Hopewell Rocks

Today we took a two hour kayak trip at Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy.  This is a place where people come to walk on the bay floor at low tide to see the rock formations called "flower pots."  At high tide all that is visible is the tops of the rocks and the trees.  The formations are called flower pots.

We went with a guided tour that started after low tide and we were able to experience the rising tide and kayak among the flower pots.  Our kayak had a rudder which the person in the back was supposed to control, but Joe's legs were too long and he couldn't control the rudder.  So, we were rudderless and he had to control the kayak like a canoe from the back and I had to provide most of the energy for our forward motion!  Along with the experience of being on the water, we heard local history, both human and natural.

After our time on the bay, we headed north to the town of Moncton and are staying at the Universite de Moncton.  This university is the designated French speaking college of the province.  I promised earlier that I would explain about staying in college dorms.  What motivated us to think about this was the expense of paying for 30 days of hotel rooms!  I knew that Keuka rented rooms in the summer, so I figured that other colleges must do the same.  Come to find out, the Maritime Provinces have a brochure about staying inexpensively at colleges in all of the provinces.

Our first two nights were at the U of New Brunswick at St.John.  Our accommodations   were a dorm room with a double bed, a sink and a bath across the hall.  Pretty typical.  I just pretended that we were in Paris on the Left Bank at a small pensione!!!  There was no air-conditioning but the nights are cool here, so that was not a problem.  Internet access is through a modem and there is no TV.  The best part, however, was the price--$114 for two nights!  Our dorm had the name of Sir James Dunn and although I didn't feel like I was staying the castle of a knight, I still slept well.

Our room tonight is actually a suite.  We have a small common area with a refrigerator and a microwave and TWO bedrooms.  So if we get tired of each other, we can sleep by ourselves for the night!  We also have an "ensuite" bathroom.  But we had to pay for all of this luxury--$84 for the night.
One of the perks of staying in a college dorm is the laundry down the hall.  We scrounged for Canadian quarters and were rewarded with clean clothes.

When we were at dinner tonight our waitress told us that the weekend had been very busy because U2 had performed a concert in Moncton on Saturday night and 75,000 people came.  Some restaurants even ran out of food.  I guess it was like their 21st century Woodstock!

Tomorrow we head to Nova Scotia!

Diane

As Diane has written the last two posts, I decided that I had better write something, as proof that there are two of us on this trip.

Let me go back two days to tell a few stories and provide a few impressions.

At the border crossing from Maine to Canada, when they told us that we had been randomly selected for a car check, Diane began to worry. She had brought with her two bottles of wine. (You all know that Diane does not travel anywhere without wine.) Well as the boarder crossing guard - a women - walked out to our car, Diane had visions of jail time in her head, as she had said to the original guard that we had no alcohol in the car.  Our Burke luck held, however, as the lady barely even looked in the car. She just asked me to open one suitcase, and be done with it. She was almost apologetic for bothering us. So-we made it, and Diane is breathing easier.

We have been impressed with the absence of people from the U.S. up here in Canada. All the tourist books had told us to expect a lot of US visitors, and it might be hard to find vacancies, etc. Actually the raods are almost empty, and we see very few cars with US licence plates. Maybe its the economy.

We are also impressed with the cleanliness of the country, and the friendliness of the people. I am amazed that everyone here looks like my own relatives. The reason is that there is a large percentage of the population here who are of Scottish and Irish descent. When we went to Mass on Sunday, everyone looked like my relative, and when they announced who to pray for they all had Irish names.

Another impression is how little we in the US know about Canada and Canadians. We know they play hockey pretty well, they play Canadian football, and we know a few of their major cities, like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. But besides that we are pretty ignorant about their government, their foreign policy, their differences from their US neighbors to the south, etc.

We are enjoying learning about their history, their culture, and what it means to be a Canadian.

Tomorrow it is off to Halifax and Nova Scotia. Stay tuned!

Joe