New England! Really!

October 24, 2017

Whew! What a blur! We’ve been 2 weeks back in the US, and I quickly realized I will need to at least keep a campsite journal to keep up with all the places we’re staying and the sights we’re taking in!

We stayed at Too Narrows campground near Bar Harbor, Maine, once we entered the US.

Two narrows

We secured a lovely campsite right on the water and spent a couple of days touring Bar Harbor and the Acadia National Park. Bar Harbor was very tourist inundated due to the cruise terminals, and aside from a lovely lobster quesadilla, we were happy to get back on the dog-friendly bus

Dog friendly bus–Bar Harbor

and head back to camp. Acadia was drop dead beautiful, but again, the lines of cars to get up to the summit let us know this part of Maine is a tourist destination. OK in small doses, but we’re trying to stay off the beaten path most of the time.

Acadia NP

Once we left Bar Harbor, we headed toward a little burg called Wiscasset, and the Chewonki RV Park. The park had a view of the water, hardly anyone there, and no dog leashes required. We drove over to Boothbay Harbor, a quaint, quiet little village for a walk-about shortly after our arrival. We loved the fact that there were more residents than tourists, and the weather was warm and the skies blue.

Lobster at Richard’s

One of the highlights of the trip was spending a day with our friend, Richard, who divides his time between the east and west coast. Growing up as a Mainer, fisherman, and boat builder, Richard provided access to the biggest and tastiest lobster we’ve eaten on the trip. He and his wife, Tracy, have built a sweet home right on the water about 15 minutes from our campground. We took time in the morning to visit the farmer’s market in Bath, ME, another sweet town. I could actually live there, it felt so friendly and arty.  Richard’s hospitality will always be a memory for us there.

Maine has hundreds of miles of coastline, and there’s no way a person could possibly see it all in just a few days or even weeks, so we called it good after 10 days and headed to Newfound Lake in New Hampshire.

Colors on Chamberlain Lake

The colors here were probably the best anywhere. We took a cloudy afternoon and hiked 3.5 miles into Greeley Pond in the White Mountains, and the next day toured Lake Winnipesaukee aboard the Mount Washington, a converted steamboat that has plied those waters for decades.

We then stayed for 3 short days in Connecticut and managed to squeeze in a show with two of our favorite artists, Jacqui Naylor and Art Khu, who happened to be playing a local venue nearby.

We’re leaving this post just outside of Boston, and John has repeated several times that this has been too short a visit for this city!! We could have spent two weeks instead of two days. It would be fun to come back. There is SO much history, and we had no idea the Bostonians would be so friendly! They are seriously proud of their city and want to help visitors in any way they can. If you want a great visit to a major eastern city, start with Boston! PS: The MBTA allows dogs to ride, but not during rush hour, in case you want to take your dog into the city.  Warning: There are squirrels in Boston Commons!

Dog’s Perspective of the Atlantic Provinces Campgrounds

My parents are taking me traveling with them for a year, so I thought it would be helpful if I fill readers in and provide a dog’s take on our campgrounds. I need to be up-front and clarify that it’s not ALL about me, because generally, the places I like also appeal to them. Before I get started, there are several criteria by which I evaluate a campground.

First and foremost is, are the people in the office dog friendly? Do they have places for me to go, and if the campground is fairly empty, do they care if mom takes me out and throws the ball?

Second on my list is water (and preferably beaches). I’m not a big swimmer, but if there are beaches to run on or trails near a lake, we have a very good day, and I go to bed tired.

Third, and this is definitely an annoyance to my parents, is are there trees and especially, squirrels? I can become delirious in about 30 seconds if there’s a squirrel nearby, and believe me, I can smell them from 50 yards off!

So here’s the report:

Fifty Point Conservation Area in Winona, Ontario, was over-the top!

Fifty Point campground

There was a huge, stocked fishing pond (where mom broke her fly rod and had to send it back to Bainbridge Island), and a dog beach on the Lake Ontario. The weather was perfect, so we got to spend a ton of time outdoors.

My folks hit a dud in Montreal with the campground Amerique. First of all, no one speaks English and my French is worse than mom’s. There was no place to run or hike since we were surrounded by corn fields and old people who lived in this dismal place all year round. Plus the manager was very rude to mom.

When we arrived in Shediac, New Brunswick, we stayed at the Parlee Beach Provincial Park. Talk about room! But the beaches were not dog-friendly! Mom and dad got to get into their first fresh lobster there, so they were happy!

When we arrived at Twin Shore Campground, Prince Edward Island, we hit pay dirt!

Twin Shores, PEI

We had a great view of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a walk to the beach, lots of ball tossing room, and more great lobster for mom and dad. (Personally, I don’t get their thing for shellfish).

Cape Breton and the Cheticamp campground was a nature lover’s dream with lots of trails and a major creek running through the nearly deserted campground. Mom even found some chicken of the woods mushrooms to cook up, but I didn’t think they tasted like chicken at all! We didn’t get any beach time, but the trails were great.

Happy campers

Moving to Wayside Camping Park in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, was sure a set-back in my perspective. We met some nice dogs, but the campground was on a very busy road with no water, maybe a squirrel or two but nothing exciting, and lots of trash left around by the owner! Yuck!

Oak Bay Campground in Oak Bay, just before we left New Brunswick was pretty slick! We went through a tunnel that went under a road to a cool beach. Mom especially liked the fall colors that surrounded the bay. I’m sure getting used to my harness, since mom won’t take me anywhere without it now.

We camped at the Narrows Too campground in Trenton, Maine, down the road from the busy tourist town of Bar Harbor.

Bus ride to Bar Harbor

I got to ride the shuttle bus into town with my folks  and the waiter at lunch brought me my own water bowl. We did get kicked out of the brewery, because I’m not a “service dog” (whatever THAT means!) We went to the Arcadia National Park today, but the weather was the pits, so all we got was a brief hike on the beach instead of a 4 miler up to some peaks. Later!!

 

 

 

 

Nova Scotia: Cape Breton Island, South Shore and Bay of Fundy

We “parked” ourselves for 4 nights in Cheticamp, the Acadian (French-speaking) portion of Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. Cheticamp is also a gorgeous national park, and we took advantage of hikes alongside salmon streams, drives up the Cabot Trail, a spectacular coastline to stunning overview hikes on the Skyline Trail.

Cabot Trail

If Prince Edward Island was like going back to the 60’s, Cape Breton is like going back to the 30’s, with isolated countryside homes and small businesses. In the village of Cheticamp, most residents can trace their roots back directly to the French settlers who moved there in the 1700’s. While most inhabitants are bilingual, you can tell it’s a stretch for some to use English. Our second day began with a torrential rainstorm, but it was still fairly warm, so we scheduled some catch up time around camp and went out for dinner and a fiddle show that evening. We left Cape Breton with a bit of sadness. The coastline is stark and dramatic, not someplace you’d call “homey”, but a gorgeous piece of God’s earth.

Traveling to the South Shore of Nova Scotia from Cape Breton is a bit like going from the Olympic Peninsula to Edmonds (but smaller). Tourist buses are frequent on the South Shore (near Halifax where the cruise ships come in), traveling to Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg even in October, and I can’t imagine what the twisty bay roads are like in June or July!

Triple churches on Mahone Bay

We captured some iconic pictures and Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so we appreciate the fisher people who helped create that lovely environment.

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse

Lunenberg, NS

The little town of Mahone Bay was in the throes of a scarecrow festival, and the entire town was inhabited by bizarre and colorful scarecrows!

Mahone Bay Scarecrow

 

 

 

We left a rather uninviting campground on the Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse run to stay on the Bay of Fundy at the Ponderosa Pines Campgrounds.   I think we hit pay dirt here! Over a hundred campsites, and we are maybe 10 of us camping here? Surrounded by water, and lots of trails!

High Tide, Day 1

We were rewarded with the amazing spectacle of 160 billion gallons of water flowing into and out of the Bay of Fundy twice a day from the Atlantic Ocean (that’s as much water as flows over Niagara Falls in two years!).

Low tide day 2

We left Fundy feeling sad to leave Canada after such a marvelous experience, but also looking forward to our trip down the east coast, beginning in New England.