Top 5 lists

Well, now that we are home and the kids have had time to reflect on their trip, here is each one's top 5 favourite things they did.

Ryan

1.  Deep Sea Fishing on PEI because fishing on a boat in saltwater was very exciting and I got 2 big Cod.

2.  Fortress of Louisburg because is was protected by the military and we got to see the muskets shot.

3.  The beach in PEI because I loved playing in the sand.

4.  Whale watching in Lunenburg because I was the first one on the boat to see the whale.

5.  Old Quebec City because we got a caricature done of  us.

Hannah

1.  Fortress of Louisburg- At the we saw fife and drums.  We also saw the guns fire.

2.  The Beach- There were 2 beaches on PEI and one in New Brunswick.  I like the beach in PEI because at the beach there was a river.  I liked the New Brunswick one because it had big waves for us to swim through.  I also liked it because there was no rocks in the water.

3.  Whale Watching- I liked it because we saw whales, seals and puffins.

4.  Riding my Bike-  Riding around the campground in Fundy, Ryan and I rode this trail for bikes only and it was all downhill.  It led us to a park.

5.  Seeing Old Quebec City- We got a caricature and the town was cool.

Emily

1.  Seeing a bear

2.  Going hiking

3.  Going whale watching.  I liked going on the boat.

4.  Going to the park

5.  Car rides.

Quebec City

Kids on the boardwalk

       Getting WiFi has been really tough the past week so that is why my posts have been so sporadic.  Anyways, today we went to Old Quebec City.  We started off at the Citadelle.  The kids really liked it and thought it was cool.  We also visited the Plains of Abraham, which if you have ever been there, is kind of a disappointment given that it was possibly the most important battle in Canadian history.  From there we took the boardwalk all the into old town.  It was packed.  We walked around and shopped.  Even the kids enjoyed the stores here.  Definitely the highlight was having their caricatures done.

Caricatures of the kids

      By this time it was 3:00 and we decided it was time to head home.  We are tired of living out of the trailer and the weather.  So we are on our way home.  This is my last post, however there will be one more by the kids.  They have kept journals throughout the trip and they are each going to make their own Top 5 list of things that we have done.  Stay tuned.

Travel Day

           We got up really early to get a good start and we were on the road by 8.  We made good time too thanks to our shortcut.  2 hours cutting across the province of New Brunswick, not a soul in sight.  Totally remote.  Kind of spooky actually.  Of course it rained most of the way to Quebec City.  When we arrived we realized that time went back an hour so we were here at 3.  We decided to go into town and what a mistake that proved to be.  Traffic nightmare, cops all over directing traffic.  Another parade.  However, we didn’t hang around for this one.  We just went back to camp and had dinner.  We’ll go into town tomorrow. 

            This is the second worst campground I have ever stayed in.  

Another Grey Day

      Another grey, cold and rainy day here.  We let the kids play around on their bikes when it wasn’t raining but even they are getting bored with that.  I did go for a bike ride myself and they have a beautiful trail system here.  I rode most of the way around the park on just their trails and it was 30 kms.  However, when it is crummy out, not much to do here.  We ventured into the local “towns” but absolutely nothing of interest, you really have to go into Moncton to find anything.  So, looking at the forecast (rain till the weekend), we have decided to move on to Quebec City sans (everyone here speaks French) reservation again.  At least the weather there looks good.  I have had it with east coast weather!

            On a more exciting note, we had a bear sighting in our campground.  We were on the road driving into the campground when a mother and a cub ran out right in front of the car.  The mother made it across the road while the cub scurried back into the woods.  We pulled over and waited to see if either would reemerge but they didn’t.   

Beach (finally) (by Hannah)

            Today we left the Daigle campground and went into Kouchibouguac.  There was a playground that was boring.  The monkey bars were too low, my feet touched the ground. 

            We went to the beach.  Ryan and I made a hole and Ryan made 3 sandcastles.  Emily and I went into the water and jumped through the waves.  After the beach, Mommy and Daddy bought us ice cream.

            I met a chipmunk and I named it Lulu.  Lulu always came toward me when I had a pinecone in my hand and ran away when we moved.

            Daddy took us on a bike ride to another playground, it was awesome.  We went down a trail and saw a groundhog (Ryan called it a mole-rat thingy)

            After we started a fire and had smores.

Big Mistake

           We just couldn’t take the PEI weather anymore.  Too be honest, I am glad I have visited PEI but I have no interest in going back.  The weather didn’t help.  So we decided at noon to pack up after being promised good weather only to have grey clouds as far as you can see.  By the time we got on the road it was 3:00 but no big deal since we only had a 2 ½ hour drive to our next stop, Kouchibouguac (I bet you can’t pronounce it) in New Brunswick.  The Confederation Bridge was cool (minus the cost) and just like that we were now starting our final leg of the trip.

            Unfortunately, I have not really kept track of days and dates so we didn’t realize it was a holiday weekend here in New Brunswick until we arrived only to find that everything was booked solid (our reservations didn’t start until tomorrow).  So we headed into town to find a motel except we couldn’t find a town.  We found one motel that wanted $135.  No.  We ended up settling in a KOA-like park.  Possibly the worst camping experience of my life.  It is like a Chucky Cheese only camping.  Kids everywhere with no supervision, open field camping, loud, up late.  Horrible.   We should have just toughed it out in PEI.  Let’s just hope the weather turns around or we could be moving on to our next stop. 

Charlottetown

            Forecast for today called for not so good weather so we decided to go into Charlottetown.  Our campground is only 40 minutes from Charlottetown.  A cute looking downtown core but not much else there.  Only 40, 000 people live there (only 140, 000 on the whole island) so not much for a capital city.  The one cool thing that we did do was visit TheProvince House.  This is where the famous Charlottetown Conference took place in 1864 to begin talks about confederation.  The building is really cool and there is a neat video showing a re-enactment of the time. 

Emily and Dad at Province House

            Shortly after that it started to rain (what a surprise) and it continued to rain right up until dinner.  We didn’t feel like cooking in this so we took the kids into town for some seafood.  Well, Mary Pat and I had lobster burgers and the kids had hot dogs.  Emily at least tried the lobster, but not till we promised her a dollar.  No takers on the other 2. 

            Coming back to camp it continued to rain so we are having movie night tonight in the trailer.  Tomorrow is supposed to be nicer weather so we promised the kids they could do whatever they wanted tomorrow, no following mom and dad around.