Long story short, I was gone for two weeks on a Caribbean cruise and am back now. Pics are in their usual place.

Yes, it was very nice, thank you.

It’s almost 9:00 local time and 67ish. Staying here, had dinner here, and will be posting pictures here.

… because my toothpaste and deoderant were siezed by TSA. Yup… Can’t have more than 3.2 ounces per gel or liquid product. Mind you, I could have 40,000 tubes of 3.2 ounce toothpaste tubes filled with semtex or nitro, but don’t have one 16ounce tube of Colgate. Fuck no. That’s bad.

Anyone who knows anything about my mouth knows that there is one kind of toothpaste IN THE WORLD I can use. It’s not even sold in the US anymore, I have to go to Canada to get the Canadian version of it. So I’m stuck using nasty shit that’s causing sores to break out in my mouth, so that passengers on all of my flights feel safer knowing that I don’t have more than 3.2 ounces of explosive in any one tube.

Nevermind the TSA never noticed I had 60 AA batteries (that I forgot I had) in my camera case… Enough explosive power there to blow out a window or a cabin door lock.

At least they found my toothpaste.

Day 10 – Moncton, NB to Ogunquit, ME

Driving out of New Brunswick came upon a Mrs. Moose wandering around the highway. She was exceptionally friendly and didn’t seem to mind people at all. I took a few shots and left her alone. How cool! Drove to Kittery to visit the Kittery Trading Post and outlets in the area. Cut back north to Ogunquit to stay at Pat and Ernie’s place, the White Rose Inn. I haven’t been there in several years and wow has it changed. Very nice: Definitely more of an inn than a B&B now.

Day 11 – Ogunquit, ME to Home

Other than a wall of water in Vermont, and uneventful drive. I’ve missed home, work, and friends a lot. It’s great to be back.

See Pictures!!!

Day 7 – Sydney – Truro

What a beautiful day! Went to Baddeck (which is also spelled Beddeck, Baddack, Beddack depending on where you look) to see the Alexander Graham Bell Center. Did you know his wife was deaf? Did you know he made kites out of tetrahedrons? Did you know he co-built the first hydrofoil plane? Neither did I. Left Cape Breton and drove to Pictou (pronounced: Pick-Tow). They are constructing a replica of the Hector. She sailed from Scotland back in the day and brought the first Scottish settlers to New Scotland (Nova Scotia). The replica is gorgeous with everything made by hand including the decking, rigging, etc. Headed off to Truro and went to Victoria Park. The park was 1000 acres in the middle of Truro, and that includes miles of hiking trails, numerous waterfalls, picnic areas, and sport fields for day use. It was really nice to see so many people taking advantage of this tremendous public resource.

Day 8 – Truro to Moncton, New Brunswick (very indirectly)

Stopped in Parrsboro to see the Fundy Geological Museum. A lot of great exhibits. Went up to Five Islands Provincial Park and wandered around the tidal flats during “mostly low tide”. Left for Cape d’Or and had a nice lunch at the lighthouse keeper’s place. They have a bed and breakfast and also serve lunch. Skipped up to Joggins and visited the Joggins Fossil Centre, spending a good chunk of time with Don Reid who is a local fossil hunter/rock hound. Had some great conversations about fossils, paleontology, and the evolution of the Bay of Fundy area, both geologically speaking as well as socio-politically. Canada wants to make Joggins a UNESCO World Heritage site. This will force Joggins to modernize from a sleepy little town into a pretty significant tourist attraction. Getting such modernizations as paved roads, sidewalks, and who knows what else.

Crossed over into New Brunswick, stopping by [insert name of nature center here]. The Center itself was closed, but enjoyed the four story observation tower overlooking the Confederation Bridge which links New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Also walked along the beach finding shells and potentially a couple really cool fossils, wandered out to the lighthouse and enjoyed the numerous swallow nests made under the top of the structure. New Brunswick is much more French as well as more modern than Nova Scotia. The roads are in better shape, the houses have larger lawns and communities a little larger as well.

The thing I’ll miss most in Nova Scotia is the people: Always ready to look you in the eye and say “good morning” and seemingly eager to answer your questions or give you directions or serve you a nice hot bowl of chowder.

Day 9 – All over eastern NB

Visited a closed, yet “open” railroad museum. It was closed as it was closed, but “open” as most anything I’d care to see was outside and free to see! Headed down to Hopewell to see the Hopewell Rocks area at low tide. Today, low tide was 4feet. Came back much later- at high tide… High tide was 40 feet. After the low tide jaunt at Hopewell, skipped over to the Fundy National Park where much fun was had climbing around on rocks, poking moose poop, and tracking the owner of the poop through the mud and sands!! No, never saw the moose, but he was out there… somewhere. Also met a pair of supercute groundhogs. Before going back to Hopewell for high tide. I’d love to spend a lot more time in and around this area. There are lots of great places to climb/rappel/spelunk- some even underwater except during the low-tide periods.

It’s True.

Day 0 – Ingress

Took The Cat out of Portland. Great ride, although probably 70% of the people on-board were tossing their cookies/blowing chunks/calling “Ralph” on the big white phone… Whatever you want to call it. 402 passengers and 78 vehicles for my trip. Landed in Yarmouth, NS a little ahead of time, had some documentation drama with Immigration Canada, some Subway for dinner and sleep.

Day 1 – Yarmouth to Bridgewater

Walked around Yarmouth, especially down by the wharf before heading up the coast. Saw light in the middle of a torrent. The fog here is really amazing. It’s an actor in its own right… It comes and goes at seemingly random and is very much playing a part in the vacation.

Went up to Pubnico where there was a cool little Acadian village. Met a nice local chap named Orin who described all about the old ways of lobstering and fishing and whatnot- Really a prize that guy.

Next stop was the Kejimkujik Seashore Preserve thingy, where hours were spent watching seals of various kinds and light-bouldering the rocky coast. The seals were pretty lazy, as it was raining, and on-and-off foggy… The tide was coming in pretty fast. Quite a blast!
Day 2 – Bridgewater to Halifax

Travel up the coast was uneventful. Rainy and foggy. Lunenburg was nice. Lots of little shops that were closed because it was Sunday… and a few nice places that were open. Up the coast more to Peggy’s Cove where a good couple hours was spent bouldering like mad and watching waves. I spotted a gray seal very close to shore as I was leaving, but less than a blink later and [s]he was gone. The tidal waves were amazing… Some of the most violent I’ve seen without a storm surge.
Day 3 – Halifax

Spent the day walking around Halifax, the harbor, the shops, and taking a less than successful whale watch. First day without any rain, and it was gorgeous. Dinner at Montanas was amazing, to say the least. Full rack of ribs…. MMmmm.

Day 4 – Halifax to Sydney

Left Halifax early, and drove up to the Shubenacadie Wildlife Reserve. Pretty neat place with large open-air enclosures. Caribou, eagles, foxes, bears, mooses, turtles, geese and more… The rest of the trip was pretty eh… Got to Sydney a lot earlier than expected. Toured around and found a neat cove with some neat rocks and a neat fossil. Had dinner at Joe’s Warehouse and Food Emporium … Best $5 Chowder I’ve ever had. Off to bed. Whales and puffins in the morning…

Day 5 – Cabot Trail

Spent the day on the Cabot Trail… Yup, every square kilometer of it: Even had an unexpected black bear sighting as he galloped across the road. How fun! Went up to Bay St Lawrence, to see the very mouth of where the the St. Lawrence River dumps into the ocean too. Went on a whale watch at Pleasant Bay, and saw a couple Minke whales. The fog rolled in after we got out, but still managed to spot them and get pretty close. I got some okayish pictures.

Day 6 – PUFFINS and ilk!!!

Spent a couple hours touring around the Bird Islands and saw tons of puffins, razorbills, guillemots, etc. Even spotted about 6 or 8 gray seals. I finished off an older set of batteries, and burned through an entire fresh set on this trip. Snapping. Like. Crazy. After that went to Fort Louisbourg and spent 3 hours in torrenting rain, walking around and talking to authentic 1700’s actor folk. Nice place. Lots of neat anthroarcheosociopolitical stuff. I highly recommend it for anyone with any interest in history, archeology, anthropology, war, etc.

Tomorrow, at 4am, I’m out for 2 weeks in Nova Scotia. I’ll be hopping a ride on the Bay Cat out of Portland, ME to Yarmouth, NS. I’m not sure if I’m going to be posting pics during the week, or just all at once, but they’ll be in my gallery eventually (although I still haven’t posted pics from Haystack, ugh).