Road Trip Report
A I wrote a few days ago, we are recently returned from a three week road trip across northern New England and Canada's maritime provinces.
Here are some of the highlights and pictures from the trip. Click on any picture for a larger version.
Best Scenery: A tie between Acadia National Park in Maine
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
and Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Tech Highlight: The Mt Washington Cog Railway, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Optical Illusion: Magnetic Hill, Moncton, New Brunswick.
You drive your car to what appears to be the bottom of the hill, put it in neutral and release the brake. The car starts moving backwards, apparently up the hill. You end up back where you started. The illusion is very good. We drove it twice, first with Joanne behind the wheel, and then with me. Then I watched several other cars do it. Even knowing that it was an optical illusion, it still appeared real to me. Well worth stopping to see.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Natural Wonder: Tides in the Bay of Fundy and the Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick. These pictures show the rocks at high and low tide.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
City I'd Like To Visit Again: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax has friendly people, lots to see, good food and drink, and is a good base for day trips around Nova Scotia.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Biggest Surprise: This double rainbow in Quispamsis, New Brunswick.
It had been a rainy afternoon, and we found the first hotel we tried was full. They recommended the Amsterdam Inn a few miles down the road in Quimpamsis. We arrived, tired and worried that they might be full, too. Joanne went in to register while I sat in the car. I looked out over the parking lot and there was a full 180-degree double rainbow! It was a sign of good luck. The hotel had a room for us, it turned out to be an excellent hotel, and the price was very reasonable.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Food: Fresh scallops in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia
The scallops had been bought hour before right off the boat at the Lunenberg docks. Meaty and tender, they were served very lightly breaded. We ate our lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the harbor. Wonderful!
Some pictures of Lunenberg.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Entertainment: Clark's Trading Post Bear Show, Lincoln, New Hampshire
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From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Edible Attraction: Lenny the Chocolate Moose, Scarborough, Maine.
The moose, the bear, and the pond are all solid chocolate. Lenny weighs 1700 pounds alone.
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Best Frauds: The Cardiff Giant, Cooperstown, New York. This curiosity was "discovered" during the digging of a well on a farm in Cardiff, New York in 1868. It was hailed as a petrified giant. People had seen fossil fish and such, and the Bible said that there were giants before the Flood, so it seemed plausible, I guess. They made a ton of money exhibiting it. P.T. Barnum tried to buy it and, when they wouldn't sell, had his own "Cardiff Giant" carved.
From Road Trip Highlights
and America's Stonehenge, Mystery Hill, near Atkinson, New Hampshire.
This collection of stone walls, ruins, and astronomically-oriented stones is billed as the remains of a pre-Columbian city. The site has been a tourist attraction since the 1930's and it has believed that past owners, er, "enhanced" it by moving the stones around. The archaeological consensus seems to be that the site has been disturbed enough that we may never know what it was.
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Best Media Tie-In: Josiah Bartlett Elementary School, Bartlett, NH
Josiah, "Jeb" Bartlet (note, ends with a single "t") was the character, the President of the United States, that Martin Sheen played in the popular "West Wing" TV show. Josiah Bartlett, supposedly an ancestor of Sheen's character, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Hampshire. The town and school are named for him.
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Best House: Wilson Castle, Proctor, Vermont
The folly of a nineteenth-century doctor, this house is privately owned and. atypically, allows photography inside and out!
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From Road Trip Highlights
Best Fortification: The Citadel, Halifax, Nova Scotia
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From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Lighthouse: Pemaquid Point, Maine
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Best Place We Stayed: The Inn at Ellis River, Jackson, New Hampshire.
A very comfortable country inn in the heart of the White Mountains. We stayed three nights.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Bar: The Old Triangle, Halifax
Good food, good drink, and good music.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Steepest Hill: Sackville Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This runs from the Citadel down to the waterfront. Even the toughest bicyclists walk up this one. Our hotel was at the top of the street.
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Best Shopping: L L Bean - Freeport, Maine
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AND, in addition to the highlights, there were a few lowlights:
Greatest Regret: We Missed Cape Breton. We didn't have enough time to get to the northern part of Nova Scotia. We must return some day to see it.
Biggest Disappointment: The schooner Bluenose 2, Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.
The Bluenose 2 was just motoring out of port as we arrived in Lunenberg. Alas, it had been booked for the whole day. I would have enjoyed a closer look.
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Biggest Tech Failure: Cell phones.
Our cell phones stopped working north of Bar Harbor, Maine, and were unusable throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and much of Quebec. Since they shut down the analog network, I suspect that is Rogers GSM-only territory, and unfriendly to our CDMA Sprint phones.
Here are some of the highlights and pictures from the trip. Click on any picture for a larger version.
Best Scenery: A tie between Acadia National Park in Maine
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
and Peggy's Cove in Nova Scotia
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Tech Highlight: The Mt Washington Cog Railway, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Optical Illusion: Magnetic Hill, Moncton, New Brunswick.
You drive your car to what appears to be the bottom of the hill, put it in neutral and release the brake. The car starts moving backwards, apparently up the hill. You end up back where you started. The illusion is very good. We drove it twice, first with Joanne behind the wheel, and then with me. Then I watched several other cars do it. Even knowing that it was an optical illusion, it still appeared real to me. Well worth stopping to see.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Natural Wonder: Tides in the Bay of Fundy and the Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick. These pictures show the rocks at high and low tide.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
City I'd Like To Visit Again: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Halifax has friendly people, lots to see, good food and drink, and is a good base for day trips around Nova Scotia.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Biggest Surprise: This double rainbow in Quispamsis, New Brunswick.
It had been a rainy afternoon, and we found the first hotel we tried was full. They recommended the Amsterdam Inn a few miles down the road in Quimpamsis. We arrived, tired and worried that they might be full, too. Joanne went in to register while I sat in the car. I looked out over the parking lot and there was a full 180-degree double rainbow! It was a sign of good luck. The hotel had a room for us, it turned out to be an excellent hotel, and the price was very reasonable.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Food: Fresh scallops in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia
The scallops had been bought hour before right off the boat at the Lunenberg docks. Meaty and tender, they were served very lightly breaded. We ate our lunch at a restaurant that overlooked the harbor. Wonderful!
Some pictures of Lunenberg.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Entertainment: Clark's Trading Post Bear Show, Lincoln, New Hampshire
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Edible Attraction: Lenny the Chocolate Moose, Scarborough, Maine.
The moose, the bear, and the pond are all solid chocolate. Lenny weighs 1700 pounds alone.
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Frauds: The Cardiff Giant, Cooperstown, New York. This curiosity was "discovered" during the digging of a well on a farm in Cardiff, New York in 1868. It was hailed as a petrified giant. People had seen fossil fish and such, and the Bible said that there were giants before the Flood, so it seemed plausible, I guess. They made a ton of money exhibiting it. P.T. Barnum tried to buy it and, when they wouldn't sell, had his own "Cardiff Giant" carved.
From Road Trip Highlights
and America's Stonehenge, Mystery Hill, near Atkinson, New Hampshire.
This collection of stone walls, ruins, and astronomically-oriented stones is billed as the remains of a pre-Columbian city. The site has been a tourist attraction since the 1930's and it has believed that past owners, er, "enhanced" it by moving the stones around. The archaeological consensus seems to be that the site has been disturbed enough that we may never know what it was.
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Media Tie-In: Josiah Bartlett Elementary School, Bartlett, NH
Josiah, "Jeb" Bartlet (note, ends with a single "t") was the character, the President of the United States, that Martin Sheen played in the popular "West Wing" TV show. Josiah Bartlett, supposedly an ancestor of Sheen's character, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Hampshire. The town and school are named for him.
From Road Trip Highlights
Best House: Wilson Castle, Proctor, Vermont
The folly of a nineteenth-century doctor, this house is privately owned and. atypically, allows photography inside and out!
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Fortification: The Citadel, Halifax, Nova Scotia
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Lighthouse: Pemaquid Point, Maine
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Place We Stayed: The Inn at Ellis River, Jackson, New Hampshire.
A very comfortable country inn in the heart of the White Mountains. We stayed three nights.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Bar: The Old Triangle, Halifax
Good food, good drink, and good music.
From Road Trip Highlights
From Road Trip Highlights
Steepest Hill: Sackville Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
This runs from the Citadel down to the waterfront. Even the toughest bicyclists walk up this one. Our hotel was at the top of the street.
From Road Trip Highlights
Best Shopping: L L Bean - Freeport, Maine
From Road Trip Highlights
AND, in addition to the highlights, there were a few lowlights:
Greatest Regret: We Missed Cape Breton. We didn't have enough time to get to the northern part of Nova Scotia. We must return some day to see it.
Biggest Disappointment: The schooner Bluenose 2, Lunenberg, Nova Scotia.
The Bluenose 2 was just motoring out of port as we arrived in Lunenberg. Alas, it had been booked for the whole day. I would have enjoyed a closer look.
From Road Trip Highlights
Biggest Tech Failure: Cell phones.
Our cell phones stopped working north of Bar Harbor, Maine, and were unusable throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and much of Quebec. Since they shut down the analog network, I suspect that is Rogers GSM-only territory, and unfriendly to our CDMA Sprint phones.