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.