Canada Day 1: July 31, 2010

We’ve only been on U.S. soil for 39 hours and we’re already on the road again en route to our sixth country in a week’s time, three on one side of the Atlantic and two on the other!  What a feat!  Laur and Chris arrived around 10:30pm last night, and after catching up, we turned our living room into a makeshift bedroom for them.  Woke up bright and early to pack the car, and by 8am we were at Dunkies and on our way.

The drive through Maine on 95 went fairly quickly…especially for me and Lauren since the guys did all the driving while we hung out in the back!  Not sure if it is the fact that we make part of the drive every weekend to ski, or that we had other people to talk to in the car, but the drive through Maine went pretty quickly.  Stopped at a scenic overlook for a view of Mt. Katahdin which ironically, the Cotters are climbing this weekend.  By 2pm we were at the Canadian border.  It was funny to have to stop, show passports, and answer questions to cross the border having driven straight through the lines in Europe.  Sadly, border security is much more of an issue here in North America.

The drive through New Brunswick was similar to Maine with endless pine tree lined highways.  We lost an hour entering Canada since we are now on Atlantic Time.  Stopped for food around 5pm and a picnic lunch in the classy parking lot of Sobeys supermarket.  We quickly remembered here why we never tried ordering deli meat in Europe.  Everything there, and here is measured in grams and kilograms instead of ounces and pounds so figuring out how much meat to order was a bit challenging, not to mention expensive.  Now we know!

Reached Prince Edward Island around 8:15pm when we crossed the Confederation Bridge, a 13.9km road connecting New Brunswick and PEI.  Driving over the bridge we caught some beautiful views of the island including the intriguing red cliffs east of where we are staying.  Stopped for some bridge and sunset pictures from St. Peter’s Church in Carleton before arriving at the Historic Maplethorpe B&B in Bedeque just before 9pm.  Diana, the owner, came right out to welcome us and show us our apartment above the garage.  Think we’re going to be wishing we had more time here already because the apartment is fantastic…minus the vicious mosquitoes getting in!  We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a living room.  Tested out the kitchen tonight by making spaghetti while discussing plans for the morning.  After nearly 12 hours in the car, we were all pretty exhausted so we headed to bed to prepare for a early morning.