Eastern Canada Does Not Disappoint!

We entered Canada at Sault St. Marie ten days ago and were put under the country’s spell immediately. We slowed down, I haven’t painted or written in the blog until now.

The night before we crossed the border, we thought we should read once again the regulations on what can be brought over the border. We had fixated on alcohol, but hadn’t paid much attention to other items. We were shocked to read we couldn’t bring in chicken - we were mildly surprised on all fresh fruits and vegetables. We went into problem solving mode and within minutes, pulled out our little Instant Pot and crammed it full of chicken breasts. Then Gary made a monster pot of vegetable soup, using every vegetable we had in the fridge. We ended up with two gallons of soup and 4 pounds of shredded chicken that we stuffed into the fridge. We were ready for the crossing.

The next morning we got up early as usual (by that time we were in Eastern time zone) and headed across the bridge to the border. A nice young man asked Gary three questions: "Do you have firearms?"

"No."

"Do you have alcohol?"

"Yes, we have one beer, one half full bottle of wine, one.." The gentleman stopped Gary. "Is this just your personal alcohol?" 

"Yes," answered Gary.

"What is the purpose of your trip?" 

Gary smiled and said, "To follow the path my parents took several years ago with their RV."

"Well have a great time in Canada."

And that was it. I was prepared to show him soup, chicken, rabies paperwork for the dogs, and anything else he might ask for and all he said was to have a great time. A bit anticlimactic but welcomed! 

From there we followed the hatch of mosquitoes, finding the best spots where they were fruitful and multiplied.That first evening, we had no WiFi reception, but I could send and receive texts. I asked friend Tammie Schrader to do some reconnaissance for us, figuring out a good place to stay near Ottowa and giving a list of must see places. She was perfect for the job, sending me text after text with address for RV campground and a list of things we had to see. 

We pulled in to the Ottawa Municipal acampground, now named the Wesley Clark campground, and found a great site. This is where we became intrigued with the black squirrels. They were five squirrels that decided taunting the dogs was their new sport. I also got a quick lesson on what poison ivy looks like. Yuck!!!Years ago a fellow traveler gave us the best advice when getting to a large city. She suggested each time to start with a hop on hop off bus to get an overview of the city. It has proved to be sage advice and worked well in Ottawa. We bought the two-day pass and rode the entire route to see where we wanted to stop the next day. The National Museum has a large banner on the front: Impressionist Treasurers Exhibit opening this week! I marked that as one of our must stops.

The museum exhibit was amazing. We spent several hours there, until we had to go or miss our bus. This is also the day on the bus, when we passed by the US Embassy, there was a chorus of boo’s....made us sad. I felt like an outsider for the very first time ever being in Canada. However individuals we have met over this last week are still as kind and rational as they have always been. 

From Ottawa we decided to pass Quebec City, where the G-7 conference was being held, and had a long driving day along the St. Lawrence River, stopping at a small campground that also was next to a restaurant, right on the river.   We do not eat out often, preferring to cook our own meals, but fresh lobster and snow crab salad was something we couldn’t resist.

The only thing that is hard in the province of Quebec is that only French is spoken, written, and on signage. Brian and Denice Ross reminded me to not use the tactic I used in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small French speaking Swiss city where Denice’s Dubois relatives haled from, when I spoke loudly first in English,then louder  in German. Neither worked.  This time we just used our phones to ask Siri for a translation for the item - worked much better than shouting. What I did like about the Québec province, besides being so picturesque, was the stunning churches that signaled a little town- you could see the steeple in the horizon well before you knew there was a village. 

We were happy to arrive in New Brunswick, where signs were in English and people didn’t seem so uppitty- they probably weren’t but how could I know?

Both nights in New Brunswick were spent on the river beach, where we heard shopping vessels blowing their deep long foghorn blasts throughout the night. At one point a blast of the horn was so loud it woke us both up with a start at about 2 am. We sat in the front seats for awhile, gazing out at the dark water punctuated by the outlines of huge container ships, lit up like moving Christmas trees.

For the last three days, we have been camped on Prince Edward Island, our furthermost Eastern destination. We have had a much needed stay, getting in long walks, painting on the beach, washing clothes, and collecting agates. Tomorrow we head for Fundy National Park, The home of some of the largest tide fluctuations in the world. Stay tuned!