Home.

We arrived home yesterday night. It is good to be home!

Here is a condensed version of our trip from Montreal to home, because I wrote a very long post about Montreal to (almost) home on Saturday, only to have the stupid program delete the whole thing, rather than post it. And no, I did not accidentally hit "delete," and yes, I had been periodically saving it throughout the writing process. However, the program had decided to time out on me, without telling me or giving me warning. Personally, I think that when it says you're signed in...you really should be signed in! Grrr...

Anyways, in light of that, this is the condensed (hopefully. I'm not very good at condensing things.) version of the end of our trip.

Montreal: We spent three nights and two days here. We had dinner at Schwartz's Delicatessen...smoked meat sandwiches, fries and giant pickles. It was delicious. That was the evening of the first whole day.

The second whole day, we walked around Old Montreal, and then went for dinner at a Greek food restaurant on Prince Arthur street. It was very nice...:)

Ottawa: we returned here to see Mosaika, the light show on the Parliament Buildings, because when we were there before, the show had been cancelled because thieves had robbed the production trailer. It was excellent. It's amazing what can be done with lights! It was about half and hour long and covered most of Canadian history...like a condensed version of my Socials class the last two years. So right from exploration all the way through to today! We definitely recommend it to anyone going to Ottawa!

The next morning, we took a tour of the Centre Block of the Parliament buildings. We saw the House of Commons, the Senate, the Library (my favourite room!) and the Peace Tower...the ceiling of the Peace Tower was exactly as I'd remembered it from when we went up it when I was small!

Toronto: We drove from Ottawa to Toronto (getting stuck in traffic on the 401. My dad has a little song about that. It goes like this: I hate this road, I hate this road, I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate this road!) for dinner with the Littles at Danette's.

The next day, we went to Auntie Miriam and Uncle Ken's house for lunch, then to the beach with Melodie, Taylor, Tristan and Jedidiah. (well, Mum, Craig and I did. Dad was on business.) It started to rain while we were at the beach, so we packed up, only to have the rain stop, so we went to the playground, only to have the skies open up and pour on us. We drove back to Auntie Miriam's in the rain, and were quite wet by the time we ran from the van to the house. It took my TOMS shoes two days to dry fully!

Later on, Craig and I went to Mel's house for dinner and swimming, while Mum and Dad went out for dinner with Auntie Miriam and Uncle Ken.

The following day was spent at Roger's Stadium with Michelle and Andrew, and Auntie Miriam and Uncle Ken, watching a Blue Jays game. I didn't die of boredom, miraculously, even though it was three hours long! I think that's because I was chewing gum the entire time, giving myself something to do. In fact, I chewed that gum for so long that it dissolved on my tongue. I didn't know it could do that! It was disgusting. Not nice. At all. I do not recommend it to anyone! And the Blue Jays didn't even win. So I sat there for three hours and had my gum dissolve for nothing...well actually, it was nice to see everybody. So I guess that's not nothing. Seeing family is a pretty good reason, actually, to suffer through a baseball game. I guess. I still say I should have brought a book. Or Courtney. One of the two.

On Wednesday, we went to Canada's Wonderland with Mel, her kids and Danette for the day, while Dad made more business calls. We had so much fun! We went on roller coasters, water slides and ate pizza and funnel cakes (mmm!)

We left Toronto the next morning and drove to Tober Morey to take the ferry to Manitoulin Island. We had a great time walking around the town while waiting for the ship, and then boarded the ferry for a beautiful evening crossing...it had been foggy the past three nights, apparently, but we had gorgeous weather!

From Manitoulin Island we drove to Nippegon, stopping at Batchawana Bay to eat and go swimming...in our clothes. It was sort of a spontaneous decision to go swimming, and none of us were wearing bathing suits. So we just went swimming anyway, and changed when we got back to the car. :)

We drove from Nippegon to Winnipeg, where we stayed overnight before driving to Niverville for church with David, Melissa, Merci, Leigha, Josiah and baby Tobias. We had lunch with them and then headed off to Minnedosa.

We had dinner with the Kingdon family at Mum's cousin's the first evening. The next day was spent with Auntie Joan and Uncle Charlie. They showed us the Minnedosa Heritage village and we got to see how it had changed from the last time we were there. They also took us for a drive around the area and to the lookout tower to watch the sunset and see the town from a higher vantage point.

We left Minnedosa and drove to Swift Current to stay overnight, and then headed to Shaunavon to visit Paige, Jason and their three little girls. We had lunch with Paige and the kids, saw their store, and then headed out to the farm, where Jason's dad gave us a tour. From there we drove to Calgary, where we had dessert with our family friends, the Manns. We had breakfast with Auntie Penny and Uncle Brent the next morning, as they were in town so we'd missed them in Shaunavon, and then we headed to Head-Smashed-In buffalo jump UNESCO world heritage site. We walked around the museum and around the site, and then we got back in the car to drive up into the Rockies and back to BC. We stayed in Cranbrook overnight, and then drove the next day to Grand Forks via Nelson, Castlegar and Christina Lake. We spent Saturday there. Craig and Dad went fishing and I wrote the original version of this blog post...only to have it deleted on me! Grr. We also sat by a river for a while, and just relaxed.

We drove home from Grand Forks yesterday, stopping at Tinhorn Creek Winery in Oliver for lunch, as we've done several times in the past few years, and at Tickleberry's for ice cream, as is tradition. We've stopped at Tickleberry's every year since I was in grade eight, I think.

We arrived home yesterday evening and are currently settling in and planning to go out to run a few errands, and go to the Chiropractor for a much needed adjustment. (Thanks again, Campbelton Sobey's kiwi peel! Grrr...) I am very excited at the prospect of having my back aligned properly for the first time in four weeks! :)

It was an incredible trip...we have so many great memories. We visited a lot of wonderful people, saw some pretty amazing sites and had an awesome time overall. Thank-you for sharing in it with us through this blog.

Much love,
Kelsey

PS- yes, this is the condensed version. I think. I'm pretty sure the original was longer. Then again, maybe not...:)

Pictures of our trip so far...

Fredi, Kelsey and Craig in the van.

Craig, Scott, Kelsey and Fredi under the giant teepee in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

A Canadian Flag and the Wawa, Ontario Goose.

The Rainbow we saw at Niagara Falls.

Craig, Kelsey and Fredi under the giant spider in front of the National Art Gallery in Ottawa, with the Parliament buildings in the distance.

Craig, Scott and Kelsey in front of Montmorency Falls, just outside of Quebec City.

Kelsey in front of Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City.

Scott, Craig and Kelsey on the porch of the B&B we stayed at in Cavendish, PEI.

Kelsey in front of Green Gables house, Cavendish, PEI.

Craig in Province House, site of the Charlottetown Conference that would result in the formation of Canada.

Some red sand near Confederation Bridge, PEI.

The Giant Fiddle in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and Kelsey.

Canon firing at the Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

A moose that we saw on the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island.

Guards of the Highland Regiment at the Citadel in Halifax, NS.

Theodore Tugboat in Halifax Harbour...he's just so darn happy looking!!!

The Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, NS.

Kelsey writing "Word Painting of Peggy's Cove" on the rocks at Peggy's Cove.

Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick.

Craig, Kelsey and our pile of "curly fries" in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Joanne blowing bubbles outside of our hotel in Saint John.

Word Painting of Peggy's Cove...

Green hills scattered with gray-white boulders rise up on either side of the road as sparse trees and glittering little lakes flash past the windows. Above the white and green and blue of the hills stretches the vast azure dome of the sky. Silvery clouds like a thousand heavenly islands march in soft pattern toward the horizon beyond the hills. As the hills slope down to the sapphire and sea-foam waves, the grass and trees give way to smooth, sloping rock, white and black and red, marching down in jumbled tiers and dips to the everlasting murmur of a sea that has lived longer than any mortal man. What tales that deep ocean could tell, of sailing ships and settlers and humanity’s selfish wars! I wish I could understand the voices of the sea…surely the waves would be master storytellers!

There is a lighthouse of simple lines and innocent, pure colours, white with a red top. Against the backdrop of clouds and sky, the lighthouse stands resolute. It is a true and honest building, in a true and honest place of clean, clear colour…no pretense. Yes, there is danger…the deceptive sea could reach fingers of white onto the closest rocky reaches without warning, but the land is not a liar. It is simply itself: A place of peace and beauty, a natural testament to a divine creator…the rocks cry out; the sea whispers- songs of praise. The wind sweeps in across the smooth rock coastline, carrying the cool scent of unpolluted ocean; a heavenly perfume of land and sea and sky.

This place is: austere, but welcoming, silent and wise, ancient and hopeful, and…free. Despite the flocking tourists and the lovely fishing village that draws them…despite the development and civilization that reaches out to the lighthouse on the rocks, this place is still itself. It is forever wild, unchangeable... solid, like another rock I know…

On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand…all other ground is sinking sand!

~ KMM, July 31st, 2010

Halifax, Peggy's Cove, Saint John, but no St. John's....

Here's what has been going on since we left Cape Breton Island...

(my mum says that she thinks I should just write in first person, and I agree, so I will. :) )

We left the island and drove all day to Halifax, arriving at a very nice Residence Inn right in the middle of Halifax...it was a great location to stay at...everything was within walking distance, so while my dad drove around visiting people in Halifax, Mum, Craig and I went to tour the Citadel and walk the waterfront.

The Citadel was very interesting...there is a lot of history on the Atlantic coast...it seems to me that there are more historic sights everywhere you go on this side of the country than on our own side, and there are so many university and high school aged kids working as historical "animators" (I heard someone refer to them that way) I think it looks like a fun job to me...right up my alley...you get to wear period costume and give tours about history...how fun is that? Maybe I should see about working at the Fort when I get back....

On the waterfront, we saw Theodore Tugboat, the main character from the kiddie show Craig and I used to watch when we were small. There is a life-sized Theodore Tugboat in Halifax harbour. It takes people on tours of the harbour. We were all extremely delighted...seeing Theodore made our day:) I mean, he looks so darn happy all the time, you can't help but feel happy too!

We also took a tour of Nova Scotia's Province House while in Halifax...we four made up the entire tour group...our tour guide was very nice and provided us with lots of information about the province's legislature...it seems to me that legistlatures here in the Maritimes are ever so much smaller than in say, Quebec, or at home. In both PEI and Nova Scotia, the Province Houses, as they are called, are unassuming, symmetrical old buildings. You could walk right past them without realizing you were passing by the place of law-making! This is very different from in Victoria, where the legislature is so very obvious!

We left Halifax and headed for Peggy's Cove...which is every bit as lovely as the photographs...I sat on the rocks beside the lighthouse and wrote a word picture of it...I will post that later on...maybe tomorrow. My parents think I should, so I will...I don't mind:) From Peggy's Cove we headed to Lunenburg to see Bluenose II...only to discover that the Bluenose II has been dismantled so that it can be overhauled...it won't be back until, like, 2012 at the earliest! Craig was slightly saddened by this...he was excited to see the Bluenose!

We ended up in Truro for the night...but the Super 8 we were supposed to stay in had booked us into a smoking room. Well, that wasn't going to work...not with both Craig and I having asthma, so we ended up in some ugly little motel with an orange countertop at ten o'clock at night...like, it was BRIGHT ORANGE. It was as bright as the blinding sun. And the carpet was a similar shade. Yes, yes...it was newly renovated...hm. or not. :P

We left the orange hotel and headed to Saint John...stopping at the Hopewell Rocks, which, like Peggy's Cove, lives up to all the hype...the rocks are very cool looking, sort of like the Hoodoos in Alberta, only shaped by the tides, not the wind...

We spent yesterday in Saint John...Mum, Craig and I toured the waterfront and the shops while Dad worked...it may have been a holiday in Canada, but in the States, people work, hence, Dad worked too, because lots of his clients are American. We three who didn't have to work enjoyed the holiday...there was lots going on downtown...or as it was referred to in the maps of Saint John: "uptown." We had "curly fries" which aren't anything like the curly fries at, say, Arby's or Choo-choos. These things were more like a cross between a curly fry and a potato chip...very yummy...they come in a big mound on a paper plate. We quite enjoyed them. We also saw the reversing falls...which weren't what I thought they were...I took it literally. I thought that there were actually falls that would reverse...which I didn't really understand, I mean, how does a waterfall fall up?...now after having seen them, I think that the Reversing Falls should actually be called the Reversing River, because thats what it is...a river that reverses its flow with the incoming tide and fights with itself.

Today, we drove to Edmundston. If I didn't know better, I'd say that we'd already left New Brunswick. We might as well be in Quebec, for all the english in the area! Everything is in French...hardly any English at all. But we're still in an officially bilingual province...it's somewhat confusing. Anyhow, its off to Montreal tomorrow, where we will stay for a few days...then Toronto, and from there...who knows? West. Always West. Toward home. We have had a marvelous time going east. Here's to having a marvelous time going the opposite direction!

Oh, and I almost forgot...the title of this post says "No St. John's." Yes, sadly it's true...we will not be going to Newfoundland. All the ferries are booked up until the 6th of August, there are no inexpensive flights available and we can't even rent an airplane so that Dad can fly us himself, because they're all booked up...turns out it's "Home Week" in Newfoundland...the week that everyone goes home. But the people Dad talked to while trying to get us to the province say that they've never seen it quite like this before! I guess this means that we'll have to go to Newfoundland on another trip before we can say that we've truly been right across this marvelous country of ours. A country that is, as Craig says, "really, really big."

Waterfalls, Capitals, Speaking "en francais", Anne and a gaelic Island...

Phew...here I am to write this blog...finally. I've been trying to write this for the past week, it seems, with little success...it is difficult to find Internet access on the East Coast, it seems. Anyway, we've been a long way since the last post...all the way to the Atlantic. Yay!

We went to Niagara Falls on our second day in the Guelph area. Joanne's sister Miriam lives in the area and she and her daughter Melodie met up with us at Niagara falls along with some of the little guys (Mel's kids and her sister Naomi's kids). We had a picnic lunch with them (Thank-you Auntie Miriam!) and then Melodie took the three littlest kids home, while the rest of us went to take a self-guided tour of the tunnels behind the falls. Scott had to leave us to make a phone call, so he didn't come on the tour...but he had been on it before when he came with his family as a teenager. At that time they actually wore yellow raincoats...but that was in 1975. We in 2010 had to wear what are essentially yellow plastic bags with arm holes, head holes and a hood in an attempt to keep sort of dry, but once we were out on the viewing area close to the falls, the wind was enough to blow the hoods off...our hair, therefore, was pretty wet by the time we had been on the viewing deck twice and down the tunnels to see behind the falls (which was very cool...an opaque watery sheet of white, spray and a dull roar) When we returned from our adventure to meet up with Scott, we came out of the gift shop to see a beautiful double rainbow beside the falls...Joanne got some good pictures of it with her nice new D-SLR (did you know she can take as many pictures as she wants without running out of film? She's very excited about that! Her daughter doesn't fully understand the novelty, as I never really used film...)

We had dinner with Miriam, Melodie, Naomi and the kids and then headed back to our hotel, after a quick tour of Miriam's house and Melodie's house. Although we didn't get to see everyone in Auntie Miriam and Uncle Ken's clan, we're planning on heading through the area on the way back to see everybody again!

The next day saw us heading to Toronto to pick of Fredi's dad, Bernd, at the airport. After he rented a car, we all drove to Ottawa. We spent the next day touring around Canada's capital. Byward Market, Sussex Drive, the Parliament buildings (well, the outside anyway...we never did make it inside. Sad. I want to go back that way...I have a very blurry memory of the ceiling in the Peace Tower and would very much like to see it again.) We ended our day with a dinner at the Keg, so that Fredi could have mud pie...along with the fact that the Keg makes yummy food. :)

We said good-bye to the Sontags the next morning and headed off to Quebec City...absolutely one of the most beautiful cities in North America. It was very, very European...it reminded all of us of places we've been on tours of that continent. Scott was very pleased that we were all there. After having been to Quebec City so many times without us, if was very nice for him to have us there. We spend the next day there, touring the town, exploring unique little shops, visiting tourist attractions like the Plains of Abraham and the Montmorency Falls...the falls are definitely worth seeing, they aren't far from the city and they're really pretty...you can walk on a bridge across the top of them...but you have to climb about a thousand (exaggeration, probably) stairs to get to the bridge from the base of the falls, unless you want to take the gondola...which is ridiculously expensive. Kelsey and Joanne were not fond of the climb up the stairs...I am ashamed to say that I was grumpy all the way up the stairs. However, you might be grouchy too if you were convinced you were going to pass out from lack of air. Thank-you asthma...you know how much I adore your visits. Not. I was wishing all the way up the stairs that I had been climbing stairs before the trip the way I did before the Europe trip...the climb would have been so much easier! The view from the bridge however, turned out to be worth the nasty climb. Very pretty!

After Quebec City we drove along the Gaspe...apparently the drive is labelled one of the "premier" drives in Canada and we think that this is true. It is beautiful, with all sorts of little towns along the water, and forested hills...lovely.

Joanne has decided that when we get home, she's going have to learn french because we did have some communication issues a few time, since we speak only a very little french and the people we were talking to spoke only some English...at one grocery store, Kelsey asked the cashier "Parlez-vous anglais?" and she chuckled and said "non."

We left Quebec last Thursday, stayed overnight in New Brunswick and then crossed the very long and impressive Confederation Bridge into Anne of Green Gables country- Prince Edward Island! Kelsey was excited to be so close to one of her favourite stories and both she and Craig immediately fell in love with the red dirt. I think that if BC had red dirt it would be perfect. It has everything else...mountains, valley, ocean...but no red dirt that I know of. Sigh.

We ended up spending two and a half days in PEI. We stayed in a great little B&B in Cavendish on Friday night. On Saturday Joanne and the kids toured Green Gables and the site of LM Montgomery's house in Cavendish (It's just a foundation now, but still neat) in the morning while Scott tried to catch up on some work...he spend most of the time trying to get Internet on his laptop. Like I said, Internet is hard to find! He joined us at lunchtime. We had lunch at the PEI Preserve Co. (The raspberry pie was delicious!) and then spent two hours on a red beach. Kelsey collected a bottle of red sand, and later on that evening, Joanne took us to another beach to collect some red dirt. So we have both...sand and dirt, I mean. :) On Sunday we went to Avonlea village and toured around, watching as Anne smashed the infamous slate over Gilbert Blythe's head (at that point she swore she would despise him forever)...and then we went to Anne & Gilbert: The Musical in Summerside to watch her fall in love with him (so much for that promise of hating him forever, huh?) The musical was amazing...snatches of the songs are still in my head...I wish I'd bought the CD...I hope it's on Itunes! My only complaint is that they changed the ending from how it is in the books (the musical is a combination of Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island...due to time constraints and all that, but still! The ending is my favourite part!) Nevertheless, I loved the musical. A lot.

We drove to the Souris area after the musical to visit Joanne's cousins who have a place in PEI where they come in the summers and then we headed to our hotel in Charlottetown. Joanne and the kids toured Charlottetown on Monday morning while Scott did some work in the hotel...finally, Internet! We went to Province House, where the Charlottetown Conference took place (the first of three meetings that would result in Confederation) and then we walked up to Founder's Hall, which was supposed to be a museum of Confederation...it could have been really good, but it wasn't, unfortunately. It was awful because of the way it was done...there were random video clips that really didn't connect very well and weren't very well explained and sometimes it was almost as though they were making fun of history...it didn't work in our brains. We ended up confused, even me, although I'd recently studied the history of confederation...we do not recommend Founder's Hall. We do highly recommend Province House though! There was a great video there about confederation which made us very proud to be Canadians. (This whole trip is making us proud to be Canadian!)

Monday afternoon we left PEI and ended up in Sydney, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island very late at night.

We saw the giant fiddle yesterday morning (well, Joanne and Kelsey did, while Scott did some work at the hotel and Craig did...stuff...not sure what, really. He just hung out, I guess.) Then we went to the Fortress of Louisbourg and spent the rest of the day there touring the national historic sight...it was very well done, with people dressed up as people of the time period, giving demonstrations and talking about life in Louisbourg.

Today we drove the Cabot trail, stopping in St. Ann's at the Gaelic College there to tour the Hall of the Clans museum...after all, we are Macphersons. It was very fascinating to learn a bit more about our history...and it was our own history, which made it all the more interesting.
The museum dealt almost exclusively with the Highland clans, from their ancient origins to their immigration to Canada during the clearances right up to present day in Canada, particularly here in Cape Breton Island. The Cabot trail was absolutely beautiful and there were mountains! I've discovered that you don't realize how big a part of you the mountains are until you are away from them. I was so very happy to see mountains. I think I might even have gotten a little homesick for the coastal mountains of BC!

Tomorrow it is on to Halifax...we were supposed to be going to Newfoundland next, but now we're not sure how we're getting to Newfoundland, as all the ferries are fully booked until the sixth of August, which is too late for us. We're doing our best to find a way to get there, though! In the meantime, we're going to Halifax.

I've decided that this event-blogging thing is a new sort of writing for me. I've never done anything like this before. I do hope its not too boring or confusing or anything! I'm new at this you know! I apologize if there are any run-on sentences, boring bits, or if it's confusing with my switching back and forth between third person and first person...its weird for me to write about myself in the third person or to write about my parents as Scott and Joanne! Hopefully, I'm doing an OK job of this though, and I hope that I can update this blog sooner than later so that I don't have to write another of these mega-posts...I got tired of writing this about half-way through! It is LONG!

Oh, and I hope there aren't too many typos!

From home to Guelph: an overview...

We have now officially been gone for a week...this first on-the-road post will be an overview of what we've done so far...the funny stories and the pictures will come later...we left home early last Thursday morning and drove directly across the mountains...we stopped at the Hope Family Drive-In and Restaurant for breakfast and then continued on our way across the Coastal mountains and into the Rockies. We stopped at Craigellachie so that Fredi could see the place where the last spike was driven into the railway, connecting eastern and western Canada. We continued on into Banff, where Scott went to find internet in order to book a hotel, while everyone else walked up to the Banff Springs Hotel.
We ended up in Calgary around 9:30 pm or so, where we stayed overnight.

We left the next morning to leave Alberta behind, stopping for antihistamines for Kelsey, who had been hoping to leave her alergies behind in BC. She ended up leaving them behind in Saskatchewan instead. We drove to Cypress Hills in Saskatchewan to visit some friends who were camping there and then went to stay in their home in Shaunavon overnight.

Day three on the road took us into Manitoba, where we stayed in Portage La Prairie in a hotel that, while nice, was absolutely FREEZING! Fredi got up in the middle of the night to put on her sweater, socks and scarf because it was so cold!

We headed off to Ontario the next day, making several stops along the way before arriving in Sault Ste Marie. We stayed overnight and then we crossed the border into Michigan because Scott had a business call to make there.

Yesterday saw us return to Canada and drive to Guelph, which is where we are now...in a very nice hotel in the middle of the industrial area...no restaurants, stores or places of interest in sight...we were stranded up until about ten minutes ago, when Scott returned from making business calls. All in all a nice place to be stranded...there's a pool, and a gymn and a place to do laundry...hallelujah! :)

Hi All.

We are preparing for departure...we've all been working to get the house ready. It is very busy. But we are leaving in a week...how exciting!