We Did It!

July 29th Day 13 Edmunston, NB - Charlottetown, PEI

Hours on the Road: 6

The homestretch! We fuelled up with some grease at Carolyn's Dairy Bar in Perth-Andover to kick off our drive to the Gentle Island.



Rushing to get a picture in Shediac in the rain.
The weather wasn't the best we could have imagined to celebrate our arrival. Hugo had to fight hard against the heavy wind. We didn't get any great pictures riding over Confederation Bridge because it was overcast, but here's a screen cap of the live webcast of us entering PEI:


We're famous!
Our first stop: Chris (Aaron's brother), Lysa and Landon's. Lysa was working so Chris and Landon became our first passengers on our ride to Aaron's parents. To say Aaron's mom was excited to see him would be an understatement. She had been rushing home from running errands for the last two days, anticipating an early arrival. His parents also had two cooked lobsters ready for us, but Aaron decided that we would be able to enjoy it more tomorrow. We settled on eating clams instead. Tough life. The last Macdonald brother, Jason, joined the party and Aaron was back home.


Chris and Landon.
*Posts aren't going to be up daily anymore. We're going to take some time away from the computer, enjoy the island, take some pictures and love the people.*

Bonjour! Hello!

July 28th Day 12 Montreal, QC - Edmunston, NB

Hours on the Road: 6.5

Another hot and sweaty day in traffic. This time we only complained about the heat for the twelve minutes it took to get into downtown Montreal. Our mission for the day was to eat poutine. We didn't need to go on our hunt right away since it was 9am and too early to eat poutine (right?), but it was on our mind while we walked through Chinatown and old Montreal. It was nice to see all the old architecture that we don't get much of in Vancouver. And if we do have some, they're often torn down and replaced with glass boxes.


We were waiting to get pranked all day. Graffiti that made us smile.

More like China-Vietnam-town, which is a good combo. Yay, Pho!

Notre Dame and Aaron listening to some gossip.

Old Montreal. Not too busy on a Wednesday morning. Perfect.
At 11am we walked back to the van because our two hour parking was up. We did a quick search on the interweb for a poutine place in Montreal and got a location 5 minutes away so we ditched the meter and went to fill our bellies. La Banquise Resto was a good choice. Aaron and I didn't finish our poutines which was sad because all the other customers finished their plates and they had ordered ones with more toppings (one guy also ordered a burger) while we just had the classic gravy and curds. With our bodies carrying an extra ten pounds we dragged ourselves over to Parc la Fontaine for an afternoon nap.


They had 20+ kinds of poutine to choose from and we both chose the classic.


Dericious, but boy did we feel the grease afterward.

The weather started to cool down and get windy.

Still in Quebec and almost got blown into New Brunswick.
Our last camping stop was at the Riverside Iroquois RV in Edmunston. We bought firewood but even though it was still early, Aaron said he was done for the day and wasn't in the mood to stay up. His change in tune could have been because of the driving, but it could have also been because he ate three hot dogs for dinner.


Smiles with the first hot dog. I made pasta instead with our other leftovers.

A Two Pogo Day Is A Good Day

July 27th Day 11 Kingston, ON - Montreal, QC

Hours on the Road: 4.5

Today was a special day for us. We got to wake up late at 9am, take a shower and do laundry. WE SHOWERED! CLEAN CLOTHES! At this point we're over sleeping in the van and cleaning ourselves with wet wipes. Those are two of many reasons we're excited to get to PEI.


Visitors at our site.

Victim of the yellow monster.
The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa turned out to be more Aaron's thing than mine. Aaron was impressed by all the machinery and the history and I took pictures to stay interested. Three hours later the museum was ready to close and we still hadn't finished the exhibit.


Our last sandwich on the road. YES!




I was hungry after all the walking so we had to buy a pogo before continuing to Parliament Hill. Aaron wanted to take a tour of the Centre block and I'm glad he did. It turned out to be pretty cool. We got a tour of the House of Commmons, the library, the Senate Chamber and the Francophone room. The day in Ottawa was capped off with one more pogo.


Pogo happiness.

Queen Victoria's famous over here.

Glass ceiling in the Commons foyer. The former smoking room.
I can't remember what it's been converted to, but it's now called the Francophone room.


East Block.
There are no photos of last night's dinner, but I'll let you rest easy and tell you that Burger King in Montreal tastes like Burger King in Vancouver.

Spicy Weather! Ouch!

July 26th Day 10 Tobermory, ON - Kingston, ON

Hours on the Road: 8

Taking a swim isn't a bad way of starting the morning. Nick took us on a twenty minute walk to Georgian Bay so we could take advantage of the clean water and to check out the grotto (not quite Hefner style). Nick and Aaron swam to the grotto while I just dunked my head in the shallow water (my bath for the day) and did a small climb down to them. When the crowd grew we took it as a sign to head out. There are photos that I did not include in today's blog. When I transferred the photos I found a series of Nick coming out of the water. And although Nick described it as an exact reenactment of Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, I chose not to post them because I found it weird that Aaron would take so many close ups.


Nick and Aaron swimming to the grotto.

Aaron jumps into the bay.



Nick makes his jump into the water.
We all met up again in Wiarton and Nick brought us to a really good fish and chips restaurant. Aaron and I had been craving it ever since we got to Manitoulin Island and spotted a stand at every corner. Sadly, right after lunch we had to get on our way and said good bye to Nick. Later tonight we would find out he had stocked our cooler with Dark and Stormy ingredients. Good job, Mann. Hyuk hyuk!


A lot of our time management has been based on just making sure we get to our destination before the day ends. This caused some problems for us today because that meant we neglected to consider traffic and campsite office hours. Traffic was probably the biggest stinger for us. Who would have thunk that going through Toronto around 5pm would be difficult? It stank that the heat started to sizzle a bit more during the traffic jam.


Aaron tries to stay positive. Fifteen minutes later he stops pretending.

Tightening his mirror. I had to adjust it every ten minutes.

Big Apple in Colborne Creek.

We didn't get to the Landon Bay Centre campsite until 9:45pm. The last site we were at closed at 9pm so we were really happy to see the lights were still on. We were both pretty exhausted by the time we finished dinner. Aaron didn't even have energy to play his nightly game of Angry Birds. Yes, folks, he was that tired.


Mmm pork.

Sunday Funday

July 25th Day 9 Wawa, ON - Tobermory, ON

Hours on the Road: 7

5:30am wake up call meant there was no time to make breakfast this morning. Timmy Hos it is! I tried ordering an iced latte and the guy looked at me weird, so I changed my order to an iced cap. I looked at the ads outside after. They're called iced coffees here and not iced lattes! The language barrier as we head east is growing.


Sault Ste. Marie had the largest baseball in the world so we had to stop there. We asked for directions but didn't receive much help. The woman working at the gas station gave me a look (second look of the day!) and said she's never heard of a big baseball. Another customer didn't know what I was talking about either. She said that I probably got it confused with Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. She and the customer continued to talk about the ridiculous idea of a big baseball being around town as I walked to the door. The big things in Canada site has been pretty reliable so far so I wasn't convinced that they got the location wrong. We were able to find the baseball with the google satellite search. After we got the picture I was tempted to go back to the station and show the lady the picture of the large baseball that she can find at the town baseball diamonds, but I didn't feel like going all the way back just to be a jerk. I also thought it would be just as jerk-y to deprive her of the cool baseball.



This chair in Livingstone Creek was put up just the day before.
The two hour Chi-Cheemaun ferry ride from Manitoulin Island was a nice break for Aaron. Unfortunately, they didn't have great spots for sleeping. He relaxed with a few games of Angry Birds and a caesar instead.


Lunch in the ferry line-up. Aaron's had no bologna.

Nick met us right at the ferry terminal in Tobermory and drove with us back to the campsite at Bruce Peninsula National Park. He had arrived early, reserved our site and got food and drinks! The dinner he prepared was right out of his mom's recipe book. Chicken tikka was so much yum in our bellies. Nick was added to our list of great hosts on our trip. Thanks, Nick! Especially for the Dark and Stormies.






Nick's late night tai chi in Cyprus Lake.

Communication Breakdown

July 24th Day 08 Dryden, ON - Wawa, ON

Hours on the Road: 12

*Photo has been removed. Aaron thought he looked too greasy and the placement of the pancakes gave the illusion that he had no pants on.*
We don't mean to sound like prisses, but we got really fed up with having no signal for pretty much all day. I didn't need the internet to follow Brangelina's adoption-of-the-day, but we did need it to look up stores and destinations. It scared us that our phones would have been completely useless had we broke down or ran out of gas (again). The only time we had a few bars was when we ate lunch in Thunder Bay. Right when we got back onto the highway it was back to no service. ROAR!


My Cheer Up, Keanu inspired photo.

Marina Park in Thunder Bay

A bit past Nipigon (?) looking at Lake Superior

Somewhere between Marathon and White River Aaron saw a rugged path with tire tracks leading to some body of water, so we went down there for dinner. Two foxes ran by the van and Aaron said we should probably start looking for wildlife... the kind that would eat us. When we had left and were far away from our eating spot Aaron told me that he saw a bed of rocks neatly laid out along the beach about the size of a person. An animal was probably buried there… or a person. Both creeped the heck out of me and I thanked him for telling me after we had left. The spot was great except that it attracted mosquitos. No boil like bites for me this time. They were still a pain though. When Aaron was singing "Clint Eastwood" a mosquito flew into his eye. He was really peeved that it interrupted him mid-chorus. Darn, mosquitos! LEAVE US ALONE AND LET US SING!



By far, our favourite meal. We agreed it could have used more weiners.
Aaron made a quick stop in White River to make a call from a gas station pay phone. This is where I found the washroom for giants. The sink counter came up to my chest and I could only get to the coat hooks if I went on my tippy toes or if I tossed my zip up on to it. Thankfully the toilet was regular sized.