Day One, Two, and Three: 'Ef' is for Flexibility

Life is a grand adventure and there is no one that I want to do adventures with besides Paul. I absolutely LOVE that he and I don't get snippy with each other, even when things are stressful.

One thing that we're pretty good at on vacations (and life in general, really) is being Flexible. That needs to be capitalized to emphasize just how chill and easy going we can be when things go awry.

So here's our first days of France and how many times we've learned to be Flexible. Fingers and toes crossed (please, join us, will you?) that the Fun days are ahead as a reward for the Flexible days.

Day One and Two: Travel

These merge into one day since the time change means we lose six hours along the way. When we made our France plans, the most worrisome part of the plans was the first day of travel. The best travel deal and times we could get meant that we'd have a short layover time in Philadelphia. We researched and researched and decided to risk it (hopefully it's not a similar problem on the way back, since we have a larger time gap for the future layover on our return). Our research said that as long as our Greenville flight wasn't delayed for more than 30 minutes, we'd easily make our flight to Zurich from Philly. 

Well, our flight was delayed by more than an hour, so tragically, we had to get our plans changed. Paul was very patient (and Flexible) with the airport assistant lady as she struggled to find us a different flight. In the end, we had to add another layover in the London (Heathrow) airport. It meant that, as long as nothing went wrong, we'd make it to Zurich by noon instead of 8am. Somewhat frustrating, and it meant that we couldn't do the Spa/therme for more than a few hours on the first day (we were REALLY looking forward to this!), but no worries. 

The other bad news from this change in our flights also meant that Paul and I were no longer sitting next to each other. We always get the cheapest type of seats, which means they are cramped, and it's nice to sit by each other so we can lift the armrest between us and poor Paul can sprawl his long legs a bit and I can get cozy and lean into him. Instead, I sat by a very angry Scotsman who swore constantly about....everything...and he also stole my arm rest so I was uncomfortable for the entire long flight. 

Then we got to Heathrow airport. Yikes. Note to Self (and for you all as well): avoid Heathrow at all costs, if possible, for future flights. What a nightmare of an airport. It's so large that when the plane landed, they put us on a bus, to bus us a long distance down the road to the actual airport. 

Once there, we had to go through a lonnng line of security (where they didn't like my ankle brace on my injured ankle and, after removing the brace, not only did a scan with a machine but also had to squeeze my entire ankle really hard, which made me cry actual tears in pain, in order to prove that I didn't have something, I dunno, hidden in my skin?). Anyway, we got through the long security and ended up in a huge lobby. 

Apparently, since the airport is so congested/crowded, Heathrow has a policy of putting everyone in this large lobby and won't tell you your gate number until right before boarding, even if that means you have to run across the airport to get to your gate in time. Since security took so long, we didn't have long to wait in the crowded room, but then we had to find the gate (and go up and down stairs and on elevators in a confusing array) to get to our gate. We got there about 1 minute before boarding started. And then they put us on a bus again and yep, you guessed it, drove us the long distance to the same parking lot that we started in for a different airplane from the same company. 

By now, our nerves were frazzled. Fortunately, we got to sit by each other for this 3 hour flight. Unfortunately, the airplane wasn't granted permission to leave yet, so our flight was delayed and we got to sit in those uncomfortable airplane seats for extra long while just chilling on the tarmac. Yayyyy.

By the time we landed and got our rental car, it was almost 2:30pm (remember when we had plans to be there at 8am?!). But despite being stressed and insanely sleep-deprived, we were determined to do something fun, even though now it was too late to do the Spa/Therme.

On our list, we had 'Augusta Raurica' which was a cool Roman ruins of an amphitheater that was close to our airbnb. We drove about 2 hours to the area, and then, tragically, could NOT find it. There was construction that closed the road that went to the parking lot, so we tried three different ways to get around the construction without success.

At this point, we were hungry too, so we gave up. We limped into our airbnb and, due to being Flexible, pretended it was a spa by jumping in their cold pool for a bit and then taking a hot shower (a nice cold/hot treatment) and passing out for about 11 hours.

Our airbnb had a pool with a pretty good view

Day Three: Chillin' at Chillon Castle and the Never-Ending Drive

When we made our plans originally, we knew that this would be one of our longer driving days. It was six hours to Annecy, where our next four days of adventure would be located. We figured that this early in the trip, our energy levels would be up, so a six hour drive would be fine.

At first, this was the case. We had two stops in our agenda for the day: at hour 3, we'd stop at Chillon Castle, most likely just to look at it from the outside and then continue (while being Flexible enough to allow a tour if we wanted). After the castle, we'd stop 1.5 hours later in Chamonix, a cute skiing village, where we were super excited about a 1 mile pretty hike with stunning mountain views. My busted ankle means we can only do short hikes on this vacation, so we were super pumped that this one was short and easy but also really pretty (most Alps hikes are tough/long). After that, we'd casually drive to our next airbnb in Annecy, with time to stop for groceries to make dinner at our place. 

Such cute little towns and villages along the way!

The first three hours of the drive were beautiful. The Swiss countryside reminded us of Germany: drive really fast for a few kilometers, then slam on your breaks to drive slow through a cute village, repeat. The villages were sooooo cute. I love Swiss architecture for their homes.

This whole town was levels on a mountain cliff with the lake in the background: pretty but a bit scary!

We had plans to stop at a French bakery for lunch (mmm our first bread and cheese time!) but tragically, there was zero parking available anywhere near the place, and it was so busy on the streets and right on a mountain cliff, that we were uncomfortable with driving around looking for a place to park somewhere in the neighborhood. So we were Flexible, and decided we would figure something out by the castle.

We got to the Chillon Castle and we were blown away from the views. It is an old castle, perched on the lake, with the mountains all around. And the castle is beautiful! Since it was so lovely, we decided to get tickets to go inside. And right next to the castle was a tourist restaurant. Not something we would normally do, but it was past lunch time and we were hungry. The food was fine and the castle - wow! 

Just wow. I think it's my favorite castle that we've visited so far (and if you've been reading our travel blog for a while, you know that we've seen plenty of castles...). If not my favorite, then def. the top two (but I currently cannot think of one that I liked more).

Some of the things that I loved about this castle was: (1) we didn't have to join a tour; instead, we could just wander around as we pleased; and (2) it was HUGE and there were SOOO many rooms we could check out (we didn't even see them all!).

Chillon Castle has some prime real estate on the water with mountain views

So we highly recommend checking out Chillon Castle: it's worth the money!

After that, we got in the car to go hike near Chamonix. If timing worked well, we'd still have plenty of time to hike and still get to our new airbnb and eat dinner. Ha. 

The drive started out splendidly, if not slightly terrifying for me since I'm afraid of heights. We went straight up into the Alps, with tight curves in the road and tons of gorgeous views. It was like the Blue Ridge Parkway on steroids. 

Tragically, we went around a curve and....some crew members had closed the road ahead. It's the only road to Chamonix and they assured us (and the many many other vehicles) that it would open in about two hours,

While many of the other drivers were a bit cranky (in a quiet, European way, not a boisterous American way), Paul and I decided to be Flexible and easy going about it. We parked our car and walked to the nearby Alpine building - where hikers crash for the night and there's a bar as well. We grabbed some beers and sat and relaxed while soaking in the views (including a picturesque pink church). 

Paul decided that, if they opened the road when promised, we would still go to the hike in Chamonix. He would just jog up the hike and I would amble around slowly until he got back. 

Of course, they did NOT open the road at the promised time. It was another hour before the road was open, and now it was too late to do anything besides get some groceries and go to our airbnb. Sigh....

And then, even more annoyingly, once we got out of that mountain pass, there was a closed lane and backed up traffic, which added another 40-ish minutes to our long long day of driving.

At least our traffic jam included pretty arches and alps!

By the time we got out of that traffic jam, all of the grocery stores were closed for the day (they close super early! Lesson learned). So we no longer had any options for food because French do slow dinners and we didn't have time for that (plus we were not interested in finding our new airbnb in the dark). Fortunately, Paul cleverly thought about how there MUST be some McDonalds or Burger Kings in France, and we found one that was open on the way. 

We grabbed some gross American food (they do have Korean and Italian Whoppers though) and went on our way to the airbnb, still slowly because we were behind a tractor pulling hay for a long time and then we couldn't find our airbnb and had to use detective skills to find it.

I'm glad the Chillon Castle was so amazing, as it helped salvage the day, but boy, we are tired of being stressed and also frustrated by cancelled plans! (Also: at least the views were gorgeous on our drive!)

Hopefully we don't have to be so Flexible in our future France days and things start going a bit better. Mainly, I'd like to start relaxing a bit more. Here's hoping tomorrow is better! The agenda is mainly e-biking around Lake Annecy and stopping occasionally to swim. And buying food. 

We're keeping high spirits and looking forward to our next fun day!

~Cris (and Paul)

The Dainings are Going to France!!!!

 

In a few days, we're headed to France for a whole month. Naturally, we're pretty excited, since last year we stayed home for the summer (a rare event) and we're very very antsy for some adventure again.

As we made plans for our France trip, we eventually realized that we're basically doing a trip along most of the edges of France...either the center of France doesn't have things that interest us or maybe it's mainly rural (??). 

In case you're interested, here's a basic map of our plans. I had to cut some things because google maps only lets you put on a certain amount of places (and I added a blue line at the end to make it a round trip).

We're using the Zurich airport because it's way cheaper than any airport inside France for some reason, so I suppose technically 'The Dainings are (also) Going to Switzerland!!'.

Why We're Going to France

1. It's our 20th (!!) wedding anniversary this year!

I can't believe how quickly 20 years of love have gone by. This seemed like a perfect time to celebrate in a country that's got a stereotype for being romantic. 

2. We wanted to eat good food this time around.

No offense to the other countries we've visited so far, but I'm pretty sure French cuisine is going to be a bit more delicious than some of the things in these countries. We've been eager to do a more food-based trip for quite a while now, and what better time to enjoy fresh truffles, delicious bread & pastries, good cheese, and amazing wine than whilst celebrating our special anniversary?!?

3. Checking out a few more items on our bucket list.

Paul has always liked the architecture style of the Eiffel tower. I've always wanted to go to Versailles and the Versailles gardens. We've both always wanted to go to Mont Saint Michel (see first image). 

And, of course, there's plenty of beautiful castles to see, medieval picturesque villages, as well as caves, Alps, lakes/rivers/gorges, the walls of Carcassonne to walk, ancient Roman ruins to enjoy, and so much more.

We can't wait to experience our French adventure! We'll try our hardest to post an update here on the ole' adventure blog at least a few times a week while we're there.

Here's hoping we don't butcher the French language too badly and that we eat copious amounts of good cheese.

~Cris and Paul

NorthEast Trip: Day 32-37: Anne of Green Gables and the Stubborn French Quebecers

It's hard to believe we are in the final part of our adventures for the summer. Time FLEW by and Paul and I had an enjoyable time together as we travelled throughout this part of the world. 

I'm honestly not quite ready to go back to real life, but I am still excited for: my bed, my shower, and eating normal meals again (even though we've been eating healthy, it's not quite as easy to eat like we are accustomed to without a full kitchen to work with).

This part of our trip was a mix of long days of driving with random activities to break up the drudgery of being in the car to too long as well as a few last cool things on our bucket list.

Day 32: Entering Prince Edward Island!

We had a six hour drive to Prince Edward Island today. It was sad leaving behind Nova Scotia and we didn't even get to do a proper farewell (I'm a sappy romantic) because the border between NS and New Brunswick popped up quite suddenly.

From New Brunswick, we drove across a HUGE and scary bridge over the ocean to get to Prince Edward Island. 

All of the research that I did on Prince Edward Island seemed to indicate that it was a pretty boring place with "nice beaches", so I was shocked to find that I absolutely LOVED it here. I wish we had added another day or two on our adventures so we could explore PEI more thoroughly.

PEI reminded me of West Michigan during my childhood (aka before West Michigan became a land of suburbs and more suburbs): rolling hills of farmland, dirt roads, and healthy patches of forests were all around me here. There were even groups of Amish-type folks on their horse-drawn buggies. The farmland was rich and diverse: multiple types of livestock, orchards, hay fields, etc. were everywhere. It was beautiful.

We stopped at a place called Deep Roots Distillery, a 10 acre apple orchard farm, where the guy learned he could make more money making apple brandy than having a u-pick apple farm and also made other delicious alcoholic beverages from local ingredients. Everything we tried was delicious and we bought some maple syrup from them, since it was made from his own maple trees.

We got to stroll the orchard while sipping some moscow mules and it was a nice break from the drive.

After that, we headed to our campground for the next few nights. It is located next to a beach, so we walked the beach for a good long while before going to bed.

Day 33: Anne of Green Gables!!!!!

There are two book characters that shaped me as a child: Jo March from Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. 

And ever since I was a child, I've always dreamt of going to Prince Edward Island to visit the land that inspired Lucy M. Montgomery to create such a fantastic character.

This is, quite honestly, one of the major reasons we even did this NorthEast trip: I wanted to eat lobster in Maine and also visit Prince Edward Island for all-reasons Anne. 

So today was a tourist-trap day because I wanted to see all of the things related to Anne. Paul was a great companion as we toured the Green Gables Heritage Place, with the Lover's Lane and Haunted Wood and all the other bits of the novels that I loved. 

I was especially pleased to learn that Lucy M. Montgomery wrote many quotes in her journals about her love for nature, which showed me that she and I were True Kindred Spirits. 

It was supposed to rain all day, but the rain held off until we were done touring all of the Anne of Green Gables things that I wanted to see. What great Providence! (that line would make you smile if you've read the first book).

After that, the pouring rain made things awkward for a bit: we didn't want to just sit in our tent but it was raining pretty hard. So we took our time getting groceries and then put on some rain coats to walk the beach for a bit. 

I'm so glad we got to visit the Anne of Green Gables things and I got to cross that off my bucket list.

Day 34: Driving to a very-French Quebec

We spent about 6.5 hours driving today, as we slowly head to Michigan. We decided to drive north along the coast in New Brunswick and then drive along the Saint Lawrence River on the way back. 

When we got to the most northern bit of NB, where it meets up with Quebec, we were amazed by the sudden reappearance of Appalachian mountain range. They just came up out of nowhere and it was so beautiful!

If we ever go back, I want to explore this area more! 

We crossed into Quebec, and very quickly realized that the internet wasn't lying about the Quebecers being too stubborn to use English. Everywhere else in our Canadian adventures, the provinces put both English and French on all the traffic signs and food labels, etc. 

But here in Quebec province, they were like 'NOPE!' and only put french on everything. We stopped for gas and the guy only spoke French, so Paul had a fun time trying to pay for our gas. Then, we stopped at a winery, La distillerie du St. Laurent and fumbled around with various workers there as no one could (supposedly) help us since they all (supposedly) only spoke French.

Finally, someone came over who spoke both languages and dusted off the ONE English copy of the wine list that the store owned and we were able to try some wines. 

When we got to our campground for the evening, we had some more fun trying to figure everything out with French-speaking folks and I was already looking forward to leaving this area for some English-speaking places again.

We've travelled to many places with other primary languages before, but it's never been a struggle to get by and communicate. I suppose we should have learned a bit of French before coming here (and if we come back, we will definitely do that!) but it was very surprising that this province simply refuses to have anything to do with the English language, especially since they are surrounded by all the other provinces in their country where everyone speaks English.

Day 35: French Bistro and the last long drive

We had our last long drive today, putting in about 9 hours of driving. So sadly, we didn't get to do many cool things today. We did stop for lunch at a cute French Bistro in Quebec city called Cochon Dingue Carrefour Saint-Romuald. It was on the outskirts of the city and on the main road we were driving, so it worked out nicely.

We enjoyed some duck confit in various forms and wanted to try all the food on the menu. I'm already salivating for our future trip to France. I love French food.

If we had more time, we would have explored Old Quebec City, which is supposed to be really similar to the quaint cities of Europe. Sadly, we had to keep driving.

Even though it was annoying how hardly anyone spoke English here, Quebec province was very beautiful and I wouldn't mind coming back to hike their pretty mountains and explore Old Quebec City as well. Maybe someday...

Day 36: Oil Changes and Gardens

We technically only had a 3 hour drive today, but apparently Toronto is notorious for being an awful city to drive through and it can take much longer to get to the other side. So we took extra precautions and did our drive through Toronto on a Sunday (less traffic) and with plenty of cushion-time, just in case.

Before we did our bit through Toronto, we had to get an oil change in our vehicle. We ended up doing about 6,000 miles(!!) on our vehicle during this adventure, which is crazy! It was amusing to try to figure out the miles-to-kilometers stuff with the oil change guy and he did NOT do the math correctly for our oil sticker, which was pretty funny and makes me chuckle every time I look at it in our vehicle window.

After that, we headed to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. Ah....so nice to be in an English-speaking area again! The gardens were very pretty and I drooled over many plants and wrote down lots of them to research in the future to possibly add to my own garden someday. 

It was a hot and humid day though, and halfway through our sweaty walks in the gardens, I started to get a bad headache. There is something about this part of the world (aka West Michigan and the Great Lakes) that gives me such awful weather-related headaches. 

So we headed to our airbnb so I could try to recover. Tomorrow is Niagara Falls and then off to Michigan and family!

Day 37: Niagara Falls and the U.S.A.

My headache did NOT diminish and I spent the night tossing and turning with bad pain. But I wasn't going to let that stop us from seeing Niagara Falls, so off we went. If I look unhappy in the pictures here, it's just because my headache was SOOO bad that I could barely concentrate on anything.

But despite the pain, Niagara Falls was pretty cool. I definitely suggest you see them from the Canadian side, though! They are WAY better to see over there. We did a boat tour, and that's the best way to see the falls. Paul could probably add more about this than me, as I was just trying to stay standing upright and not collapse in a puddle of pain. But in my blurry pain-state, the falls were worthwhile and very cool.

Then it was six hours of driving to Paul's parents house in Michigan. I napped for a lot of that, to try and get rid of my headache and it did eventually fizzle out. 

This ends our travel journal of our NorthEast trip. We'll spend the week with family/friends in Michigan and then we're back to normal life in South Carolina.

Overall, we had a wonderful time. It was great seeing so much scenery and parts of the world and I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to do these types of adventures in our life. 

NorthEast Trip day 23-31: Chillin', Grillin', and Fishillin'

 Relaxation time!

We had a nice little cottage on a lake for the week. There were a couple kayaks so we mostly kayaked, read books, and fished. Many of the lakes in western Nova Scotia were polluted to the point where trout can't live anymore. They're loaded with catfish, eels, and pickerel (small type of pike). I tried to catch an eel to see how gross they are but couldn't find any. I did catch a ton of pickerel on topwater: 

Shelburne was 10 minutes away and was supposed to be the lobster capital of Canada, but we couldn't find anywhere to eat lobster besides a crazy expensive fancy restaurant. We went to the Barrington Wool Mill which was pretty cool. They used the river to power all the spinning and weaving machines. It wasn't currently running but we did get a really nice blanket.

Overall I wouldn't say western Nova Scotia is worth visiting, but we did have a relaxing break from our travels. 

The Halifax area was much nicer with more scenery and things to do. 

We stayed at Graves Island for a couple nights camping and I went out fishing in Lunenburg. It seemed like there was really only one company that takes people out fishing in that whole area so there were a ton of fish. I caught around 50 cod, pollock, mackerel, and herring. There were 9 people on a pretty big boat so there was plenty of room to move around. Five other people caught cod over 35 inches but all of mine were in the mid twenties. Of course I only got a picture of the smallest mackerel. 

Nova Scotia isn't much like Scotland at all, but there is enough of the same music, food, whisky, and scenery to make it well worth visiting (at least the eastern half). 

Now somebody get me some seafood chowder, stat!

NorthEast Trip Day 17-22: New Scotland

Next up is the part of the trip we were most excited for. Nova Scotia means New Scotland so we were looking forward to seeing how this province compares to the glory of Old Scotland. 

The best thing to do when visiting a new place is fly fishing. There aren't any fish in the Margaree river (or I'm bad at fishing) but it was still very pretty. Our Airbnb for 3 nights was on the Cabot Trail but was 5km down a bumpy two-track road. It was nice and quiet back there and the star-viewing was amazing but the 10min drive just to get to the main road got annoying. 

The Cabot Trail is a loop road through a national park that takes around 5 hours to drive. It was rainy by the end so we cancelled a couple stops but we did do the Skyline trail which was spectacular.

There were a bunch of signs at the end of the trail warning about dangerous winds coming from the ocean due to the shape of the mountain. It can get pretty dangerous, but when we were there we just had to take our time. We would take five steps and then crouch while a huge gust of wind swept up the mountainside and then take a few more steps once it passed. 

The roads were super fun in our '07 Honda Element but I wished I had a sports car. Next time we camp in a Lotus Elise!

Unlike Scotland there isn't a whisky distillery on every corner but there is one that makes whisky in the Scotch style (malted barley with peat brought in from Saskatchewan). It was all really tasty so we thought we'd pop in to the gift shop to buy a bottle. They had a cool thing where you fill your own bottles straight from a cask...for $400.  We got a nice picture instead.

It was then that I found out about the 'Chowder Trail' which seemed like it would make my boots soggy but also made me hungry. I looked up a bunch of the best seafood chowder places and then our real vacation began. 

We started the chowder journey at the Celtic Music Center. 10/10 chowder and good live music with which to enjoy chowder. It was chowder this world (does that work as a pun?)! The word chowder quickly lost its meaning after I said it a hundred times so we moved on to Annapolis Royal on the bay of Fundy.

Chowder.

It kept raining a bunch but I still caught a bunch of striper from shore. They're crazy aggressive fish that have terrible aim so I had fun watching them chase my topwater lures. There was also a friendly seal that kept popping up near where I was fishing. Check out this amazing nature photography:

Much of Nova Scotia seems a bit run down, it sounds like a lot of businesses used to thrive but have been struggling for a while. Though Nova Scotia isn't really much like Scotland it's still pretty and has a lot of open spaces.

At this point in our trip we're pretty sick of driving around and setting up our tent, so we're looking forward to a week of chilling by a lake at our next Airbnb.

NorthEast Trip: Day 14-16: Oh Canada!

Day 14: See ya later, Acadia! It's Canada time!

When we woke up, it was drizzling, so we packed up our camp as quick as we could to get the heck out of Acadia. Farewell, crowds and traffic! It's time for civilization again...that's right, it's Canada time, baby!

The entire drive was forests and more forests. There was one "gas station" which was hilariously someone's house with a hand-painted sign that said 'gas' on it. It was tempting to check it out and start a side-adventure by entering what is clearly the beginning of a horror movie, but we were too excited for Canada. Other than that, there was nothing but trees (this is not a complaint...I loved it! But definitely drive that route with a full tank of gas or you are doomed).

It was a 3.5-ish hour drive to our Canadian campground in New Brunswick and at first we were concerned that we would get to the campground WAY too early. However, there's a time change (I did NOT know there was a time change after 'Eastern' time...) which meant we got there at 2:30pm (only 30 minutes earlier than check-in) and Paul acted charming so we could check in right away.

This was our first time to Canada (Paul went briefly at age 14 but that doesn't really count). It's funny...whenever we research other countries for our previous trips, we do all sorts of research so that nothing surprises us...but I guess we didn't really think Canada would be much different so we did zero research first. 

We forgot that they use different currency, so we had to find an ATM for their loonies, toonies and wizzle wazzles. When we got to the New River Beach campground, we were confused by the electric hookup and had to figure out if Canada uses different electric amps than us (they don't) or if we just accidentally got an rv hookup and thus actually did NOT have electricity for the night (yep, bingo). 

And then there were the bizarre symbols along all of their roads. Perhaps they got tired of writing things in both English and French on all of their road signs...? But whatever it is, the symbols are, for the most part, very confusing and hilarious. It made for great conversation as we guessed what they all meant. You're driving at 110 km per hour and rush past these tiny squares with images and there's no time to sit there and try to decipher them...I don't know what these Canadians were thinking, but it is entertaining at least! 

Here's some fun ones for you to figure out. Remember, you're driving past these tiny squares really quickly, so don't spend more than a few seconds looking at it before guessing what it is!

This is just a few of the many many signs we saw. How did you do? Did you figure out what they all mean?

After we unpacked a little bit, we decided to do the nearby hike. The description made it seem like it was 3 miles long. But it turns out it was 3 miles to the point where the trail changed names to something else and then 3 more miles, so we ended up doing a six mile hike. And there were only a couple other hikers the entire time, yay Canada!

We were pretty darn tired after that unexpected long walk, and it was 7pm before we stumbled back to our partially-made campsite. Paul put everything up and I made dinner. Teamwork for the win.

The hike was nice. It made me kinda sad though, because the forest is dying due to the Emerald Ash Borer insect issue.

But whenever there were views of the cliffs and sea, they were very lovely views indeed.

If this is the view of the ocean for most of our trip, we'll be quite blessed!

Day 15: Fundy Trail Parkway and the eternal RAIN

Today was supposed to be this really cool drive that took all day. The Fundy Trail Parkway is this beautiful drive along the ocean and you can pull over to see pretty overlooks and do small hikes to waterfalls and other cool things.

BUT. It rained ALL day. At first it was just a slight drizzle but it was also unfortunately super super foggy. As the day progressed, the fog stayed but it rained harder and harder.

There were a few mini-breaks in the rain and fog/mist that allowed us to see some of the beauty here and there. I wish we could have done this drive on a clear day. I bet it's amazing! If we ever can get back to this area again in the future, we want to do this parkway drive again.

Fingers crossed we can make that happen! But in the meantime, it was kinda a bummer to not be able to enjoy the whole thing. Still, we tried to enjoy what we could.

Day 16: Our first storm, Hopewell Rocks and Meeting Someone From the Online World

Last night was our first storm while camping (both on this trip and otherwise!). Luckily, when we got to our campsite for the evening, the rain made us decide not to put up the tent part of our camp setup. We just squished everything inside with us and slept in a slightly uncomfortable setup in our vehicle.

Around 10pm, the drizzling rain started picking up and it got very very windy. Maybe this is what storms are like right on the ocean coast, especially here. It got so windy that I was super concerned we were going to flip over. I was certain we'd wake up the next morning to upside-down campers all over the place. 

While there WERE damaged screen tents in the campground, we (and everyone else) managed to come out unscathed....but very tired. 

As we looked around the campground for storm damage, more thunder and dark clouds were on the horizon so we packed up in the rain and got out of there ASAP.

We debated about going to Hopewell Rocks since it was raining so hard, but by the time we got to the parking lot, it was an off and on drizzle, so we decided to check it out.

I'm glad we did! Hopewell Rocks is super beautiful. It's a crazy place that is super affected by the tides...it rises to up to 50 feet between low and high tide! We got there just after low tide and walked around on the ocean floor, admiring all the stone shapes and little caves and such. Paul helped them hold up the biggest rock for a while, man he's strong. 

Then we hung out in their cafe and visitor area for a bit so that we could see the same place during high tide (this is what they recommend for everyone and it was super cool, so keep that in mind when planning your own Hopewell Rock trip!).

After that, we headed to Nova Scotia! Sometimes the internet can make random cool things happen...at some point in time, I met online-only someone named Tawny. Random correspondences created an opportunity to see her on this trip. Tawny generously offered to host us for the night and even though she was mainly a stranger to me/us, we decided to be brave and adventurous and accepted her lovely offer.

We met up at a restaurant (NOTE: if you are EVER in Wallace, Nova Scotia, check out Wiley's by the Wharf! They were incredible! Great food and super nice! And bonus if it's your birthday, they go above and beyond!!) and then followed Tawny and her family to their homestead.

It's a beautiful homestead and I tried not to get too jealous of her sheep (and other livestock), many acres, and multiple outbuildings. We had a lovely chat long into the night and woke up to a delicious breakfast. And fresh coffee (no more instant coffee!). Having a night to feel at home was really great after two weeks of mostly camping. 

We've found that on each of our trips some of the most memorable days are when we meet kindred spirits: There's the Irish guy who drove us around to show Cris all sorts of ancient cairns and stone circles, Paul's family in the Netherlands who brought us into their homes and offered us coffee every 5 minutes, and the Austrian man that sat with us and his neighbors to enjoy some beers and awkwardly try to speak each others' languages. And now the Nova Scotia family who invited us in to their home for a night and left us with full bellies, delicious jam, farm-fresh eggs, and a jar of goats milk.