The Only Problem With Traveling
The only problem I have with traveling, is that it makes me want to travel more and more and more.
Aside from a day or two here and there, it seems crazy to think I've only ever taken off one full week since I started working four years ago. That has officially changed. Starting now.
I've always wanted to go to Eastern Canada -- I pretty much want to explore the entire planet -- but it definitely wasn't high on my priority list until this past June when a couple of friends and I were discussing taking a little drive to PEI. I was long overdue for a vacation and dying to go somewhere, so driving out East in August with these two great gals sounded mightly fine to me. I didn't know too much about the Maritimes having never been there, but always heard it was beautiful and peaceful so I was sure I would enjoy it.
We had 8 days planned for our journey and finalized our itinerary as follows: we would leave on a Thursday and return the following Friday; first stop in Quebec City for two nights, drive to Fredericton to sleep Saturday night, leave first thing the next morning to arrive in Fundy National Park mid afternoon on Sunday where we would camp for two nights and then proceed onto PEI to camp for our final two nights.
Between the three of us we had a wicked array of music for the long drives ahead, which of course, is essential at all times as far as I'm concerned.
Quebec City was gorgeous, as expected. So much history to learn about I could have spent a week there. We stayed at a cute little hotel on Saint Louis called Le Cavalier du Moulin . Our first night we went to dinner at a delicious (and cheap!) Mexican restaurant then went across the street to one of the bars on ' le strip'. We walked in delighted to see four guys on stage singing 80's music, wearing shiny spandex pants and sparkly mullet wigs: it was the best entertainment we could have possibly hoped for. It was a long and extremely fun night, which of course didn't help us the next day as we traipsed around the city all day long. But the weather was absolutely perfect for us.
Having to decide which place was my favorite is tricky because each place we stopped had it's own unique characteristics. Except Fredericton. I can easily say that was my least favorite place.
We arrived in Fredericton Saturday evening to check into our hostel, go for dinner and possibly grab a drink or two at a local bar. Being that school hadn't started yet, there wasn't a whole lot of action on the streets of Fredericton. There was, however, a music festival in the park near the water. Only down side: it was a Christian Music Festival. Shocking how many people were there though. The hostel was pretty creepy and must've been an old orphanage or something because the hallways were very long and narrow, mostly single rooms with old wooden doors and there were bulletin boards throughout the hallways with decorative borders of smiling cartoon caterpillars on them. Thankfully we were only there one night and out early the following day. We tried to get some breakfast and being Sunday morning, we didn't think that would be a problem. We were mistaken since everything was closed and had to settle for Tim Horton's. Yuck.
Next stop: Fundy National Park!
We set up our camp site in anticipation of rain as predicted in the forecast. We walked along the gorgeous cliffs near our site and watched the sun go down by the Bay. The next day we got up bright and early to do the typical touristy thing and visited Hopewell Rocks and Cape Enrage. It was beautiful and the weather cooperated with us. We decided we should try to find the book "Anne of Green Gables" before we set out for PEI since we would undoubtedly visit the famous site and both Claire and I weren't too familiar with the story. Growing up I never did like the show, in fact I hated it, but I had never read the book. Kristen was always a fan and once we purchased the book and returned to our camp site, she began to read the book aloud to us around the camp fire and right away Claire and I fell under the spell of Anne Shirley. The book is very funny and incredibly well written, I only wish we still spoke as they did back in 1908. A friend of Claire's who performs in musicals happened to be in Charlottetown while we were in the area so we planned on going into the 'big' city to hang with her. She offered to get us free tickets to go see the musical Anne of Green Gables which was super nice of her.
The second and final morning at Fundy, we got up bright and early to tear down our camp site and at 8am, we went sea kayaking in the Bay of Fundy which was an incredibly awesome adventure! Again, so much to do and so little time, I could have easily spent a week at Fundy hiking and kayaking.
After we dried off, we set out for our next destination: Prince Edward Island. Our first night there we went for an amazing all you can eat lobster dinner. This was my first time eating lobster and it was very tasty, though the steaming hot fresh buns and delicious vegetable soup and coleslaw were just as good.... if not better. Beauty was, everything was all you can eat. Except the wine....
With our tummies as full as can be, we headed back to our camp site where we cozied up in our tent and giggled ourselves to sleep as Kristen read Anne to us. The next morning we set out to the Brackley Beach area where Claire and Kristen went horse back riding while I relaxed on a lovely shaded patio and ate the cheapest breakfast ever, drank coffee, made some phone calls and read my magazine. When they returned, we continued our mini road tour East to St. Peter's Bay. It was an absolutely gorgeous day which made the drive that much more enjoyable. We headed back towards our camp site and quickly visited the Anne of Green Gables site, dipped our feet in the ocean at Cavendish Beach, then tore down our tent and packed up the car. We were going to stay in Charlottetown at Steph's for our final night in PEI instead of having to worry about driving back to the camp site in the middle of the night or taxiing.
The musical was fantastic! I never thought I liked musicals but I definitely love and appreciate them now. Steph performed in the Anne musical a couple of years ago so she sat with us in the audience. Her room mate Matt was in the musical that night and we went out for dinner and drinks with them afterwards and then of course, ended up at a dance club. For those of you reading this who know me, you know I'm not much of a dancer so going out to a dance club is one thing.... but going to a dance club with two professional dancers is another! As awkward and embaressed as I felt, it was a lot of fun.
We left Charlottetown early and drove all the way to a small town right on the Fleuve St-Laurent about an hour east of Quebec City where we had an amazing dinner and stayed at an incredible Bed and Breakfast. The final journey the next day was by far the longest, though it didn't help getting lost in Montreal, but we made our way without too much trouble. All in all it was a magnificent trip and I highly recommend visiting the East Coast at some point in your lifetime, if you've the opportunity.
And p.s.: they sure know how to recycle out East! I was impressed. Mega kudos to them for respecting the environment!
Aside from a day or two here and there, it seems crazy to think I've only ever taken off one full week since I started working four years ago. That has officially changed. Starting now.
I've always wanted to go to Eastern Canada -- I pretty much want to explore the entire planet -- but it definitely wasn't high on my priority list until this past June when a couple of friends and I were discussing taking a little drive to PEI. I was long overdue for a vacation and dying to go somewhere, so driving out East in August with these two great gals sounded mightly fine to me. I didn't know too much about the Maritimes having never been there, but always heard it was beautiful and peaceful so I was sure I would enjoy it.
We had 8 days planned for our journey and finalized our itinerary as follows: we would leave on a Thursday and return the following Friday; first stop in Quebec City for two nights, drive to Fredericton to sleep Saturday night, leave first thing the next morning to arrive in Fundy National Park mid afternoon on Sunday where we would camp for two nights and then proceed onto PEI to camp for our final two nights.
Between the three of us we had a wicked array of music for the long drives ahead, which of course, is essential at all times as far as I'm concerned.
Quebec City was gorgeous, as expected. So much history to learn about I could have spent a week there. We stayed at a cute little hotel on Saint Louis called Le Cavalier du Moulin . Our first night we went to dinner at a delicious (and cheap!) Mexican restaurant then went across the street to one of the bars on ' le strip'. We walked in delighted to see four guys on stage singing 80's music, wearing shiny spandex pants and sparkly mullet wigs: it was the best entertainment we could have possibly hoped for. It was a long and extremely fun night, which of course didn't help us the next day as we traipsed around the city all day long. But the weather was absolutely perfect for us.
Having to decide which place was my favorite is tricky because each place we stopped had it's own unique characteristics. Except Fredericton. I can easily say that was my least favorite place.
We arrived in Fredericton Saturday evening to check into our hostel, go for dinner and possibly grab a drink or two at a local bar. Being that school hadn't started yet, there wasn't a whole lot of action on the streets of Fredericton. There was, however, a music festival in the park near the water. Only down side: it was a Christian Music Festival. Shocking how many people were there though. The hostel was pretty creepy and must've been an old orphanage or something because the hallways were very long and narrow, mostly single rooms with old wooden doors and there were bulletin boards throughout the hallways with decorative borders of smiling cartoon caterpillars on them. Thankfully we were only there one night and out early the following day. We tried to get some breakfast and being Sunday morning, we didn't think that would be a problem. We were mistaken since everything was closed and had to settle for Tim Horton's. Yuck.
Next stop: Fundy National Park!
We set up our camp site in anticipation of rain as predicted in the forecast. We walked along the gorgeous cliffs near our site and watched the sun go down by the Bay. The next day we got up bright and early to do the typical touristy thing and visited Hopewell Rocks and Cape Enrage. It was beautiful and the weather cooperated with us. We decided we should try to find the book "Anne of Green Gables" before we set out for PEI since we would undoubtedly visit the famous site and both Claire and I weren't too familiar with the story. Growing up I never did like the show, in fact I hated it, but I had never read the book. Kristen was always a fan and once we purchased the book and returned to our camp site, she began to read the book aloud to us around the camp fire and right away Claire and I fell under the spell of Anne Shirley. The book is very funny and incredibly well written, I only wish we still spoke as they did back in 1908. A friend of Claire's who performs in musicals happened to be in Charlottetown while we were in the area so we planned on going into the 'big' city to hang with her. She offered to get us free tickets to go see the musical Anne of Green Gables which was super nice of her.
The second and final morning at Fundy, we got up bright and early to tear down our camp site and at 8am, we went sea kayaking in the Bay of Fundy which was an incredibly awesome adventure! Again, so much to do and so little time, I could have easily spent a week at Fundy hiking and kayaking.
After we dried off, we set out for our next destination: Prince Edward Island. Our first night there we went for an amazing all you can eat lobster dinner. This was my first time eating lobster and it was very tasty, though the steaming hot fresh buns and delicious vegetable soup and coleslaw were just as good.... if not better. Beauty was, everything was all you can eat. Except the wine....
With our tummies as full as can be, we headed back to our camp site where we cozied up in our tent and giggled ourselves to sleep as Kristen read Anne to us. The next morning we set out to the Brackley Beach area where Claire and Kristen went horse back riding while I relaxed on a lovely shaded patio and ate the cheapest breakfast ever, drank coffee, made some phone calls and read my magazine. When they returned, we continued our mini road tour East to St. Peter's Bay. It was an absolutely gorgeous day which made the drive that much more enjoyable. We headed back towards our camp site and quickly visited the Anne of Green Gables site, dipped our feet in the ocean at Cavendish Beach, then tore down our tent and packed up the car. We were going to stay in Charlottetown at Steph's for our final night in PEI instead of having to worry about driving back to the camp site in the middle of the night or taxiing.
The musical was fantastic! I never thought I liked musicals but I definitely love and appreciate them now. Steph performed in the Anne musical a couple of years ago so she sat with us in the audience. Her room mate Matt was in the musical that night and we went out for dinner and drinks with them afterwards and then of course, ended up at a dance club. For those of you reading this who know me, you know I'm not much of a dancer so going out to a dance club is one thing.... but going to a dance club with two professional dancers is another! As awkward and embaressed as I felt, it was a lot of fun.
We left Charlottetown early and drove all the way to a small town right on the Fleuve St-Laurent about an hour east of Quebec City where we had an amazing dinner and stayed at an incredible Bed and Breakfast. The final journey the next day was by far the longest, though it didn't help getting lost in Montreal, but we made our way without too much trouble. All in all it was a magnificent trip and I highly recommend visiting the East Coast at some point in your lifetime, if you've the opportunity.
And p.s.: they sure know how to recycle out East! I was impressed. Mega kudos to them for respecting the environment!
posted by erinvironment @ 1:07 PM
1 Comments:
At 9/09/2006 1:55 PM,
Anonymous said…
Glad to hear you had a great trip!
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