" I Must Go Down to the Sea Again..."

We were granted, by an unexpected sale cancellation, another weekend off.  So, yes...the evening of Remembrance Day we headed our car southwest...back to the sea. 

Part of it was a recap.  There was a longing to go back to where we had begun, so many weeks ago now.  Back to the Bay of Fundy.  Back to historic Saint John, where the St John River rushes into the sea only to reverse with the tides.  Back to Grannon's, where we had eaten our first and second- best seafood chowder! (The best was on the wharf at Shediac, NB, not far from Moncton.)  Back to the charm of history-lined streets we had explored with our first volunteer cohort. 

Bonnie Isaak, Lila and Ron King along with a very happy proprietor



we are very close to the American border here

 We spent the night with the Earl of Leinster (an old renovated B&B!) and bright and early the next morning began our explorations of Fundy Coast west.  We found the coastline more rolling, compared to the rising cliffs and  flowerpot rocks north of Saint John ( eg Hopewell Rocks) and many of the little fishing villages appeared somewhat depressed. 

There are many exciting coastal islands to explore, but we had to content ourselves with just one.  A 20 minute free ferry ride on the John E. Rigby brought us to Deer Island (population 1000 souls); inhabited by Europeans since 1770.

the ferry barge pulled and pushed by a tug



"aqua culture"/salmon farming in circle to right

Fishing is still the the primary industry here.  

We were interested in some of the fishing techniques that were apparent. Herring weirs, sardines for canneries, Atlantic salmon "raised, harvested and dressed", lobster pounds where lobster are kept (up to 3 million) until markets are right...all prominent on this island.  Deer Island has the first Atlantic Canada sea farm.

 

herring weir 

lobster pound on dock to right 

colourful tangle of fishing gear

From Deer Island we drove to St. Andrews-By-The-Sea, touted as New Brunswick's premier vacation destination.  We soon saw why.  This delightful town, situated on the tip of a little peninsula jutting into the sea, has many attractions including the historic 1889 seaside resort, now the Fairmont Algonquin. 

This hotel, built in classic Tudor style by wealthy businessmen from Boston, along with other historic buildings, displays the early United Empire Loyalist history of St. Andrews...another fascinating historical chapter in the Maritimes.  Minister's Island, a small island accessible by car from St. Andrews, but only when the tides are out, boasts the magnificent former summer home of Sir. William Van Horne. He is famous for pounding in the last spike of the CPR in BC. We managed to get our car across the rocky sea-bed, only to find that access to the island had been closed off for the season. We hurried back!

We hated to leave this picturesque location but were also eager to visit St. Stephen, the most westerly town on the Fundy Coastal Drive. St. Stephen is home of Ganong Bros Ltd., Canada's oldest candy company with its famous Chocolate Museum.  Well, we hadn't considered that this was Sunday, and so we could only wander hungrily around the huge factory (reminiscent of Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, for those of you in the know) and then head to the local SuperStore to buy our ration of this famous chocolate.  

Well...the days are shortening and sadly our time in the Atlantic Provinces is running out. We can feel the shift in energy as we begin to plan for a trip back home.  Dan and I have two more sales left to run.  This weekend we go to Fredericton, where last year they had a sale of over $40,000, the largest festival sale of the season.  And then, with a very quick turnover, we head to PEI again, to run a three day discount sale at the University of PEI in Charlottetown.  Following this Dan and I are going to once again take advantage of opportunity and do a couple of days of touring on PEI.  But in order to hear that story you'll have to come to 208 Glenwood!    

Last weekend, as we drove our truck southward to our sale at Enfield, Nova Scotia... well, it could have been Manitoba!

On December 3 we reload our truck for the very last time and after assisting with the closing down of the whole operation at the Petitcodiac warehouse for a week, we will turn our car away from the  Atlantic Provinces and head toward our prairie home.  Looking forward to seeing many of you! 

The French Connection...

Thursday, October 20th Dan and I loaded our cube truck once again and headed 350 kilometers north to Campbellton, NB... for our sixth sale. 

Campbellton is a small town nestled on the south shore of Chaleur Bay with a very small Mennonite Brethren congregation. Fourty people on a Sunday morning is a larger gathering.  For 25 years now these committed folks have hosted a Ten Thousand Villages sale.  Campbellton had a special attraction for us...Dan's brother, Abe, and Helen had pastored this church for several years some time ago now... and yes, many people still remembered them fondly.  We set up a wonderful store, right in their sanctuary. 



Restigouche Valley Church far left, on the bay



We`re ready for the sale!



                                                           
The church building was a former fish market and people say they can still pick up a peculiar odour on off days!  Campbellton has become a largely Francophone town in recent years, and there was deliberate effort to promote the sale to this population.

Well... we were only across the Bay from Gaspe Peninsula, so on Sunday afternoon, after staying for church with our new friends, we headed our rental car across the interprovincial bridge linking Campbellton to Pointe-a-la- Croix, Quebec, and we were off for another adventure.  What a wonderful time this was!  Destination...Perce

                                                                               

The coastal highway meandered its way peacefully around the coast, from picturesque village to village...water to our right and the most northernly stretch of the Appalachians on our left.  The glorious oranges and reds were mostly gone now, but the tamarack were in full golden glory.  In 2009 the  National Geographic Society designated Gaspesie as the third most beautiful destination in the world!  The former fishing villages now catering primarily to artists and tourism.    

                                                             
Someone in Campbellton told us we mustn't miss St Joseph's Abbey up the mountainside at Carlton Sur Mer, about twenty kms up the South Shore. By this time I had developed some interest in early Acadian history and learned that Abbot Joseph-Mathurin Bourg was the first Acadian priest...arriving at this site in Gaspe in 1772.  In 1756 seven exiled Acadian families had moved here following a brutal deportation from Nova Scotia.  Yes, the views were spectacular.

                      

                          

We reached Perce, at the eastern tip of Gaspe, just before sundown.  We had noticed that most of the inns along the way, and even restaurants, were closed for the season, so we were most excited when the inn keeper at Cote Surprise, right across from the Rock, found one clean room in his closed hotel for us to rent for the night.  From the little mezzanine we could gaze over the water.  Dan`s response: "This is so beautiful, it hurts.!"

Early the next morning we were out on the boardwalk and up the trails to soak in the beauty of Perce/"pierced rock"...this limestone monolith 289' high and 1542' long.

                                                                        

Our time was only too short!

 Heads up, cycling friends...Dan and I are dreaming of a cycling vacation on the Gaspe! . 

Back to the French Connection....

In Eastern Canada history is everywhere alive. Everywhere we go, it seems, there are museums and historical sites reminding us of the beginnings of western history in North America.  At Perce, we were just short of the settlement of Gaspe, where Cartier landed in 1534...

just not enough time to explore it all. 

But it`s the Acadian story that has caught my imagination...with its similarity, in some signficant aspects, to the Russian Mennonite experience.



Proud Acadian flags fly in many villages

 In the early 1700s the population of French settlers in "maritime New France" (Acadia) numbered about ten thousand.  Many settled along the marshlands of the Minas Basin (Bay of Fundy).  Here they dyked and farmed their land...close-knit, homogeneous communities attached to their religion and traditions. But they were soon to be become victims, caught between the opposing forces of France and England fighting for supremacy in the New World.  In 1726, in return for the promise of exemption from taking arms and freedom to practice their religion, many Acadians pledged allegiance to Britain.  But this was not to save them...in 1755 six thousand Acadians were ruthlessly evicted from their farms and homes by British forces and sent into exile... scattered throughout New England provinces, some as far away as Louisianna.   

Grand Pre National Historic Site

Today, all over the Atlantic Provinces, Acadians are reclaiming national pride.  At Grand Pre, on Fundy Shore, beautiful gardens with a statue of Evangeline, and a memorial church commemorate the expulsion of the Acadians.

And I had to pick up a copy of Evangeline, Henry Wordsworth Longfellows epic poem about the expulsion, published in 1847.  This poem is said to have immortalized the pathos of the Acadian story...a tragic tale of the forced separation of two young lovers.  And, indeed, the story lives on...and we are told there is a Francophone resurgence happening today, throughout the Atlantic provinces. 

So...as of Monday, Nov.7 we have seven sales under our communal belts.  Dan and I have three more big ones to go. 

But this weekend we have off, and yes...we're up for more adventure.  Back to Fundy Coastal Drive, this time touring west of St. John, NB to St. Andrews and Deer Island.  We'll let you know! 

Courting the colours...

Bras d' Or Lake from Alexander Graham Bell Museum

From Cape Breton to Corner Brook...

The last few weeks, which have included the long Thanksgiving weekend without a Villages sale, have seen us on the road...chasing the fall colours and soaking in as much culture and landscape as possible.  We thought the colours had gone missing.  People were speculating...perhaps the fall had been too warm, perhaps there had been too much rain...  And then, as we were leaving Cape Breton, around Baddeck (the home of Sir Alexander Graham Bell), it happened...as if overnight...everywhere a blaze of glory. 

                               

Our Cape Breton adventure took us first to the Fortress of Louisbourg, a national historic site on the southeastern tip of Cape Breton.  Between 1960-1985 the gov't of Canada poured money into what is purported to be the largest reconstruction project in N. America. Now we can visit this amazing 18th century French colonial outpost, exactly as it was, and enter into it's daily life.   







weight-operated rotiserrie...mmm

That evening we took in a Celtic Colours concert in Sydney on the Esplanade.  The 15th annual festival of traditional celtic music runs for a week and has venues throughout Cape Breton.  Our "Taste of the Festival" was a delightful eclectic potpourri from fiddlin' to singin'...



fiddle in front of Joan Harris Pavilion, Sydney


The next day, with great anticipation, we entered the Cabot Trail...one of the most scenic drives in the world according to our tour-book, and there's not much more to be said!



We spent our last night in Beddeck, which sits at the southern entrance to Cabot Trail, ate our first complete lobster dinner with a pail of mussels! and in the morning toured the fascinating Graham Bell Museum before heading back to Petitcodiac.  This was to be a very quick

turnover.  By noon the next day we were on the road again, truck loaded heavy with merchandise for our next big sale.  So...back to North Sydney, about 550 kms... to catch the overnight ferry to Port aux Basque. We were off to Newfoundland and Labrador for the very first time and Corner Brook was to be our biggest sale yet!

pulling in to Port aux Basque harbour at sunrise

We had arranged for an extra day with Brian Elliot, our director, so after arriving at our host family's place, we parked our truck, rented a vehicle and headed into Gros Morne park (voluntary service isn't so bad, is it?).  Of course, this is mid October, and past tourist season, so we found the Discovery Centre closed and the tour boat at Western Brook Pond no longer running.  But the geological wonder of Tablelands, a world heritage site for it's illustration of plate tectonics, was there for us to explore and the coastal fishing villages were quaint and wonderful. 

cod hung to dry

 a too windy day!

The moose evaded us... although we glimpsed a small herd of elk from a distance.  We were able to drive to the northern tip of Gros Morne, Cow Head, but then needed to rush back to Corner Brook to set up for what turned out to be a $34,000 sale.



sale at Cathedral of St. John the Evangel

Today is October 25, we have six sales under our belts with six to go.  We are now four volunteer couples, although one is leaving next week, and the schedule is getting more hectic.  This coming  weekend there will be four sales happening in three Atlantic provinces. 

Next...Gaspe!



Come along to Nova Scotia...

Late August...as we drove along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence wending our way to New Brunswick, we were fascinated that every little town we drove through was named after a saint... and featured a two-spired white Catholic church.

Now... two weeks ago, Dan and I had a weekend off and we headed off to Nova Scotia for three wonderful days.  Here too, we drove through a countryside  replete with churches... not Catholic, however... many Anglican and some Baptist, along with a sprinkling of other denominations. 

The churches are rivalled only by the many salt-shaker lighthouses.

Yes, Nova Scotia is "the sea-bound coast"... and.the old sea-faring song that I learned in school so long ago, rang in my ears as we wound our way around the South Shore. 

Our first day, however, was spent in Halifax, and we began with the historic harbour, Canada's gateway to the Atlantic.

The sun was shining brightly as we walked the boardwalk, watching the many sailing vessels moving in and out of the narrows.

One of our goals was to spend some time at Pier 21, Canada`s immigration museum.  Here we were able to search for the documents pertaining to both our parents' immigration from Ukraine to Canada in the mid 1920s.  With help we found them all.  I was particularly delighted to find the passenger list and a photo of Empress of Scotland on which my 21 year old mother, together with her mother and six siblings, sailed from Southampton, England in Sept.1925.  They landed in Quebec, as did Dan's parents, but the Halifax museum now houses all the historical immigration records. Between 1928 and 1971 1.5 million immigrants and service personnel passed through Pier 21.  The immigrant experience became much more real to us.

Above the harbour sits Halifax Citadel, the hilltop fortress of the 1880s, when Halifax was a key British stronghold.  Dan was happy to pose!

We were able to visit the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (in Halifax on a later date) and the impressive exhibit portraying the great Halifax harbour munitions explosion of 1912, which destroyed the waterfront and several miles into the city of the day.  We also watched the National Geographic's amazing underwater   film of the remains of the Titanic.  Halifax harbour was where hundreds of those who perished washed ashore.

              From Halifax we began exploring the bays and coves of the scenic South Shore.

  

While eating our pasties at Peggy's Cove, we had an engaging encounter with a young woman from Germany (sitting there behind us), who had come, with her three young boys, to experience a year in Canada .

She has rented a house not far from Peggy's Cove, her envious husband  joining them on vacations.  She was very interested in our sales, and indeed showed up in Halifax two weeks later, to see what Ten Thousand Villages had to offer. 

From there the coastal route took us through the picturesque town of Mahone Bay,and then on to Old Town Lunenberg and the dockyard where the Bluenose II is undergoing a major restoration. The Bluenose, depicted on the Canadian dime, won many races in her time (1921-1946) and will be back sailing in 2012.

On our last day we pulled ourselves away from the south coast and headed for Fundy Shore and the famous Annapolis Valley.  Here we were looking for orchards and apples and wineries and were not disappointed. 

So, on this note we fare thee well...

Tomorrow we leave for a three day tour of Cape Breton and Celtic Colours!