Charlottetown, PEI to New York City

It's Canada Day! July 1, 2010. That's the day we will be leaving Charlottetown. And it's the day that Canada celebrates its independence from Great Britain. Unlike the USA which was more like an angry teenager who was living in the parents' second home (but had her earnings indiscriminately taken away by the parents to pay for that home), Canada was the good child that finally as an adult who was approaching thirty was kindly asked to leave (and was given the second home!)

Nevertheless, these two siblings who traveled separate paths in life have become good friends and even celebrate their independence just 3 days apart. And for Canada, that is July 1.

Leaving Charlottetown we again cross the Conferation bridge that links PEI with the mainland (New Brunswick). This bridge is the world's longest bridge over ice-covered waters. ( www.confederationbridge.com/en/ ) and for photos go to ( http://www.confederationbridge.com/en/photo_gallery.php) and for the live bridge cam ..look for us crossing about noon June 29 ! (confederationbridge.com/bridge/BridgeCam100_9.asx)

From here we travel down to the Bay of Fundy and then to Saint John, New Brunswick. The Bay of Fundy is famous for its tides. The tidal shift can be 60 (yes, sixty!) feet in 6 hours. In fact, the Saint John River actually travels backwards up rapids at Reversing Falls Rapids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversing_Falls

Then we head up to Woodstock, New Brunswick. the oldest settlement in New Brunswick and very close to the Maine border. And here they have fireworks for Canada Day. Linda loves fireworks, so she will get to see them for Canada's birthday, then for America's birthday three days later in New York City!

Then we break the rules. We get on the interstates. But in Maine these are beautiful and uncrowded. And we stay on them. We have short time to get to New York because of our nice long stay in Maritime Canada. We have experienced New England on a few occasions, and while it is beautiful, we are going to motor through it on Larry McMurtry's dreaded I-95.

Famous for his book The Lonesome Dove, McMurtry has written many other fiction and non-fiction books. But in his non-fiction Roads Larry does exactly the opposite of what we do on this trip. He travels only interstates. Except for the I-95. He hates this road and never travels on it in his book. But here we are, because it gets us to New York and to our daughter and son-in-law more quickly. It also gets us to central Connecticut where we hope to hook up with our friends Frank and Diane on July 2.

The final leg will be on the parkways that parallel the 95: the Merritt Parkway and the Hutchison River Parkway, and then to the Whitestone Bridge and into College Point where we will spend 3 nights with our daughter and her husband in their beautiful new place, where from the guest bedroom, you see the Manhattan skyline !

4th of July in the Big Apple! Can't wait !

Nova Scotia, Newfoundland & Prince Edward Island

ITINERARY: STAGE 5

Yes, it has been a few months since the last post. We have been through the holidays, to Tahoe, and back to New York to celebrate a January Christmas with Elissa and Jonathan.

And we have been waiting for the Marine Atlantic ferry system (http://www.marine-atlantic.ca/) to post its summer schedules from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. There are two ways to get to Newfoundland. The shortest and year round crossing (6 hrs) is from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland. The longest crossing (15 hrs) is from North Sydney to Argentia, NL, near the capital of St. John's. This crossing is only sailed during the summer months. The ships that cross are large ocean going ferries with ice-breaker status! http://www.marine-atlantic.ca/en/company/fleet.shtmlThis latter crossing occurs only three times weekly.

Because of that we are reversing our Newfoundland itinerary from what you read on a prior blog. We will take the night crossing from North Sydney to Argentia and arrive in St. John's in the early afternoon. We will spend the night there, and may head out at 5 am to Cape Spear en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Spear , the easternmost point of North America to watch the sun rise, and see the whales play and 10,000 year old icebergs float by.......that is, if I can get Linda out of bed. I did get her up many years ago to see the sunrise at the top of Haleakala on Maui.

Then it is off across Newfoundland, past Gander (see post of 9/9/09 ) and on to Gros Morne National Park www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/nl/grosmorne/index.aspx, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. whc.unesco.org/en/list/419 (see photo above)

We will spend two nights in cabins in the park at Rocky Harbour, then travel down to Port-aux-Basques where we take the morning ferry back to North Sydney. From there we drive to Halifax, considered to be a very pretty city and a party town!

And then off to Charlottetown, PEI for two nights in a wonderful B&B, the Elmwood Heritage Inn http://www.elmwoodinn.pe.ca/While we are there we will eat our share of world famous local mussels and attend the theatre. It is the musical season in Charlottetown and the world tour of the Buddy Holly story is there then, and we have tickets! www.confederationcentre.com/en/home/onstage/charlottetownfestival/buddy.aspx

Next post: Charlottwtown to New York City!