Author: marionvermazen

As we continue our Summer 2012 rod trip Duke and I have stayed in one place for four nights! After moving to a new place almost every night for four weeks staying in one place would have been a nice change but staying at our cabin on Lake Nipissing has been idyllic. I say our cabin which is not strictly true.

Last Wednesday we left Ottawa knowing that we wanted to find a place to fish. We didn't have a destination but decided to explore a left turn off the trans canada highway. It was raining pretty hard. We checked out a couple of places but didn't find anything we liked. As we continued down the road I saw a place with freshly painted cabins. Duke did a u-turn and we checked them out. The place in called Lakair Lodge. The lady at the counter was very friendly and showed us a spotlessly clean two bedroom cabin right on the lake. We took it.

Above is our cabin and below is the view out our front door.

We woke up the next day. and went fishing. Lakair rented us a wooden boat and a motor and loaned us a map, net, and life jackets. We caught a few fish but only kept this one for dinner.

This is Duke's biggest fish that first day.

We packed a picnic lunch and found a sunny point to enjoy our lunch and relax.

Day two was overcast with a prediction of rain. The morning turned out to be great fishing weather. We caught and kept four fish. Duke caught a monster northern pike. It turned out to be by far the biggest fish of the trip.

I caught a clam!

In the afternoon it started to rain and we headed back to the cabin to nap, read and play cribbage.

The wind was really blowing and a large branch came down from a tree in front of our cabin.

On day three it was still raining but the wind had gone down. Instead of going out in the motor boat we rented a canoe and explored some inlets. We caught a few small fish but we already had enough big fish to eat for dinner so we didn't keep any of them.

 We left lake Nipissing this morning. I loved Lakair Lodge. Check out their website here..

Today Duke and I started week four of our six week 2012 road trip.

Sunday we drove along the St Lawrence River from Quebec to Montreal.

Monday we walked all over Montreal.

We bought a one day Metro pass and went out to the Olympic Park. the Olympics were in Montreal in 1976. That was the year of Nadia Comaneci. Remember her? I had forgotten, but building the Olympic stadium cost over twice what it was originally projected to cost. Montreal just finished paying it all off in 2006.

 The swimming pavilion was pretty amazing. It has 6 pools. In this picture you can see the olympic swimming pool, the diving pool and the raised part is the synchronized swimming pool where we saw the Canadian Olympic team practising. The coaches can watch the swimmers under water through the glass sides.

This is the olympic stadium. it didn't have a roof when the olypics were here but now the roof is held up by an enormous tower.

A funicular goes up the right hand side in this picture and we rode it to the top for  a view of all of Montreal.

We left Montreal on Tuesday morning and drove to Ottawa. We toured te parliament building and even got too watch a speech in the House of Commons

This morning we left Ottawa and drove west. Tonight we are in a fishing cabin on Lake Nipissing. We are going to go fishing for three days. There is no cell phone coverage here but we do have wireless internet in our cabin. Isn't technology amazing! Our view out our front window is very peaceful and beautiful.

We spent Friday and Saturday nights in Quebec City. Friday we drove from Grand Falls (Grand-Sault) into Quebec and then southwest along the St Lawrence Sea Way. There were lots of dairy farms and houses that all looked freshly painted. They were white with colorful red or green or blue trim and then an occasional blue one with yellow trim or some other happy combination. Lots of bright red tin roofs too.

Along the water there were great picnic spots every few miles but when we found this one we had to stop and use it!

French is very definitely the language of Quebec. The only people we heard speaking English were tourists. and unlike in the rest of Canada where the signs are in French and English, in Quebec they are only in French. I used Bonjour and Merci a lot but beyond that I had to switch to English. People are very friendly and helpful.

We stayed in a wonderful hotel ( Hotel Pur) that Duke got on Priceline for around $100 a night. The halls are all black and the room numbers are painted on the doors in foot tall orange numbers. When we walked into our room I had to take a picture.

We walked and walked and walked all  over the city exploring the fortress, the old city, the narrow streets and the parks. A while ago I read David Hackett Fisher's book Champlain's Dream and it was fun to see the city Champlain founded in 1608.

We talked to the organist in this Presbyterian Church which is the oldest in Quebec. He explained that the Church was founded by the Scottish Regiment who defended Quebec from the Colonists.

Quebec City has been wonderful now we are on to Montreal.

 We spent three nights on Prince Edward Island. The first two were in the Capital, Charlottetown and the last was in a B&B in Kensington.

While we were browsing in Charlottetown we talked to a shop owner who told us a cruise ship was coming in the next day. Apparently they get about 35 cruise ships a year. Before we left Charlottetown on Wednesday morning we drove by the wharf where we had dinner our first night. As you can see the cruise ship dwarfs the restaurant.

We drove west on the Island to the towns of Hunter River and Hazel Grove. The plots marked "Heirs of E.C, Bagnall" in Hazel Grove on the map below would have been where my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother lived before they moved west with their family.

 My Great Great grand parents are buried in this cemetery.

 Prince Edward Island is verdant green with startlingly red soil.

And of course it is the setting for the book Anne of Green Gables.

A lot of the restaurants and sites weren't open yet. They only open during the tourist season of July and August. We had a hard time finding a resaurant that was open for us to have dinner Wednesday night but finally found one and had a great dinner. We saw a couple of foxes as we were searching.

On Thursday morning we left Prince Edward island and headed west. We spent Thursday night in Grand Falls (Grand-Sault). The falls in the middle of town were Niagra like. During the summer you can zip line right over the gorge!

We spent the night in a lodge a few miles outside of town. We were able to take a hike around the lake. Unfortunately their German restaurant wasn't open yet.

Friday morning we left the Province of New Brunswick and headed into Quebec.

As I write this on Wednesday morning, May 23 we are starting week three of our road trip. We spent last Saturday night in Bucksport, Maine, just south of Bangor. Bucksport is at the mouth of the Penobscot River.

We had our best restaurant meal of the trip so far right across the street from our hotel. Duke had steak and lobster and I had giant scallops. Mmmmmmmm.

Before this trip I had never heard of Fiddleheads. They are a local delicacy, the curled tops of ferns, and are only available in the spring. I really want to taste them  I thought I was going to in Bucksport. They were the vegetable of the day and the waitress said they only had one order left. But by the time she put my order in they were sold out for the night.

We crossed the border into Canada at Vanceboro, Maine. We must look harmless because the Canadian border patrol guy let us through after just a couple of questions. He didn't even ask us our names or look at our passports.

We spent Sunday night in Fredericton,  the capital of New Brunswick. The weather the last few days has been fantastic. As we wandered around Fredericton on Sunday the temperature was 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

From Fredericton we drove down along the Bay of Fundy. We were in St John as the tide was turning. We saw the eddies in the water as the water was changing its direction of flow.

The last few days we have seen millions of dandelions. The fields are yellow with them.

The Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island opened in 1996. It is 13 kilometers long. The toll of $44.25 is only collected as you leave the island.

My Grandmother Marion Bagnall Gibson was born on Prince Edward Island and I have always wanted to visit here. We spent our first two nights here in Charlottetown, the capital. We are staying in a B&B and have been able to walk everywhere. The first night we had lobster and PEI mussels on the wharf. They were great!

Tuesday morning we did some research in the provincial archives which are on the top floor of this building. We located exactly where my Grandmothers family lived and where some of the family is buried. We also found out more about the original Samuel Bagnall who came to Philadelphia from England. He was a loyalist and ended up here in Prince Edward Island after the revolution.

 Today we are headed out to explore the countryside.