DAY SIX: WE LAYED ON THE BEACH WATCHING THE TIDE

Five Islands Lighthouse; Economy, Nova Scotia.Mark and Glo practicing their rock-skipping skills ... again.

I'm not sure I can do justice to the area we drove on this day.... The weather was warm, maybe a little muggy. We came off of Prince Edward Island and back into New Brunswick, picked up a proper map at the Visitor Center and headed into (or is that on to) Nova Scotia. We wound our way around some back highways with only a few bad turns. Canada, as with Maine, is not big on signage. We would be driving along, lazily watching for a turn off, then realize we had somehow gone too far. We had the GPS with us but, since her charging dock was permanently mounted in Mark's truck, we used her only when necessary to save the battery. We started calling her Victoria after Gloria switched the GPS language to British. She was only of marginal help and would really piss us off when she would be directing us along, we'd turn where we thought we were supposed to, she would pause and in her snippy British tone ....."recalculating".... dammit! We did manage to find our way to the coast and, while eating lunch spotted a sign to a lighthouse so drove out to find yet another tiny navigational lighthouse, one of many we found along the coast. Not fabulous towers but tiny little workhorses, utilized for years by local fisherman. We continued along that coastline, deciding to get as far as we could that night in order to have a more leisurely drive into Yarmouth for the ferry on Saturday. We pulled into tiny Digby late, around ten, and had to make due with a tragically outdated little motel room for the night. Wood-paneling and Herculon furniture - does that conjure up an image for you? Not our favorite night but was marginally better than sleeping in the car. Barely.

DAY FIVE: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun-dy

We headed around the Bay of Fundy, still on the New Brunswick side. It's so hard to explain what is so interesting up here since we witness tidal changes daily on Humboldt Bay. Due to the location of the Bay of Fundy, the moon and the general shape of the bay, the funneling affect makes for tides that are HUGE (25 feet or more) as well as quick (that 25 foot change in 6 hours.) Normally a picture of a cove at low tide, mud flats exposed, would be simply unattractive. But to see half the bay exposed, with boats laying on their sides, knowing that in a few hours, they will be afloat is interesting if not exactly attractive. The Hopewell Rocks flowerpots, are formed by the large and constant tidal flows. We were allowed down to the sand three hours before and three hours after the low tide then a crew was sent down to fetch errant tourists who might be caught in the tide as it flowed in. The beach itself was icky.... smooshy red mud that liked to suck the shoes right off your feet and the rocks were nothing you'd want to collect. Photos taken by others showed kayakers in this cove, paddling near the "hips" of these rocks. Unfortunately, we were not there for the high tide. This time of the year, the highs were falling either in the wee-dark hours or into the dark evening so we mostly only caught the "slack" tides in the middle.

We checked the map on the way north and realized we were awfully close to Prince Edward Island, home of Anne of Green Gables. This is the 100th anniversary year of the story's publication but we really didn't have a schedule that would permit a lengthy stay on the north side of the island. Mark, however, wanted to cross the Confederation Bridge to PEI; nothing my Mark loves more than an 8-mile drive over water, yes siree. He saw this story on Modern Marvels, you see. So we found a brewery (always a goal) and had dinner and spent the night on the Island, just to say we did. In the morning, I asked around about a good beach and was directed to several but none were MY idea of a nice beach. Red sand (looks a lot like decomposed granite) with a smattering of mussel shells. I'm fairly certain there are nice beaches on the north side but that will have to wait for a later trip. The Island's red soil, plowed for crops, was distinctive against the backdrop of Northumberland Straight. We coughed up the $41.50 to cross back over to the mainland. Don't get me wrong, it's a great bridge....free to cross over but comin' back will cost ya; one of those aforementioned lowlights. It WAS cheaper than a ferry ride but, then again, we weren't planning on going in the first place.

DAY FOUR: I Saw the Light.....

We're BACK. I thought I'd bore you all to tears with more trip stuff. Day-by-day highlights. Maybe a few lowlights. A highlight was our fun visit with old friend, Velynda and a great but messy lob-stah din-nah... Check out those babies.

Day Four: We headed north from Bar Harbor with plans to see West Quoddy Light. I've always loved lighthouses but realize my family doesn't want to stop at EVERY light out there. This was a biggee -- the easternmost land point in the U.S. and the only one I knew we had to see. She was a red-striped beauty. As we walked around the museum on-site, I saw photos of another light ... a white tower with a red cross on the side. I was told that the East Quoddy Light was only a few miles away but required crossing a border into New Brunswick and the Roosevelt Campobello International Park. We HAD to go. We were told that we would only be able to access the light itself at low tide. We drove out to the point. We saw the stairs leading up to the rock but....ummmm....where the HELL is the lighthouse?! We could hear it but saw nuthin'. Pea soup, as they say. The tide in this shot is about halfway in (or halfway out...). Trust me. I'm sure it was there. We saw photos where it was accessible and there are apparently a lot more stairs below the water level. I was a bit disappointed but got over it. What can ya do? We headed back to the States then continued our drive, crossing over into New Brunswick at Saint John for the night. Visited the Saint John City Market in the morning for fun. It was early but most of the vendors were up selling their wares...fish, meat, cheeses, veggies (some I didn't recognize). It was not a huge place so we headed out of Saint John and towards the Bay of Fundy that day.