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."
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