Campobello (08-10-18)

Once you head north out of Acadia National Park, it isn’t too long before you run into Canada. We had no reservations anywhere, so we looked at a map to see what looked interesting. Campobello was the answer to that question.

Campobello is an international park- basically that means that everyone who comes to visit needs a passport. Its also an island, and the border stops are at either end of the bridge.




At the border stop our way onto the island (which is in New Brunswick) we were asked, as usual, about our alcohol. Paul replied our agreed upon answer :  not a lot- just enough for personal use. Deliberately vague, since we are only allowed basically a liter apiece, and we perhaps had more than that. (We sort of had forgotten we brought a .75 liter bottle of the good tequila.) The agent was very nice and let us know that  next time, we need to know exactly what we have, in case they check, and find more than we said- in which case they could flag us. Hmm…now we had to drink for two days or heaven forbid, dump something out.

We had booked two nights in the Provincial Park, and once we were set up, we went off exploring. At one end of the island there is a smaller, very picturesque island, with a light house on it.

Both the island and the mainland we were standing on had stairs leading down into the water-and a big sign:

When we looked into the water, we could see arrows painted on the rocks, showing where the trail is. It would have been fun, but we never did get there at low tide. That’s ok, we got to watch the whales off the coast.

So, what is Campobello? An escape from everyday life and the heat of the city for the rich and who cares if they are famous.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s parents took him here when he was a young child and was sick, because they thought the sea air would do him good. They fell in love with the place and built a “cottage”. They were one of about 30 wealthy families who had homes on the island. Whenever they were here, they mingled with the locals and were really just interested in the fresh air, being outdoors, and sailing.



Franklin grew up spending summers on the island, and his children continued the tradition as much as possible. When the next door neighbor passed away, she left her cottage to Franklin and Eleanor, and they no longer had to share space with his mother.

We took two tours on the island, which are offered free of charge. The first was a half hour tour of the Roosevelt cottage. The tour guides are really knowledgeable and the tour was really interesting.

The second tour was longer, and was called the FUN tour. She started by asking us all to introduce ourselves by adding an adjective in front of our name that starts with the first letter of our name. We went around the circle, and I became Silly Sue, since that’s all I could think of. When we were done, she said she just wanted to see if we would do it. There was some silliness like that, but also we got to go behind the scenes more, and heard more personal type stories of the people on the island.




At a neighbors cottage, we heard about the crazy parties they would have, with dancing and live music. Franklin would often play the piano at the parties. Then she asked if anyone played, and everyone who did, was given a chance to play the piano.

Usually the dancing would take place on the large deck, and once we got there, each family group was given 5 minutes to practice a dance to perform for everyone. There would be a prize for the best dance.

I was surprised that everyone was pretty inventive. We had the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Hokey Pokey.

I was even more surprised when we actually won, for our version of the “Porter Polka”.



Most people participated- and the guides were very upfront before the tour- if you didn’t want to have fun and be silly, its not the tour for you!





After the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, the land was deeded to the United States and Canada and is jointly owned and operated by the two countries.


After leaving the island, we spent one night back in the U.S. before heading back into Canada. We stocked up on some food items and did some laundry before we would need to pay for it with Canadian coins.

Once we crossed into Canada again, we headed straight for Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. We have been here before but it was a good stopping point along the way to Nova Scotia.

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world- up to 50 feet.  When the tide is low, you can walk on the sea floor. There is an up stair case, and a separate Down staircase, due to the amount of people. You buy at ticket that is good for two days, so you can come at low tide one day and high tide the next.

Lucky for us that a) we have been here before and b) we chose to go at low tide first- because the second day, the weather was awful and certainly was not worth getting drenched to see high tide.

Anyway, this is what the rocks look like at low tide and  high tide- to get a perspective, you can see people underneath the rocks in the first picture.





















We had one more treat to repeat before we headed into Nova Scotia. The tidal bore. Along with such a huge tidal change, comes a tidal bore.  Basically, so much water rushes in the river so fast, that it comes in as a wave.  In Moncton there is a park where you can watch the bore come down the river. Once the wave passes, the water level raises at an incredible pace.

Now we were ready to move on to Nova Scotia.

Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick (08-22-13)

Although we stopped at the Bay of Fundy on our first swing through New Brunswick, we wanted to make a second stop so we could see Hopewell Rocks.  This place has one of the highest tides in the world, up to 44 feet.  The idea is to go check it out both at high tide,and at low tide.  When you buy a ticket, it’s good for two days. 
But, first you have to get there, and that’s where we ran into trouble. We made reservations at the campground closest to the rocks, and got within a few miles of it when we came upon an accident scene. It was a pretty serious accident, and the road was completely closed.  Someone was standing at the turnoff giving directions to people on where they needed to go for the detour.  When we reached the front of the line, Paul asked if he was tired of saying the same thing over and over, and the guy says “well, I’ll be telling you something different, because you’ll never get this rig down the road everyone else is using.”  He proceeded to tell us which roads to take to detour. 

We wrote it down and went on our way.  About 15 minutes later, we passed a sign that said 3.5 meter height limit. Uh oh.

   We could see the low bridge, so we pulled the rig over, got out the tape measure and started to walk down the road to measure it.  We weren’t that close to it because we stopped next to a convenient place to turn around.  A neighbor came out and told us we’d never make it, and directed us around and over the mountain. 




We turned around and once again went on our way, stopping once or twice to double check where we were.  One time when we were stopped, a car passed us and pulled over in front of us, and the driver came over to talk to us and make sure we knew where we had to go.  Wow.  Extremely nice people around here.

It was at least an hour to an hour and a half delay getting to the campground, but at least we made it ok.


The campground posts the high/low tide times which made it easier to figure out our plan of attack. Because of the tide differential and the height of the rock cliffs at the water’s edge, about two hours before low tide, you are allowed to go down the stairs and walk “on the ocean floor”.  Two hours after low tide, every one has to leave, before the water arrives.  The tide comes in at a rate of 7-9 feet per hour, which is a seriously fast rate.  Our timing was perfect for low tide, so we headed over to walk among the rocks. For picture comparison purposes I have put similar shots next to each other- one showing at low tide, and one at close to high tide, although we didn’t see the high tide until the following day.



 
  Looking from up above you don’t get a sense of the size of these rocks, but they are enormous! In retrospect, it probably would have been more dramatic to see it at high tide, then go at low tide and head down the stairs.  Oh well, it was still pretty cool.
















Here’s Paul standing between two of the rocks:






 

The day after the low tide visit is the day we went to see the high tide. To get the best viewpoint, we decided to take the guided Kayak tour. That way we’d get pictures of the rocks from the same angle as the “floor” shots.  It wasn’t meant to be.  The wind started picking up and a little while before we were supposed to leave, the guides were letting people know that they’d be getting very wet, and probably wouldn’t be able to take pictures because the water was getting too rough.

Ah well, I decided I wasn’t interested in that, so we decided not to go.  It turns out they canceled that trip anyway.  We went to the edge and watched the people on the trip before ours.  They were struggling a fair amount, and waves were breaking over the kayaks.  Watching them ride the waves made me feel less of a wimp.






Hopewell Rocks was one of our last major stops in Canada. From this point on, we are making a beeline for Michigan, with maybe a day or so of exploring along the way, but not much.

We took a picture for another couple and they insisted on taking our picture for us.

St. John, New Brunswick Canada! (06-25-13)

I did some research before crossing the border into Canada, and as a result, we crossed with no produce in the trailer at all-  It was tough to get a straight answer on what is allowed, so I figured it was easier to say we don’t have any. Of course I made sure I had the cat’s papers available, as well as our passports.  We have to declare all meats, so I made sure they were all in the original package, and we ate whatever wasn’t, before we entered Canada. We are only allowed to bring 2 liters of alcohol, so we had to drink that all up too. I stressed a fair amount over it all, and I am sure Paul thought I was a little nuts, but then the day we crossed, I was totally calm, because I had done everything I could to follow the rules, so if there was a problem, so be it. 
It turns out they asked us where we live (fulltime in the trailer) which led to “do you have any firearms”?  Answer: No. She was very skeptical and asked several more, related questions, such as “You fulltime RV with no weapon??”  Yup.  “Do you have a concealed weapon permit?” Nope.  After several questions about where we had lived before our retirement, and when we were last in Canada, she told us to have a nice vacation.   She didn’t even glance at the cat, or the back of the truck.

Once we were “in”, we could relax and focus on learning all things metric while we drove the 92 kilometers to St. John, New Brunswick. At least the exchange rate for the dollar is about even, so we don’t have to do math when see a price for something, unless it’s priced per fill in the blank.

Great fuel prices, eh? (just practicing my “eh”).  Not really too great when you realize it’s priced per liter and there are about 3.78 liters in a gallon.  hmmm. Almost $5 a gallon for diesel.

All of the signs are in French and English, although luckily, in this province, English seems to be the preferred language.










We got a few hundred dollars in Canadian currency while at the duty free shop at the border because they only charge $1 fee for the transaction.  My uncle told us that’s the best place to exchange money.  When we use our credit card here, we get charged a 3% fee.  I called the banks for the cards we use to let them know we’ll be in Canada for a few months.  I also called Chase, which is where we have our checking account, so we could use the debit card at the Costco, which is where we headed as soon as we checked in at the campground.  We got some of the produce we needed there, plus a few other things.  We had stocked up on canned goods and staples in Maine before crossing the border. 

I guess I wasn’t quite specific enough with Chase because when we tried to use the debit card, it was declined.  Nothing would make it work, so we paid cash.  When I called Chase again, they were confused as well, because everything seemed in order- then she read off the card number to me.  Nope, wrong number.  Apparently I activated my card, but of course, we used Paul’s and his was not “flagged” to be in Canada. 

Costco doesn’t carry liquor up here, so our next stop needed to be a liquor store.  I asked where the nearest one is and got directions.  I started to walk away, then turned back and said, “Oh yeah, what’s the name of the store”?  The poor guy looked at me like I was daft and said “Um… New Brunswick Liquor”.   I had to explain that I was fresh off the boat, so to speak and didn’t know the liquor stores are run by the province.


We sure were in for some sticker shock at NB Liquors.  Sam Adams Summer sells for $16 for a six pack, the tequila we usually buy is double the highest price we’ve ever paid, and Paul’s favorite -Smirnoff Ice- sells for $3.40 each.  Paul left me contemplating beers and went to check out the wine selection.  He returned pale and empty handed, so I didn’t ask any questions.  We did buy the Smirnoff Ice though, because in Canada it’s not a malt beverage, it’s actually made with Smirnoff Vodka so he wanted to try it- he likes it better, of course.








I’m sure there’ll be more things we’ll have to figure out as we travel around, but all in all it’s going pretty well so far. It is a strange feeling to realize that are in a foreign country, and we’ll be out of the United States for a couple of months.

Dozer is definitely ready to explore!










The Bay of Fundy:

Part of the reason we chose St. John as a first destination is because I was anxious to get my first glimpse of the Bay of Fundy.

With a peak tidal range of 50 feet in some areas, the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world.  We got a chance to see some of that dramatic change as we drove along the coastline.

 

  Fundy Trail Parkway follows the coast and gives opportunities to  hike, bike and drive along the seashore.  The parkway starts in the small town of St. Martins and travels north.  It’s still being developed, and will eventually end in Fundy National Park.

Although it was a little hazy, I am thinking that fog may be a pretty common phenomenon, so I felt lucky that we could see as far as we could.  At one point the haze cleared enough that we could see across the bay to Nova Scotia.






Tomorrow we leave for Prince Edward Island but we’ll come back to this area to explore more before we head further west.