.
On the Road Again
Nancy and Patty are leaving for Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswich on Wed. We are excited to be out in nature again. Nova Scotia has so many small fishing villages and trails to explore. We might try ziplining ...who knows what else we might try. Hope you follow along with us on our adventure.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
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