Coast to Coast FOR REAL!

For anyone who really knows me I will say something over and over again, finally saying FOR REAL. Anyways I know I did a blog post already that I had made it from Coast to Coast, and sure I had, but now I can say I've made it from Coast to Coast FOR REAL! This post is about a week overdue but better late than never, right?

Anyways, last Friday morning Erin (the English Language Assistant from Shippagan) and I set off on a trip to further explore the maritimes. We took the scenic shore route down through New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. The drive was beautiful. We were hoping to find some nice seafood for lunch but we didn't find many places to eat and when we finally did settle on something it was a greasy deepfried seafood place but it was alright! I forget the name of the town, but it was really interesting in that there was a group of about 30 kids there getting slurpies who were so bilingual. They all went back and forth from speaking French and English, some with accents, some without, replying to one another in opposite languages, mixing words of the two languages. It was really interesting to follow! Further along the way we stopped at Shediac to take some pictures with the World's Largest Lobster.

Confederation Bridge was super cool! You can all ask Erin but I'm pretty sure I squealed the whole way across! I was so amused by the ups and downs and the curve to it, but kind of disappointed that you couldn't really see off it. You could see PEI as you were nearing the end of the bridge though and it was so cool to see all the red cliffs and scattered lighthouses along the shore. We spent some time driving around trying to find Gamble's Corner, a place where Erin's family has history. We think we found it, but it's been so many years since she was there she wasn't entirely sure!

For dinner we were set on fresh PEI veggies and potatoes to be cooked over a campfire. First we found a self-serve potato stand, and then a self-serve veggie stand with a pretty limited selection given it was the evening, but then we found a couple of farmers sitting around selling veggies. We bought so much and had a good time chatting with them for awhile. Right next to their place was a little home with a sign claiming it was The Birthplace of Lucy Maud Montgomery. The farmers told us that that wasn't actually the house, the real house had burnt down, and they had moved that one there! We felt kind of silly because we had just taken a picture of it! They were able to give us some suggestions for a campsite for the evening and we made our way there quickly since it was getting late.

We camped out on Southern Coast of PEI at Linkletter Provincial Park. It was so windy that we had to park my car to block the wind, and we still had difficulty getting the fire started. We ended up using hand sanitizer since it was the most flammable thing we had! Our fire roasted veggies for dinner were fabulous.

In the morning I went in a 10K running race in Summerside. It was a fundraiser for the local hospital. I actually have no idea how many people ran in it but it was a lot of fun. I got 4th in my category, 9 seconds after the girl who placed 3rd! Once I realized that I kind of wished I had run a little harder! It was a nice route though, through town and along the Confederation Trail. After the run they had all sorts of food for us so it really was a great time!

For the afternoon we went up to the Northern Shores. We were going to go to Cavendish but the beaches were closed to swimming so we didn't pay to go in to the National Park. Instead we went out to North Rustico to go to the beach. I went swimming for about 15 seconds because Erin really wanted to swim. It was terribly cold because it was so windy out, but I can now say I've swam in the Atlantic Ocean! After our "swim" we climbed around on the sand dunes and along the old falling apart jetty. Before leaving Prince Edward Island we went to get COWS ice cream. COWS ice cream is my favourite and it's originally from PEI so that was very exciting for me!

We left PEI for Nova Scotia on Saturday night because Natalie would be arriving at the airport in Halifax on Sunday. She is going to St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. I thought it would be a lot of fun to surprise her at the airport and take her to the university. I wanted to do something epic though. So, before leaving PEI I bought a lobster trap to fill with goodies for her as a welcome basket. Anyways, more about this later.

For dinner we stopped at the Old Germany Restaurant in Amherst, Nova Scotia. We couldn't find anywhere to eat in this town before coming across this restaurant! There had been a huge apartment fire in town and most of the conjoined buildings were closed. Thankfully no one was hurt in the fire. We stumbled in to the restaurant 10 minutes before the kitchen was to close and offered to leave when we saw that sign. They were so nice though and told us to stay. We had a great time chatting with the waitress and chef. The restaurant is usually run by the chef and his wife, but she was sick, so her friend was helping out. It was a nice dinner but it went pretty late.

We wanted to drive all the way to Halifax that night and we did, finding a Walmart parking lot to spend the night. I have to say that was my most sketch Walmart camping night experience. First of all there were no campers or RVs there. There were tons of random creepy people, and teens loitering about in the parking lot. Something I find very amusing about the East Coast is that tons of kids still ride those Razor scooters. On this trip I saw this three separate times! Anyways we survived the night in the Walmart parking lot. The highlight of the night was probably when we were trying to put all of our stuff in the front seat so that there was room to sleep in the back. Remember that we have a lobster trap... Lobster traps are quite large. I could probably fit in a lobster trap. Erin tried to put it across the front two seats on top of all our other stuff and broke my rearview mirror right off the window! It was the funniest thing ever to me although she felt terrible. Miraculously it was still gluey so we managed to reattach it for now!

In the morning we went in to Halifax for a few hours and walked along the boardwalk. I saw Theodore the Tugboat and all sorts of other neat ships. We didn't have nearly enough time there. We went down to the little marketplace and had Indian food for a breakfast/lunch. Then we had to rush off to meet Natalie at the airport. We went the wrong way twice and I was so worried that we weren't going to make it on time! Erin and I had a plan that she would pretend to be a representative from St FX to meet Natalie. So I dropped Erin off with the lobster trap while I went to get parking. Luckily I got in to the airport before Natalie did. An Air Canada worker had already asked Erin what the lobster trap was all about and so she took me into special baggage so that I could have a good view of what was to unfold with Natalie getting off the plane.

Erin had a bright orange sign that said Nathalie Cameron (yes, we spelt her name wrong because I thought it would be funny). Natalie at first went straight to baggage but then saw the sign and walked up to Erin. Erin, who spent the summer working at a Ukrainian village pulled out her accent and pretended to be an exchange student from Ukraine studying at St FX. She had all sorts of details about Natalie and confirmed that she had paid for the $400 welcome, right? Apparently Natalie just kept saying "I'm so confused, I don't understand.". I enjoyed watching this for awhile and then Erin brought her to special baggage to get her guitar and there I was! It was really funny. Hopefully Natalie and/or Erin will post their side of this story on here since I was behind glass for most of it!

The drive to Antigonish was a nice one, not too long. The St FX campus is so cool! The buildings are so old and neat. So many of the people working there were St FX graduates, and I could tell this by their X rings. Natalie's residence is so nice! I always used to think that UNBC had the nicest "suites" for residence, but I think St FX has taken that title. They're a lot roomier and have nice laminate flooring and wooden cabinets. A four bedroom suite has two bathrooms so you only share a bathroom with one person. The three of us had a pretty chill evening as Natalie's roommates hadn't arrived yet. I ate candy while Natalie and Erin played guitar and sang. It was lovely.

Erin and I left Antigonish fairly early on Monday morning since we would be starting work on Tuesday morning. We didn't even make it out of Nova Scotia before we were distracted be a lavender farm! We stopped to check it out and buy some different lavender products. The owner/farmer gave us a presentation as well. We tried lavender cookies and next time we'll try lavender ice cream. The drive back to the Acadian peninsula felt a little long because we were so tired from our busy trip but it was so much fun and I'm really glad that we did it!