Coastline of New Brunswick and Maine

		Finishing Canada and into Maine VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We continued our Canadian Maritimes trip down the coast of the Bay of Fundy to the Atlantic, passing St John (mostly shipping and industrial, but having a “reversing falls” due to the huge tides), St Andrews (a quaint, tourist town with whale watching and many historic homes along the water), St George, and St Stephen (home of Ganong chocolate factory where we could eat all we wanted.) Ganong also had a museum that reviewed the history of their business. We learned that candy boxes where considered stylish, works of art, and meant to be kept as reused as sewing boxes and glove boxes. Then we crossed the border to US only to return to Campobello Island, New Brunswick via a bridge from Lubec, Maine (the easternmost point in the US.) The FDR Campobello International Park, the only international park in the world, is there to preserve FDR’s summer home. FDR’s “beloved island” has been turned into a lovely park, jointly funded by Canada and by the US. “Sunrise at Campobello” a movie, a play, and a book by Dore Schary is about the summer when FDR was there with his family and contracted his paralysis. The Head Light on East Quoddy Bay is one of the oldest in Canada.

We went on a whale-watching boat ride from Campobello and were treated to nice weather, calm waters, and many sightings: bald eagles, harbor seals, porpoises, loons, puffins (they are so cute!), finback whales and one malo malo shark (Ocean sunfish). This was the first time we saw finback whales; they are the 2^nd largest in the world, their blow is 15-20 feet high, they sleep while moving by quieting alternating sides of the brain, they can stay under for 25 minutes, they weigh one ton per foot (one of them we saw was 70 feet long), and they can swim at speeds of 25 mph. Amazing creatures!

Reflections as we leave Canada:

Where we were in the rural Maritimes, time has moved slower and less progress was noticed. At times it felt like the 1950s; full service gas stations (Gulf and Esso). Overall people are really friendly, helpful, and open. Most people we met did not travel much and were not very aware of US geography, especially any state west of the Mississippi.

As FDR said, “It doesn’t seem to fit to call Canadians foreigners; they are just Canadians.” Likewise it is strange to say we were in a “foreign” country, but there were some noticeable reminders that we were not in the US anymore, Toto.

1) Spelling differences similar to England. e.g. harbour, colour, labour.

2) Metric system used here. We immersed ourselves into it and found it fun and easy to adapt and actually started thinking in terms or metric instead of English. Buying gas by the liter instead of by the gallon for example became second nature to us.

3) Dollars, of course, are similar denominations (except they use coins for $1 and $2). A dollar is not a “buck”, but rather a “loonie” as there is a Loon pictured on the back side of it. We found things to be more expensive in Canada than in the US, so we spent more loonies than expected.

4) History is always written from the side of the writer. Since the War of 1812 was 200 years ago, there were many historical references to the US attacks and “invasion” of their area. Tough to hear and digest at first, but we found it an interesting reminder that there are always two sides in any conflict. They also have different terms for the “Intolerable Acts” of the American Revolution and for the “French and Indian War.”

5) Francophone: We found many speak English very well and many were learning. They enjoyed the opportunity to practice English and fine hone correct grammatical usages and pronunciations. Likewise we attempted French at every occasion and were met with delight at our feeble attempts, with fondness and helpful assistance. The constant bilingual signs continued our ability to read and understand French. Our listening comprehension and speaking without accents were, however, seriously lagging.

In Summary, Canada is a delightful place and provided a learning and fun summer adventure.

After Campobello, we again returned to the US and headed “Downeast” to the Acadia part of Maine. Back in the USA, everything seemed inexpensive to us after a summer of getting calibrated to higher prices & taxes of Canada.

The Maine coastal area is renowned for craggy coastlines, picturesque harbors, lighthouses, and fishing coves & villages. The Maine lobster is famous for tenderness, freshness and sweetness and we did our best to verify this. At one campground, the fisherman who just returned from his lobster boat sold us three lobsters (that he cooked for us) for $10. Somehow eating them at our picnic table was more fun for us than it would have been at a posh restaurant.

We are going to miss the ocean and the tides and the seafood but it has been a fantastic summer. Now on to New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.