Day 4: Due to our detour for a fully worth-it dinner at the Long Lake Sporting Club, we didn’t make it across the Canadian border until the next morning. We stayed the night in, and then crossed over, in Van Buren, an American border town in which we were just as likely to hear French being spoken as English! We had intended to stop at Sugarloaf Provincial Park for a morning hike, but the weather was wet so we decided to keep trucking. Eventually we made it to Kouchibouguac (Koo-she-boog-gwak) National Park on the northern shore of New Brunswick. We secured a camping spot (not hard to do, as there were probably less than a dozen campers in the whole park!), and then set off on a couple of short hikes. The beach was beautiful, albeit a bit cold!
And here’s some of the foliage alongside the buggy Bog Trail.
That evening, we made a short trek to the town of Richibucto, where we found GK’s Pizza. It wasn’t the pizza that we were after, but rather the donair that was advertised in the window. Similar to a gyro, we had tried donairs in the Maritimes before and were excited to try this one. We ordered a large donair, which was laid out on the plate instead of wrapped up. The sauce was unlike anything we had tried before—a bit sweet, although we couldn’t quite pinpoint the taste.
And, of course, when in Rome...order the poutine. This version was good, but lacked the fresh cheese curds we were crossing our fingers for.
On the way back to the campground, we had to stop for this moose in the road. I tried to pull out my camera so quickly that I was unable to turn the flash off so the photo was only so-so. In our 4 years in Maine we only ever saw one moose, but this trip was to increase that figure four-fold!
Day 5: We decided to start Day 5 as many Canadians do—with a stop at Tim Horton’s. Tim Horton’s is like Dunkin Donuts in Boston or Starbucks in NYC—there is practically one everywhere that you look! In northern New Brunswick, everything is written in English and in French and the friendly employee at THs greeted us with a “Bonjour! Hello!” We ordered a Canadian Maple and a Chocolate Frosted.
We’ve tried TH’s donuts several times and still have the same verdict…mediocre. Apparently, however, as we learned from a couple of conversations over the course of our trip, Canadians don’t come for the donuts. They come for the coffee.
Next stop? The Confederation Bridge, which links Canada’s smallest province of Prince Edward Island to mainland Canada. The bridge is just about 13 kilometers long, and would provide a fantastic view if it weren’t for the 10 foot high walls on either side of the bridge. That was okay though because we were about to encounter miles and miles of picture-perfect scenery! We traveled north through Summerside until we reached Cavendish Beach. The red cliffs were out of a postcard.
And everywhere we looked there were beautiful views!
After a short hike down by the water, we stopped in at the Green Gables National Historic Site. The home and grounds were owned by relatives of Lucy Maude Montgomery, and were the inspiration for
Anne of Green Gables. Prince Edward Island is “Anne’s Land,” and all over the island are different tourist attractions centered around the book series. Here is Anne’s house:
From searching the RF forums, it seemed that if there was one thing to do in Prince Edward Island it was to attend a lobster supper. Although the one at St. Anne’s Church was most highly recommended, it wasn’t yet open for the summer season so we decided to try out the New Glasgow supper. Lobster suppers are an all-you-can eat affair, with plenty of clam chowder, hot rolls, green salad, potato salad, and a literal bucket of mussels.
We couldn’t eat them all, but certainly saw several folks who achieved this goal. The mussels were good, but not the centerpiece of the meal. The centerpiece of the meal was this:
We split a lobster and were delighted when it came out with all of the work done for us (no claw crackers provided here!). The lobster was delicious, although we still think that those from Maine are better. For dessert, I chose the lemon meringue, which was a perfectly proportioned pie, whereas Chris dared to be bold by choosing the raisin pie. We had never seen raisin pie before, and it came out just as it sounds…
It was almost like having a pecan pie with raisins instead of pecans. Certainly worth a try, but probably not a repeat pick.
We left New Glasgow stuffed and happy and drove up to the eastern part of Prince Edward Island National Park. We were looking out at this sky when a couple offered us their binoculars to see a couple of bald eagles further down on the beach. What a treat!
PEI sunset
Day 6: After weathering a storm in our tent near Rustico Bay, we set out to explore the capitol city of Charlottetown. The weather was nice and we were able to make our own walking tour of the downtown area. Here is the outside of St. Dunstan’s Basilica:
After we had walked every block of the downtown area, we headed over to Flex Mussels for lunch. One of our guide books talked about how this used to be a take-out shack in Summerside offering mussels for $7 a pound, but now it is quite a swanky downtown eatery. This was by far the most expensive meal of our trip, but worth every penny of it. They serve up all kinds of different flavored mussels, including our choice: the Dubliner, cooked with garlic, roasted walnuts, carmelized onions, Guinness, and butter. Almost a different food than what we had tried the night before in New Glasgow! We also had to try the oysters, and as there were three different varieties, we chose to get 4 of each. The standard by which all oysters should be judged!
When you order a dozen, they come with a condiment “palette,” so we had to splurge.
Before leaving PEI, we knew that we had to stop at Cow’s. We thought we would never eat another ice cream cone after the New England tour, but certainly couldn’t pass up a cone from Canada’s favorite ice cream shop! After a long, unanticipated (but very interesting!) conversation with our server about the United States and our country’s perception of Canada, we sat down to feast on these.
Cow’s
The flavors escape me now, but both had bovine-related names, gobs of real caramel, and plenty of crunchy mix-ins.
Afterwards, we headed southeast to catch the ferry across to Nova Scotia. A little more than an hour later, we were pulling up to the N.S. coast
We drove to Antigonish, set up our tent, and headed into town for a bite to eat. There wasn’t a lot going on in town at 8 p.m., but we did find the Sunshine on Main Café open. We decided to split a Greek salad and the West Coast pizza. The thin crust pizza was topped with their homemade bruschetta, grilled chicken, and salami—amazing!
Day 7: Our goal for Day 7 was to explore the Fortress of Louisborg, on the southeastern side of Cape Breton. This is the largest reconstructed 18th-century French fortified town in North America, and is managed by the National Parks system. There are homes, shops, and reconstructed streets to explore, as well as interpreters dressed in period clothing throughout the park. Unfortunately, the weather was both windy and rainy so we left without any good outdoors photos. Here is a shot from inside.
Cold and in need of shelter from the rain, we went into one of the park’s three restaurants. If you’re looking for hot dogs and soda, however, you are out of luck at Louisborg. These eateries only serve food that was common at the time. You have your choice between eating as the common man did or having a fancy 3-course meal. We chose the former and were very pleased with our meal of pea soup, beans, fried fish, hot buttered rum, and bread pudding for dessert.
The most interesting part was that you are only given a spoon to eat your meal…and made to keep the same single utensil for dessert as well! Here is a shot of the inside:
After leaving Louisborg, we made our way up the eastern part of the Cabot Trail. We had hoped to stop at Neil’s Chowder House for a bite (as recommended in the forums), but were surprised to find that nearly everything on Cape Breton was closed! When we asked that evening, we were told that the tourist season doesn’t start until July 15th, so most places didn’t open until then!
Day 8: After chatting with a couple from Maine outside of our motel room, we took their advice to drive up to Meat Cove at the northern tip of Nova Scotia. You have to drive on a dirt road for a while before you reach this small community of 100 residents. Once you get there, you feel like you’re at the edge of the earth!
Luckily, the rain stopped and the fog cleared out so that we could enjoy a hike on the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
On our way back to the car, we ran into this mother and her calf on a quiet trail!
Traveling back down the Cabot Trail, we came to Joe’s Scarecrows outside of Cheticamp. Joe’s son was outside setting up the scarecrows for the season when we arrived and we were able to talk with him for a bit about the attraction. By the time that the tourist season rolls around, there will be around 50 scarecrows dressed up in different masks and wild clothing.
Our final destination for the day was the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou. We were sad to find that they had already sold out of their traditional fishcakes, but found that there wasn’t a dud on the menu. The seafood chowder was the king of chowders: creamy, flavorful, and packed with mussels, clams, shrimp, and huge chunks of salmon and cod.
The fish and chips was equally delightful, covered in a thin, crispy batter that melted in your mouth upon impact.
Stay tuned as we return to New Brunswick!
