On Friday, we rode the bicycles into Charlottetown. We really didn’t want to pay to have them
picked up in Murray Harbor. So, we broke
the ride into 20km segments with a meeting point at each one. One person drove the car ahead to meet us
with snacks and water. I am proud to say
I biked the first three legs! While PEI
is relatively flat, there are rolling hills, and the bike gears really made
them easier to do. I ended up in “granny
gear” a couple of times, but I did not have to get off the bike!
Saturday morning, we loaded the car and headed back to New
Brunswick. Our first stop for the evening was Kouchibouguac (Coo-she-boo-gwak),
a beautiful Canadian National Park on the Northumberland Straight just south of
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The name comes
from the Mi’kmaq word river of the long tides.
We went to one of the beaches that was reached by a boardwalk over the
salt marshes for an evening stroll.
There were herons, osprey, and a bunch of terns successfully fishing in
the marsh. It was so much fun to watch
the birds dive and come up with the little fish they were catching. The terns were making a lot of vocalizations,
which I interpreted as, “I got one! I got one!”
The jelly fish were washing up on shore and Lynn had some fun trying to
get them to go back out. The sunset was
beautiful there. On our way out of the
park back to our motel, we were hopeful to have a moose sighting, but we were
not so fortunate.
We left early the next morning for Caraquet on the Acadian
Peninsula. We were fortunate to be here
during their Acadian Festival. The day
we arrived was the day for the Blessing of the Boats. Many of the large fishing boats were
decorated with flags of Canada, New Brunswick, and Acadia. The houses down the main street were also
proudly decorated with the Acadian Flag, a gold star in the blue portion of the
French flag. Down on near the wharf,
there is a fisheries school, and the blessing of the boats has been an event
for about two hundred years. Fishing is
the backbone of this community. We were
told that the captains of the boats would invite visitors on board for a ride
before the ceremony. Lynn and Steve were
fortunate to land a place on the Praga, the boat chosen for the blessing. They had a ride and a personal tour of the
boat by the boat’s captain, a woman justifiably proud of her accomplishments.
We are staying in a lovely Bed & Breakfast, L’Heureux
Hasard, which translates into a happy chance, or serendipity. The owner, Manon, is a cheerful, friendly
woman. Like the B&B proprietors we
have encountered, she is a font of information about the area and what is going
on so we can make plans for the day. The
breakfasts are beautifully presented and delicious. We highly recommend this place to anyone traveling to this area.
On Monday, we visited the Acadian Village. This is a living history museum where they
have moved houses and barns from around the area to depict Acadian life between
1775 and 1940. Farm houses, fishing,
churches, a grist & carding mills are on the premises with people dressed
in period costumes there to tell you all about the building and the people who
lived there. They demonstrated cooking
and baking using wood fired clay ovens, making netting & rope, farming,
preparing and spinning wool and flax, making shingles, wooden buckets, tubs and
barrels. There was a printing press and
a restaurant featuring Acadian food.
I
love these types of museums as they can really give a sense of the community we
are visiting. Moving into the 20
th
century, there was even a gas station with oil in glass bottles! We spent most of the day there. At the end of our tour around the village,
they had the baked goods they were making throughout the day for sale in the
gift store. We bought some of the bead
and cookies they made... very tasty!
Tuesday, we drove to the nearby island of Miscou. There we spent time on a beach all to ourselves that was recommended by Manon. We noticed the water draining into the Atlantic ocean was tinted brown. We later discovered this was most likely due to the peat bogs that cover almost half of the island. We walked a boardwalk through one of them that had interpretive signage. We discovered pitcher plants that were flowering!
We were directed to Steve's Canteen on the island by three separate sources. So, we went, of course. He has a sign that says he has the freshest seafood around. He showed us the fish pens where he kept the lobsters and shellfish. Talk about fresh, these creatures were alive moments before they were cooked up and served to you! The support beams to the shed that covered the tables were made of driftwood. He has his visitors sign their names and places, so we left our mark!
In Shippagan, we were amazed at the fishing boats that had been hauled out of the water for winter storage already. Their fishing season ended and to keep the boats safe during the winter, they take them out of the water.
All in all another good day of discovering new places. I love traveling. Today, we travel to Quebec City!
We arrived in Quebec City just as they were preparing the
streets for the parade that started the Festival of New France. We stayed in a B&B in the old city not
two blocks from the street where the parade entered the old city. As George & Lynn unloaded the car, Steven
and I took a walk to find the parking garage.
Did I say this was an old city?
The streets are not a grid, and it took us a while to get ourselves
oriented. Once we did, we went back for the car. As Steven and I were moving the car to the
parking garage, they were closing the streets behind us! We had a short adventure with finding the
parking structure as I missed the right turn into the garage. It took us a while to make our way back to
try it again. It involved an illegal U
turn, but hey, we finally made it to the garage. With the car safely parked, we made our way
back to the street where the parade had already started. We watched for a while, trying to find a good
time to cross the street to get back to the B&B. We immediately took George & Lynn with us
to watch the rest of the parade. It was
a spectacle. Townspeople dressed in
period costume (the city was founded in 1609) large icons of the different
aspects of the foundations of their city and culture. It was fun to watch the
people proudly celebrating their heritage. 
And speaking of Levis, our visit coincided with the Jazz
festival they were having there. George
and I took the ferry from the city, walked up the hill and to the streets of
this small town. They had several music
venues, and the restaurants and bistros had placed tables out into the
streets. We had a light dinner, and then
enjoyed a couple of the acts before traveling back to the city by ferry. We could hear the music of the Cirque du Soleil show on our way back to the ferry, and was able to view the light show on the grain elevators on the trip back to Quebec.
