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. 

North Rustico - PEI

I tagged along with Frenchie as he did sales calls in the North Rustico area. We stopped at the Great Canadian Soap Company on the way. I got to talk to some baby goats who then tried to eat my hair. The store was interesting, but the goat milk soaps still carried a sickeningly sweet after-smell like an old, sweaty udder that perfume could not disguise. As we drove towards the water, it was so unbelievably cold and blustery for the end of June, I regretted not digging out my winter coat before going over to the Island. North Rustico is a pretty coastal area full of sand dunes and spots where tourists can go out sight-seeing and fishing on rented boats. I sat in the car most of day reading maps while Frenchie did his heat pump spiel to potato farmers and guys who ride Harley's to Mexico. 

Cape Wolfe - North Cape Coastal Drive - PEI

We drove out to this more desolate part of Prince Edward Island on a wild goose chase to look at some old, run down RV in PEI's North Cape area. Not without it's own charm - the area looks like old Ireland, but with huge, metal windmills everywhere. Guessin' it gets a little windy in these parts, although the molinos (as they are called in Spanish) were at a standstill the day we drove through. And even though the Frenchman has been all over PEI, he had not been here prior. After checking out the old, over-priced RV, we headed back via the Cedar Dunes Provincial Park area, Glenwood, and the the Big Pierre Jacques River area. Then it was back to Highway 2 arguing the entire way about why whenever we get out to a supposed gas station listed on the GPS, it looks like the 1956 remnants of nuclear testing in Arizona. Frankly, I'm old school and like paper maps.