New Hampshire

We just completed a 2,000 km round trip to New Hampshire's White Mountain region and back. This was my first trip to a place that far away, and my first trip to a place with so many mountains.

Although small by comparisson to some of the world's other mountain ranges, these mountains are actually the largest and most rugged of the Appalachian range.

We drove through Maine to reach New Hampshire. Although I always thought of Maine as being somewhat small, it is larger than all the rest of the New England states combined. It is slightly larger than New Brunswick, with a slightly higher population. In a lot of ways, it's so very similar to New Brunswick. After driving through Maine, it does feel fairly larger. 90% of its land is still forested, and it contains a number of islands.

Sarah obeying the signs - stretching in Maine at one of the various rest stops placed along Maine's highways. Interesting idea, with log cabins with bathrooms and maps are placed along the interstate.

Sarah looking at the menu of Friendly's in Waterville, Maine - her shirt matches the menu! Saragh was looking forward to tasting this US only franchise.

Arriving in New Hampshire, via Fryburg Maine, we were greeted by rapidly rising elevations and a view of many large hills and small mountains. It was a short drive through the scenic shopping and toursit towns of Conway and North Conway, until we reached out destination of Whitney's Inn, located on Black Mountain in Jackson, population 835.

A New Hampshire highway. They all pretty much looked like this. Trees on the side, mountains in the distance, and curvy and hilly.

One of many ski hills seen during the summer. Although it's hard to tell in photos, the sheer steep angle of these hills made you think you were looking at a pure vertical wall in the distance.

A gently sloping field, with several of the white mountains can be seen in the distance.

A striped cow... handy lines to show the butcher where to cut.

On top of Whitney Hill Rd, in Jackson, NH in early morning.

A small New Hampshire town with mountains in the distance.

Our room probably rested at an elevation of 2,000 feet from sea level, while many mountains around us rose an additional 2,000 to 3,000 feet over us. In comparisson, the highest point in New Brunswick is Mount Carleton, at an elevation of 2,600 feet. So, really, we were nearly higher than the highest point of NB during our entire trip.

This covered bridge marked the entrance to the village of Jackson, NH population 832.

There were many running streams in the area.

Whitney's Inn, where we stayed.

The Shovel Handle Pub, the Inn's restaurant.

Sarah enjoying her french toast breakfast.

View standing from Whitney Hill Rd in Jackson.

A few things we noticed about New Hampshire:

• Very clean, no garbage on roadsides.
• All the people we met were fairly polite, with the exception of visiting Quebecers
• Virtually no mosquitos or other insects. We saw a few, but never was bitten. When I compare to my backyard, if you step outside you'll be bitten within moments unless you are covered up.
• Looking up in the sky, saw virtually no birds flying around. Not sure if it was too high for most of them, but when I look in the sky in my backyard, I see many birds flying around or in trees.
• The batteries in my powered toothbrushb didn't work, but worked fine when I got back home. Does altitude have any effect on battery power?
  

There was a lot of things to do in the area of North Conway New Hampshire. Lots of tourist attractions as well as historical and hiking locations. We started with hiking on one of many trails in the White Mountain National Forest state park, near Pinkham Notch. Glen Ellis Falls was our destination, as it was a 60 foot waterfall. A small trail with stone steps, wood walkwayas and railings, led us to it in a many of a few short minutes.

Sarah desceding down the trail, leading under the highway and into the wilderness.

Stone steps and a wood railing - nicely created trails like this lined the highways of the White Mountain Forest park area. We only stopped at this one, but many others await hikers.

Sarah at the top of the falls...

...Sarah at the bottom of the falls.

Getting sprayed by the mist created by the waterfall.

Mount Washington, the jewel of the White Mountain range, is also the largest at 6,288 feet tall. It is also home of the world's worst weather. In fact, Mount Washington has hurricane level weather an average of 1 in 3 days, and an avalanch nearly everyday in the winter. The world's highest winds were recorded here measuring 372 km/h.

Although we did not venture onto Mount Washington, there were several ways one can reach the top. It seems like it is more accessible than many other mountains. There is actually a Crawford Notch Path that one can hike up to the summit, and there is the Mount Washington Auto Road, where one can actually drive up a 14 degree slope. And lastly, there is a Cog Railway that will drive you to the top.

The Mount Washington Auto road, seen trailing towards the mountain, leads cards all the way to the top of it's 6,288 foot summit.

Although it can't be seen in the photo, you could see the twinkle of the light hitting and reflecting on the cars that were slowly making their way up.

For regular drivers, it takes about an hour to drive up it. Although an Audi Quattro car once made it un ip record time of about 6 minutes...

A blurry moose we saw in a boggy area near Bretton Woods.

We did, however, reach the top of Cannon Mountain, whose height reaches 4,100 feet. This mountain was home to the Old Man on the Mountain, prior to its collapses in 2003. This mountain was laos home of the Cannon Mountain Sky resort, one of the oldest in North America. Thie summit can be reached by hiking the Kinsman Ridge Trail. We took the aeriel tramway, then hiked a few minutes to the remaining top of the summit.

A board at the base of the mountain shows where people are visiting from.

Sarah standing at the base of the tramway.

This photo shows the near 45 degree angle of the slope, as seen from the aeriel tramway car.

Hiking the last kilometer of trail to the Cannon Mountain Summit. No guardrails existed, just a thin pathway and a long drop.

Looking down the edge, the base of the moutains look blue... showing just how far down it is... When you are there, although you know you are looking down, at the same time it feels like it's a wall, and not down. Hard to explain, but interetsing.

Me sitting on a rock near Cannon Mountain's summit. No UFOs were seen, only small cars travelling down US Route 3.

Sarah overlooking Cannon Mountain's summit.

Echo lake, a glacier lake, can be seen as we descend Cannon Mountain.

After visiting Cannon Mountain, we drove north to get around the White Mountain region, then back south again to join the US Interstate 3 road. In fact, as far as I can tell, we drove exactly where a very famous historical event occured. It was there, on that same Route 3, on September 19, 1961 about one mile south of Indian Head (near the town of Lincoln) that Barney and Betty Hill claimed they saw a UFO. At one point, they said it landed on Cannon Mountain - where we had climbed the summit. What makes this a historical event, is that it was the first publicized account of an alien abduction encounter. Prior to this, UFOs were simply that - flying unidentified objects. Also, this is the first mention of a "Lost Time" event. Stanton Friedman (Fredericton, NB nuclear scientist turned UFOlogist) can be seen talking about this event in several documentaries, as he believes it to be a credible and possibly real event. Here is a clip of Betty Hill's last interview.

Here is a map of the White Mountain region showing the approximate locations of where we took the photographs. The blue line indicates the major roads that we travelled on.

A few things that were going on while we were there:

• Rachel Ray was filming a segment in North Conway for her show (Friday)
  
• Ali Larter, star of the recently released movie Obsessed, got married in Maine (Saturday, as we were driving past there.)

Movies that were filmed in New Hampshire:

• Jumanji with Robin Williams
• The Good Son with Macauley Culkin

Actually, come to think of it, New Brunswick has more famous movies that were at least partly filmed in NB: From Mallrats, Silent Hill, and I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Upon returning home, we spotted something esle that is interesting.

Mount Kattadhin, in Baxter State Park in Maine. This mountain literally appeared out of nowhere. At at 5 hour drive away, and at 5,200 feet tall, it's closer than driving to New Hampshire.

First Summer Trip of 2009

This weekend is a busy weekend - both the weekend of Father's Day, the first day of summer, and the day with the most hours of daylight. Unfortunately, all those three things will be damped by cloud cover, as rain and cloudiness was announced for nearly the entire week!

Being two busy freelance professionals, it is sometimes hard to find time that we aren't working. If we have a spare minute here or there, we tend to fill it with some quick work. However, ahead of time we planned and blocked out two entire days so that we could take a small overnight trip. We wanted to go to the St. Andrews area, as there was lots of history and locations that we wanted to visit (including Deer Island, Minister's Island, and Campobello Island - three island locations that when I first created this blog, I set out to visit them.) This weekend was supposed to be that weekend. But, come Saturday morning - it was nothing but rain,. We checked the weather for St. Andrews, nothing but train (and lightning). For seven days straight. Well, I wanted to leave that trip with many awesome photos, and that wasn't going to happen in the rain. So, we abondonned that idea.

Instead, I started checking the weather for other locations within driving distance. I checked north of New brunswick - rain. I checked west of NB - rain. I checked south, to the ends of Nova Scotia - rain. I checked Cape Breton - 65mm of rain with 110 km/h winds. I even checked, and most of Maine and Quebec (up until Montral) was covered in rain! It seemed like there might be no escape. But then, I checked Charlottetown - wait, what was that? Partly sunny? We'll take it!


Part 1: The Drive
So, we packed a few things, had a bite to eat, and took of towards Prince Edward Island. On the plus side, I've already taken some nice photos so there would be no pressure to take other good ones, on this cloudy day. What this trip did prove is that even though we've been there before, there was still more history to discover.

Leaving Dieppe and Moncton behind, you can clearly see how dark and rainy it is.

Just minutes after driving accross the Confederation Bridge, and entering PEI, we drive past Borden-Carleton and end up with this scenary. Sure, still cloudy, but sun rays are poking through, and rather than a pallette of grays that we left behind in Monmcton, we see greens and blues.

We stopped at a small old church on a hill. The paint was chipping away, the steps were crooked, but it provided a decently nice hilly green view of Prince Edward Island.

Here is our new ride for traveling and making this blog. Look in the distance:
We successfully evaded the rain!

Part 2: Charlottetown in the Early Afternoon
Our first stop was the Charlottetown Market. Sarah had been wanting to show this to me for awhile. We don't visit Dieppe's market much, becasue A) it's super busy to the point you can't move around, and B) because it's not really about fresh produce or food, it's about crafts and only french pastries. Upon entering the market, it's decently sized and decently busy, but still much room to move around.


There were some nice hand made stuff there, and Sarah bought some sopa for her mother. Sarah also showed me the Mini Donut stand, where hand made and home made donuts travel on a little conveyor belt and get fried. She said they taste super good, and are still warm, and we went outside the market to eat them.

"So THIS is what a donut is supposed to taste like..."
Windy outside enjoying my donut. Turns out Sarah was right, they wewre warm and really good. Tasted nothing like what we have come to know as "donuts" from Tim Horton's.

"Good Equipment. What else would they be selling... BAD Equipment?"
quipped Sarah as we passed by this yard equipment store.

When we drive through Moncton, we see BMW after BMW... So, we decided to car-watch a bit in PEI. We did see two BMWs - howev er, both were from Moncton. We did see a small handful of Mercedes as well. Believe it or not, we see three Porsches in a rather quick succession. One of the porshces, the cabriolet version, had Nova Scotia plates that read "APM". Upon entering Charlottetown, there was a new building that wasn't there last year, and it had a big "APM" logo on it. Interestingly enough, the Anne Musical's main sponsor for 2009 is APM. It's interesting how some large company can enter a small province and suddenly be a large presence when last year they were probably unknown here.

APM The Building.

APM The Car.

Part 3: Georgetown Visit
After the donut snack, we wanted to drive to a small town called Georgetown. It is supposed to have a beautiful bay, and at one point in its history, was a rich shipbuilding town.


What I liked about it, is that its residents (all 693 of them) didn't drive across town to get where they were going, they wal;ked. In fact, its kids were seen biking all around, walking back from swimming, and just enjoying the outside. I can't recall ever seeing Moncton kids doing any of that. In fact, our next door neighbor has a young daughter, and we rarely ever see her at all, let along outside playing. She seems like a 100% indoor kids, like the majority of Moncton kids. What was special about this town, was that nearly no cars passed by while we were there, and even on its main street, you could clearly hear nature, and each other talk. There is not one single street that I can think of in all of New Brunswick (that I've visited) where on a Saturday afternoon, once can talk without having to raise one's voice above the sound of cars passing. Not even in Alma, near Fundy park.

The King's Playhouse - built in 1897 and still an active hub of culture even today, showing acts like George Canyon and comedias like Jimmy Flynn as well as evening movies. Legend has it that this playhouse is haunted by a ship captain, and in fact each night before a show, they prepare a chair (and leave it empty) just for him to enjoy the show. The playhouse was also hit by a train in 1899.

Sarah under the Nurse Eilleen Memorial Archway, in the public gardens between the courthouse and the playhouse.

The county's only courthouse, a beautiful 1880's sandstone building designed by William Harris.

Designated heritage Building.

A Mason's mark. This is the first one I saw in person, although I was quite aware that mason's left signatures to denote that they belonged to the mason's guild and what experience they had in their craft. Mason marks are also related to, but date prior to, the practice of Freemasonry, the organization.

The Georgetown church... I don't think it's used, because there was no driveway or parking lot, it was just sitting in the middle of a grass lot... It looked kinda boarded up too. Interesting color, though!

Although Georgetown seemed like it came from a Normand Rockwell painting, there would a few disadvantages to living here - the town had no grocery store or banks or anything like that - so, really, you couldn't live here without a car, as you would need to drive to another town for essentials. And then, wouldn't that just ruin the ideal of living there - having to levae town every day to do the daily tasks you need to do.

The town housed a large public memorial garden, making it inviting to visitors to just explore the town and its grounds. However, hunger called before we could explore too much, and we started out journey back towards Charlottetown.

Memorial Garden Entrance.

Part 4: Old Church in Greenwhich On a Hill Overlooking River
On any road trip, Churches are easily some of the most historic buildings around. When settlers first civilized an area, one of the first things they would do is build a church. Although most (or all) of the original pioneer's churches have since burnt down, newer ones were usually built in their place. Churhces make nice rest stops from driving, and you can get out an explore the green lawns. In this area, more often then not, churches are also built on top of a hill, overlooking great vista - kindof like an old historical fortress. So, when one passes by an old church, especially ones that look nearly abondonned, one can't help but make a quick stop. Nice photo opportunities can usually be found.

This Greenwhich Church is beside a potato field... How Prince Edward Islandish!

A statue where clearly Jesus has fallen from the cross...

Yellow moss was starting to cover everything here... Give it another hundred years, and I imagine it will succeed, and this area will be nothing but yellow moss covered stone.

An old fence post, with a few old nails stuck to it... Notice the fly in the left as well... Old wood photographs well, that's for sure. Detail in the grain...

Part 5: Return to Charlottetown for the Evening
Arriving back to Charlottetown, Sarah drove down the center of the city, and easily found a parking spot. In fact, its entire downtown core had more cars parked around it, then driving through it. That made the downtown core feel accessible - most people found a place to park, and the nwalked around to enjoy its atmosphere. I know that's the goal that a downtown is supposed to accomplish, but if you think about it, most city downtown cores aren't accessible. Parking is usually hard to find, costs money, and traffic is usually stressfull when you don't know where you ar going. But in Charlottetown, there were surprisingly little cars driving around for a Saturday night. That's not to say it wasn't busy - it wasbusy, and filled with people, but in a more peaceful way. The sound of passing cars wasn't invassive, and a quick bold down a side road quieted the roadnoise down even further, to the point that bird chirpring and wind rustling through the trees could be heard... even in downtown Charlottetown. It was nice.

Charlottetown Downtown... Wide city streets, with little traffic on a Saturday evening.

Continuing dowbn that side alley of a one way street, we arrived at a string of resturants. No, not fast food resturants, but actual atmospheric restaurants. And, continuing with the accessibility of it all, one can walk down the street, look at the menus (and prices) posted on a sign outside, and compare which restaurant one might like.

One of the one-way side streets. It's busy with parked cars, but we didn't see a single car drive down it. We could basically walm in the middle of the street without worries. The Gahan House, the restaurant we ate at, is on the right.

Contrasting to what I know, Moncton's restaurant scene isn't accessible - basically, in Moncton, you have to decide which restaurant you want to eat at before you leave, then you have to drive there. Unelss you've been there before, you have no idea what kind of food or prices to expect, and it you get there and decide it's now the restaurant for you, you'll have to get in you car and drive elsewhere. But, in Charlottetown, virtually all restaunras are within walking distance of your parked car. There's even one of its main streets that are closed off to traffic completely, while most of the side streets (which have shops or restaurants lined on both sides of it) have not a single car travelling down it.

Charlottetown - at least on a Saturday evening - is very "walk" friendly. Probably the largest city that is this "walk" friendly there is. Sarah did mention that during the workd week, there;s considerably more traffic, but at least there's a repose from that activity and noise on the weekends,. It seems that Moncton's business never sleeps!

Sarah enjoying one of the many open and treed grassy areas of Charlottetown's downtown. I noticed many small parks with benches and statues like this one, and it really helps to make it seem inviting, and more green and in harmony with nature. Old architecture can be seen in the background.

Fountain in front of the bench Sarah is sitting on.

A sandstone church called All Souls' Chapel, located on All Soul's Lane. Another William Harris designed building. Unfortunately, it is locked, becasue it features an interesting painting by Robert Harris.

Sarah standing at the front entry way, very unique rounded walkway for a church.


What is interesting about this entry way, the moment I saw it I recognized it - last year I designed a DVD cover for Samantha Saunders, a singer, and she was standing right here! Now, I was standing right there too! Felt interesting, having designed the cover... (and website.)

Here is the DVD I designed, showing that very same location as the front cover.

A cute house nestled between two large government buildings. There are many government buildings in Charlottetown.


A very large tree - Sarah is beside it to show just how big it is. Charlottwtown is a tree-friendly city, too, having trees as large as this one commonplace throughout the downtown and residential areas, providing nice shade and atmosphere. There were even areas where the tree was actually in the asphalt of the road.

A great picture of Sarah sitting in front of the waterfront harbour.

Old cannons on the waterfront, set to protect the city in the olden days...

Setting sights...


Beaconsfield House... Built in 1877... an enduring symbol of Victorian Elegance...


A group of four very large Birch trees, connected together, behind the Beaconsfield House. The trees stretch towards the heavens, while I stretch after a long day or sight-seeing.

A residential street not too far from the waterfront... Again, lots of parked cars, but virtually no traffic. Although the city has double the population density for its size than Moncton, at least Charlottetown does have its quiet time.

So, to summarize our trip, we discovered a local ghost story, visited a place where I created a DVD cover, discovered some historical sandstone buildings, and enjoyed a nice walk through a relaxing tree lined downtown core. Oh, yeah, and evaded the rain! When we got back to Moncton, all the roads were wet with puddles, showing that it had been raining all day.

Oxford, Nova Scotia

It was Saturday, and we hadn't gone anywhere exciting in a long time. It was already late by the time we decided to jump in the car and travel someplace new, so we knew we didn't want to drive too far. A quick check of Google Maps, and I found a perfect place to visit - Oxford, the Blueberry Capital of Canada! Only one hour away.

Here is one part of the Main Street. Not too much going on, but nice - unfortunately I didn't actually take a good picture of it.

Historically, Oxford was founded in 1791, and its name was derived because local settlers were able to easily use their Oxen to cross the small rivers that intersect the city. Its current population is 1,330 over an area of 10km square. The average earnings of its citizens is $22,000. Its largest employer is Oxford Frozen Foods - they produce all the Blueberries.
Strangely enough, on the way home we stopped to get some groceries, and we found an ice cream that was "Oxford Blueberries and Cream"!

Had we not visited Oxford, we wouldn't have noticed (nor cared) why this ice cream flavour was called that. Now we do, thanks to our traveliness! Also, this is probably the BEST ice cream I have ever had!

Morgan in front of one of the Blueberry Statues that greet visitors as they enter the city.

This Blueberry statue greets waves as visitors leave the city. "Oh yeah!"

We had a second reason to visit this town. See, we spend a lot of time driving around Moncton for various job-related tasks throughout the day, and when you stop to watch for it, Moncton is a very noisy city, filled with many people who are angry, curse at you, and try to run you off the road. Seriously. Look for it. For what's considered a small city by North American standards (although Moncton calls itself a metropolitan), we certainly act like a bigger city. Especially when it comes to criminals and thieves - can't go more than two days before the headlines of the Moncton paper reveal the details of yet another dangerous crime that was committed.

Here is a better picture showcasing the town's Capital Theatre. I wonder what kinds of things are there? Plays? Movies? Community theatre? Interesting... I wonder if it's a place where people in the town really enjoy or hangout, or if it's "just there", rarely used?

So, looking on the map, Oxford seemed like a really nice city. It had a main street, which was off the through way, it wasn't too close to a highway overpass (promising peace and quiet), and it had a number of residential side streets off the main street. In comparison, we noticed that MOST New Brunswick small towns are basically one straight through road, with all the houses on that. So, this main street of this town was off the through road, somewhat.

A little further down Main Street, we see a father taking his kids on a stroll with his pony. Hey, if you had a Pony, wouldn't you do the same thing? This is one of the things that I wouldn't try in Moncton...

When we arrived in Oxford, we noticed there was a whole lot less traffic - everywhere. In fact, it was 5 o' clock traffic time, and only a few cars were visible. A few people walked down the streets, and in fact, they even said hi to us or waved when we passed by. Yep, nice so far. Sure, they didn't have any really new buildings, and many of the businesses were closed (hope you didn't need a pharmacy at 6pm...)

But, it was exactly as promised - even as we walked down main street, we had successfully evaded the heavy noise of Moncton. Stepping down a sideroad, we could hear birds chirping, rather than angry drivers honking or flooring their Honda Civics that don't have mufflers. Yep, definitely different than Moncton.

Sarah spotted this plant - I forget what she she called it, but she said the flower was just starting to bloom from its spiky shell.

Oxford had: a pharmasave, a pizza place, subway, Tim Horton's, Irving gas Station, an accountant, a paramedic and RCMP office, and a community Salt Lake. Most of it is in walking distance from just about anywhere. The sidestreets were narrow, but zero traffic, and most were tree or willow-lined. Green grass and flowers everywhere. Overall, I think it would be nicer to live in a small town like this - as long as you had a way to make money, that is. That's the hard part about being in a small town, the lack of jobs nearby.

A view of a sidestreet. Just a little stop sign. There wasn't a single traffic light anywheres near this town. Not even while entering it.

"Hey, there's cows in dem fields!" Nice jersey cows, a little further down Main Street, while heading away from the town. This is definately somthing you can't do in Moncton as well.

Just behind the Church on Main Street, was a little hill leading down to a small Pinoneer Cemetary. We assume originally the graves weren't marked, so they have one big gravestone detailing all the people buried there.

This pioneer cemetary provided a very nice series of beautifully silhouette shots againts the deep blue sky.




Morgan with an inetresting looking building behind him.

Sarah in the Pioneer Cemetary.

Although we were within sight of the Main Street, you couldn't hear cars and you could hear birds chirping. A few buildings could be seen in the distance, who each had large yards, and although you could see houses, you really didn't notice roads, stop signs, or any other distractions. It seems that in Moncton, no matter where you look, you see nothing but asphalt and cars. After spending all day driving around Moncton, this place was definitely a nice contrast.

And last but not least on our trip, was visiting the Salt Lake. There were fish in there, and it was salt water. A few kids were swimming in there, although there was no beach, and there were salt water green goo plants along the bottom. Didn't seem that pleasant to be in, but it's good that the kids there have a place to swim that's free!

Well, after a few hours exploring this great little town, it was time to head back to Moncton.

Winter Miscellani

So, it's been a winter and very short spring since last we blogged. Sarah and I have taken a few pictures here and there, but nothing too much blog-worthy.

We have been busy with our employment. Now that it's summer, we have been working hard to build a business. Unfortunately, this hasn't left much time to explore the Atlantic Provinces. Last year, we already had many adventures by this time, as summer is already here.

Regardless, below you will find several photos that were taken between now and the last post. Enjoy!

Winter Zoo

Funny Alpacas... in the Winter!

A Nice Pony Picture...

This Mountain Lion didn't look happy. So Sarah
decided that this big Kitty just needed a little petting...

It was a nice kitty.

A Wite Wolf, Sarah's arch nemeis of the wild... (That's what she gets for reading "Little House on the Prairie"...)

Funny monkeys...

It was interesting seeing the zoo in the winter. And the mountain lion exhibit was great! They let you get pretty much face to face with the big kitty. In fact, I even ran around and it chased me... not like a prey vs predator, but in a "let's have some fun" way!

Sussex in Winter

We took a day off in the middle of the week to visit Sussex. It was a nice clear day. We wanted to check out Poley Mountain. We did drive up the mountain a little, until we decided that her little car wouldn't quite make it up the hill, and had to turn around. We also wanted to test to see if a smaller town, like Sussex, was less busy than Moncton. Turns out, no. Traffic everywhere, car noice everywhere, not much palce to park. In fact, it was a weekday afternoon, when most people should be at work, but yet, all this traffic. Just l;ike Moncton, where every hour of the day has people driving around with nowheres to go. Basically, it's just a smaller Moncton. No extra peace and quiet to be found here, even though there's a few more trees and hills surrounding the town.

Sussex Main Street


A New Brunswick Winter Road in Sussex. Even though it was a clear day, the road condition was pretty icy, and not much room for two cars to pass.

Old Unused Train Station, from CN's good days...

Christmas 2008


We spent Christmas recovering from a stressfull job that ended in November and took this time to bake a little for friends and family.

We baked some cookies and a special fluffy roll cake.

A Meal Designed By Morgan for Sarah... Look at the color! The presentation! The taste! Featuring drum sticks, two mini chicken sandwiches, spicy potatoes, and I wrapped up her vegetables in a purple flower of cabbage.

Sarah relaxing watching Christmas shows on Christmas Eve...
(And who says women never get to hold the remote control?)

Maybe as a late Christmas gift, we also got this new car to drive around the Atlantic provinces with to replace the previous one (which couldn't make it up the Poley mountain hill, and started to have rust holes.)

Fort Beausejour

Visiting Fort Beausejour...

Cultural Capital of Canada

Sackville was named the Cultural Capital of Canad for 2008. We thought it would be a great place to visit on a overcast Saturday.

The journey started from Dieppe, as usual, where I spotted a truck with an interesting license plate. Chek it out - it's a Hawaiian plate. That would have been expensive to get his truck from Hawaii to here. Wonder why he's here? Why not stay in Hawaii...

Upon entering Sackville, you are treated to a very nice Main Street. All within a short jog of each other are:

Sackville, Main Street....

SGCI Marketing...

The Swan Pond in front of Mt. Allison University... It usually looks nicer, when there's a blue sky and leaves on the tree... I guess the leaves fell off early?

Actual swans swim freely in the Swan Pond...

In front opf the Swan Pond is a wood-shingled church...

Looking towards main Street, as seen from atop the middle level mezzanine from a University building...

Me in front of Greek looking towers...

Sarah in front of the same building, showing how big the front of that building really is...

To the right of that building was a new BMW M Roadster. Basically, it's a hardtop Z4 with the M performance Package, so you know it's faster than the regular Z4. I really like the curves of the hardtop, really nice. The car does 0 - 60 in 5 seconds flat and has 330hp, starting price at about $65,000.

The front entrance of Sackville's still running movie theatre. Doesn't look too modern, I can just imagine how hot and stuffy it is in there in the summer, I can alsmost hear the seats creak and crack...

After exploring the university grounds, we took a little walk down Water Street. It's a nice long stretch of old hosues and residential areas.

I like how each property on this street has a stone embankement and very old stone steps leading up to the pathway to the house. In the olden days I would have been standing more or less where the road would be, and that was before people had driveways for their cars.... You can see how these steps are no longer used, as most people don't exit from their front doors and go out walking anymore.



Old stone steps leading to an old gothic like house...



This is the Marshlands Inn, and the large tree on the right is the area's OLDEST Birch Tree... It hardly looks like anyone any more... Although after having visited Petitcodiac, I can see that this isn't the BIGGEST one... maybe just the oldest...


Here is a gravestone that Sarah thought was sad... It just says to Little Maggie...

Butterfly World

Although this post is called Butterfly World, it should actually be named Butterfly City, or possibly Small Butterfly Village. The name of Butterfly World leads you to believe that there are many, many, many butterflies in the dome. However, there was maybe about less than 15 flying around, and another 30 or so resting on plants. It was a chance to get some closeup shots of the butterflies.

People entering the Butterfly Village...


As we entered, we saw a little kid with a butterfly on his orange... We were thinking that was weird...

But, before long, his mother gave us an orange slice and Sarah had her own butterfly on her orange...

It turns out that Butterflies love oranges, and you can see they are like giant mosquitos and they are have a suckjer stuck into the oranges... Makes butterflies seem less cuddly and sweet...

Here's Sarah's favorite butterfly, a blue that reflected with the camera's flash so that it looks like it's glowing... But it's just reflecty.

A beige one that looks kinda like a dragon fly...

A red, black, and pink one... Looks like a large strange alien bug...

Here's a camouflagey butterfly...

A nice stone pattern...

Big gloomy clouds... This is looking towards Peticodiac and Sussex area actually...


Back at home, some neighborhood cat has decided to curl up and sleep on our potted plant on our deck... That`s where we planted our catnip...

Town of Petitcodiac

Considering that several of my posts relate to the Peticodiac River, I thought it would be fitting to visit, and take pictures of, the very START of this river. You know, before it gets all muddy. Although typically, a river would start from the mountains, work its way down, and eventually spill out to sea. That is the natural order of things. What I wonder, though, is that really the case with the Peticodiac, becasue we have the Tidal Bore - that's essentially the Sea spilling into the river and filling it... So, does the mountain streams create the Petitcodiac, or deso the Sea spilling its waters into the ravine start the River?

The Hilly "highway" road surrounding Peticodiac and Sussex area. This is the main through road.

Either way, it was my first visit to the Town of Peticodiac, and it is so named becasue that is where the River officialy begins. The town was founded in 1811 and currently has about 1,300 residents. It has two churches, a regional school, a few stores, and a bowling alley.

The town was nice, slightly hillyier than Moncton and a higher elevation by a number of meters, and contained many run down buildings.

A rusty old bridge over the start of the Petitcodiac River, in the town of - you guessed it - Petitcodiac.

Well, there it is - a small shallow river stream, called the Petitcodiac. This is what becomes that big great muddy river that is so important to Moncton and Memramcook area.

An old stone concrete bridge allows cars and pedestrians to cross the river into the town. It looks very old, actually, probably late 1800's is my guess. You could see some "newer" renovations made to some of the bridge area.

What I did like about it, was that it was very grassy and trees, and the residential area was built on a hill. Also, the entire town's Main Street was OFF of the main New Brunswick highway. That way, it was the true Main Street of the town, and had little traffic. When cars did pass, they drove slowly and turned slowly, which was nice. Also, the neighborhood's side roads didn't have any traffic for the entire duration I was there. It was nice.

At least three train track sets crossed this small town.

What I don't like about small towns, such as Hillsborough or Alma, is that their Main Streets are alwasy the through roads fro New Brunswick - as a result, you get a lot of traffic, going very fast, driving crazy, and it just doesn't feel like you can stop or slow down and nejoy the sights. With Peticodiac, and the surrounding areas (Anagance Sussex, and area) it seemed more off the regular path. I liked it.

Petitcodiac Main Street. We saw three vehicles pass by in our entire visit. Nice, big, wide and empty roads. On the left there is a small park where the area`s youth were hanging out.

An old brick building on Main Street, really nice.

A small church on the corner of the residential area... Notice how there are no parking spaces fro cars... I bet every church goers walks down to the church... Imagine living in such a small town where everyone walks to each community event.

A nice neighborly side road. Not one car passed on this road for our entire visit.

Sarah in the middle of the road... cause she can.
(Disclaimer: don't try this at home in Moncton)

This is an old abondonned school house, windows and doors boarded up, siding falling down... If you look, there is an old bell tower... I`ve only seen pictures of old school hosues with bell towers, until now.

Lion statues mark the entry way to this older house. Notice the matching garage in the back. Must be where they kept the horses when the house was built...

This is an old, euhm, not-quite-abondonned-house in Petitcodiac.

From the side, you can see how it is falling apart and a very large house. Surprisingly, that propane tank looks fairly new... And two newer cars were parked in the driveway of the house, and some noises from people were heard within... Do people live there? Work there? Are they fixing it up?

On the top third floor, where one would expect to see a window, instead you get a DOOR. This doesn't seem like such a good idea... It doesn't look like the door was always there, looked like it used to be a smaller window, and I don't see signs of an old balcony there either... Makes you wonder...

Across the street, we see this old store... What you see in this photo is the storage and docking area where wagons or carts would pull up and empty their cargo, as far as we could tell. Again, you would think this building is clearly abondonned, as you can see right through the walls and it doesn't look stable. But, you would be wrong - a running-condition sunfore was parked there, and actually, people were sitting on its front steps like they worked there or something.

Walking down that road with the old houses led us to the town's graveyard. No doubt that uncovering an area's history ledas to the graveyard, although what we found there contained more old-town charm than anywhere else in the town.

A stone masonic emblem...

Sarah kneeling down, framed between the trees and shadows...

Blue skies, apple trees, and corn in the distance... Notice the discarded wagon...

One of the more traditional rural New Brunswick sights... Rusted old wagon wheel... Did I mention that this was at the edges of the graveyard?

A very large Birch tree... I am trying to hug it to show you how large it is...

Many of these street lamps lined the town's roads... All of them equally dirty and old-fashioned.

Parlee Beach

Finding out that Parlee Beach is FREE after 5PM, we decided to make our way there after work earlier this week. They say that this beach has the warmest salt water north of Virginia, which you would take to assume that the water is hot, but touching the water briefly, you'll know that the water was cold!

It's like saying that Alaska is the warmest place above the 50th degree Latitude... Sure, maybe it IS the warmest, but that doesn't mean that it's warm! :)

Parlee beach is small (it takes only a few minutes to walk to either end.), but we had fun all the same. Considering that the beach is actually man-made, that explains why it's fairly small. I remember that Bon Jovi played here in 1989 or so, and although I was not here specifically, it wasn't too far off and I could hear the music, although very muffled.

Sarah silhouetted by the setting sun behind her...

New Brunswick's beach landscape in the evening... Boat in the distance, picturesque and detailed clouds, and multiple sandbars. Shediac Island, briefly mentioned in a previous post, can be seen as the landmass on the far left.

Summer sands, in summer light...

This crab claw has been left out in the sun, washed ashore by the waves... Notice how bits of crystalized sea salt still remain there after the sun has dried it of the water.

Me at the beach.

Irishtown Nature Park - Green

This summer, Irishtown Nature Park got a little more "Irish" than usual. Becasue of the strange weather we;'ve had, green algae infected the water source and spread... The tiny microscopic algae turned all the water a deep and bright green.

The sunlight hits the water, illuminating it into a bright green...

A slight breeze flows through the green waters...

Me in front of the green water, wearing a green shirt, in the Irishtown nature park.

Sarah and I had a picnic, here she is happily eating Wendy's...

Can you spot Sarah in this photo?

We went to the park for two reasons. Once, when researching on Cyanobacteria, which is the algea that is infecting the waters, I found out that some types of it are bioluminescent. Which can make water glow in the dark. I took a sample, but the sample didn't glow in the dark. I'd still like to go to the Park at night, when there's no moonlight, ton confirm it doesn't glow in the dark, though...

Walking through the park, we discovered many plants.

A nice picture of a small yellow flower...

This is the FIRST time that I've seen a plant like this, and I've walked through many forests... It looks like a HUGE blueberry sitting atop a large stem. very odd. Very blue. After researching it, I found out what it is. It's a Huckleberry. Some places in america, it's simply called a blueberry.


Anywyas, while researching bioluminescense, I found out that other stuff glow in the dark, like mushrooms. So, we continued our walk in the Irishtown Nature Park looking for mushrooms. We took pictures of some, and wonder if some of THEM might glow in the dark?




A bright white mushroom that looks like it's shredded to pieces... if I have to bet on which one of these mushrooms glows in the dark, it's on this one.

A perfectly shaped mushroom with light reddish coloring...

This looks like a very spooky mushroom... Thin stripes down the face, a ghostly shading of colour, and spider webs line the bottom. A little early for Halloween...

I was surprised at how many different mushrooms there were when you look for them.

Richibucto

We wanted to travel a little, but didn't have the time to go too far, so we took a little drive along the coast northwards. We ended up driving to Richibucto, as they had a very small car show (which we didn't stop for), and saw a few of the sights.

A Church By The Sea...

A mock ship-wreck... It lights up at night too...

Me holding on to the "hull" of the ship... The sails were blowing loudly in the wind...

A really well-camouflaged grasshopper...

The New Pontiac G8... I had been trying to see one of these in Moncton, which is the largest Pontaic dealer around, yet I had to go to Richibucto to see one. It's a really nice looking sedan. I still preffer smaller sportier cars, but it's nice for a regular sedan. And it's RWD.

Sarah's Birthday - Aug 12

On Aug 12, it was Sarah's birthday. A few days before, however, we went out to the Airport at 11pm to go pick her brother Keith up, who flew in from Alberta.

Here is the airport entrance... Somewhat nice, although the floor is just plain concrete, same as everywhere.
Sarah checks the listings, and we are informed that Keith's flight has been delayed several hours... Until 1 AM in the morning or so...

So, we went home and I went to sleep while Sarah went back... Actually, when she got there, it had been delayed again, and actually only got there around 3 AM.

Then, a number of dfays later, we celebrated Sarah's birthday.

Here is the cake, presents, and flowers.

A close up of the frosting... See how sugury those toffee bits look?


Sarah and Keith... Why are they both bending down to take a picture?

Nightshot Test

Last night, I decided to take some night shots around my yard...

The moon against a maple tree...

It was definately a starry night out...

This spider was fairly active as well.

I used to see pictures of spider webs againts a dark background, and always wondered how they got it... Now I know. Now I want to find a fully intact spider web and take a really good picture of it.

Here is the field behind my house at the end of a dead end street.

City lights blur in the distance as a low fog moves in from the Peticodiac River... probably a cold air moving in from the Bay of Fundy a little further in the distance.

Overall, I put my camera through a series of tests for night ability. Unfortunately it is still very grainy, although it does let in a little more light and color than the regular mode.

Springhill, As Seen From 300 Feet Underground

This is an exciting and interesting post, even if the pictures don't show it all. We started the day with a small trip planned out: visiting the Springhill Mines.

Before we go there, here are a few quick facts about Springhill:

• U2 covered the song paying tribute to the event, click to listen.
  
  
• The town is the only one awarded the "Carnegie Medal of heroism", usually reserved for an individual.
  
  
• The 1958 "bump" was the first international event to be filmed and broadcast live
  
  
• Douglas Jewkes, one of the rescued miners, was hired as an official spokesperson for 7UP after being asked by a reporter (on live television) what he wanted most after being rescued and said "a 7Up".
  
  
• Canadian Heritage Minute about the Springhill mine, dramatizing Maurice Ruddick, who was the lone black man rescued from the mine. A US governor heard about the disaster, and offered everyone a free vacation, except Ruddick, because he was black.
  

Sarah getting ready for our day and stocking up on Vitamin C.... Part of a complete breakfast...

On our drive through the Tantramar Marches, via the highway, I spotted a V8 motorcycle driving down... Although motorcycles are a regular sight, you don't think about seeing one opf these drive by...

Sprinfield main Street. The main government building is the center brick building, while the church is the white one, and the fire and police station is on the opposite side of the street. I like that it's on a hill.

The town seemed a little rundown, didn't seem to have nearly any businesses, but all the same it seemed as if the whole town was outside walking and talking to each other.

The signage in the town leaved much to be desired... In fact, many businesses that were still being advertised around the city through signs, had long been out of business, and their offices were vacant, windows smashed, and for sale...

Although Springhill is a much less interesting place now, it definitely was a groundbreaking place 100 years ago. But we'll get to that in a minute. First, we walked by the Anne Murray museum...

I am distantly related to Anne Murray, although I've never met her, supposedly she did visit my grandmother's cottage in Cap Brule. You see, Bill Langstoth, Anne Murray's husband (still-legally, as they only seperated and never divorced, according to Wikipedia), is my Grandmother's cousin.

Springhill Mines is one of the deepest mines in the world. In fact, our guide said that it's only one of two places in the world where a "bump" is known to occur. Essentiually, a bump is the earth moving within the corridors of the mine and basically moves the floor to the ceiling. Needless to say this kills people and traps others. "Bumps" only occur at depths of 5,000 feet or further. So, that means that only this mine and a mine in Kentucky go that deep.


We made our way to the start of the "Tour A Mine", starting with reviewing the museum items.

Sarah at the museum, looking at newspaper articles about the Springfield Mine Disasters.

Fossils that were brought up to the surface from the mines... As we discovered from our visit to Joggins, coal is the decomposed and semi fossilized remains of plants and trees... And that is why this area, which would once abundant forests during the "Pennsylvanian" or "Coal" Age, which took palce about 310 million years ago. So, it's only natural that several well-preserved remains were still down there. Part of what Darwinian followers used to debate their theories in 1860 during the Oxford Debate, was the fact that the fossilized trees from this area were still upright, when they were found, leading one to disbelieve the Bible's "Flood" stories becasue these trees were obviously unaffected.

A large device, larger than a person and maybe three times the length, was used to cut through coal seems... In a good day, it could cut 100 feet across. I dubbed it the coal chainsaw, as that's how it looked to me.

Our guide showing the equipment used. He is holding the gunpowder cannister you would wear, although another miner would wear the other piece that would be used to make this explode... That way, you wouldn't accidently blow yourself up. This guide used to be a miner himself, which I deduced by him saying "we" several times, instead of "they" when referring to the coal miners.

Actual jackets used by miners who died...

Miners would go down for a 4-hour shift, but it was said it would feel as if a 12-hour shift went by, as time passes slowly and excruciatingly hard. Between 5 to 30 injuries would occur each and every day. The Draegars, those would would go down to retrieve injured miners, weren't tasked with first aid. They simply went down, put the worker on a stretcher, and dragged them back up to the surface... No painkillers, not anything... Many miners lost limbs or were killed or hurt during the descent in the miners carts, used to travel miners down to their latest depth. Miners received about $1/hr and/or $5 per ton of coal. For every one ton of coal used, 4 tons of water is used... Don't know why though.


Us at the entrance to the mine. From the outside world, it looks just like a little wooden hut, but is really the entrance to a large labyrithian world as tall the the Rocky Mountains...

Sarah gears up, ready for action.

As we made our way down the steep slope, we traveled approximately 300 feet through the tunnels and went approximately 80 feet underground, which would be somewhat close to the height of the NB Tel tower. Currently, nearly all of the mines are now underwater... but the passages still exist...

A regular sloped hallway... In the original days of mining, there wouldn't actually have been lights placed here. Each miner would carry their own light and battery source.

A close up of the ceiling... The wood is covered with hardening pieces of grit that glitter and reflect the light... It's almost like mini stalagmites forming on the wood, as you might find in a cave... Should this mine survive a thousand years, I bet these would become stalagmites... Although considering just last week one of the tunnels you could visit collapsed, I doubt this mine will be here that long. So far, it's survived 100 years, and barely 1% of is now visitable.

Sarah excitedly pointing at the end our of route, where the water level has risen up through 13,700 feet to our present location, blocking at further progression. On her left was a sideways tunnel, now also blocked from a cave in last week.

A mess of pipes and wires... Steel pipes used to carry the water from the mines were also used for communication by tapping on them.

During the depths of a few hundred feet, Sarah asking our guide a question...

This is where the trail ends, as the water has now reached this level. A piece of floating wood can be seen.

At the beginning of our trip, we each took a numbered tag at random, which correlated to an actual miner who worked there... Upon our return, our guide looked in her book to determine what would have become of us, if we were miners... Unfortunately we both would have died in the 1958 disaster, the event that closed the mines down.

Our guide said that the city still experiences bumps that residents in their houses can feel... their dishes rattle and so on. My question is - would these bumps occur and be felt if the miners never dug? Or is it a result of the miners who have dug? Our guide said that one day, everything might just collapse... As sections of it had decades ago...

The miners would use softwood to prop up the mine tunnels... Although it wasn't as strong as hardwood, it would creak and give an audible warning under durress and warn of any trouble, while hardwood wouldn't.

Historically, the mine goes to a depth of 8,000 feet but the passages go on for 14,000 feet in length, at approximately a 25% slope the whole time. There were several mine entrances, but the main areas were the Number 1 and the Number 2 site, which were connected together at the 1,300 feet level. As each site is on seperate ends of the town, it makes you wonder what it must have been like for the wives of the coal miners... walking above ground, doing your daily duties, knowing that your husbands are right there, directly below your feet, several kilometers down...


Knowing our trip wasn't concluded, we walked around to discover several artifacts of the Springfield Mine Disasters.

Memorial statue regarding the first disaster in February 21, 1891.


This area of the Hilltop Cemetary contained many buried miners from 1891.

A closeup of a grave marking the death of a miner from the 1891 disaster... I am assuming these graves are unmarked because they simply buried the remains and had no idea who they neccessarily belonged too...

Two young children, aged 13 and 15, were killed on the same day of the 1891 mine disaster... evidence that young children worked in the mines, too.

One might wonder why when we travel, we visit the cemetaries... It's becasue we are on a journey to discover history, of Canada and the Maritimes, and this is where it can be found. Also, beauty can always be found here, as evidenced by the wild roses and tiger lillies that grow throughout the hills and valleys of this very large cemetary. The cemetary was also of mixed religion.

Closeup of Wild Roses...
Closeup of a Tiger Lilly...

Small sections of the hill have been flattened at several intervals to palce the gravestones, Sarah's car can be seen in the background.

Picture shows how hilly and curvy,. and how many large and old trees call this cemetary their home.


Very much a coal town, coal is EVERYHWERE... mixed in with the dirt, the gravel, and even large lumps of it sticking out of the ground in the cemetary.

The pictures of these red bricks house are near that first mine site, which was closed down long ago. In the model of the first site (the gray steel buildings) you can see the three red brick buildings on the lower right. So, Sarah and I were standing near and above the mines that experience bumps...

Notice how the door is all bricked in...

Pigeons enjoy being able to enter the building, seemingly the onlys ones in 50 years... In the background you can see the sun stream into the otherwise dark building from spaces in the roof.

The building pictured above, I believe is the same building.


"...oh yeah? Well, *I* dug out 10 tons of Coal today..." Morgan explains to whoever would listen... This was called the Liar's bench, becasue Miners would sit here after their shift to spin tales of how much coal they dug out, only to have the next miner sit down and top the previous ones total. The wives got together, and painted "Liars Bench" on it one day in 1942.

An old bridge and steps, overrun by grass, lie in the middle of a large park field.

An old dam, still doing its job, but just barely.

Me standing at the dam.

Sarah discovers a large piece of coal, behind her... Judging by how happy she looks at the find, I don't think she would mind to have THIS lump in her Christmas stocking.

Why did people mine coal? Why did they stop? Why is coal minning not as prevalent today? These were some of the questions I wondered. Typically, coal was used to generate electricity for towns. They would mine it, then burn it at old electricity stations. As technology got better, we found other ways to harness electricity was was cleaner, better, and easier to come by.



A closeup of a moth on our receipt... This was so close up, that only a small middle section of its fur and body is in focus... Now that's a very distinct depth of field...


I do remember seeing the Canadian Heritage Minute commercials about this event, but when I was young I had no idea what it was about or what it really said... now that I am travelling and discovering places such as this, they male more sense.

After our trip, we definately did feel this town did have a lot of history, and they think of the mines with sadness... They provided coal to the rest of Canada and parts of the world, being a premiere coal mine known the world over. But it didn't come without its price, as the residents clearly know.

Memramcook Docks

While reading up on the Acadians, to determine the age of the acadian road I found, I discovered a few interesting historical tidbits. We quickly made a brief road trip about an hour out.

The Beaumont area of Memramcook is historically significant. First of all, this area controls the entrance of the Peticodiac River, which as we know later on becomes the lifeblood of New Brunswick's major cities. Any boat that enters the inland towns would be seen from this very point. During the 1755 expulsian of the Acadians, I imagine this are would have been alive with cannon fire, but that's speculation on my part.

Memramcook coastline looking across the Bay of Fundy.

But for the start of this story, we go further back. Micmacs had established a small village and graveyard around this land of Beaumont and have lived there for thousands of years.

In 1605, Samuel de Champlain ventured in the Petitcodiac, spying "le Pointe" de Beaumont. He called this bay "Baie Francaise", which we would later call bay of Fundy, home of the world's highest tides. Our tides must have been a significant sight for Samuel at the time. It took nearly 70 years later before europeans once again came to settle into the area. By 1700, Memramcook was founded under the French flag. That's right, it's 33 years older than Moncton. In fact, as far as I have yet to unveil, this area was the first in New Brunswick to be settled. This may change as I uncover more history, though.

Sarah is pointing exactly where Samuel de Champlain sailed 403 years ago, when he spotted the land mass where Sarah is standing. Interesting, how you can connect with historical people you heard mentioned your whole life.

The europeans of course, lived here (more or less in harmony) with the Micmacs. The Micmacs would later build the Sainte-Anne Church under the directory of a priest, near their village, and they would late be buried behind the church as well. The gravestones seen in the photo all belong to Micmac indians.


Sarah stands in the woods behind the church next to a rock where witnesses saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1857.


After a little research, we now know that the acadian road I walked on was a road to a wharf / dock that no longer exists. In fact, I've come to witness that this area had many such docks, but only traces remain. Afterall, merchants and exporting goods from various mines around here was a valuable and necessary trade, and docks were required to do that. I imagine any significant event in their world revolved around a dock. Seeing signs of one, you can imagine significant events unfolded there.

On the drive to Beaumont, at the very entrance to the Beaumont area, a short drive down a small dirt road called "le Quai du Village des Belliveau." yields a nice (and historic) surprise. Remnants of an old dock, simialr to what I should have seen at the end of the acadian trail I visited yesterday.

In fact, the wooden dock you see here is the LAST remaining one along the Petitcodiac River... It was built 120 years ago, and is alone in being still intact and upright. The thick trees used to build this would be even older. Looking closely at the dock, bits of bark still hold to some pieces of wood...

Sarah sitting on the very old docks... It was definately a pleasure to stand on something this old, and know that it is still entirely usable.

A 120 year old ladder leading down to the water. Did kids ever jump off here, take a swim, then climb back up?

Hillsborough's gypsum tower seems so close from this vantage point.
This wooden dock is representative of what the gypsum tower was built next to, and I imagine it was a short trip from this dock to that one. Check out the large metal hook used for tying boats.

A very old nail and bolt used to fasten the pieces of wood together.

Me, standing on a partially dried section of the Petitcodiac River. I've never done that before, but always wanted to. Supposedly people slide down the mud edge and into the river, then climb back up to do it again. I've seen people do it once before in Dieppe. You won't catch me doing it, though.

The sun sets gently across the bay without a hint of drama from our vantage point, a sight that appears the same as it did over 120 years ago... Now, that's history you don't get in the textbooks.

There seems to be lots to uncover in Memramcook. I feel I've only scratched the surface of what seems to the be earliest settled part of New Brunswick. There is supposed an old covered bridge, an old one room schoolhouse built in 1884, as well as copper mines and gypsum mines. There are also many small dirt roads here and there, who knows where they lead? And along the way, I also spotted what looks like a VERY ancient abandoned house in the distance green hills...

I feel the photos taken here could have been my best, although my camera has trouble taking pictures in low light - it adds all kinds of pixelation and degrades the picture quality terribly. It's just not made for taking pictures in the dark. It's very much a day time camera. I'll have to return here in the daylight, especially to catch pictures of the aboiteau, which at nearly 400 years old, would be the earliest remaining constructions from this area...

Memramcook Acadian Road

Hung out with Sylvain who was housitting for his mother. The house is in Memramcook and its land leads down a hill to the Peticodiac River. Sylvain was building a deck on the roof, so he showed us. I decided to try to create a panorama from there. I panned the camera from left to right, taking snapshots. It worked out pretty good, aside from the perspective shift.

Here is the deck wall on the left, showing the full backyard view and then the right side of the deck. It looks odd from here, but click on it to view full size then slowly scroll the screen - it looks like you are really there, getting a full view. Blogspot limits the size of the picture, though, so it doesn't work as good as it could.

I tried the same thing when Sarah and I were sitting down on the chairs in the backyard.

A tree stump that Sylvain dug out of the backyard.

From their backyard I could see the Hillsborough Gypsum Tower, as seen in one of the earliest posts. It was from this vantage point that I originally spied that tower. In the picture above it's being illuminated by a ray as the sun goes down, making it easier to see than usual.

I imagine in the old days of Acadia that you could see many ships past through that narrow point of the Petitcodiac. In the 1800's, I image you could see the number of ships loading the Gypsum to send it around the world. Or, perhaps, in the earlier days of the 1700s you would see a ship and wonder if it's the English coming to conquer you once again.

There is a road on the property that goes down to the river. In fact, many other properties have a road that joins that road. I imagione that road is old... in fact, I imagine it's probably an early Acadian road... the road eventually leads to the Memramcook Church. Which, I imagine, if I was an early Acadian that is a destination I would want a road to lead to. Although you can get there by today's modern road, I imagine it was so much more easier making a road along the river than it was to make a road inland through all the forests.So, the fact that the remnants of a road are there, would lead me to think it is an old road, as it makes sense for that time period.

The acadian road, looking up the hill from where we came.

Joka and Buddy running towards the camera...

An old post, marking where the road intersects with another road that follows the edge of the Peticodiac. What was this sign originally used for? What did it say? How old is it?

Memramcook sunset against some trees.

However, it is just speculation at this point... I imagine that the road dates to the same date the Church was built, if not a little before before. I should find the date that church was built, so that I can put a date to my theory. While doing a bit of research, I found that I am not alone in my theory, as someone from the Fredericton area suspected that several roads in his city were also anciant Acadian roads...

I managed to locate Sylvain's mother's house on Google maps, and you can clearly see the trail pictures above. Interestingly, Google Maps gives it a name - it's called "Chemin du Quai Gautreau Village".


I can tell you that the end of that road is not exactly suitable for cars, nor is there still a wharf or dock there. (Although if I go back again, I should be able to find traces!). So, it's not what you would call a "modern" road that is deserving of having a name mapped out on a modern application like Google Maps. Afterall, there are many other trails that can be seen around that same area that DON'T have a name on Google Maps. So, I would think this particular road does have some significance for sure.

Also, there looks to be a very wide trail that eventually appears a little further from where I was... And down that way there is a large white object... Wonder what it is? Look at the map and see for yourself. For reference, the main road as seen in yellow, goes towards Memramcook center towards the lowrer right, while the upper left goes back towards Moncton.

Prince Edward Island - East Point Tour

We've seen the North and West points of PEI, now here are some photographs of the Eastern most points. I snapped a few pictures as we drove, again to get a feel for the regular landscape and roadscapes. These photos represent an interesting contrast to the greens and in-land travels of late. As much as PEI has green hills, you can't escape that it's a coastal place.

A regular road in a regular town on PEI. A quick reference to a map shows that there are only four cities that have more than 1,000 people in it on PEI, and that only 2 of them that have more than 2,000. In fact, half of the PEI population resides in Charlottetown. So, that gives you idea of how small every other town in PEI really is.

The Charlottetown bus system (five buses)... Colorful for sure, but not sure I would say modern.

Sarah says these birds are Cormorants, and they are always here on these old stone pillars of the old bridge in the Hillsborough River between Stratford and Charlotetown.

After a bit of business in Charllotetown, we resumed our tour of the East side of PEI. Our first visit was Tea Hill Beach, filled with red clay and red sand and high contrast deep blue skies. It seemed as if the ocean's shallow waters extended forever, as we could see people really far out, and they were barealy up to their knees in water. There were countless sandbar islands. In fact, in the distance, are two actual small islands...

Trees bordering the beach. Not a typical site for me, when looking at beaches.

Sarah presenting a patch of grass in the middle of the beach.

Shallow waters...

...deep blue skies...

...and standing on my own personal island.

A cool jump...


Sarah walking in the red waters of the beach.

The sun was bright, making it near impossible to make a good smiling face...

Seaweed rock...

Sarah found this shell, which she calls a Moon Snail shell... Make sure to check out this picture of a live moon snail...

Here is a mussel colony... All the mussels were stuck or barnacled to these rocks... And they were EVERYWHERE in this little colony in the shallow waters.

There were also a number of... oyster looking things... that seemed to be growing...

This satellite image from Google shows Tea Hill beach where we were, and you can see how shallow the water was even here. A tall strip of land lies just below the surface, while deeper waters reside on either side of it. Sarah says her uncle, in his younger days, used to drive a Jeep accross to a small Island within the Hillsborough Bay of PEI.

After a long walk on the beach, we sanded off our feet and resumed our drive Eastward. We took a quick detour to Panmure Island, which is joined to Price Edward Island via a permanent sandbar road. There lies a lighthouse, as seen in the photos below.

It's top light is about the equivalent of 5 stories, give or take. The octagonal shape of the lighthouse shows that it pre-dates confederation. This one was built in 1853.

Typically, the side beams were made out of one solid piece of lumber, reaching from the bottom to the very top. Those beams were about 65 feet tall. We continued our drive eastwards, reaching the Eastern most point of the island. Here lies East Point Light house, built in 1864.

Sarah admiring the construction of the inside of the lighthouse.

Large vertical panorama showing 3 full stories of inside the lighthouse.

Sarah climbing aboard the lighthouse, approximately 5 stories up.

Me at the very top of the light house. AFter I left the lighthouse, After doing this, I thought that I should have did a horizontal panorama from here, but it was too late.

The LIGHT... (and I saw it.)


Closeup of the condition of the metal and wood that hold the windows and the rest of the lighthouse.

Map of the many shipwrecks around PEI...


Many people who stayed or visited the lighthouse left their signatures on a large wall... Although there were many, I took a picture of this one, from 1877... It was written with a pencil, and you can still see it...

Here is the foundation of the old Fog House, which is now a craft shop, next to the Lighthouse. It was moved last year because erosion had worked its way toward the building. You can see the right most corner of the building is nearly off the land... The woman at the lighthouse said that the people who worked in the building last year weren't too happy or safe feeling... Sarah was in this craft shop a couple of years ago and the old shop had about 20 feet of land behind it - now it has one! The new one has about 20 feet of land between it and the cliff, so it will probably have to be moved again in a few years...

We rounded off the day to a trip to Basin Head, to visit a beach that would be completely different than the beach we visited earlier in the day. Basin Head Beach would be filled with soft white sand and soft cyan skies.

Luppins, a traditional sight of Prince Edward Island.



Mini Shed Village Next To The Beach.



Stairs leading down to the soft white sanded beach filled with soft cyan skies... Supposedly this sand sings when you walk on it...

"Squeak Squeak" said the Shifting Sand to Sarah.

Interesting beach with two little wooden docks. People were jumping off of it, despite the signs that said it was forbidden. The lifeguards on duty didn't say a thing.

Looking down at the water from the dock, you can see the shallow waters quickly give way to the deep greenish blue of the ocean. It`s one step between the kiddie pool and the deep end of the ocean.


Heading towards the Confederation bridge, we stopped at Charlotetown Dairy Queen. But this isn't just ANY Dairy Queen, this is actually the BUSIEST DQ in the World... generating $2.8 million in sales per year!

PEI road as the sun sets...

Sarah said take a picture, so I did. Sunset as seen from the Confederation Bridge...

Irishtown Nature Park

This weekend ,we decided to stay local and took a hour and a half walk around the trails of the Irishtown Nature Park, just outside Moncton. In fact, the lake seen in the pictures used to be Moncton's first water source.

Very large roots are everywhere, sticking out of the ground waiting to snag people as they walk.

The den of a large animal, perhaps a fox? This was definately the largest burrow hole I've seen, I could stick my hole head in there... Not that I wanted to...

Large orange mushrooms growing up a tree.

A blue dragon fly. There were many, although getting a good close up shot was difficult... I stuck my arm out as close and quickly as I could, and snapped the button. Presto!

Young bald eagles... So young, they aren't bald yet! Although you can't tell from the photo, they
are very large. Larger than you are used to seeing birds be.

Fredericton Canada Day

Yesterday, we took a drive to Fredericton for Canada Day.

It was my first real visit to Fredericton, and is the first place I've visited that isn't virtually touching the sea. Although Dieppe where I live is 20 minutes from the Sea, the Petitcodiac brings in enough water and sometimes the scent of the ocean, that it's close enough.

Replacing the sea, was the Saint John river. It's a different feel, knowing the city lives on fresh lake water rather than the salty sea water. A whole different feel. Another thing I noticed, is how old many of the trees are, and how it seems that city planning decided to use many of those old streets instead of cutting them down. Which is what is happening in Moncton - it's hard to find trees there in the city anymore.

Just a shot of a regular street in Fredericton - nothing to see here, except for the green trees everywhere. Which is nice to see.

A busy city street in the old Guarrison District, next to the river. See, more trees and many people walking. That's another major difference - there are LESS people in Fredericton than in Moncton, yet it seems everyone was out walking that there. The main streets were busy with people. Every time I got down Moncton's main street, it feels nearly deserted in comparisson.

It was Canada Day, so they closed down a section of the highway. I assume some kind of a parade or concert was going on, but we didn't stick around there too long.

A large number of people congregated in the park next to the center of town to celebrate Canada Day. Fredericton is New Brunswick's capital afterall, so it was a fitting day to visit it.

The changing of the guard and/or parade. Stuff you don't see anymore...

The pillars of an old stone bridge, no longer connected, remains in the lake behind me. More of Fredericton is behind me.

This old bridge is no longer open to cars, it's now used just for walking and biking to the other side of Fredericton. it think that's a great idea! This too is nearly in the center of the city, yet look at all the green foliage and trees and blue water. In Moncton, we don't get blue water, only brown muddy water. We pretty it up by calling it a chocolate river, but...

After watching some of the Canada Celebrations, we walked over to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. That was the main goal of this visit, to witness in person the works of Salvadore Dali.

Sarah in front of one of Salvadore Dali's best masterworks... This painting is more than likely proceless, or would fetch millions upon millions at an auction... We asked the people who worked there, byt they said they can't answer that question, like, legally... So we guessed!

A painting portraying religious history, and also banned from display in churches (as it was originally intended) by religious people... then the artist received a religious vision that this painting should go to the people of Canada... and so it did.

Sarah with a funny expression, looking at a nicely detailed painting of the way life was in the old days... for royalty...


Me in the hallway. Actually, during our visit, they were watching us walk around and take pictures, and get close to the paintings and ask questions to the guards, so they got suspicious and told us that we were being watched closely... I guess they get suspicious a lot or something.

Here is the oldest church in Fredericton, built in 1845... fairly old... But what makes this an interesting church, is that it was modeled after and nearly a duplicate of a church in Norfolk England built in the 1400's. So, it was like walking into an old church. Inside, there was a "empty" grave of a missionary person, a gold eagle statue, and the columns and ceiling were heavily wood detailed (contrary to every other church around here, as far as I can tell.) I suppose this is a popular site, becasue that sign in front of the church says that a tour guide is on duty, and said that the church is actually haunted.... And that the minister whop used to work there, used to work late and his wife would bring in his food late at night... So if you smell food there at night, his ghost is probably around... It's rare to hear about a haunted church....

An old knocker from the church door. pretty big too.

And now, fro a few popular Fredericton sites..

The famous playhouse... Well, famous if you follow theatre. I don't.

Government building, 1855.

Old government building tower, but the whole building was under ronovations so we couldn't visit it. Probably the parliament type building.


The Justice Hall...

The Old Government Building, as it's called. In the art gallery, there was an exhibit about old Atlantic buildings, and there was a very old painting from the 1800's that showed this building, but surrounded by grass and fields and trees and wilderness. Obviously, that was a while ago, so I assume this was the original government building in the city...


And the beautiful town hall. See a live webcam that actually updates...

Driving over a hydroelectric dam... Going towards Mactaquac.

This un-assuming house behind me belongs to Stanton Friedman. Ever hear of the Roswell UFO incident? If it wasn't for the guy in the house behind me, you never would have... It is he who uncovered the government conspiracy and investigated whatever happened at Roswell... He was the first person to interview the actual people who witnessed the events, in 1947, before they died. He video taped the interviews, including those of Jesse Marcel. It is Stanton Friedman who uncovered the Majic 12 government group, and unclassified many documents. He is also the world's most reknowned and scientific UFologist. (His credits include being a nuclear physicict...) So, after knowing that, that is such an un-assuming house....

An old english roadster, I think it was a Bentley, but not sure...


This "greed" logo looks rather similar to Irving's... Someone obviously went to an expense in producing stickers and distributing them around town to make a point... One thing I noticed about this city, it was decidedly more artsy, and edgy than I thought. There were art shops and art associations ,and people being edgy and protesting like these stickers, and even their gothic people were way more punkish and gothic than Moncton...

Fundy Revisited

On the road to Fundy... The apalachian mountains that we will climb can be seen in the near distance...

The mountains, a little closer now...

A lone house sits on the edge of a few small Appalachians mountains in the town of Alma.

We have returned to Fundy for a second visit. This is by far the nicest palce in New Brunswick I have seen so far... Sarah and I revisited Fundy to explore on foot while Isabelle ventured out to explore it by sea.


A boat that is stranded by the low tide of the Bay of Fundy. At high tide, the sea will once again reach the boat and it will be able to sail away. Look at the thick fog. As I take this picture, this boat is just across the street from where Isabelle is now suiting up to go sea kayaking.

Sarah waves to Isabelle as she picks up a canoe and heads down to the beach that opens to the Bay of Fundy. Check out that fog behind Sarah... That's supposed to be open seawater...

Isabelle is at the head of the canoe. Now that Isabelle was off doing her thing, Sarah and I started to climb the fundy mountains.

Here is an old abandoned road, covered in moss, but it retains some asphalt and gurad rail and road signs... Interesting to see how quickly nature has taken over a road, when no cars drive on it...


Interesting perspective makes an interesting picture of Sarah and trees...

This is a graveyard in the MIDDLE of Fundy park... It seems old forgotten cemetaries are everywhere, if only you open your mind to see them... Although the church that sat in front of this cemetary is long gone, people used to live around this area... Which presently is deserted aside from overnight campers. This area is in the middle of nowheres in present day New Brunswick, it yet in the mid to late 1800's a log mill began operating in this area... Some old stone foundations can still be seen in some of the trails and hills.

Sarah taking a break on the remnants of an 1800's building. Who lived here? How long ago? What were they doing so far from civilization?

A closeup of some flower...

Jump! Said Van Halen...

Up up and away!

What a tall and steep hill!

Me on a babbling brook where the log mill used to operate...

A groundhog hiding between some rocks on a slow trickling brook...

This rock was heavier than it looks...

Steep stairway down to the ocean floor. Using this trail, you can go quickly from the sea level to hundreds of meters up the mountain in the span of a few minutes. In fact, this trail went up and up and up so far and so fast that we actually had to stop and turn back down. It just snakes steeply up the mountain. There are actually warning signs, too, because the trail is narrow and treacherous.

Morgan exploring the lows of the pebbled sea floor...

...and Sarah exploring the lows of the green valley floor.

Looking through some bushes to see the sea.


Getting farther up as the day goes on... Remnants of fog still linger in the background...

Me performing my floating magic trick near the end of a trail high up in the mountains...





If someone were to show me this picture and tell me it was a tropical island somewhere, I would believe them. But it's Fundy, and it gets cold here in the winter... But I have seen some old drawings from the 1600's and 170's showing pirate like scenes of lathe boats in the distance and people coming to shore on skiffs, and I thought for sure the pictures where of the caribeans... until I read the full caption, and the drawings where of St. Martins which is nearly what you are looking at.


Ye Olde Mill, built in 1871... but closed decades later as the sawdust and logs clogged up the river so bad it destroyed wildlife.

An anchor embedded in stone around 1871.


A wooden bridge, precariously hung over between two rocky outcroppings.

Isabelle returning from her sea kayaking adventure...

Isabelle in a goretec waterproof suit of some kind...

While we waited for Isabelle to remove her wet wet suit, I took this picture of this Honda ST1300 bike...

Prince Edward Island - West Tour

Yesterday Sarah and I gave a tour of PEI to Isabelle to help round out her "East Coast" visit. We were ambitious, as we planned to drive around the entire coast of PEI end to end. However, counting the time it took to reach the Confederation Bridge, and including numerous small littles stops at the shops and sights of PEI, we were on our way to the North Point when we realized we wouldn't have time. So, we made our way through the pictoresque west side including Cavendish and Rustico and stopped in Charlottown.

The Confederation Bridge

I like the long straight and nearly empty roads of PEI... nearly every road is fairly straight, and each intersection yields more roads that go straight into the distance... With some slight rolling hills to make it interesting...

Scenerey as seen from a moving car... Nice hills, fields, meadows, a few trees, and some red dirt fields... A nice house on the hill in the distance... This is a regular sight of PEI, Cavendish in particular. Each part of PEI has a slightly different characteristics.

A nice meadow, this is a great picture...





Me and top of the steps to the tower of this old, unused church... The doorway at the top was much shorter than I am, and it was pad locked... It would have been interesting to see up there and the rest of the large building...











Standing in Miscouche, the birthpalce of the Acadian Flag...

Standing in front of the... well, you can read the sign.

One thing that is great about Charlottetown, is that it does have much character, and it has many large trees lining every road - the Main Streets all the way to the residential areas. The roads are large, and comparably not so busy. In fact, you can stop at sidewalk cafes and not really hear the cars go by, nor really see them. Some roads are very little used, used mainly for parking but not so much travel. Some roads were closed off to traffic as well. They were even playing free outdoor Acadian music.

Isabelle presenting the Confederation Building, where the country of Canada began...

The sun sets in Charlottetown after a long day's trip...

A quick bite to eat is had between old friends before we set our course back to New Brunswick...

Magnetic Hill Zoo

Sarah, Isabelle, and I went to the Zoo as part of the sightseeing tour of the area.

These animals look like they belong in a Dr. Seuss book... We thought they might have been shaved Llamas, but no, they are supposed to look this way...

These Otters look cute... They look kinda like a large, seafarring weasel... Sea Weasels!

The Goat got hungry and attached Isabelle's map...

Leaving Sarah to lead the way with her map... Look at that big goldilocks curl in front!

Sarah took one look at this pig and said it looked like a sausage with a face... I said it wasn't nice to say that, cause it's a piggy... and alive and not food...

Turkeys, Ducks, and Deer, grazing together... Just as nature intended!


There were a number of small primates encased in glass... And they would look at your intelligently... The pair in this area, however, only had eyes for Isabelle... As she approached the glass, they run up to her... barred their teeth... and then showed their butts to her. Rather ceremoniously. As she backed away from the glass, they returned to their normal business... But the moment she re-approached the glass, they ran to her again... ignoring me and only intensely staring at her. We think they liked her hat, possibly her pink glasses too. We theorized that in their native land, they had an Isabelle -shaped predator perhaps...


The bear was fast-moving, and seemed to want to approach us... But we think there was a small electrical fence right beyond... It was a small fence, he could easily hop over it, but he didn't.

Sarah eating her Waffle Bowl at Dairy Queen... She had been seeing the advertisements for trhem for a year or so, and she's wanted one since... She finally got it, thanks to Isabelle for paying. It was actually really good, possibly one of the better tasting treats they offer.

All that animal watching made Sarah and Isabelle ferociously hungry... So we stopped over at Sobeys to buy what Isabelle had been wanting since she arrived on the East Coast... Heaps and heaps of Seafood!

You will notice that I don't have a seat here - I don't like seafood...

Miscellaneous Trip to Halifax Airport

Earlier this week, Sarah got a call from a client. She had a short deadline to create a promotional brochure for the restaurant Saxby's in Riverview. Although Sarah had heard of it before, we had never gone. As we do with all our clients, we decided to check them out to get a feel for their company. We hoped in the car, and without even checking Google Maps, we decided to take a drive and find it. And we did!

Turns out, the restaurant was a nautical feel! Glad we went. We took a few pictures of the decor - we found ships, wooden barrels, coats and arms, and many portholes for windows. So, we decided to use several of those elements and created a great (and quick) promotional brochure!

Sarah can be seen next to the porthole window which served as the inspiration for the cover of the brochure.

The next day, we posted the final finishing touches on the brochure then headed out the door for a drive to Halifax. We weren't going to visit it, we simply were driving to the Airport to pick up Sarah's long-lost friend Isabelle from Ottawa who would be visiting us for a week.

Here I am, as we are on the road to Halifax Airport... Starting from Sunny new Brunswick.

After an hour of driving, we are passed by an Advocate Printing truck. Just the week before, Sarah was given a tour of their Moncton facilities, and it was mentioned that a few times a week they send a truck over to their major printing facility in Pictou, NS to do all the printing or finishing that they can't do in Moncton. So, we knew exactly where this truck was headed and why.

Here I spotted a Bentley Continental... Flying Spur? This is the second Bentley I have seen around these parts, it's a rarity for sure. At 552 hp, it definately outclasses most cars around here in hp, including the Viper (which is much more common.) Although at 10 mpg, that comes at an extra price beyond its $165,000 pricetag. Also worthy to note, that this car shares the same powertrain as the VW A8, as well as 25% of its other parts.

Here we are as we are at the highest point (elevation wise) of our Trip to Halifax. It's all downhill from here. It was raining and lightning here, meanwhile it was nice and sunny a short ways away in New Brunswick. Everytime I was passed at this point, it has been cloudy and rainy.


While stopped for a quick snack, Sarah spotted the Toyota Yaris next to her where a young couple just came from. As you can see, a plush lobster sits in the cubbyhole of their dash. That's right, the lobster blocks where one could read the speed that they were going. A safety feature, no doubt. Meanwhile, a large pair of handcuffs adorns their rearview mirror. I can just imagine it clank around the bumps - with a long swing radius, it could be hitting people in the faces on OUR roads! If you ask me, what a distraction. Also, why are handcuffs required on a short drive to Tim Hortons?

Here is Mastodon Ridge... I'm assuming they found a fossilized mastodon there...

And we have arrived at Halifax airport... Notice the construction sign? They weren't kidding, everything seemed under construction, including roads and access ways to parking. Which there wasn't enough parking - we have to drive far away from the airport, then catch a BUS to back to the airport...



We arrived early, and were on the lookout for Isabelle to come off the plane.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs

This is being posted today, but we actually went here May 27. I'm only getting around to posting the pictures today. The Joggins site is very important in the fossil world, having been a site where many notable 19th century archaeologists have worked. These cliffs are a fossil record of the "Coal Age", because many of the trees and plant life have turned to coal... In the pictures, you'll see some black areas, which are coal. In the early days, coal was mined in this area.

This dead end dirt road marks the start of the Fossil Cliffs. Although you can't see it well in the picture, this road abruptly veers downwards into the ocean.

This used to be an old path with wooden markers for some reason, but the center portion has eroded and fallen into the ocean. Look towards the middle, and you'll see the hole. You can no longer travel to the other side of this, where lies a residential section as well as the official Joggins Information Centre. Oh yea, watch out for the falling rocks. Seriously. We saw rockslides two times in our visit.

Me walking down the stairs to the ocean floor at low tide. It was cold, so I borrowed Sarah's jacket. In the pictures, you'll see both of us wearing it at different times.

Joggins is also famous as the site where the oldest known reptile was found. More importantly, this Joggins site has been used to help support Darwin and his Origin of Species. In fact, Joggins Fossil Cliffs used used as a major argument speaking AGAINST the great Flood and doctrine of Creationism... during the great Oxford Debate of 1860 between Bishop Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley.

Here I stand in front of the tall cliff on a flat, pebbled ocean floor... Standing on the site that was used in the battle between Evolution and Creation a century and a half ago...

A rockslide caught in action... I heard it and quickly snapped a picture... Mostly you just see a pile of dust...

Evidence of another long lost dock... back in the day when boats were widely used to transport goods and export things of value... In fact, coal from this area and cliffs were mined in the late 1600's, and shipped to Saint John by boat. When was this dock built? Could it be that old? Or would it be a more recent one, possible the late 1800's?

In 1887, a railway was built to transport the coal... So, more than likely, this old dock was built before then... Again, I'm not historian, but logic would dictate so.

An ancient seafaring nail... Very large and stick, and obviously durable... How old is this nail?

Darwin's colleague Charles Lyelle declared Joggins the finest example in the world regarding fossils and and the "coal Age" of earth history, which was 310 million years ago. Meanwhile, the pop[ular Jurassic dinosaur age took palce 200 million years ago to 145 million years ago, which is much more "recent" in comparison.


An interesting area... Water from atop the cliffs fall in a small waterfall, trickling down to the sea far away... The rocks surrounding the river must have high iron or other metal content, as they have all rusted precisely where the water flows. Sarah stands in between the two small streams.

Rust Waterfall...

Slime Waterfall...

We didn't find any groundbreaking fossils during our visit, however we didn't walk too far down the cliffs. Mostly, the site was home to a prehistoric forest, somewhat marshy and home to many fantastic creatures. In fact, if you look at the previous post about the Saint John museum, many of the creatures shown there from the giant millipede to the assorted sea creatures would all be found at this site.

Sarah the Archeologist makes a find... Interesting sliced rocks...

Here is a slice of a tree trunk that has been fossilized. The whole Joggins site is rich in fossilized trees, sometimes branches, sometimes hole upright trees. (We didn't find any, but that was the main characteristics of the site used in the argument against the Christian Flood...)

Sarah found a fossil of what appears to be a leaf.

Sarah golding what is obviously a small tree branch... Prehistoric tree branch... We actually removed it from the rock, it was that easy... It felt like a piece of wood too...

Here is my pointing out the "tree sized" shape imprint on this rock...


This is a close up view - see the detailed bark and cylinder shape

Interesting square rocks, which some coal below.

Tree Go Moncton

Sylvain and I went to Centennial park for the TreeGo Experience. Originally started in France, this interesting "eco adventure" has arrived in Moncton's Centennial Park. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I definatrely didn't expect this.

The "basic" TreeGo obstacle - height, a platform, and logs held in the air by strings.

It is interesting, and I'm glad I went, but still I am not sure if I would recommend this to anyone. it is much harder than I thought. What I mean is, I figured that if you got tired, or found it too difficult, there would be a way to just grab on to a rope and get to the other side easily. But there isn't. You can let yourself go, but all the harness does is prevent you from falling. It doesn't help you get to the other side.

The group... Sylvain at the top, Sylvain' mother in the back, and Carol in the red pants. And me holstering my zipline.

Here is a view of me wearing the geer - the metal thing you see on the right is our pulley - we actually carry it, remove it from our belt, then attach it to the ziplines and zoom down. Then, we take iot again and secure it to our belt. Our own personal pulley system!

You physically have to jump from suspended log to suspended log, climb rope ladders 30 feet or more in the air, walk on the tightrope, and many other adventures. Luckily, I never slipped and never required the harness to kick in so I wouldn't fall - I treated it like it was real, and that I had to do it without "falling". I was able to do it. But I am very sore as a result! It required a lot of physical endurance and strength for sure! A lot of muscles are used to balance yourself, muscles I don't use very often because working at a computer rarely requires to to balance oneself. :) At times, in the middle of the course, if there was an easy way down I would have taken it, but there wasn't. :)

Sylvain navigating some logs.

Sylvain's mother takes a brief rest, as our guide looks on after a days worth of hard work... we were her last group of the day.

I did bring a camera, but I was too busy to take pictures while I was up there. Very busy! The courtse took us about 2 hours. Our guide told us that the record for this course was about 27 minutes, which was done by one of the empoyees there. Jooanne, Sylvain's mother's girlfriend, ,made a joke by saying that he must not have stopped for hotdogs every couple of minutes, then.

Our guide kept a watchful eye over Sylvain - or at the very least is what Joanne would have you believe.

Navigating the moving bridge in the air...

...focused and concentrating on the task at hand.

Working through precariously poised and moving logs in the air...

Now that I have finished the course, my hands are sore and raw and my legs hurt more than my arms, it took a lot of effort and balance. For $30, it was worth the experience.

Me ziplining through the highest point on the course.

Summer is Here

Summer is here, and Sarah and I took a walk at the Dieppe Park. We took a few pictures of the trail that is now devoid of snow.

Memramcook Camp

Sarah and I visited a friend of ours, Sylvain, and his camp in Memramcook. His mother has a "mini farm" which was along the way.

Here is the view of the scenerey. That's the Peticodiac River and beyond that is Hillsborough. In fact, the Gympsum Mines and that tower building are a little to the left, outside of the view.

Sarah looks like she's really happy trying to get the small horse's attention...

What a funny looking horse...

They have a mini fame complete with goats!

A short drive away, we arrived at the little camp, an A Frame camp made from wood. It has a wood stove, although no real insulation, so it would be cold in the winter. It did have a small loft where one would presumable sleep in at night. We didn't stay there, we just played card games (golf) which was really fun, while we talked about all the ways that people could save the world and environnment, but don't.

After the card game, we made a fire. We roasted marshmallows, something that Sarah and I haven't done in a long time. We also talked about how E.T. the Extraterrestial caused a Video Game crash in 1983 and virtually killed the video game market in North America... And how a little Robot by the name of ROB came from Japan and restored it back...

Sylvain making a campfire the only way modern people know how to... With newspapers and a lighter!

Sticky and gooey, but was better tasting than I remembered! That's also possibly becasue I didn't charrbroil them like usual.

What a nice campfire!

Visiting Saturn

Sarah and I visited Saturn. No, not the planet... the car dealership! Although not exactly an event in itself, Saturn has recently made some great changes. Their customers used to fill out surveys, for years, and indicated that they loved the shopping and dealership experience at Saturn, but they never truly liked their cars. And I agree, because their cars were never that exciting. At all. Not even close. They were slow, and maneuvering the car felt like you were turning a piece of wood that used elastics bands for resistance within the steering column.

So, Saturn through out their ENTIRE vehicle lineup, and within a year, imported all NEW cars from Europe.

Me in front of the Sky. It would be nice to have one to drive.

The Astra is Europe`s best selling car right now! It beat out the VW Jetta recently. And even Jeremy Clarkson of Fifth Gear tested the `Redline`version of Europe`s Astra - check out the video here.

The front of this Sky looks like it could be a mini Viper... The frent end is wide, it flares upwards, and is long and low.

The back of the Astra looks like a sporty compact hatchback... It has the new design characteristics of Saturn...

Yes, the entire Saturn lineup is made of Opels and Vauxhalls from Europe... Although some other car manufactuers have imported their own cars from Europe and brough them to North America, typically when they do that, they AMERICANIZE them. They soften the suspension, make it handle less, put in a less fuel efficient engine, and do all sorts of other things they think Americans and Canadians want. Howeve,r with Saturn, they didn`t have time - they needed new cars and they needed them fast, so they slapped on a Saturn badge and that was about it.


The changes at Saturn are great for Canadians! Because we get cars with decent fuel mileage, and that look and handle great! Possibly as close to european cars that we`ll get.

As a bonus, here was a picture I just happened to take. It`s a police car being towed... Not often you see that... Not that it`s important, but just thought it was different.

Historical Amherst

Setting out to find a haunted Canadian Tire yielded an interesting historic town. Amherst shares many characteristics found in many east coast towns, but overall it did have many old buildings still in use. In fact, there were a few signage still in place on more `modern`buildings that seemed reminiscent of a `50s retro trend... I haven`t seen many signs of that in person ever before, as in Moncton any 50s signage trends would have been replaced with `70s signage trends which were themselves replaced with `90s sign trends, and so on...

Amherst was also home to Dayle`s, Atlantic Canada`s largest and oldest department store... back in the day or say Eaton`s and so on... still in use today! Other things we thought were interesting, was an old Bank of Nova Scotia building... still in use as a Scotia Bank! As well as an old Paramount still in use as a movie theatre!

This building is a church, which seems fairly different... Some kind of sandstone brick, with round towers, and large oak doors...

This really reminds me of the `50s signage...

Fifteen years ago this picture could have been taken in Moncton... And looks just like our old movie theatre from the `50s and used until the `90s... I went there once, and the floor was so sticky, the view was terrible, it was really hot in there, and you heard more from the audience than you did with the movie.

Oldest department store in Atlantic Canada still in use... Currently, only the first two floors are used. I imagine it was a huge thing, decades ago, to come to a store like this and have THREE full floors of merchandise to choose from... Must have been an overwhelming choice many decades ago. That is, before the internet where you can buy from hundreds of thousands of items on Amazon or Ebay alone...

Here is the inside of the store, with a large central staircase... Stores don`t have stuff like this anymore... I looked kinda scared cause I was standing there awhile while Sarah took the photo, and I felt weird posing in a store... When everyone else is shopping, we are taking photos and posing on the stairs...

I put this in black and white to see what it might have looked many years ago... Sarah said it looks like an old Macy`s.

Here is me in front of the Community Credit Union building. I did the website for it many years ago, and I always wanted to go visit the building, so I finally did.

In the end, we never did see the Canadian Tire, which had supposedly replaced the house that once was the haunting place of Ms Esther Cox. This is one of Canad`s most documented and old hauntings. We think the Canadian Tire moved to the newer shopping section of Amherst.

Overall, Amherst had an important role in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but its economic boom and political influence declined since World War I... A statue, seen below, seems to commemorate WWI...

Spring Walking

Although I'm only posting them now, we did a little bit of walking as the snow was melting. We discovered a nice walking trail in Dieppe. Everytime we went walking there in the morning, we encountered a family of deer.









We also walked at the Mapleton Park, which is known for all its squirrels. Howeve,r we did find a number of bunny rabbits there lately. In afct, a trio of bunnies were fairly tame and were playing around and hopping over each other and chasing each other up and down the lawn as we watched. They didn't want us getting too close, but they didn't mind that we watched.

They also have an interesting wood cabin there. At first, I thought maybe it was a plastic logs or something, made to look like a wooden cabin. The logs used were smooth and plasticy looking, but upon further inspection it must be a thick coating of varnish. The logs used are huge, and they hoisted them really high up, especially to make the ceiling to the open-aired veranda.






A little earlier in the year, when there was much snow, we were able to take pictures of the busy squirrels eating nuts.

Hey, what are you looking at?

Here is Sarah all bundled up, as it was fairly cold.

We also went walking around Moncton, on a slightly less cold day with less snow, and we took a few pictures of Moncton.

Here is a Irish church on Moncton's Church Street.


Here is the largest, and tallest, church I have seen. This is just one tower of it, and it is a massive building in width as tall. It is on St. George Street.

Here is the NBTel Tower, characteristic feature of the Moncton skyline.


Here is the Dieppe Peticodiac Trail in the evening, looking towards Moncton.

Lollipop found a friend! The neighborhood cats always visit us, and on any given day we see about three cats around our yard.