THE ACADIAN PENINSULA - NEW BRUNSWICK

Saturday, August 27, 2011

We spent the night at a KOA campsite up on the Acadian Peninsula last night and today we went over to the Village Historique Acadien and spent the day back in time seeing how the Acadian people lived back in the 1770's and also in the 1939.  It happened to be children's day so the girls and one chaperon got in free and Kent was free because the buildings are not accessible so the whole family got in for free :) and the girls also got a free lunch (a hot dog, cookie and juice).  This was a sweet deal and made the day even better because we didn't have to drop another $100 to see something.  The children got to help make bread at one of the historic homes and later we got to go back and sample the fresh bread they had helped put on the pans.  (Grandma Howden watch out - now the girls want to come to your house and help you make bread.)  We had a great sunny day to walk around the only down fall was the mosquitoes were fierce.  The village is set up as little farms or communities and there are people working in each of the houses or barns so you can learn from them about the life of the people back then - once again this was in French but most could speak English if you had questions.  There was a blacksmith working in the blacksmith shop and he was making a stick for turning the coals in the fire so we watched him, there is also a mill, print shop, woodworking shop, school and church.  In the newer section (1939) there is a sawmill, gas station, general store, cobbler and more homes and farms.  It is very well done and an interesting day.  Because it was Saturday night we made our way down to Miramichi for the night and found a campsite close to town.

 Juanna and Victoria making bread.

Katrina working on a hook rug.

 Blacksmith at work.

One of the many farms at the Acadian Village.



Sunday, August 28, 2011

We had a fantastic day today even though hurricane Irene was moving in and the weather was very windy and wet.  Dale MacCallum came and got us from the campsite and took us to the morning meeting in their van.  Meeting was at the home of Carl and Ponsy Dickson - it was a beautiful meeting.  Linda Andersen was there as well as Dale and Bonnie (Morris Baker's sister) MacCallum and their daughter and children and their son and girls.  It was also nice to see Jim & Shirley MacDonald in the meeting - Jim and Shirley are John MacDonald's parents and John is married to my cousin Wilma Howden.  There are so many connections out here in the East.  Ponsy Dickson is Jim MacDonald's sister and we also met some Williston connections in the morning meeting.  Dale and Bonnie had us back to their house for lunch and over to the gospel meeting in the afternoon.  Linda Andersen and Agnes Dean are the sisters in the field this year and it was so nice to sit under the sound of the gospel again.  The MacCallum's were insistent that we should spend the night camped on their driveway.  They were very convincing so we decided to stay because the weather was really very ugly and we would not have been able to do much anyway.  We picked up the motor home after the gospel meeting and returned to the MacCallum's and ordered in fish and chips for dinner.  Tammy (Dale and Bonnie's daughter) and her two children (Robyn (10) and Tanner (8)) as well as Kirk (Dale and Bonnie's son) and Doddy with their two daughters (Dalilah (4) and Kianna (2))spent the day with us as well.  We did have a truly delightful day and enjoyed the fellowship and kindness of Dale and Bonnie immensely.  The girls had a great time because there were children for them to play with. 

 Dale and Bonnie MacCallum with their granddaughter Robyn.

The bridge to Miramichi.

Look who we found in Miramichi!

Monday, August 29, 2011

We spent the morning at the MacCallum's and when the rain let up the girls insisted on going in the pool with Robyn for a quick dip.  It was not very warm and very windy so the swim was quite short but they had fun.  After Dale took us on a tour of the area we thought we better leave before we wore out our welcome so we came down the coast to Bouctouche where we went the Le Pays de la Sagouine and over to the Bouctouche Dunes.  Le Pays de la Sagouine is a little seaside town created in 1992 to depict the life of the Acadian people in the 1930's as described in the story La Sagouine, which is a story about the wise washerwoman created by Antonine Maillet.  It is a very cute setting and we enjoyed some Acadian chicken soup and poutine while we listened to some Acadian music.  At the Bouctouche Dunes we walked the boardwalk and the beach and enjoyed the beauty in nature all around us.

 Le Pays de la Sagouine

 Lighthouse at Le Pays de la Sagouine.

 The boardwalk at the Bouctouche Dunes.

The girls walking the beach.

GASPE

Wednesday, August 24th
We left Quebec City and came over to the Gaspé Peninsula today.  We had a very long day of driving so we left our overnight spot at 6:30 this morning.  Our first real stop was at Pointe-au-Père were there is a lighthouse you can tour, which we did.  It was neat to go up to the top of the lighthouse, this was a guided tour but of course we are in Quebec so the tour was in french (needless to say we never got much information from this tour).  Kent was not able to come on this tour and we had bought tickets to tour the submarine that was there and then we found out that Kent could not go on this tour either.  The girls and I went on the submarine tour and it was very interesting because it was an audio tour so we could listen in English. This was a submarine built in England for the Canadian Navy and was used during WWII as we were touring through I noticed on one of the diesel engines there was a metal plaque stating it was made by Airscrew Howden Ltd most interesting - wondering if there is any link there to my dad's family.  This was actually a very nice little place with lots of interesting things to learn about but with nothing being accessible we didn't stick around too long.  We continued our drive up the coast and found a place to camp in Cap Chat right on the ocean.  It was really very cool to look out the front windows and see nothing but water.  We have really enjoyed our drive up the Gaspésie there is so much to see lots of carvings out of driftwood - and can you believe I never got a picture of any of them (so dumb) beautiful shoreline, quaint old homes and beautiful old stone churches.  Kent and I have both been commenting all day how green everything is, it makes you think you could be in England.  Everyone keeps up their places so nicely and with so much green grass it is truly a very beautiful place to visit. 

 Pointe-au-père lighthouse.

 The girls and the submarine we toured.

 The view from our campsite.

Looking back to town from the beach at our campsite.

After such an early morning yesterday we had a sleep in this morning and no one was up until 8:00.  The wind was fierce last night and we were a bit nervous all night.  Today we decided to wash the outside of the motor home and the girls were busy on the beach collecting rocks, shells, and beach glass as well as flying their kite.  Once things were cleaned up and we could finally pull away from our very kind and friendly camp neighbours we got back on the road towards Perce.  It was a very long drive - not in kilometres but in gruelling terrain up and down hills with anywhere between 9% and 17% grade.  We were second guessing ourselves again for putting the motor home through this hard day, but reaching Perce was definitely worth it.  This is a beautiful little tourist town, the main strip is very quaint with lots of souvenir shops and restaurants a boardwalk running along the ocean front and of course the beautiful big rock out just off shore.  We spent the evening strolling through the town and shopping the little gift stores before heading back to our campsite which was right on the main street.  The town reminded us of Lahina and we would love to come back here again and rent a cabin on the water.

Katrina flying the kite.

 Countryside

 Shoreline

 Girls on a big swing.

Roche Percé

Last day on the Gaspe Peninsula and again we saw beautiful country, the shoreline ranges from being red cliffs to rock beaches to sandy bays.  The country is green and lush and the homes are all brightly colored and quaint.  We really love the way they have done the rest stations along the highway there are lots of them and everyone is done up nicely with picnic tables, playgrounds and gorgeous vistas.  We stopped and ate both breakfast and lunch at two such places and enjoyed our simple meals while looking out to the ocean.  Bliss!!  We made it to New Brunswick now and will up date you in a few days.

 The rest stop where we had breakfast.

 Another lighthouse.

Man selling homemade boats by the road.

FIRST DAY IN QUEBEC

Tuesday, August 24
We had contacted Mario and Amanda Derocher (formerly Amanda Bennett) as we were leaving Ontario and although they had company they really wanted to get together (and so did we) so we arranged to meet at a honey farm to take a tour and have a picnic together.  One problem, when we went to leave we could not get main slide-out to retract.  How do you drive your vehicle down the highway with an extra three feet protruding out the side?  We were stuck. :(  After spending an hour and a half checking all fuses and crawling around under the motor home we could not get it to budge.  Finally Kent asked me if we should do the Alex Howden fix - I was doubtful but he took out the hammer and gave the slide motor a tap and what do you know - it worked! :)  Moral of the story is: do not travel without a hammer in your repair kit.  We had contacted Mario and Amanada and told them we would meet up with them later after we got things working but they wanted to help so they proceeded down to the campground with plans to picnic there with us and help get us back on the road.  Thankfully we got things working before they arrived so we drove a couple kilometers down the road and had our picnic outside the cheese store and factory that is at the original location of the monastary where the famous Oka cheese comes from.  The Abbaye Cistercienne was founded by a group of monks who moved to Canada from France in 1881.  We bought some of the Oka cheese which is made using the same recipe developed by the monks years ago and it is a very good semi-soft cheese which is also very stinky. 

Mario, Amanda, Justin, Annika, Johnathan, and there youngest daughter (didn't catch her name will ask Dana and fill it in) Derocher and Dave and Carmen Gieb with their three children. 

With our delays this morning we decided to head straight to Chute Montmorency instead of stopping in Quebec City for something to eat.  We made it to the falls around 7:00 and were able to take the tram car up to the top of the falls.   Kent went back down via the tram but the girls and I walked over the bridge and decended the 487 steps down to the base of the falls.  The falls plunge 272ft from the Montmorency river into the St. Lawrence, they are 100ft taller than Niagra Falls.  There is a beautiful building at the top of the falls with a restaurant inside but the last tram ride down was 7:20 and Kent would miss his ride back down so we didn't eat here but Kent found out from the tram operator that the food was not that great so we feel like we didn't miss much.  The sun was setting as we walked so by the time we got back down the light show was on.  They light the falls at night and it was extremely beautiful.  We were able to stay the night in the parking lot, so we did, even though there was lots of road noise.

 Montmorency Falls

 On the tram going up.

 Anita I think we found the tree?!

 On the bridge over the falls.

The falls at night with the lights on.

OTTAWA

Wednesday we left Sault Ste. Marie and went to Sudbury the evening meeting.  Lindsay and Karen Harris had us go to their place and they drove us to meeting in their van.  This was very kind of them because the meeting was difficult to find.  It was a lovely meeting with only the Harris's, the couple of the home and her sister and one other young man other than ourselves.  The Harris's were very kind and accommodating and we were able to park our motor home in their yard for the night.  The next day was on to the Algonquin and then to the Samuel de Champlain campground for the night.

 Algonquin Provincial Park

 Algonquin Provincial Park

 Daisy going for a bike ride.

A very large frog we found at the beach. Yuck!

Well, we made it to Ottawa!  We arrived at our campsite Friday, August 19, before dinner so we started a few loads of laundry at the laundromat and took a short bike ride.  The next day we were trying to be downtown by 9:30am to get to the Parliament buildings in time for the changing of the guards.  We got held up in construction delays on the freeway and ended up pulling up to the parliament buildings as the the marching band came marching down the road.  Kent pulled off into a tour bus loading area and allowed us girls to make a beeline over to the grounds to watch the show.  It was quite hard to see through the throngs of people but as it went on people got tired of watching and left so we had a better view, the part I found most interesting was the selection of music.  After the changing of the guard we went back to Kent and found a place to park the big rig before setting off on foot to explore the city.  We walked back up to Parliament hill and found out that we needed a ticket to take a tour of the buildings so we went and got tickets for the next available tour which wasn't until 2:20pm with a few hours to go before our tour we decided to go see what was around the area.  We walked down Wellington to Sussex Drive and found the National Gallery and went in to look at some of the art on display.  We had taken Daisy with us on our walk so we tied her up outside but it was hot so we didn't want to leave her out in the shade of the trees for too long so our tour of the art gallery was only about 2 hours long and we only got to cover the displays on the first level of this magnificent building.  By the time we got back outside everyone was famished and we did not have time to eat and still return in time to take our parliamentary building tour.  We made the democratic decision to fore fit our tour time for today and find lunch instead.  We walked down to the Byward market and picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables as well as some delicious pastries before we found a market with some very tempting smells and were lured into having a lunch of East Indian food with some crepes for dessert.  While sitting in the market having lunch the big grey clouds rolled in and by the time we were walking again it started to pour.  We found shelter in the Chapters store we had passed earlier, yes, this was not too hard to take.  The only problem being I had the dog so we had to wait just inside the first set of doors while the others got to wander through the books.  The rain let up so we continued our walk through the drizzle down Sussex to the Royal Mint and then headed back up the street and through Major's hill park.  We walked through the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, the National War Memorial and down by the Rideau Canal Locks.  We were too late to go into the Bytown Museum and Kent was not sure how much visibility he would have from the boat on the canal boat tour so we did not take it.  It was now 6:00 and Victoria was complaining of very sore feet so we decided to call it a day.

Changing of the guard.

 Notice the name of the street.

Reflection of the Parliament buildings in a building across the street.

 Centre block of the parliament buildings.

 The National Gallery.

 Cathedrale Notre Dame

 Looking across to Gatineau and the Alexandra Street bridge from Parliament Hill.

Looking back to Parliament Hill from Major's Hill Park.

Rideau Canal Locks and the Bytown Museum.

 National War Memorial

Laurier House.

 Sunday morning we had meeting at John and Charlene Oulton's and stayed for a lovely lunch and visit following the meeting.  After we went back to parliament hill to try and get a tour of the buildings, by this time it was already 3:45 and we found that there were no more English tours left for the day but there was room for the five of us in a French tour so we decided we would take it because it would give us access to the inside of the building.  We took the tour but we didn't learn very much because we couldn't understand what they were saying.  At the end of the tour we met a security guard who told us about the stone (limestone) that was used in the construction of the building and pointed out some of the carvings in the ceiling of the entrance.  We wish we could have taken the tour in English but at least we got inside.  Then we proceeded outside and took the self-guided tour of the grounds.  Katrina was very glad we got inside to see the library - truly a remarkable room and the only room that was saved in the fire of 1916 which destroyed the rest of the building.  It was because of this fire that the buildings were rebuilt with stone and not wood, the library is the only room that is wood and not stone.

 Katrina and Juanna at the entrance to the parliament buildings.

 Inside the Parliamentary Library.

 The outside of the library.

 The girls having tea with the 'Women are Persons'. 

The girls with the statue of John A. Macdonald.



Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Anita, Happy Birthday to you!!

Monday, our last day in Ottawa, we drove along the Ottawa River Parkway took the bridge over to Gatineau and went to the Museum of Civilization.  We took in a 3D Imax of rescue missions which was very interesting.  We were not able to cover all the levels of the museum but we went to the children's museum, the postal, the polar expedition, and the Japan exhibitions as well as the Canada Hall.  The Canada Hall is a journey through the past thousand years of Canada.  The museum is wonderful and definitely a must see for anyone in the area we would love to go back again if we are ever back this way.  We took the Alexandra Street bridge back to Ottawa and drove down Sussex Drive past the Prime Minister's residence and Rideau Hall.  We tried stopping in at the RCMP Stables but they were not open, we also would have loved to go to the Aviation Museum and the Museum of Science and Technology but once again we found ourselves short on time.  We drove down to Hudson, Quebec, hoping to get a chance to get together with Jean Dicairre and family but we could not get a hold of them.  We took a small ferry across to Oka and spent the night at the provincial park there.  Hudson and Oka were both beautiful towns with beautifully well maintained homes and yard.

The girls in the Children's museum.

Down at the ferry dock.