Breakfast
buffet was fine. But, strangely we were like 2nd class hotel guests.
When we arrived, a waiter/host asked if we were with Caravan and then asked for our
breakfast card. Then he walked us into last night’s meeting room and told us
that we only got the buffet with our room and shut the door behind us. I am
certain that on all our past Caravan trips, we got a full breakfast and we also
got the same breakfast all the other hotel guests got. Weird. There were Keuring
coffee machines in the room, but I didn’t use ours. I need to remember in the
future to give my extra room coffee to Mom & Judy since they want 2 cups
each in the morning. I would only have one and today I just waited for
breakfast. Mom & Judy were already up and at breakfast before us today!
I had a
strawberry yogurt, some scrambled eggs and 2 bacons and a piece of toast. I
honestly don’t know what anyone else had.
The bus was
fully loaded by 7:50am and arriving 10 minutes early we were the last to board. I guess everyone was trying to sit in the front of the
bus before Marty starts assigning seat rotations. It turns out the front seat
opposite the driver’s side is not as desirable as the other rows due to no leg
room and nowhere to put your stuff. The regular seats have a footrest, an electrical
plug and a cup holder. Not bad. The people who had the front seat of the bus
jumped back to the last and vacant seats behind us in the afternoon and shared
this analysis with us. Barrie, our driver, handed out cold bottles of water to
everyone as we boarded. That was nice. A weird thing about this motor coach is that while we have lots of legroom on the door side of the bus, the driver's side across from us are a very tight fit and I have noticed that a few rows in the middle on our door side are also tight. Mom asked about it later and was told it was due to the wheels wells. That is weird because the wheel wells are identical on both sides. Whatever, it is what it is. We'll enjoy our space while we have it. The back of the bus really sways on the rough roads. Tomorrow we should move across the aisle and up a row or 2, so that will be even worse than today.
So we had a
long driving day today. We drove for almost 2 hours just to get out of Nova
Scotia! We stopped for our first morning break from 10 of 10am to 10:20am at
Sackville, New Brunswick. There was a food co-op store, a convenience store, a
Tim Horton’s across the street and a liquor/wine/beer package store that opened
at 10am. There were restrooms available at almost all of these places. I think
everyone was satisfied with snacks and supplies for lunch later if they hadn’t
ordered through Marty. Everyone also had notice and warning to get their alcohol supply if they needed it for the next 2 nights at least.
Our goal for
the day was Hopewell Rocks at high tide to see it going out and walk on the
ocean floor. Today’s high tide was about 36 feet according to Fran, our ranger and guide
for the visit. She said that was a bit less than average. It was still impressive. We
drove past miles of viewing spots as the muddy water was churning upstream
instead of flowing out to sea in order to get down to the Hopewell Cape. This phenomenon is called a tidal bore and here they call it a Chocolate River due to churned up sediment. We drove up to Moncton and then back down the other side of Petitcodiac River to get to a private park called Hopewell Rocks. (When we were there we believed that it was a state or national park what with the ranger outfits and we did not offer Fran a tip knowing that in the US those government employees cannot accept tips. Later when I looked through the maps and brochures I had picked up, I could not find anything that indicated it was a government owned and operated park.) Driving about 4 hours roundtrip to get to Hopewell Rocks
was a mystery especially since on the way driving back past it all again, Marty
pointed out the nice and luxury hotels along the way where people come just to
watch the tidal bore. That is the water reversing direction as the tide
changes. Anyway.
We ate our picnic lunch in a picnic shelter at Hopewell Rocks
(I think it is a private park?) and tried to get some information from the
visitor’s center about the place we were visiting as it looked like there were
trails. But before we could set off sightseeing for an hour we needed to know
where and how and the distances because we had to meet back with the group at
12:45pm. I guess Marty really wanted all 46 of us to stay together and
actually eat lunch here at the restaurant as it turns out and not elsewhere.
But, it is mysterious that knowing more than a few of us had opted out of
ordering lunch that she would not share information on what we could do with a
free hour or more.
We wound up using the restrooms and then got a map and hit
the trails. We easily found the view to Daniels Flats and to Diamond Rock
(great!). Then we started to Big Cove. The map said it was 15-20 minutes’ walk
one way but the signs said it was about 500 yards. It was about 500 yards, but
the last 75 feet were straight down and straight back up! So, it was more like
15 minutes round trip. Mom & Judy didn’t go because they didn’t think they
could make it down and back that fast. Mom would not have liked or made the
last hill to the viewpoint. Anyway, it was just the back side of the Diamond
Rock, so they didn’t really miss anything.
Our guide/ranger Fran explained how the area was formed and about the world’s highest
tides here and then we watched a few short videos and then back on the bus to
go down to the Flower Pot Rocks and walk on the ocean’s floor. The tide was
still going out but there was a sliver of gravel beach at the bottom of 99
stairs. It was cool. We were supposed to be back on the bus at 2pm. It was hot
on the bus. We sat and sat and finally another passenger got off and came back on and told us
the bus was broken and the driver, Barrie had his mechanic on the phone trying
to figure out how to fix it. We finally left at 2:30pm. That meant we had some
extra time to walk around, but not too far because no one knew how long we
would be there. Barrie continued to hand out cold bottles of water to people as
the day went on if they requested them as we reboarded the bus. Marty had lots
of informational papers and maps that she handed out all day. Nice touches.
The rest of
the day was spent driving to Prince Edward Island. Marty played a video about
the building and design of the Confederation Bridge in the 1990’s. She also
played part of the movie Clay and I had watched a couple of weeks ago, Anne of Green Gables. We had a short photo stop just after we crossed the bridge and
then a short convenience stop at the PEI visitor’s information center where
there were some restrooms and gift shops. They sold PEI potatoes there! They told
us they were a best seller. Judy bought some PEI potato chips to share. They were pretty good.
We arrived at North Winds at Brackley Beach about
10 of 6pm and at 6:10pm had to reboard the bus for dinner. We all just had time
to use the restrooms, do one other thing and go. We were in the building across from the office building on the far end on the middle floor, which appeared to be the ground floor. Actually there was an indoor heated below on the lowest floor below us. Mom & Judy scored the end of the building with corner windows and we were next door. Sorry, I can't remember the numbers but I think Clay and I were in 110.
We ate at Prince Edward Island Preserve Co. with live music by Mike Pendergast. They actually
make fruit preserves there. Our first course was a biscuit with
blueberry/raspberry/champagne preserves. I didn’t eat it, the others just said
it was seedy. Next was tomato dill soup which was good. Clay had fish cakes. He
thought they had a lot of potatoes in them. Other people commented that they just tasted
like potato pancakes without fish in them. It turns out that PEI is some kind
of massive potato growing empire! Who knew? Mom had the potato pie. I don’t
think she thought much of it, but it seemed that if PEI potatoes were so
special that Marty would have sold it better last night when we ordered. Judy & I ordered the chicken and broccoli
crepes. Neither of us found any crepe in our hot baked cheesy saucy ramekins
though. It was alright. Dessert was a raspberry cream cheese pie that was
pretty good and heavy. They served coffee or tea. Clay and Judy also ordered beers
which were not included. This was the beginning of the bell peppers on this trip. It will be crazy! Not a one of us will have a meal (except perhaps breakfast) that does not have bell peppers. No one said a thing about them being locally grown, but man the way they were on every plate, they must have just finished the harvest.
I got a crazy expensive Dunoon English bone china coffee mug
with puffins on it from the gift shop here. I don’t think we’ll see any puffins
here but they have them in all the literature and signage where ever we’ve gone and I saw one in Ireland in spring and
plenty in Alaska last month, so 2013 seems like the year of the puffin to me. I
love the cup!
We got back
to North Winds about 9pm and Clay went to work out on the treadmill. He says
the Fitness Center is very nice and it is open 24 hours a day. It is also nice to have a refrigerator in the room. Otherwise we aren't too impressed with our 2-night home. It is not within walking distance of anything, including the Brackley Beach. While they say it is about a $35 cab ride to Charlottetown, it took us an hour at least every time we drove anywhere from here. It is a mystery why they did not put us up in a Charlottetown hotel where there would be lots to see and do within walking distance or an inexpensive cab ride. It would not have made for any more time in the bus to sightsee on PEI. I can only guess that it was a financial decision. But, I don't have to like it. North Winds was certainly appropriately named. There was a vicious and relentless north wind blowing ashore during our entire stay.
Tomorrow
continental breakfast is served at the office building here. They don’t have a
restaurant out here far from anything. Breakfast is at 7am. The bus leaves in
the morning at 8:30am. We will have our first assigned seat rotation then. We also
have to leave the bus in a specific order, one way in the morning and the
opposite way after lunch. That is not going too well so far. Breakfast is the
only meal included tomorrow. We visit the Anne of Green Gables house in the
morning and Charlottetown in the afternoon. We are free from lunch time onward
tomorrow. Marty says she will explain about lunch, dinner and shuttles
tomorrow. I hope so because it sounded like she said we could shop for dinner
to bring back to North Winds while in Charlottetown. But, our hotel guest information
book clearly states we are not to bring food back to our rooms other than
coffee and tea. But we do have small refrigerators and microwaves in our rooms,
so it is a mixed message. We’ll find out tomorrow. We are here for 2 nights.
The rooms are large and the beds are terribly squishy soft. Our rooms are
directly over the indoor pool and Mom & Judy’s while otherwise nicer than
ours with a corner window and big wall-mounted TV, stinks of chlorine. Our bathroom floor has some strangely hot spots and I
assume that has something to do with the overheating going on down there at the heated indoor swimming pool. It is
a little disconcerting after the deaths at the Boone Best Western in NC this
year that sparked some hotel building safety code laws to be changed and
enacted.
Photos
Photos
