Deja Vu in Alma, NB

The crazy thing about life is that you truly can end up anywhere. After living in too many places to count, with the majority of it in Seattle, I can say without a stitch of exaggeration that I never, ever, thought I would be living in Alma, New Brunswick - literally a 10 minute drive from my parents place in New Horton. Its a little fishing village at the foot of a national park, much like North Rustico was at the foot of Cavendish in PEI. A little boom town in the summer, quiet and isolated in the winter, I never knew how much I'd like this type of arrangement. Still, I was slow to warm to the idea of living here. Because I grew up in the area during the 80's, in my memory, I just remember all the weird things that small towns in the Maritimes have to offer; which is very little aside from drinking and crazy parties, but times have changed. This town has really latched on to the idea that it is firmly becoming a destination place, one tourists actually PLAN into their vacation agendas.

With this in mind, I know there is no excuse for not taking advantage of things to do in the area. What you ask might they be? Well, at first I thought it was nothing, then my opinion moved on to the "very little" level, and now, since working in Fundy National Park, I have found that there is quite a bit to do around here: obviously first and foremost there is hiking the many trails in the park, there are beach walks around Alma, there are lakes behind here for fishing, there is live music at a couple of venues in town, and amazing restaurants if you have some extra coins around.

For now, I want to concentrate on hiking in Fundy Park. People travel here from all over the world to hike these trails and I feel that I need to take advantage of the fact that I literally live 500 yards from the parks gates. 

I am going to start with the easiest trails first and move on from there. So far, I have gone on 2 easy trails: Point Wolfe Beach Trail and Kinnie Brook Trail. 

There are a couple of good links regarding these trails, but there is not a ton describing exactly what each hike entails. So far, even on these trails, I have been surprised by what you see when you get on them. 

Here are a couple of links:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/nb/fundy/activ/sentiers-trails/randonee-hiking

http://www.fundy-biosphere.ca/en/hiking-trails/fundy-national-park.html

Cape Breton Island, N.S.

In the early 70’s when I was about a year old, my parents left BC for Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. My Dad had gotten a job fixing 2-stroke engines in a small town by Lake Anisle making $2 an hour. It is interesting, yet somewhat odd, that they (more likely my Dad) were drawn to the Maritimes over and over again. My father grew up in landlocked Iowa and hadn’t seen anything larger than a lake until he was 21 years old. My mother was from Western Canada. The Maritimes in those days was very poor and psychologically isolated from the rest of Canada. Mom told me the story many times about how they often crossed paths with older ladies who spoke nothing but Scottish Gaelic when they first arrived in Cape Breton. They travelled quite a bit in the the area around Judique and Mabou. One time, she said, they even went as far north as Meat Cove. Cape Breton is also where I lost my Mom’s one and only wedding ring. My Dad never replaced it. She said I was a very loud baby, always screeching and throwing a fit. My parents had been checking out an old abandoned farmhouse between Mabou and Fort Hood, and in trying to keep me quiet to not alert the neighbors, she handed me her wedding ring. For whatever reason, this seemed to work, but it wasn’t long before I threw it onto the floor and it fell through the cracked floors into the muddy basement below, where unfortunately, it was never to be found again. I felt so bad every time I heard this, but, I remind myself, I was only a year old. Still …. I would like to return and see if the house still is standing, which I doubt, and look for the ring. My mother lost her battle with cancer this past January, and I can no longer ask her details about this place. I remember that she said that the house was just before Port Hood, and that there was a distinct road that pulled off. But this was 1972, and I do not even know if the house still stands. My Dad added his two cents with information he remember about the area:  bizarrely, the creator of the Whole Earth Catalogue, Steve Brand, also lived in Judique at that time, along with a few hippie artists who had been active in the Dada Art Movement. That was the 1970’s, and today the famous Rankin Family lives just down the road … I haven't been there for 44 years and hope to see Cape Breton soon!

Side Note: I need to find out why they call it Cape Breton "Island." Is it one? I don't think so ...

Digby Seafood Festival

I had been wanting to see the western tip of Nova Scotia for 5 years, and what better excuse to go than the Digby Seafood Festival. For me, though, it was just a way to manipulate JR into going to the town that I REALLY wanted to see - ANNAPOLIS ROYAL - which is only a 10 minutes away!  When I was 10 years old, we almost moved there. I can hardly remember anything from those days (I have a bad childhood memory). I know that there was another hippie family living in Annapolis Valley that we were staying with. I remember playing outside and there were these enormous stately trees in the front, and a large white, country farm house at the back and it was just glorious. I remember blue berry picking and my mother and her best friend cooking in the huge kitchen, our fathers nowhere to be found. I also remember going to a small town (Annapolis Royal) and looking at a green and white house that I thought my parents were going to purchase. In my 10 year old fantasy, it stood on stilts on the edge of the water (not true) with its large windows facing the road. When they didn't buy the house, and we ended up living in New Brunswick as a result, it became one of the earliest and most enduring disappointments of my life. 

So, here we are, some 33 years later in Annapolis Royal. To call it cute is just a simple understatement. I was so busy oohing and aahing that I didn't even get any really good photos. To add to the sheer storybook quality of the town, we arrived at 11AM on Saturday - which was market day - and we didn't even plan it !! Yes, it is small, but oh my lord, it looks like a movie set.

Digby was nice too. It was a lot more blue collar working town with a real harbor and wharf. The seafood festival parade was a bit hokey, but hey, we were in small town Nova Scotia and I was just happy to see it!

Ultimately, we found the northern side of NS to be more more picturesque that the southern side. The south seemed a little barren, less green, less treed and all around more weather beaten ... is didn't have the curving winding roads and pretty little towns covered with large trees. It does, however, have a ton of interesting Acadian History, which will be another trip!

Caissie Cape, Gagnon Beach & $5 Lobster at Aboiteau Wharf Restaurant and Bar

Summer is winding down. Last weekend, although stupendously hungover from both sun and mixed drinks, we trucked 'er back down to the beaches again. Our two person party started out on a beach in Caissie Cape. There was no one about, it was hot, but windy. We set up camp 10 feet from the murky water, poured some drinks, and started picking apart the crab legs and palourdes. We bought a shellfish knife at Canadian Tire (thinking it would open the palourdes, but in the end we had to use my good ol' Swiss Army knife). Every summer we stop at the same house in Caissie-Cape to buy seafood. I don't eat the palourdes, only the snow crab legs, and the stuff that's in jars - the bar clams. Palourdes are basically just clams, but big ones. They are also known as carpet shell clams, and are super hard to open (which I like because it keeps Frenchie occupied for at least an hour). He fights with them, grunting and swearing - it is true, they put up a very serious fight on being opened. Guess they know where they are headed. Poor things. Then he just sucks 'em back raw. Gross!!

Later we were in Shediac to see all the Hogs riders, and we all know my opinion on that! Somehow I always end up where the annual convention/get-together is. However, all the sun and booze dulled my annoyance of the 200+ old folks revving their Harley engines. After that, a bonfire at a friends trailer at Gagnon Beach. Holy ... does dried-out white birch EVER burn fast. I was just amazed. The next day was brutal, but we bought some umbrellas that attach to chairs at Walmart and headed back out to Gagnon Beach to supposedly swim. Frenchie fell asleep and I was too lazy to move. It's not deep, we walked way out at sunset and it was only waist high. 

And at the end of the day, we went to the Quai Aboiteau Wharf Restaurant and Bar for fried clams and $5.00 lobster. It was bittersweet because even though everyone said that it was not the end of summer, it WAS the end of summer.

​Aboiteau Wharf Restaurant and Bar

77 chemin du Quai  Cap-Pelé, N.B.

Poutine Râpée, Fricot and Gagnon Beach

August brings a lot of Acadian festivities to New Brunswick, and not ones to be left behind in the food department, Frenchie and I decided to grab some Acadian food in Shediac on our way to gorgeous Gagnon Beach in Grand Barachois. The crabby, blond lady with the bobbed haircut, who was serving our food, was very snarky towards us (I have my suspicions as to why) ... but anyways the food was good. We ordered Fricot as well (uh ...and it was gone before Frenchie had a chance to ask for some ... oops). Personally, I like the Poutine Rapee in Buctouche better, but it was still good. Unfortunately, neither brown sugar nor maple syrup was packed with the food, so we stopped at a local store in Barachois where Frenchie found an huge bottle of combined 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 maple syrup ... obviously made specifically for such things as Poutine Rapee. But omg! Can you say sweet? It could rot the teeth off a camel !!

Grand Manan, New Brunswick

I had heard about Grand Manan Island here and there over the years, mostly from my parents who had a few friends from there. I remember my parents telling me it was just this sorta pretty, backward, little no-nothing Island where hicks and weird people came from. Well, I was able to see it for myself this summer and I have to tell you, it is absolutely gorgeous. It may be a little raw in the winter, but it very picturesque and, I believe, well on its way to being a little retreat Island for retirees and American expatriates. Frenchie and I drove around the entire Island in a few hours. However, there was one disturbing commonality that we kept seeing over and over and over. Every second house was for sale, all the lobster traps were pulled up just baking in the sun, and there were little, if any, boats in the fishing harbors. I am not exaggerating here either, the for sale signs were literally in front of every single second house. We are not sure, but we put two and two together, and guessed that the fishing industry has all but collapsed around here. We did ask a few vendors in the 2-hour Saturday market if that was the case, but no one would give us a clear answer. While there seems to be growing tourism on the Island, it is pretty obvious that most of the economy here was by way of fishing.

There is an interesting weather pattern around the Island as well. In Black's Harbor where you catch the ferry to Grand Manan, it is so foggy, you can barely see the front of your own vehicle. The ferry is a couple of hours long, and by the time you disembark on Grand Manan, it is literally sunny and hot, with a nice wind. Unreal.