Every year we usually take a surf trip to Costa Rica and photograph wildlife and do adventure tours for bird watching and surfing. This year we decided to do something different, especially since I fractured my Tibia and am still limping pretty much and have not yet healed up. We left early after dropping our chocolate lab Bosque off at Holly Ridge Manor doggie country club. What a terrific place for him to be. When viewing the images, you will click on the thumbnails and then have to use your back button to return to this page.
We took a very long time getting out of Va. and the traffic was just horrific all the way to Fredericksburgh, crawling bumper to bumper all the way and the heat was on, temperature wise. On the way up, we took route 17 and the scenic route from Breezewood to Pittsburgh on route 30. This is a gorgeous twisty and windy route that has rolling hills and mountain views and the SSR just loved those sharp turns. There were so many pretty houses, especially in Shanksville, where flight 93 during the 911 days went down. One of the buildings had a mural of old cars and portraits of President Lincoln since this road is known as "The Lincoln Highway"
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We got up very early and packed up the SSR and drove to Niagara Falls, Canada. If you ever want an incredibly scenic drive, this is one for you. The incredible views along the way made us feel that we were back in Nappa or Sonoma wine country. I had no idea New York had so many wineries. They were stretched along the road as far as the eye could see. After getting through wine country, we arrived in Buffalo and began to get very excited, especially as we went over this gigantic bridge that those with vertigo would be very much challenged at. I made the mistake of glancing down and whoa boy! That was a very high moment to say the least. Almost ran into the guard rail. I got my eyes back on the road where they belonged and we went over another beautiful blue bridge and into Canada. Upon going left from the bridge, we were awestruck with the view of the falls. It was just this huge in your face surreal view everywhere you looked. On the left of the beautifully landscaped road was the falls and on the right were these massive Casinos and hotels. One of the hotels has a high wire act twice a day done by a 63 year old man who does it to benefit the "Make a Wish" foundation and raises a lot of money for them. Driving around the falls is just a terrific experience in an SSR. Everyone's head was turning and checking out my paint job. Pretty cool. I guess they don't get black sport trucks with skulls on them every day around here. We pulled up into our palatial hotel, the Embassy Suites and what a site. This place has everything and we upgraded to the 30th floor with a spectacular view of the falls lights at night and the fireworks too!
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Once we got checked in, we slipped down the hill to the river front to check out the falls up close. Limping along, I was just amazed at the variety of people from every conceivable culture and all of us were pretty much amazed that God could create something this gorgeous and powerful. The views along the railing are insanely close and at one point, you can be just a couple of feet from the edge. I especially enjoyed the angle where obviously, Frederic Church took inspiration for his famous painting of this site. I felt like I had stepped back into the 19th century with the Hudson River School Artist at this point. Seeing the falls is certainly a wonderful natural phenomena, but for me, it appeared to be a religious experience as well. What a terrific way for Kris and I to spend our anniversary.
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The fireworks were just insane from our window last night. They have these huge lights that focus on the falls at night and they focused on the Horseshoe Falls first and illuminated it with red, yellow, white and blue lights. Later, the lights danced across the American Falls and lit it up with red, white and blue. Suddenly from our 30th story view, we saw the fireworks explode into the sky with a surreal hot air balloon in the background looking like a second moon. What a view they must have had.
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Today we had an awesome breakfast with the insanely gorgeous view of horseshoe falls and the American falls all from our breakfast table. I got a hold of Marc from the SSR Fanatic site and told him we would meet him later this afternoon.
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We took a beautiful drive along the river to Niagara On the Lake on River Road. The views along the way are astounding and landscaped with a myriad of flowers all in every color of the rainbow, but no tall buildings in site, just country homes, estates, and our favorite, WINERIES!!!! We had to zoom past them and get to our destination on the Jet Boat Tour. There are two types, open and closed, so we opted for the closed since we did not have a change of clothes (you get totally soaked on the other). The class six rapids were too cool for words and the boat did several 360 degree turns and ripped through the currents like a knife through butter. This thing looked like the Nautilus in 2000 Leagues Under the Sea. What a cool and fast boat (1500 horsepower). After the ride through the whirlpools, we bought a few pics from the guys that take them of you on the ride.
Next we stopped at a few wineries and I let Kris do the tasting and we got a few bottles. At one winery, we met up with a nice family and they had an old Chevy Truck that the SSR was based on and a 1962 Corvette. They had never sat in one so we took a few pics of them in it and will send them on to them.
Next we went up on the Skylon Needle Tower. This thing is like the Space Needle out west in Washington, but instead, it is here on the falls. The views from up there would give anyone with vertigo a hard time. You just can't take a bad picture from here.
After that we met Marc and his silver SSR at the Rainbow Bridge and cruised the road along the falls. We had a ball reving up the engines and taunting the crowd with our growls from our Chevy V8's. We also took some major illegal parking moments and got some insane views of the trucks at the falls while parked right on the street. We followed this up with a dinner at Planet Hollywood with huge portions in our salads!
Gonna take her easy tonight and work out in the gym, shower and see what tomorrow brings.
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We woke up early and headed for the American Falls. The nice thing is the falls on the American side are right next to the boarder and customs, so we breezed over there pretty quick. After following a path around a beautiful state park environment, we saw this constant rainbow and viewed the intense power of the falls from a very intimate viewpoint. We also viewed the falls from a platform above and experienced more vertigo like sensations. It was neat being able to see the falls from both countries and seeing the entire beautiful picture. We finally left around 10:30 AM for our journey to Bolton, Mass. to see Kris's brother and family.
After spending a few hours on the interstate, we realized this was not the view for us, so we ventured off the beaten path and took route 5/20 which paralleled the interstate. This turned out to be a good choice with country roads, rolling hills, and beautiful Victorian homes and towns along the way. We also went past each of the finger lakes which were dotted with hundreds of wineries all up and down their coast lines. After a few hours of that we got back on the interstate and eventually, the 6 hour trip to Bolton ended up taking 10 and a half hours but was worth it for all the nice views along the way.
We are off to Bar Harbor, Maine for our next adventure and hope to sample the lobster and king crab here. What a beautiful place to be! The roads were small with quaint towns and low speed limits and stunning views of the harbors and lakes. We pulled into the "Wonder View Inn" and immediately got out the gray folder with all our documentation and surprise, surprise, the little black wallet that had all of our vouchers and information was gone. I either forgot it at home or lost it on the way. After getting ahold of our agent, she faxed over new documents and vouchers for the ferry and the Inn for tonight. They will get our entire package together for us when we get to Nova Scotia on Thursday. What great travel agents we have!
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After cleaning up and taking a dip in the pool, we took off for town and what a town! The entire place is along the water with narrow winding streets dotted with victorian houses of all types and gift shops and lobster eateries everywhere! The entire town is perfectly restored and kept up and has a really nice all American home feel to it. We checked out several eateries after cruising the town in the SSR. Most of these folks had never seen one and we gave them quite a show. We found a great place to eat lobster dinner with clam chowder and blueberry pie for $20 per person. It was soooo good. After dinner we cruised down the road and back and called it a day.
We boarded the Cat Ferry for Nova Scotia this morning. What a site this was, with cars and trucks and RV's galore. Helped a guy in a new corvette clean all the bugs off his new vette with Zaino. The guys at the ferry really liked the SSR and had never seen one, so they parked me in a very special place, which was greatly appreciated, since they jam you in so tight. This ferry is state of the art, and comes equipped with engines that have 9500 Horsepower! Giddy up! It screamed across the water at 55mph and in three hours we were in Nova Scotia. The size of the rooster tail of whitewater behind the ferry was around 6-10 feet high and I was fantasizing about surfing that thing the whole time.
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I can't begin to describe the beauty of this country with all of the rocks and lighthouses and twisting roads. Everything is so naturalized and there are no large buildings anywhere. Everything exudes history with pristine, well kept victorian churches and homes. It took a bit over two hours to get to White Point from the ferry and the drive was scenic with vistas all along the way of the countryside.
We were quite a show pulling up at the resort and immediately, people were crawling all over the SSR to see what it was. After checking in I immediately ran down the hill and the site of these round boulders everywhere and perfect point break surf greeted me with sparkling glee! The waves were rather small in the knee high range but absolutely perfect. This place with real surf must be amazing. I spoke to one of the junior surf champs here and he gave me a heads up on the best local breaks which are just two points to the north so I plan on checking them out in the morning.
The facilities here are top notch, with a jacuzzi, indoor saltwater pool, fitness areas, game room, movie room and concert hall, and bar and restaurant. We ate a delicious meal with various seafood arranged with the style of an artist's pallet. One of the coolest things here are all of the wild, yet tame bunnies. There are hundreds of them everywhere in every color imaginable. You could see the children playing with them, and even giving them names like, "Princess".
Once again, we awoke to a beautiful day of calm surf and blue skies. After a fabulous breakfast we went to Liverpool and entered a lovely lighthouse there and met "the world's friendliest dog". We also went to Western Head where they held the "Red Bull Surf Contest" this year, but it was perfectly calm. We also took a side road of gravel and mud that narrowed into a little trail and then opened up onto a boulder strewn beach. The neatest thing about driving here so far is the complete absence of traffic. It just does not exist yet. Everywhere we have gone, automobiles are far and few between.
We took a paddle boat across one of the local lakes and had great fun looking at the landscapes and birds through the fog rolling across the black, yet clear water.
We wrapped up the day with a lobster dinner at the quarterdeck restaurant down the road. You pull your car right up to the ocean and this little cottage sits right on the water. It was so refreshing to hear the waves crashing under your feet while you dined on lobster and good local wines.
After leaving the restaurant, we went to the local bar and sang songs with the musician playing there. Everyone in the pub was singing along and laughing it up together. It felt like one big family with everyone joking each other, laughing, singing, and claping their hands. What great people!
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We awoke to a very cool fog this morning (which is normal for here) and had to put on jeans and jackets to keep warm. The rains also came so we decided to explore some of the fishing villages. We found one called "Little Harbor" that was completely deserted and we had it all to ourselves. It was so eerie seeing the fog rolling across the water, hearing the fog horns, and no one else in sight. The boats were brightly painted with whimsical names and were littered with crab and lobster traps.
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After doing our laundry later in the day, we saw a beautiful wedding on the beach with the men dressed in Kilts and the entire wedding party looking like a postcard on the white sand and boulder strewn beach with the carribean like turquoise water in the background. The water was especially clear and green today!
We then went on to dinner and had the buffet which was loaded with every kind of seafood imaginable. The planked salmon was especially good along with the local muscles and herring.
We awoke to a gorgeous sun filled morning and were enjoying breakfast when all of the sudden, the sky let loose with pelting hail and rain! Interestingly, our waitress said, "oh, there's going to be a rainbow!", instead of something negative like, "darn, it's raining." Fortunately the hail was small and did no damage. We checked out of the White Point Resort this morning and the first thing we encountered on our journey today was the town of Lunenburg, which had rolling green hills and huge sailing ships in the harbor and a coastline dotted with perfectly manicured victorian homes. Further down the road, we saw Mahone Bay, famous for its three churches in a row seen on many postcards.
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Next we saw the famous, Peggy's Cove and the memorial to Swiss Air Flight 111. The view from the hill with the rolling rocks and blue sea was staggering. Peggy's Cove was crawling with tourists but one can understand why with such beautiful sights like the lighthouse and the harbour with its majestic boating community.
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Entering Halifax was exciting, since it was full of high rise buildings, yet quaint, narrow streets along the water. It felt somewhat European in style. The next great sight was the town of Amherst, where just about every home was a Victorian Style of some type and perfectly done.
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Finally, we got to Lorneville, on the Northumberland Strait, and the Chat and Chew Bed and Breakfast. We enjoyed a great lobster dinner at a local restaurant and walked out onto the red sands of the shallow Northumberland Strait.
We left the Chat and Chew headed for Cape Breton. Approaching the Cabot trail, I have to admit, I was completely stunned at the panoramic views and vistas along the way. Before we even got there, we saw a black SSR on the Canso Causway and they waved back. The Highlands are appropriately named and Kris did most of the driving as I did the photography. The vertical roads and twisting turns made for an exciting journey along the way. I have never seen such stunning views from cliffs on a roadway, even on the California coast from Washington to San Diego, CA. We actually saw a moose along the side of the road in one area and later had lobster lunch on a cliff side cafe. Before lunch I watched seals surfing in the wave below. The size of the surf is amazing on this side of the gulf of the Saint Lawrence. The actual east coast of the cabot trail was rather calm in comparison.
When we got to the Ceilidh (kay lee) lodge, several of the elderly folks here remarked about my "American Revolution" decal and asked, "havn't you yanks already had one of those?" I tried to explain that it was a revolution within the automotive industry but they just went on about the "revolting americans".
Had a nice dinner along the lake at a local pub and called it a night.
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We left the aristocracy behind at the Ceilidh Lodge and drove the next 6-8 hours down the road to the Liscombe Lodge. The drive meandered around the coastline with some high cliff areas, but mostly coastal scenic fishing towns and winding roads. When we got to the Liscombe Lodge, the fog began to roll in and we were amazed at the facilities. The fitness area was state of the art with inground pool, two hot tubs and a sauna. This is by far the best place yet in terms of isolation and accomodations. You are nestled in along a river amongst fog enshrouded pines with pristine little cabins and lodge areas. Kris was quite pleased with the variety of birds in the area and our little lodge comes complete with a fireplace ready to go with fresh kindling, logs and newspaper. We had a fabulous lobster dinner and are now relaxing with a bottle of local wine and watching the birds and the roaring fire.
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Today we headed back to the White Point Beach Resort for the end of our journey. The day started out in deep fog and pretty much stayed that way the entire day. It took about four hours to get to white point and we did not see the sun once. I guess we have been pretty fortunate, because that is how it usually is up here in Nova Scotia. It was pretty much a white knckle experience on these winding roads.
The beach here looks surreal at White Point with the fog weaving in and out of the rocks and the small waves crashing upon them. We had a great lunch of seafood chowder and fresh muscles in a spicy clamato sauce. I have never really cared much for muscles until I tasted these here. What a difference freshness makes in some kinds of seafood. We relaxed on the beach wrapped up in our jackets and blankets and listened to the waves crash ashore. It is so hard to believe that this is the end of July, since we are experiencing such cool temperatures.
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The journey has come to an end and we are headed for the Cat Ferry and on to Bolton, Mass. to spend the night with Kris's Brother, Greg and his wife Sandy. After that, we will drive home on the 29th.
This has been a very long ride back today, 12-15 hours total. The drive through NJ and Deleware was the worst but it was so nice to get back to the bay bridge tunnel and home. I think I can honestly say I got a lot of desire to drive out of my system. We sure had a terrific adventure and learned so much from so many others along the way. I hope you have all enjoyed our journey as much as we have. Take care, and we will see you on the road to adventure!
