Epic Road Trip Part 1: Vermont Part 2!

July 20, 2016

I only had the morning to spend with my brother and sister-in-law, because I was catching a 12:15 greyhound bus that would take me to Manchester, New Hampshire for a 6pm flight back to Denver. So Paul took the morning off work and we went canoeing!

Paul lives up a hilly road from a reservoir, so we tied the canoe to the roof of his car, drove downhill for about 5 minutes, and unloaded it in the water. I have been canoeing maybe once, so I am an expert canoer. The reservoir was calm and peaceful, not too many people were out, and it was still early and cool.

I loved the canoe trip! We just went about 20 minutes up to the waterfall that empties into the reservoir, hung around there for awhile (Paul skipped rocks), and came back. I saw a beaver several times, one time it slapped its tail right ahead of the boat and scared me to death.

I also saw a fish jump out of the water right in front of us, a great blue heron, and an osprey. Also lots of plants.

After canoeing, we took my car to the mechanic in town, who looked at it, said the last guy did all that he would have been able to do, and it's no big deal to just fill it up with oil every time I fill it up with gas for the rest of my life. I disagree.

So I went with Paul to his job, which is in the basement of city hall, and the greyhound stop is in front of city hall. Paul works at the Basement Teen Center, which is a safe place for kids to hang out when not in school.

We went out front about 11:45 to wait for the bus. Paul sat with me, as well as his co-worker, Kayla, and a couple of his teens came and went. Lots of people came and went. Paul knows lots of people. And we waited there a long time. by 1pm the bus still hadn't come. By 1:30 the bus still hadn't come. I decided that if it wasn't there by 2, I would miss my plane. It wasn't there by 2. So I decided to drive myself down to Manchester and Paul and Sarah would have to come pick up the car that weekend. Not an ideal plan, but better than nothing.

So I dashed to the car, drove to the hotel in Manchester Paul and Sarah park at (about 2 hours away), paid to park my car there for 4 days, and took the hotel shuttle to the airport. In the shuttle, the driver said, "so what airline are you flying?" me: "Southwest." Driver: "Hmm, I heard there was a problem with Southwest, did you check your phone to make sure your flight is going?" Me: "Uggghh. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that were true. My phone is broken, I can't do anything but make calls and text." Driver: "I'll check mine.....looks like your flight is on time! Don't know what I heard!" Me: "Well, that's good news."

She dropped me off at the airport at 5:15, for my 6pm flight. I was panicking, but she told me, it's such a tiny airport, it will not be a problem at all, even though I had bags to check and hadn't printed my boarding pass yet.

I walked in to the ticketing area, and saw the line at the Southwest counter had about 100 people ahead of me. Panicking. But, I needn't have worried. My flight didn't leave without me. In fact, no flights left at all. Turns out, the entire computer network for Southwest, across the entire country, was down. Including the boards in airports (they all read 'on time') and the website, and the boarding pass printing machines, and the bag checking computers....everything. No flights were going ANYWHERE.

The local news channel came to film me waiting in line to hear that I wasn't flying anywhere

When the ticketing agent came out and told us that there was no way of knowing when, if ever, the flights from Manchester would leave, and that if you were connecting through anywhere, especially Chicago (which I was), it was extremely unlikely you would make your connection, I gave up. I got out of line, sat on a bench and started laughing. I was not meant to leave Vermont. My car breaks down. My phone crashes. My bus never comes. All planes are grounded. What on earth was going on!?!

So I got the hotel to come back and pick me up, I got back in my car, and I drove two hours back to Paul and Sarah's house, to stay for an indefinite amount of time.

July 21, 2016

I had breakfast with Paul and Sarah, and then they left for work. I called Greyhound and started the extremely ridiculous process of getting my bus ticket refunded. I called Southwest and was told they would call me back within two hours.

The tower in Hubbards Parks

Since I had my own car, I decided to go hang out with Paul at the Teen Center. His job is literally hanging out. I wouldn't be a bother.  I went to a nearby pizza place and picked up lunch for him and me and Kayla.  After lunch I decided to explore Hubbards park, a city park in Montpelier that is forest and trails and hills. It was great, and lovely. Muggy though. I climbed the tower that's in the park. Since it had been about 5 hours, I decided to call Southwest again, and finally got through. The earliest flight they could get me on would be Saturday at noon! I was supposed to fly out Wednesday, it was already Thursday afternoon, and I couldn't leave til Saturday. It was crazy. I was fine, Paul and Sarah would have no problem with me staying with them, but wow!

Looking out at Montpelier from the park

After work, Paul and Sarah and I made tacos for dinner, and their doula came for dinner, along with Sarah's parents, Topher and Marie.  Dinner was lovely, we ate outside. After dinner, Paul made a fire outside, and we hung out there and looked for fireflies.

Lovely dinner!

July 22, 2016

Since I knew I wouldn't be leaving yet, I spent the morning relaxing. I watched a movie, read, etc.

Paul, mentoring

After lunch I went to the Teen Center and played Settlers with Paul and his teens. Yes, his job includes playing board games with teenagers. I won one, and Paul won one! Sorry, teens.

Paul at 'work'

Paul and I then went over to a local vineyard, Fresh Tracks Farm, where Kayla also works, and visited with her for a while and had a glass of wine on their back patio. Then we met Sarah downtown for a fancy dinner.

July 23, 2016

There was no bus that could take me to Manchester this time, so Paul and I drove down together in my car, and he drove back after dropping me off. This time I got on the plane, and even got seating position A1, so I could choose any seat! I chose the second row, right side, window seat. I recommend it.

Got to Denver in the late afternoon, my folks picked me up at the airport, and we went to a band concert at our local park and had a picnic.

The extra time in Vermont was lovely, and relaxing, and wonderful. It all turned out for the best. And as an apology, Southwest sent me four free drink coupons. I am never going to use them. If you want them, let me know, I'll send them your way. Pretty sweet apology gift though, right? Four free drinks pretty much makes up for everything.

Epic Road Trip Part 1: Maine

July 19, 2016

We took a morning trip out to Schoodic Point, part of Acadia National Park, and took a walk on the granite shoreline. The rest of my time in Maine was logistical.

My last day with the wonderful (and obviously very cool) Shilatys.

* Drove Lindsay and Ginny to Bangor airport to pick up their rental car.
* Went to a cell phone repair store at the mall to see if they could fix my phone. Yea, did I mention my phone completely crashed and was 100% unuseable? The guy could not fix it.
* Drove to Wal-Mart to buy a $20 'burner' phone (made me feel like I was in the CIA).
* Lunch with the Shilatys at Chipotle.
* Parted ways with the Shailatys at Chipotle.
* Drove myself, my drug-dealer phone, my patched-together car, and my bags of salty snacks many hours to Montpelier, Vermont.
* My brother Paul had dinner waiting for me when I arrived at his house about 8pm.
* Went to bed.

Bay of Fundy Video

This video is in real time. It shows how quickly the Bay of Fundy tide goes out in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. It's not the most fascinating video of all time, but at least it's short. Pay attention to where the water level is on the pen at the start of the video, and where it ends up 1 minute later. It's pretty amazing. Then, watch it again, looking at the rocks in front of the pen.

Epic Road Trip Part 1: Nova Scotia

July 16, 2016

We left PEI today and headed to Nova Scotia. We got to Parrsboro around lunchtime and found ourselves at Harbour View restaurant, which, appropriately, has an excellent view of the harbor (or harbour, if you're fancy).

If there's one thing I love, it's giant chairs!

Parrsboro Harbor is part of the Bay of Fundy. If you don't remember what you know about the Bay of Fundy, it is this:
"The Bay of Fundy is known for having the highest tidal range in the world." The Bay of Fundy tides change by 56 feet every 6 hours-ish. This article from the Parrsboro website describes what it is like to see it from Parrsboro, where it is most dramatic.

Little Boat got left behind by the tide

Anyway, we ate lunch at this restaurant, then went out to their beach to watch the tide. I was not convinced that watching the tide go out would be very interesting. And if you just sit in one of the oversized Adirondack chairs and look out at the water, it isn't very interesting. But if you go up to the water's edge, pick out a rock that's just underwater, and watch it for 1 minute, it is very interesting to watch how quickly the tide uncovers it. I have a video I'll post of the tide going out. Don't worry, it's short.

Stone in the Bay of Fundy

Same stone, 30 seconds later

So, we watched the tide go out, and we checked out the dock nearby, where the boats tied up to the dock had suck about 20 feet below the edge of the dock, and one little sailboat was marooned in an area where there was no longer any water at all. But by tomorrow, it will be floating in the harbor again!

When we got our fill of watching the tide, we headed on to Truro, another town in Nova Scotia, and took a walk in this really neat park, Victoria park. Also, it was really humid. Really hot and humid. This park is built into a steep ravine, so there are elevated walkways, staircases, waterfalls with swimming holes, and loads of leafy green old growth trees, so it felt like we were walking in treehouse land like MYST.

Swimming hole at Victoria Park

We spent some time there, then drove on to our rented house near Hubbards. It was dusk, and we walked out our house, through a small field, and down to the rocky beach about 2 minutes below our house. We climbed on the rocks, and discovered a very small cemetery that was beautiful and spooky in the twilight.

Sunset at our private beach

Beautiful and spooky

July 17, 2016

First tourist spot today was Lunenburg. Lunenburg is a UNESCO world heritage site, (yes, the whole town), and has lots of colorful, historic buildings. It also is home to lots of maritime history. A lot of this history here involves the British evicting the Acadians and the Native people that lived there. Perhaps not a surprise. We wandered the town, looking at the neat old buildings, walked along the pier, checked the amazing Lunenburg Academy, and had a delicious lunch.

THIS is the public elementary school in Lunenburg.

Lunenburg

Sorry, but this meal was too delicious not to post a picture

Then we went to Peggys Cove. Peggys Cove is basically a lighthouse built on this amazing field of granite boulders. It seems like the town of Peggys Cove (I'm not leaving out the apostrophe...there's isn't one...) is basically some giant parking lots, a few tourists shops, and 4 houses.

Peggys Cove lighthouse in background, stacks of rocks in foreground

The Schilatys loved Peggys Cove. I liked it, but I didn't really get it. Why were there so many people there? What's the big deal about a lighthouse on a field of boulders? I don't know, still, but we had fun and it was cool.

One neat thing we discovered there was tons of rock sculptures. Basically, when there isn't sand to make a sand castle, try stacking rocks instead. We found hundreds of these, some as tall as 5feet, some just tiny little sculptures of 4 or 5 pebbles stacked up. It was surreal and amazing.

After Peggys Cove, we bought groceries, went home and made dinner, and had an early night.

July 18, 2016

We woke up early to drive the 8-9 hours to our rented house in Maine. We thought we would be saying goodbye to Nova Scotia within a couple hours, but we were there for many more hours than expected.

About an hour after leaving our house, we stopped for gas, and as usual, to check the oil. When I popped the hood, though, smoke came out. AHH! We decided we had to get into a mechanic. The lady working at the gas station recommended a nearby place, the Hammonds Plains service center. (They don't believe in possessive nouns in Nova Scotia) We called ahead, explained the situation, and the lady we talked to said they would get us right in. We hobbled over there, and got comfy in the waiting room, where we spent the next 4 hours.

The mechanic and the staff were wonderful, really. They ordered a part from 'the city' and put a rush on it, so it was there in 20 minutes. What the mechanic told me was this: Someone who had done an oil change on my car had screwed the oil pressure gauge piece in too far, and cracked my engine block. If your expression right now is jaw-dropped, eyes-wide, disbelief, then you know what my face looked like when he told me that. I know enough to know that an engine block crack is a very, very, expensive repair. My mechanic told me he would patch the crack with some liquid metal and let it dry and see if it would work.  A couple hours later, he told me it would, that the patch was the only solution, and the car was totally driveable, but it would still be slowly leaking oil until the block was repaired. We were relieved we could drive on to Maine, because we had been looking up plane tickets from Halifax, rental cars, etc. figuring we may not be able to drive away from that service station. But I was devastated. I have never had a single problem with this car. I took it in for an oil change to get it ready for a big road trip, and my mechanic in St. Cloud destroyed my car. I was very upset. I am still very upset. But the mechanic in Nova Scotia loaded us up with oil, took the rest of my Canadian money off my hands, and sent us on our way. They were really wonderful mechanics, we were lucky to have found them.

At least the car didn't have to STAY in Canada

The rest of the day was a long boring drive to a small town outside Acadia National Park, made interesting only by getting stuck in a massive thunderstorm on a teeny tiny back road in the Maine woods. This was not my favorite day of the trip.

When we got to our place, we grabbed some dinner nearby and explored a bit of the Park in the twilight. It was very pretty and nice.

Funny things were happening when we took this picture- rain was falling on our faces, Lindsay was wearing my raincoat that was too small for her, we had a really hard time making our heads line up...we were having fun. This was taken at Peggys Cove.

Singing Sands Video

Here is a video I took of the singing sand. Turn the volume up, mostly you can hear the wind, but underneath, you can hear the sand barking!

Epic Road Trip Part 1: Prince Edward Island

July 14th, 2016

Finally, the post you've all been waiting for! Today was our first day of big adventures on Prince Edward Island. And we did have a lot of adventures.

Ginny, Ben, Anne, and Lindsay, with the house in the back

We started off at the Anne of Green Gables heritage place, which is a historic house that the author, L.M. Montgomery, spent time in as a child and based Green Gables on. Inside is set up with period-appropriate artifacts, as well as little inside jokes for Anne fans, like a broken slate in one of the upstairs rooms, and a brooch on a wardrobe in another. There is also a historic barn, walks in the woods, guided tours, a movie about the author's life, an Anne walking around, and lots of activities like games with Miss Stacy, old-time sing alongs, and costume bins. We all had a great time. But Ben had a REALLY great time. He took a picture with Anne when we first got there, and then, some hours later, we saw her again in a different costume, and so he took another picture with her! The heritage place is a Canadian National Historic Site, so it was staffed by summer park rangers who were happy to have us ask them a million questions. We learned a lot! One thing I learned that Lindsay and Ben didn't hear, and I never told them, was that L.M. Montgomery died by committing suicide. So if they read this blog, they will know, but other than that, it was a happy, fun place to visit!

Ugh, you can SEE the sand whipping by in this picture!

Next stop was Cavendish beach, which I didn't love as much as the Shilatys, because it was incredibly windy, and the sand was blowing into everything, like my eyes and ears and mouth. So while I took my turn sitting with our stuff, I read my magazine and put a towel over my head to fend off the sandstorm. The rest of the trip, Ben called me 'towel-head-it's-not-offensive-because-you-were-wearing-a-towel-on-your-head'. Fortunately he didn't call me that ALL the time.

Once I had gotten thoroughly exfoliated, we headed inland to get dinner at the PEI Preserve Company, which had a nice waterfront garden we explored, and there was a loose goat running around that had nothing to do with the restaurant but was standing in front of it when we got there, so we pet it. The dinner was delicious, and Ben and I shared a bowl of PEI mussels that were heavenly.

July 15th

Day 2 on PEI started out at Avonlea Village, which is mostly a cutsey shopping area, but there are historic buildings there, too. We met Benny and Goliath, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police and his horse, who are basically there for tourists to take pictures of. Ben asked Benny (the man) if he had had any interesting cases in his career, and Benny then told us a 20-minute long story about one of his cases. The story was about 16 minutes longer than strictly necessary.

RCMP Benny and Goliath. Goliath lives next door at the water park. Seriously.

Next we headed to Charlottetown, the capital of PEI. We had yet another delicious meal and walked around looking at old buildings and checking out the waterfront. We wanted to see the university that Anne went to, but it turns out that was fictional.

We visited a lighthouse on the southern coast (Point Prim) that we could walk up to the top of. A very young tour guide took us up. And though James, our guide, was probably 16 years old, and wasn't the most amazing guide, he really loves lighthouses!

Point Prim Lighthouse

If there's one thing I love, it's Fresnel Lenses!

Then we drove back up to the north shore to track down a place called Thunder Cove. This turned out to be my favorite part of PEI. There was almost nobody else there, and almost no wind. The beach was red sand and red rock, and there were these gorgeous rock formations along the beach that were just awesome. We spent a lot of time there, just running around, climbing things, and getting our feet wet. The beach also had singing sand, which makes a barking sound when you drag your feet in it.

Thunder Cove is Awesome!

We took a back road to a dirt road to a rut and drove til the land ended, and there we came to another lighthouse. This one was old and we could not go in it, but the view from the cliff it stood on was excellent.

Cape Tryon lighthouse

View from the lighthouse cliff

For dinner, back to where we started, Avonlea Village, where we ate a delicious pizza place, and made friends with the waiter, Jonathan. Visit him in Avonlea Village, or in Halifax, where he lives in the winter, and tell him we sent you. He suggested Ben and I would make a good comedy improv duo. We didn't deny it.

Epic Road Trip Part 1: Quebec City

July 12, 2016

We decided to not worry about the car. It was leaking oil, but if we checked it regularly and kept it filled, it seemed to be okay.

So we spent the day in Quebec City. We were staying across the St. Lawrence River in Levis, so after breakfast, we took the ferry across to the old town.

Chateau Frontenac as seen from the ferry

We had a great day! We explored the old town by touribus first, getting seats on the top deck of a double decker bus and listening to an audio tour guide. This was a great way to see parts of the city we wouldn't have had time for in one day. We had lunch at a food-truck themed restaurant on Grand Avenue (I know...food-truck themed?), and it was quite good. We walked around in the old streets and felt like we were in Europe. We walked along the old city wall for a bit, looking down on all the business happening below. We went through the Plains of Abraham, which is a massive central park named after an old shepard named Abraham who used to graze his sheep there, nothing biblical about it.

We liked the touribus, but we also like making faces

After walking a bit, I sat on a bench and said, "I would love some crepes. Let me look on google and see if there's any crepe places nearby." As I was pulling up maps on my phone, Ginny says, "there's crepes, right there." And literally 10 feet in front of my face was a crepe stand. Oh, technology. So we got crepes, and sat in the plaza outside the impressive hotel Chateau Frontenac. We wandered some more, coming upon cute old houses, pocket parks, and lots of gift shops!

Charming.

We came home in the late afternoon on the ferry, and took naps. Now that we were back on the Levis side of the river, there were not many options for dinner, so we picked a pub nearby that appeared to be the only place open at 8 pm that we could walk to. Not that we DID walk, of course, we are American! We drove!

Saint Louis Gate in the old wall

This pub turned out to be amazing. The food was delicious, the view across the river was gorgeous, and our waiters were also delicious. Could it be the french accent? It could be. We were all pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. After dinner we went to an ice cream place just a block from our apartment that we had noticed always had a line out the door and around the corner. We got there around 10, the Shilatys got ice cream (I'm not really an ice cream fan), and for the next half hour I regretted my decision not to get anything, because they were just raving about the ice cream. Lindsay said she had never ice cream so good, and she is already planning the 5 hour trip from her home in Seattle to the Chocolat Favoris location in British Columbia for her birthday in February. February! (They are only in Canada, and mostly in Quebec, sorry!)

July 13, 2016

Another day of mostly driving. We poured more oil in the car and left Quebec City. We got lunch in New Brunswick, and spent a long time discussing the relative height of moose compared to cars, but despite these signs everywhere, we never saw a moose.

We arrived at our house in Prince Edward Island around 7pm and walked to a nearby oyster bar and got lobster rolls while looking out over the water at sunset. Could anything be more pleasant!? I doubt it.

I'm sorry to make you jealous. This really was as pretty as it looks.

Epic Road Trip Part 1: Vermont Part 1!

July 10th, 2016

Ben and I drove from Syracuse, New York to Montpelier, Vermont, where my brother Paul, and sister-in-law, Sarah live. We got there around 4:30pm, and Paul took us on a walk around their property. Sarah made us a delicious dinner, and we played two games of Settlers. Ben's friend Leigh came over from somewhere not far away and joined us for dinner.

July 11th,  2016

Sarah, me and Paul! Sarah is about 8 2/3 months pregnant here!

Paul and Sarah had to work today (suckers!), so Ben and I explored on our own. We took an interesting tour of the state house (Vermont State Capitol), and went to Paul's work to hang out for a little while, and have lunch with him.

Vermont State House

We then drove on to Quebec city. As we rounded the corner of the street our air bnb was on, the car started shaking and the check engine light came on. Ben pulled up to our air bnb, and I was filled with dread, remembering the oil incident that was now a week and 1,500 miles behind me.

I opened the hood, and checked the oil, and discovered the worst - it was completely empty. No oil! And, my oil pressure light had never come on! I still had the extra quart Scott had given me in the car, so I put that in, and after we had unloaded, we went out to get more oil.

At the first gas station, I asked the attendant, "do you speak English?" and he said, "a little." So I said, "Do you have motor oil?" and I got a blank stare. I looked around, but couldn't see it anywhere. So Ben and I went to the next gas station. I asked the attendant, "do you speak English?" and she said, "a little." So I said, "do you have motor oil?" and she said, "yes, of course, it's right there." Yay! I bought the oil and asked her if they did service there and she no, but found me a place nearby where she takes her own car (Monsieur Muffler!) and got me the address and phone number. We bought extra oil, too, just in case.

It was too late at night to take it to Mssr. Muffler, and anyway, we had to go to the Quebec airport soon to pick up Ben's sister, Lindsay, and their mom, Ginny. We decided to fill it up with oil and see how it did on the airport run and decide what to do in the morning. We headed back to our apartment.

Through a combination of flight delays and our inability to correctly read a flight schedule, we thought we had to pick them up at 7:30pm but it ended up being 1am before they got in! We drove out to the airport, picked them up, and got back to the apartment with no car troubles. We were all quite tired and fell right to sleep.

The gorgeous living room of our Quebec City apartment