Canada Day 8: August 7, 2010

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Packed up our campsite by 8:30am today and drove out of the park to the cute town of Alma.  Picked up some sticky buns, bread, and donuts at Kelly’s, the only bakery in town and took the scenic route 915 towards Hopewell Rocks.  Stopped to eat breakfast at a scenic spot on the Bay and drove past farms and a doe before arriving at Hopewell Rocks around 11am.  Our pass from yesterday was still good today so we could see the change in tides at the Bay.  We were about an hour past high tide, but the water was still many feet deep at the Flowerpot Rocks where we walked yesterday.  In fact, if we didn’t know any better, we would never have been able to tell that you could walk where we were.   It was neat!

Next, it was time to start our drive home.  Followed the 114 back through Fundy National Park before jumping on the highway.  Made a quick stop in St. Stephen’s to check out Chocolatetown Canada.  Definitely no where near as cool as Hershey.  In fact, the factory and chocolates were ridiculously expensive so we didn’t do the tour, and the Pal-o-Mine candy bar invented by the Ganong family was a terrible tasting version of a Reese’s PB cup.  We missed the town parade and after taking a quick stroll past some bad karaoke and some sketchy shops, we crossed the US-Canada border at the end of town to Calais, Maine.  The International Festival was being held here today to celebrate the friendship between the Americans and Canadians in these border communities.  The street was closed to traffic so vendors could set up shop to sell all of America’s fattiest foods.  We ate some steak and cheese subs that sat like a brick in our stomachs, did some people watching, and I got some great buys at the used book sale (and managed to knock over a shelf) before we got back on the road.

Took the back roads on Rt. 9 through small town Maine until we hit 95 all the way home.  Arrived back in Quincy at 9:45pm.  Although it’s good to be home, I’m sad that our 6 weeks of vacation are over.  It’s crazy how many amazing places we’ve been to this summer. Our travels were the much needed break we needed from QCY and really from reality!  This past week with the Riveras was lots of fun, and definitely the most time we’ve all spent together since Bucknell.  It was just like old times.  Only bummer is that they live far away.  We will however have great memories of our Canadian roadtrip for a long time to come.