Travel 2013

Here we go again!! We will start this blog again as we begin our travels in to the great USA. First to the south in Louisiana and then to the far north and west and into Canada. Keep checking and we hope you enjoy the great photos from Linda.

Campobello Island, New Brunswick

Built in 1897 and bought by Sara Roosevelt (FDR's mother) in 1905 for Franklin & Eleanor.  Sara and James had a cottage next to this home.  This red cottage has 26 rooms and many bedrooms.  The 5 Roosevelt children had a live-in tutor.  Picture of Eleanor and 4 of the children below.  The family spent every summer on Campobello Island until Franklin started getting involved in politics.

 

View of back of cottage.            

Roosevelt National Park on Campobello is ran jointly by the Canadian and US Park services.   Half of the employees are from each country. 

Several pictures of the Roosevelts enjoying life on Campobello. 

Franklin, Sara, and Eleanor with the 5 children on the front porch of the cottage

View from back of cottage across the bay to Eastport, Maine,

 

East Quoddy Head lighthouse on Campobello, Island on the left.  On the right is West Quoddy Head lighthouse located on the coast of Maine near Lubec.  This is the Eastern-most part of the United States.  The lighthouse on the island is East Quoddy and the one in Maine is West Quoddy.  Confusing I agree.

 

 

Crossing the bridge from Lubec, Maine to Campobello, Island.

Tidal Bore Raft Trip

This is on the Bay of Fundy on the Nova Scotia side.  The tidal bore is caused by a clash of the tides coming in and out of this inlet.  We went on this raft trip during the 2nd week in July, but my disposable camera got wet and I didn't have any pictures to share on the blog.  Our wagon masters surprised us with a CD of this great day during our farewell banquet.  A funny story I'll have to share:  As you see in the pictures, we got totally wet from head to toe.   The zodiac drivers were trying to swamp the boats.  Ours did a very good job.  It felt like you were sitting in a bath tub the boat was so full of water.  Well after we got back to camp,  Cliff told me I really should not have been wearing those leopard print underwear.  I was mortified.  How was I to know that you could see through those pants when they are soaking wet!!  Oh well!!  Next time I go on a zodiac raft ride, believe me I'll have the right color underwear on.

Hopewell Rocks

Located on the Bay of Fundy which lies between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  The difference between high and low tides can vary as much as 50 feet depending on the position of the sun and moon.   The day we were there it was about a 34 foot difference.

 6 hours later at low tide.

At low tide, there's mud as far as the eye can see.  At high tide this is all water.  The semiplamated sandpiper migrates to the Bay of Fundy during August to feed on a very small mud shrimp about the size of a grain of rice.  The females come first and eat thousands of these little shrimp during a 2 week period before they migrate to South America.  The males come next for 2 weeks and then the chicks.  They fly totally across the ocean before they land in South America.   

 These Hopewell Rocks are called flower pots because of the trees and vegetation growing on top.

Saint John, New Brunswick

Market in downtown Saint John.  We did not have near enough time to browse around this place during our bus tour.

 View from the top of Carleton Martello Tower built in 1815. 

 This fort was never in any battles, but was used for security purposes even in World War II.

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia

The replica of the Fort of Louisbourg was constructed partially for the purpose of putting people back to work after the fishing industry was shut down in the early 1990's. It cost $25 million, and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Nova Scotia. Again the French and the English fought over this area with the English finally winning out.

 We attended two different performances at the Louisbourg Playhouse next to our campground.  The building was actually constructed by Disney for a movie they made 20 years ago.  It was located at the fort and then moved to downtown Louisbourg for the town to use as a playhouse. 

 This performance is called a "Ceileigh" (pronounced kay-lee).  It's a group of musicians with different instruments getting together and just having a "jam fest".  Most of the time it's just casual get-togethers, but this was a professional group playing for us.

This group was called Men of the Deep.  To be a member you have to have worked in the mines at least two years.   Both performances were fabulous.

Labrador

Waiting on ferry to take us to Labrador.

We actually landed in Quebec close to the border of Labrador.  The bus backed right onto the ferry, loaded us, and we spent the day touring around the Southern most part of Labrador.

 Cute picture at restaurant we ate at.

 Red Bay is where a huge production of whale oil was done in the late 1500's and early 1600's.  Annually as many as 2,000 Basques from Spain and France came to Labrador to hunt whale and process oil to ship back to Europe.

 Whale boat found under water in Red Bay.

Minature of a whale processing operation.

Back to Newfoundland we traveled to Deer Lake and visited a very nice insectarion.  These are giant cockroaches from South America.

Only in Newfoundland.  At the end of the tour at the insectarion, the owner on the right and his best friend played some Newfy songs for us.