Our PEI Road-trip blog posts can be found here.
PEI2012 Trip Summary
Number of days on the road: 20
Number of digital photos taken: 1,865
Number of kilometres driven: 6,688
Most kilometres driven in one day: 917
Number of relatives visited: 0
Number of ferries taken: 4
Number of provinces visited: 4
Number of states visited: 3
Price of most expensive gas: $1.350/litre in Sydney, Nova Scotia
Price of cheapest gas: $3.729/gallon USD ($1.004/litre CAD) in Bangor, Maine
Price of gasoline for trip: $658.86
Number of lobsters consumed (family): 14
Taking the girls to PEI to beachcomb for sea glass and eating lobster: Priceless
Day 20: Heading Home
After 19 days on the road we were heading home, here are the girls watching movies on their iPods.
Our drive today took us up through New Hampshire, across Vermont, into New York State and back into Ontario. This is somewhere on Lake Champlain.
Near Rouse’s Point, NY.
Welcome to New York.
We could see the border, but we were not going through Montreal, instead we crossed at Ogdensburg, NY which leads to Johnstown, ON. It spits you out onto the 401 near the 416 highway to Ottawa.
One final stop at the Big Apple in Colborne, ON.
Unfortunately, all their porducts are labelled “May contain…”.
The main reason for stopping was to add another photo to our “Big Things” collection.
This has to be one of the few things that is still free. You can climb up inside the apple to an observation deck, to see the 401.
One last goofy photo.
When we pulled into G-ma and G-pa’s driveway, Chloe was excited to see us back, here she is running back and forth to each of us.
Here are the girls on day 3 of our trip, the photo I took on day 1 was blurry, so we had to do a re-take.
Here is the back of the car after we pulled into our driveway. Since we stopped to pick up Chloe on our way home, we had to squeeze all her stuff in the car as well, so even if the girls were in the back seat, there was no way we’d see them.
Our drive today, we left Manchester, NH at 7:18 am, crossed the border at 2:39 pm and pulled into G-ma and G-pa’s driveway at 6:00 pm. We had a great supper and visit before loading up one more time for the final leg. I’ll post the trip summary once I crunch some of the numbers. Thanks for following along on our road trip to PEI, hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Day 19: Recharge Day
Today was a rest day to recharge our batteries before heading home Saturday morning. We did some shopping, taking advantage of the no sales tax in New Hampshire. The first stop was the Hobby Lobby, it is kind of like a Michaels.
From there it was over to the Mall of New Hampshire which is pretty close to our hotel. Here is Gillian sitting with Ernie and Bert.
It is a long driving day tomorrow to Scarborough to pick up Chloe before heading home.
Day 18: Bautista and Lind
One of the things I checked when we first talked about going out east and coming back through the States was the New Hampshire Fisher Cats home schedule. They are the Double A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. They were starting a home stand just as we would be arriving in town. I ordered the tickets on-line back in July, just happy that we would see the stadium and the game. Here I am holding my ticket in front of the box office.
Part of the stadium opens at 5:00 pm, the seats and concessions didn’t open until 5:30 pm, so we had a 20 minute wait. The stadium is in downtown Manchester and sits on the Merrimack River, but unfortunately there is no view of the river from the stadium.
Our seats were second row behind the Fisher Cats dugout. The cost of each ticket was $12.00. Note the hotel in the background, just like in Toronto you could rent a room at the Hilton Garden Inn hotel and watch the game from your room.
As I went in search of a beer, I took a photo of the girls sitting in our seats above the dugout.
The girls looking forward to the game.
Earlier in the week I read that Jose Bautista would be doing a rehab stint in Dunedin, I mentioned to the girls that it was too bad they didn’t send him to the double A team, we could have seen him play. Well on Wednesday night, there were reports on the internet that both Jose Bautista and Adam Lind would be playing in Manchester on Thursday night. It was almost to good to be true. Once we got to the ballpark we waited for the players to come out and sure enough out trots Bautista and Lind. Here he is doing some pre-game stretches.
Lind was wearing number 14 and Bautista had on number 24.
Adam Lind looking like he is in a good mood. He played for the Fisher Casts in 2006 and was the Eastern League MVP. Notice he is wearing his Blue Jays pants with the double blue stripe.
We still couldn’t get over that Jose Bautista was playing. He led off the game for the Fisher Cats.
For the first inning there was a “bat dog”, after each player was up “Ollie” the dog would run out and pick up the bat and bring it back to the dugout.
Claudia and Angela eventually moved down a row to sit directly behind the dugout.
Notice Jose is wearing his Toronto Blue Jays batting helmet.
Half way through the game I went for some clam chowder from the Chowdah House.
Here is the starting line-ups for the game. The Rock Cats are the Double A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.
We were trailing 4-0 early on, but in the fourth inning, with one run in and the bases loaded, Jose came up to bat.
The next six photos show Jose swinging and then watching his shot go off of the hotel. His grand slam put the Fisher Cats up 5-4.
In the fifth inning with the game tied 5-5, the Fisher Cats went back to back to back with solo home runs. Here is Brad Glenn crossing the plate.
Followed by Ryan Goins.
And finally Ryan Schimpf.
Jose looking for the camera.
Adam Lind walking back after one of his 3 strikeouts.
The catcher was coming back to the dugout after a third out strikeout, I waved to him for the ball, as he got close he tossed it up to me. I think it was my Fisher Cat ball cap that I had just purchased that helped. Here is Claudia with the ball.
Here is the catcher Brian Jeroloman who tossed me the ball.
Bautista didn’t have much action in right field for most of the game.
In the eighth inning, Bautista went deep again to make the score 9-6.
The announced crowd was 5,385.
After the game there was a fireworks show.
It was quite good, better than I had expected.
The final box score for the game. It was a great game and we all enjoyed ourselves.
Day 18: Old Orchard Beach
Day 18 was a short driving day from Freeport, Maine to Manchester, New Hampshire. It allowed us to stop at one more beach for this vacation. We headed for Old Orchard Beach near Scarborough, ME. We got there around 9:30 am and it was already filling up.
Still lots of real estate to choose from.
We chose the strip of beach that is right in the heart of town near the pier.
There is an amusement park on the beach.
Claudia getting use to the water.
The girls jumping the waves.
A guy looking for treasures.
Digging around on the beach.
Back in the water.
The girls catching a wave.
Claudia could catch the odd wave that she could ride pretty far.
The sand around us was filling up.
It was packed when we left.
It is a pretty hopping town, probably jammed on the weekends.
Our driving route for Day 18. $3.75 in tolls on the Maine Turnpike.
Off to the ballpark to watch the New Hampshire Fisher Cats take on the New Britain Rock Cats.
Day 17: Maine and the Big Boot
With only a few days remaining on the PEI2012 road trip, we were finishing up in the Maritimes and heading to the US. Before we hit the road this morning we visited Magnetic Hill. The entire area has changed from 36 years ago when I went there as a kid.
The place is like an attraction park.
Nearby is the Magnetic Hill Concert Site, they were setting up for the Bruce Springsteen concert being held there this Sunday with Tom Cochrane and Red Ryder. There were still tickets available, as well as hotel rooms.
We crossed the border around 11:00 am, and had about a 20 minute wait. Here is Angela posing with a barrel. Read the sign, it says “For your Good Health Barrel Picking is Prohibited”.
We stopped in Bangor, Maine for gas and drove by Stephen King’s house.
Our stop for the evening is Freeport, Maine. The two bellhops taking our bags to the room.
Freeport is the home of L.L. Bean, the main downtown is like a L.L. Bean Campus. There is the flagship store, a bike & boat store, hunting & fishing store and a home store. We only went into the flagship store and we were getting lost. Outside the store is a big “Bean” boot.
Inside there are animals and other displays.
They have a fish tank near the front with trout in the tank. There is an observation bubble for little kids.
And not so little kids.
Here is Claudia and Angela getting stepped on by the boot.
Gillian and Susan watching us stage the photo.
Once again we had a great day of weather.
For dinner we headed down to the marina in South Freeport.
It was time for lobster again, so I googled “lobster dinner in Freeport” and the Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster came back as one of the Top 10 Lobster Shacks in Maine from TravelandLeisure.com.
To order lobster follow the signs on the ground.
Order at the window on the right, pick it up at the window on the left.
But first decide on what to have. Susan and I went for the Lobster Delight, a 1 lb lobster, a corn on the cob and 12 steamed clams for $22.95. The girls had fried shrimp and scallop baskets. They don’t serve alcohol, but if you wanted, you can bring your own bottle of wine or beer.
Here is the lobster delight. It was delicious.
A couple of more photos of the marina.
Our drive took us from Moncton, NB to Freeport, ME, it took about 7.5 hours with stops.
Freeport, Maine.
Day 16: Don’t Mess With Tides
At Cape Enrage we saw the importance of reading and heeding the times on the signs. At the top of the stairs going down to the beach, it clearly tells you to avoid being trapped you should be back at the stairs by 1:45 pm.
The girls and I went down at about 1:40 pm but we weren’t straying far from the stairs. They go down 30m to the ocean floor. In this photo you can still see a bunch of people almost in the centre of the photo at the bottom.
In the photo below you can see a guy with a red shirt coming back towards the stairs. Where he is is the narrowest part and where the tide will hit the cliff first.
The video below shows some people trying to avoid getting wet, two people get over and then the guy stops to help the other couple. At the 19 second point you see two kids and a mother come running into the frame. The boy slips on the wet rocks and if the guy didn’t have his arm, he would be in the water. In the end the mother gets two soakers as she gets across.
Day 16: Fundy Coastal Drive
Today we were doing the Fundy Coastal Drive, with stops at Hopewell Rocks, Alma, Cape Enrage and finally Hopewell Rocks again. Angela where are we going today?
Low tide was at 9:32 am this morning, so we were able to walk on the ocean floor. The people closest to the bottom of the photo are the girls.
Looking over the mudflats.
Going early meant less people around.
Gillian taking a picture of Angela.
An older couple asked me to take a photo of her and her husband, afterwards she offered to take one of us, so here we are at Hopewell Rocks.
The flowerpots are just like I remembered them as a kid.
They have most of the caves roped off for safety.
The mud is smooth and sticky, just ask the girls.
Not knowing that they had hoses at the top to wash off your feet, the girls were trying to clean their feet on the seas sacs.
Under the piles of seas acs are rocks.
Note Angela’s muddy feet.
Washing off the mud. We would have to come back in a few hours to view the Hopewell Rocks at high tide.
From Hopewell Rocks we headed to the town of Alma. The tide was out and it gave a good example of the vertical tides as well. I was looking forward to seeing these.
The Salmon River.
We had lunch at the Harbourview Restaurant, when we came out we took a walk back to the wharf and the tide was starting to come back in. We didn’t have time to stay long enough to see the tide come right up.
From the Village of Alma we drove to Cape Enrage to see one of the oldest lighthouses in New Brunswick. This one was built in 1870, it replaced the original built in 1840.
Claudia put a loonie in to take in the view.
You could walk down to the beach, but there wasn’t much time as the tide was coming in.
The inukshuk Gillian built.
Skipping stones at Barn Marsh Island beach.
Gillian sitting atop the shingle bar beach.
We got back to Hopewell Rocks for the peak of high tide at 3:22 pm. The tide was 44 feet today, it was rising at a rate of 12″ every 7 minutes.
Low Tide…
High tide…
The girls taking a break.
The girls at the bottom of the stairs, note the closed sign strung across behind them.
We thought we saw Uncle Danny at the Hopewell Rocks listening to one of the guides.
This one is Diamond Rock.
Day 15: Halifax and Giant Lobster
Day 15 and we were headed to Halifax before ending the day in Moncton. We parked at the ferry terminal in Dartmouth and took the passenger ferry across the harbour. It was cloudy and overcast, but no rain. A view of the Angus MacDonald bridge.
Claudia and Gillian on the ferry. The ferry is part of the Metro Halifax Transit system.
Pulling into Halifax.
We walked the Historic Properties.
They are saving the building facades on this building, so all that is standing is the walls while they work around it.
There has been some discussion in the news about how much the federal government has spent on the War of 1812 anniversary hype. Especially in light of all the recent cuts at Parks Canada.
The skies were still a little gloomy.
Angela and a buddy.
Gillian and her friend.
We did the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. In honour of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titantic, there were extra Titanic focused exhibits. Most notably was how the Cable Ships of Halifax helped in the body recovery in the days afterwards.
A pair of shoes from one of the young victims. Most items were burned to avoid people trying to scavenge souvenirs, but the one police officer couldn’t bear to throw these in the fire, so he kept them in his desk drawer until he retired and then it got passed down through the family, eventually ending up at the museum.
There was a Swan on board the RMS Titanic who did not survive.
An interesting piece, Ideal the board game company released a game called The Sinking of the Titanic, you had to move around the board picking up survivors. After some outcry, the board game was removed from store shelves, and re-released as Abandon Ship. You can still pick up the original on eBay for $10.00 + shipping.
Angela getting attacked by an octopus.
Part of the admission fee allowed you to go on the CSS Acadia that is docked.
Thomas the tugboat out in the harbour.
The CSS Acadia bell.
The girls steering the ship.
You could climb up and down the decks.
Angela relaxing on board the Titanic.
He she is in the grand foyer.
Taking the MacDonald bridge up to the 102 and Moncton.
We headed to Shediac for dinner, not lobster dinner, but we would see the world’s largest lobster.
The girls with the lobster fisherman.
Claudia helping Angela and Gillian escape from the giant claw.
Some of the tourist shops at the lobster.
Lobsterheads.
