I'm back. I took two days to start and complete my Christmas baking. More on that later though, I need to finish documenting our family trip. I left off with us going over the bridge. We stopped off in Moncton to visit with B's cousins. Then we continued on to St. John, New Brunswick. The hotel was nice (not as cool as Charlottetown). The room had two queen sized beds which isn't actually all that terrible when I have to get up multiple times in the night. I don't disturb B as often with my up and down and jumping on the bed, which is a regular occurrence.
On our drive between Moncton and St. John there were moments of extreme rain. Where the windshield wipers could not keep up and we were forced to slow down to a crawl on the highway. Ok, to 60. Our GPS, we learned, does not know St. John, like at all! We named her Confused Catherine. We put in the name of our hotel and followed her instructions. She declared that we had arrived at our destination and when we saw that we were at Superstore and not the hotel we realized that she had no clue where she was taking us. So we went old school and asked for directions at a gas station. The funny thing was while we were driving up to our hotel Catherine was displaying that we were driving through a field. Kind of funny, kind of frustrating since it was already after midnight at this point.
We woke up to a sunny day. We headed down to the breakfast and it was very yummy. We went for a little tour around town and saw some of the sights that they had to see. Then we headed back to the hotel and played in the pool. This was the highlight of St. John for us. They had a blacked out waterside which we took turns going down over and over. There were two young girls also in the pool and they enjoyed being splashed by us as we came down. W really enjoyed the pool as well. He loves to kick his legs and splash. He's so dang cute!
The next day (Friday) we drove around town for a short time to see a couple of things we wanted to quickly look at and then headed back to Moncton, which is usually an hour and half drive. We decided we would take the scenic route and go along the coastline. When we got to a closed off section we realized we would have to re-route ourselves. Well, confused Catherine struck again. She recommended we took this one road. When we got there it was a dirt road. Do we take it?! Well, it's only 24km we thought, it took us what seemed like forever to get through the 24km track. It was a relief and embarrassing when we passed a bunch of hunters. They gave us the strangest of looks as we passed by their wee cabins. When we finally got back to the highway I was pretty much "adventured" out and asked that if we could just go straight to our destination, no more sight seeing. We headed back to T&M's house.
However, on our way we did see some neat things, we came across another lighthouse, and a covered bridge and a washroom :)
So I left us off on Monday night bed time. When we woke up on Tuesday morning we headed to Green Gables. It was so beautiful and just like the movie. I purposefully put my hair in two braids to get as close to Anne as I could. I found it interesting that the author of Anne of Green Gables did a lot of her growing up there. It was her Grandfather's cousins house. I imagined myself in the movie as we walked through the house. I don't know if B was talking to me because I was lost in my imagination for the majority of the time we were there. At one point one of the grounds keepers was explaining some of the rooms and such to us. There were a few rooms that were closed off because they weren't part of the movie, but was part of the home. The author just hadn't mentioned those rooms so they closed it off to keep it more to what people had read about. Interesting that the house actually had 2 extra bedrooms (those were the rooms that were closed off). We asked the grounds keeper about it. I asked if there was any wine left and she told me that Diana had drank it all, thanks a lot Diana!
We walked through the haunted woods as well. I didn't make it very far in though because W started to fuss (it was his nap time). So we walked a little ways in and then turned around quickly. When we got out of the woods W calmed down and went to sleep. Guess it's safe to say he didn't enjoy the haunted feeling. After our brief walk into the woods we went for a walk down Lover's Lane (another story setting from the book). It was so nice, the leaves were changing and we basically had the entire setting to ourselves. We were the 11th group through that day. Which made me glad we went at this time of year. Even though it would be breathtaking in the summer or even in the spring, going in the fall we saw the changing of the leaves and it wasn't crowded, we could take our time and not worry about holding up the line. We really got to saturate ourselves in the experience.
After our time at Green Gables we went on our own little island tour. We stopped in Kingsington at a little bakery called Mary's Bakery. We couldn't find a restaurant so we stopped in there and loaded up on yummy baked goods as well as some fried chicken and fries. We found a little look out point where we ate our lunch. Then we carried on our little journey of the day going around trying to find lighthouses and taking pictures all along the shoreline. (Aka: red sand). We went through one park where I didn't dare get out of the car with W. There were foxes everywhere and they made themselves right at home right outside my door. I wasn't afraid for me, but I didn't know if they could jump and I'm sure seeing a little person would look like a nice tasty meal to them so I said no way when B asked if we should go out and take a family photo by the water.
After our journey lead us back to Charlottetown we found a restaurant that was still serving Lobster(it was end of season so it was hard to find a place). One place had closed down for the season on Monday, another place it was it's last night and then there was the place we went to. I'm not sure on when they stop serving it. It was called the Oyster House. I had Oysters for the first time and they were pretty good. Salty, but good. Than we had our Lobster dinner. So good and W is such a super star. After travelling all day he sat in a highchair for the first time like a champ. Such a happy little camper, making raspberries at the server and chatting away with us. Man I love that kid!
So that day we hit all 4 of my trip criteria. Pretty sweet if you ask me
Wednesday we walked around downtown Charlottetown. It started off as chilly, than a light mist and then a more heavy rainfall (which luckily we were inside for at a Chocolate shop). As we were walking along we went into a historic site. At one point as we were walking outside I took W out of his stroller and put him in a pile of leaves. B was a little shocked and asked me what I was doing. A photo shoot of course! As we made cooing noises to W, B said it must look like we're crazy making cooing noises to a pile of leaves because from far away you couldn't even see W in the leaves. As we kept walking we found a place that had W's full name on it and so of course we took about 10 photos of him infront of it. It made me laugh when I thought of people being inside the house thinking, what are those crazy people doing taking pictures at our front door...haha. How awkward!
After our walk all downtown, a stop at the chocolate shop, and at the ice cream store (where yes we got icecream before lunch), we headed back to our vehicle (which was still in the hotel parking lot) and we went to a yummy sushi restaurant for lunch.
After lunch we headed to the bridge to head over to New Brunswick. Before we hit the bridge though we stopped to take pictures of it. And of course there just happened to be a lighthouse there so it became more of a photo op. I could see that place hopping with excitement in the summer. So many things there to keep little people occupied. A caboose, a boat playground, a lighthouse, and of course the bridge to look at. Than we headed on the bridge to the next part of our adventure.
More to come
Michelle
Well we went on a vacation and are back now. I have a rule that I don't mention going on a trip until after we're back. Call me crazy but I think it's crazy to announce you're going on a vacation on the internet. It's like inviting anyone that is looking to loot into your home. Hey, they're going away for 2 weeks, lets steal from them because they won't notice until they get back. Plus it's more exciting for a reader to read about the adventure that was already had not the countdown leading up to it. Am I right or am I right? I'll answer for you - I'm right - your welcome for that :)
So we left on a Wednesday morning at 8:50am. Well that's when our flight took off, we left our house a lot earlier than that. We had coffee with B's mom at the airport and then we took W on his first flight. (I've decided to call Kiwi - W from now on). He did AMAZING! The sound of the plane engine put him right to sleep. I told B that I would like a plane engine installed into his room when we returned home. (I'm still waiting on that - maybe for Christmas?) When we landed in Toronto we had a 3 1/2 hour lay over. We changed W, got a bite to eat, played on the carpet (yes I'm that crazy lady who would rather sit on the floor than on one of those uncomfortable chairs) and W didn't mind either, that way he was able to sit or lay down and have all the freedom he wanted. Our second flight mimicked the first and when we landed we overheard others say, "What?! There was a baby on our flight?" Oh yeah! W is a superstar! We arrived at 10pm in Halifax, however one of our bags did not. It was B's bag, which also had all the gifts we had brought. So we carried on our way back to B's brother's place, one bag missing.
When we got to B's brother's house we had a quick visit before we all headed to bed. Luckily I'm a little skeemer and I had a pair of B's old pj's in my suitcase (They are comfortable and I have claimed them since he never wore them anymore.)So he had something to wear to bed. The next day we were taken to a really cute coffee shop where they had chocolate filled croissants. I had a butter one wasn't feeling like chocolate (I know take my temperature right?!) B had a chocolate one though and that thing was HUGE! It was the size of a miniature football. W's cousin is so incredibly cute. She just turned 2! Afterwards we went for a drive and saw some of downtown Halifax and hit up the farmers market (Which was awesome!!) We saw a huge pumpkin and it was funny because M&T ran into many people they knew there. I found that to be cool.
The next day we went to W's cousin's birthday party. There were a lot of people there and I loved watching all the dynamics that were in the room. I am more of a sit back and watch people kind of a person when I don't know anyone. I hope nobody found me to be rude. I had a good time. And B's brother had made the cake which turned out really neat! It was a lady bug cake and it was super cute!
After the party B went and picked up our rental car as well as the lost bag which had been found!
On Monday we ventured out to PEI (Prince Edward Island for my American readers). It was breath taking there! I would tell my younger self to do my university there! Charlotte Town was so neat! I need to back up a bit though. We left B's brother's house early that morning and stopped off at a closed bakery, (We didn't know it was closed otherwise we wouldn't have gone there) so we turned around and hit up the Tim Hortons on our way out of town. We headed towards the Ferry which was a hour an half drive away. When we arrived we found out that we had missed the ferry by 15 minutes. So we turned around, went and grabbed some lunch in the nearest town and went for another long drive to see what we could see while we waited for the Ferry time. Once we were on the Ferry we saw lots of Ocean and islands and then we saw a lighthouse!
My criteria for the trip consisted of 4 things. 1. See a lighthouse (emphasis on the 'a') 2. Go to Green Gables from the famous Canadian story - Anne of Green Gables 3. See red sand 4. Eat Lobster. B is funny, I asked to see "a" lighthouse and we ended up seeing more than a dozen. He said, you want to see a lighthouse I'm going to make sure you see as many as we can. So funny and sweet.
Once we were off the ferry we drove to one end of the island where we saw two really sweet Lighthouses. I'm sure W really took it in! Than we headed to our hotel. When we walked into our room I was blown away. They had upgraded us and the room was wonderful. I should have taken a picture but I didn't. It was a suite room where the bedroom actually closed off from the rest of the room. Which is awesome when you're travelling with a little one. You can put them to bed and not worry about keeping them awake because you can close their door. We went down to the pool first before heading to bed. W loves the pool so we had a good time (even though the water was sooo chilly). Than we went back up to our room and called it a night. And this is where I will end this post. More to come
Michelle
