Bay of Fundy

We began the day by going to 9am mass at a church near the university.  We find it interesting to attend mass in different countries.  When Joe and I go to Canada, we often talk about what are the real differences between Americans and Canadians.  In today's bulletin at the church there was this statement, "Over the past few weeks we have been publishing items concerning the upcoming new Sacramentary that will be introduced in parishes. . . . The one thing that you will note, especially for those who watch EWTN and other American channels, is that things will be a bit different here in Canada than the US."  So---I guess the differences between the two countries show up in many ways.

After church and breakfast, we headed to the New Brunswick museum to get a better understanding of the area.  It was a lovely museum; however, it would be best visited on a snowy day in February.  After an hour we were anxious to see the real thing and not museum representations, so we left and headed to the Bay of Fundy Trail.  The pictures posted are from there.  The Bay of Fundy is like a big bath tub and the water flows in and out 52 feet each way from high to low tide.  We started our visit just after high tide and finished at low tide with a bowl of delicious seafood chowder on a deck overlooking the bay. Along the way we took a two hour hike admiring the magnificent scenery.

O Canada!! Eh!!

We awoke this morning to a blue sky with no clouds and lots of sunshine.  A good omen.  We began our travels on I-95--the super road way of the east coast.  We took this all the way to Bangor, Maine and then headed east on route 9 through the dense forests of Maine.  We got to Calais and crossed over to Canada.  The border crossing equals in size the crossing at Niagara Falls, but there were none of the crowds.  In fact, we were the only ones there and the computer singled us out to be inspected!  So we had to go into the Canadian border station and be greeted by guards wearing bullet proof vests who inspected our car full of potato chips and pespi!

Calais is the city on the US side of the border and St.Stephen is the Canadian counterpart.  Both are about the size of Penn Yan,  The two cities have been friends for a long time.  During the War of 1812, St. Stephen lent a supply of gunpowder to Calais so that both communities could enjoy Independence Day celebrations rather than engage in war.  Now that's my kind of thinking!!!  According to local lore, the chocolate bar is reputed to have been created in this town at the Ganong Bros. candy factory.  In 1906, this factory created the first heart-shaped Valentines Day candy box.  In fact, this weekend they were having a big chocolate festival.  But it was last afternoon when we passed through the area and we didn't have time to stop.

Our final destination for the night was St. John, New Brunswick and we arrived here about 6:30 after loosing an hour to a new time zone.  We checked into our room at the University of New Brunswick.  More about that tomorrow as it is getting late.  We headed to the waterfront for some Moosehead beer and seafood for dinner and are now headed to bed after a day of driving 391 miles.

Diane

Our First Day

We left Keuka Park this morning in the rain, almost as if the weather was mirroring some of our feelings!

 The thru-way took us to Albany (a route we have taken many times before) and then we headed cross-country through Vermont traveling past lovely towns including Bennington.  Our route took us into New Hampshire and we finally ended in Manchester at a Fairfield Inn.  Our total mileage was 370miles for the day.

The evening was young (we're retired, remember), so we decided to go to the movies.  Cowboys and Aliens opened tonight and we made it our selection.  I thought it would be a comedy.  Sort of a juxtaposition of the two genres.  However, it was a true science fiction movie and I found it sort of weird.

We head to St. John, New Brunswick tomorrow for our first stop in Canada.

Diane

It took us a while to get out of Penn Yan this morning, as we had to pack the car, and say some final good byes. Diane mentioned that the rain was symbolic that Penn Yan was crying to see us leave.

We then stopped in Syracuse at Charneys Tall Men's Shop to pick up some trousers I had bought and had altered.

The trip as far as Albany was uneventful, as I had driven that route many times before, as I went to Albany to meet with other New York private college presidents and then lobby the legislator in support of keeping state aid for students.

After Albany, we headed into some relatively new territory, as we drove North and East up Route 7 and then Route 9 and 101. We passed through Bennington, and this was the first time we had visited there. For the next few hours we drove East across the rugged mountains of both Vermont and then New Hampshire. Even though it rained on and off, we enjoyed the lush, green, rugged terrain of this exclusive, yet remote part of the Northeast.

We arrived in Manchester at about 5PM, so it was about 8 hours or so, including the stop in Syracuse. Gas cost us $3.69 a gallon in eastern and rural New Hampshire, which was about 6-7 cents cheaper than in the big cities (or in Penn Yan).

Throughout the trip we listened on NPR about the political battles and negotiations in Washington over the debt crisis, with 4 days remaining before time runs out. We talked a lot about how our political system had difficulty meeting this economic crisis, and speculating what would come next.

We also talked about our many friends and reflected on the years we were at Keuka College, and how the people we had met had greatly enriched our life. 

It was a great day for Diane and I to begin the next phase of our life!

Joe

We're almost on our way!

 We've packed our car, bought some Finger Lakes wine, and stopped one last time at Seneca Farms for ice cream!  We have many, many fond memories of our time at Keuka College.  We thank everyone of you who were part of our lives the past 14 years.

Our last official business, China, July 2011