Travels with Tandy

The 13 km long Confederation Bridge spans the Northumberland Strait and took us to Prince Edward Island. The first thing I noticed after arriving on the island was how green the grass was. The second was the red soil.

Dusk was setting in so we made our way to nearby Summerside for the night. The wind howled and shook the van as we settled in.

The next morning we drove through Summerside. I was amused to see many of the red lights were square in shape and several amber ones were diamond shaped!

We drove to Linkletter Beach on Bedeque Bay before taking the Coastal Drive. A stop at the harbour in Mapleview led us to fishing shacks with piles of lobster traps and buoys behind them.

At Park Corner we saw the Anne of Green Gables Museum and a little farther on, in French River was the house Lucy Maude Montgomery was born in. History and scenic views in the same area!

We drove through Prince Edward National Park and then on to Charlottetown for the night.

The next morning it was raining so we decided not to explore Charlottetown on foot, but to take a drive to the other side of the island instead. Georgetown looked far away on the map but was only an hours drive. It was smaller than we expected and most tourist stops had closed for the season. We need up at Shoreline, an artesian shop with silver jewelry made on site. Peter, the owner was full of information on how his items were created and even took us into his work area to show us the the tools of his trade. It was very interesting and I did leave with a souvenir!

It had been raining hard all day and we decided to leave the island in the afternoon rather than wait until the next morning. We arrived at the ferry terminal expecting to wait two hours for the next sailing and instead were able to get on one that was boarding right away.

Prince Edward Island was a quick stop, added into an already full schedule so we didn’t have time to explore fully. If returning, I’d do it in the summer months before the Island closes so many attractions at the end of their tourist season.

Moncton was the beginning of this part of our journey. A wonderful couple opened their home to us and gave us suggestions of things to see and do in the area. We read about a tidal bore in the Petitcodiac River, found the schedule and discovered it was expected in about 15 minutes. We hopped in the car, headed to Tidal Bore Park and got there just as the wave was coming down and filling up the river. I even managed to take a video of it! An hour later this river was filled with water.

The Petitcodiac is also called the chocolate river because of its brown colour, caused by the churning up of the muddy bottom when the water flows in and out.

We then drove to Magnetic Hill. In this area you put your vehicle in neutral and it rolls backwards, which seems to be uphill. Interesting.

Continue reading “New Brunswick – Part 2”

As you can see by the picture above, I was excited to finally reach New Brunswick.

One of our first stops was in Florenceville-Bristol where we toured the potato museum! It was right next door to the McCain factory but we didn’t get any samples!

We ended up in Woodstock for the night. The next morning we drove to Fredericton. After a couple of hours in the city we headed for Fundy National Park.

We arrived in Fundy National Park at low tide. I stepped over some rocks and onto the sandy bottom of the ocean. The effect was quite profound on me. After spending the night in the park campground, we viewed the bay again at high tide. Incredible!

We drove on and stopped at Cape Enrage to take in the view of the bay. The last ghthouse here has been replaced three times due to erosion caused by high winds and the crashing water.

It has been an amazing start to our visit to New Brunswick

St. Catherines was our home base while we explored the Niagara region.

I was fascinated by the Welland Canal. It was incredible to watch the massive freighters going through the various locks. We were able to drive close to all 8 of the locks that allow ships to navigate from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. This engineering marvel has no pumps and relies entirely on gravity to fill and empty each lock. I learned it takes ships 11 hours to travel through 8 locks and 7 bridges (that need to open to allow the ships to continue) as they make their way from one lake to the other.

We drove through Old Fort Erie, where the Niagara River flows into Lake Erie. It seemed strange to think the tall buildings we saw across the river were in Buffalo New York. We chose not to cross the Peace Bridge that connected the two countries.

Next on our tour was the world renowned Niagara Falls. The spray was visible long before the falls came into view.

The falls are magnificent and a rainbow seen in front of the water added to the beauty. Many pictures were taken as we strolled the walkway and felt the refreshing spray on this hot, humid day.

Another attraction in this region is the lively area of Niagara On The Lake. We followed Niagara Blvd and past vineyards and orchards. A stop was made at a farm where we purchased peaches and apples. Fresh from the grower makes such a difference to flavour!

This lush area is one we thoroughly enjoyed.

Our first stop when we arrived in Owen Sound, on Georgian Bay was at Kelso Beach.  Kelso was an area in Scotland where my husband grew up, so the name drew us in.

From there we travelled through lots of towns with British names. The first was Southampton, on the shore of Lake Huron.  The waves on this vast body of water gave the impression of an ocean. It’s definitely not the type of lake I’m used to.

A few minutes down the road was Port Elgin, then Kincardine, where we stopped for lunch. We wandered along the harbour before heading on. Goderich, billed as Canada’s prettiest town was our next stop. It had a central square with a circular road around it. Old brick buildings gave it the feel of a small British town. We enjoyed it.

We stopped for the night in Stratford. The next day I wanted to head towards Lake Erie so we set the GPS for Simcoe. From there we made the short drive to Port Dover.

Port Dover was wonderful.  We found a totally gluten-free bakery and I treated myself to a few delicious items. We walked along the sand at the beach and then out on the pier before checking out some quaint little gift stores.

A few other local attractions were toured before we retreated to the air conditioning at McDonalds. It was 28 C today and the humidex made it feel like 38 C. I thought I might melt!

From Gravenhurst we drove through areas of rolling hills, flat land, corn fields and cattle farms.

We entered the Trent Severn Waterway town of Bobcaygeon at noon on a blistering hot day.

The highlight was meeting with one of my dearest friends for lunch.  She planned for us to meet at a restaurant opposite a lock.

After eating we strolled beside the last co and watched several pleasure boats pass through. We even chatted with an officer on a police boat in the lock. He allowed me to take a picture but asked I not post it on social media. You’ll have to visit me personally if you want to see it!

After spending a pleasant time wandering up and down the street exploring the quaint shops, I bid a tearful farewell to my friend.

We drove a short distance to Fenelon Falls. There we parked at one end of town and walked to the other end. We went past another lock and saw the falls. They are under a bridge and billed as a mini Niagara Falls. Later we walked over to a stand of trees and had a lovely view of the river.

It was also in Fenelon Falls that we went to Station Gallery, a cooperative of local artisans. There were so many wonderful things here that we would have liked to purchase but traveling in a van gives us very limited space which meant we had to leave them behind. That was probably a good thing for the bank account.

We only touched on a tiny portion of the Trent Severn Waterway and it appears I’ve found another area I’d like to return to.

We were fortunate to be able to spend few days with friends who live in Gravenhurst. Not only did they give us several tours of the area, we got to sleep in a house for the first time since leaving home!

This is cottage country and Lakes abound in the area. It is also part of the rocky Canadian Shield. The combination of lakes and rocks made for some spectacular scenery.

We drove to Bala and saw where the water flows from a lake into Moon River. In Port Carling we wandered by the water with vistas so beautiful I was moved to tears.

In Windermere we strolled through a grand hotel overlooking a lake.

This area is very scenic and we were privileged to visit a few cottages. Even the home of our hosts had a treed area behind and was so close to nature a chipmunk scampered over my foot!

This is another area I’d love to spend more time in.

Parry Sound on Georgian Bay was a lovely place to spend some time. We enjoyed several hours of wandering there. Some by the calm water and others exploring little stores as we walked up and down the streets.

One of the highlights was climbing up the stairs of the lookout and being rewarded with a beautiful view of the bay, dotted with pleasure boats. The lookout was actually an old fire lookout tower. We took several pictures, a few of which I’ll share here.