East Coast Trip 2024

Grand Falls, New Brunswick / 6:57 a.m. / 13 degrees to Ottawa, Ontario / 5:07 p.m. / 20 degrees for a total of 828.4 km of driving. Well folks, in case you did not notice our final location above, today will be our last entry in to this blog as we will be arriving home to Ottawa, Ontario. Our day started in Grand Falls, New Brunswick after our stay at Travelodge (we would not recommend).  The day started off with beautiful weather once again considering we had a small/short thunderstorm the night before.  The falls at Grand Falls is very nice and conveniently located right in town.  For those of you that are adventurous, they offer zip lining across the falls.  The company is called “Zip Zag Ziplining”. As we make our way to Edmundston, New Brunswick, we pass a McCain factory just outside of Grand Falls.  A large facility where frozen foods are processed, mainly French fries. Edmundston is bordered by Quebec, Canada and Maine, United States.  There is a ver...

Miramichi, New Brunswick / 8:32 a.m. / 23 degrees to Grand Falls, New Brunswick / 8:00 p.m. / 17 degrees for a total of 538.9 km of driving. Heading out from Miramichi today and will travel around the loop heading towards Bathurst and then Campbellton and the re-evaluate next steps. Some nice beaches near Shippagan.  Aquarium New Brunswick is a big tourist attraction for those that may be interested.  We decided after picking up two (2) small bags of local fresh cheese curd at Les Blancs D’Arcadie to go and check out the area around the beaches and enjoy our snack.  Nice small portion bags at $3.00 each.  One was regular and one was flavoured bar-b-que (good slight spice not overwhelming). We passed the entrance to “Village Historique Acadien”, it is a chance to travel back 200 years to the time of New Brunswick Acadie (bilingual).   It appears to be similar to Upper Canada Village (1 hour outside Ottawa).   Once we made our way to the beach, we had a great...

Woodstock, New Brunswick / 9:50 a.m. / 18 degrees to Miramichi, New Brunswick / 7:51 p.m. / 21 degrees for a total of 440.5 km of driving. As we start today’s journey we are noticing the New Brunswick fields of potatoes.  The crops have started to sprout so seeing some green.  The land is not red like Prince Edward Island (P. E.I.)  but still just as interesting.  We have arrived at what was the site of Covered Bridge Potato Chip factory.   Unfortunately, there is nothing left to the factory after an unfortunate fire on Friday, March 1, 2024.  It has been noted that the owner plans to rebuild and is making alternate arrangements in the meantime.  What is left is the shortest covered bridge in the world.  So cute, including a picture below. We are now on our way to the longest covered bridge in the world located in Hartland, New Brunswick.  She is s beauty.  About 15 minutes down the road we come across the “Old Florenceville Bridge” ...

Saint John, New Brunswick / 8:02 a.m. / 11 degrees to Woodstock, New Brunswick / 5:30 p.m. / 15 degrees for a total of 376.5 km of driving.  It is a foggy morning as we leave Saint John, New Brunswick.  As we drive through town, we check out where the cruise ships come in and also drove past “Container Village” on the Saint John waterfront.  This village was created in 2022 with 60 container ships and is opened from late spring  until mid-fall each year.  Looks pretty neat.  Looks like it would be a great place to check out during that day.  We ventured to the “Reversing Falls”.  The Observation Deck opens at 11.00 a.m. but you can still check out where the Saint John River and the Bay of Fundy meet from the bridge or a couple of other locations with a close proximity.   Interesting fact is that sailboats and pleasure crafts have to wait until “slack time” to sail between both these waterways.  It is approximately a 20 minute period of t...

Moncton, New Brunswick / 8:40 a.m. / 15 degrees to Saint John, New Brunswick / 7:10 p.m. / 13 degrees for a total of 317.4 km of driving. We are leaving Moncton, New Brunswick for a 2nd time on this trip.  Today we are headed towards Saint John, New Brunswick and to see what we can discover along the way. Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park outside of Moncton is a huge tourist attraction.  We decided to skip this attraction this time as we would only be stopping for an hour and we have been fortunate to check out many great locations impacted by the tide on our holiday.  Note: For those considering this attraction, please consider that your ticket is good for 2 consecutive days when planning your visit. The thing that we have discovered since entering (for the 2nd time on this trip) New Brunswick is covered bridges.  The first we stopped at was after Hopewell Rocks and before Alma, New Brunswick.  It was the “Sawmill, Creekbridge 1905”, this one we could not drive th...

Hacketts Cove, Nova Scotia / 9:58 a.m. / 17 degrees to Moncton, New Brunswick / 4:55 p.m. / 17 degrees for a total of 303.4 km of driving.  We bid adieu to our wonderful hosts in Hackett’s Cove and head towards Bay of Fundy Interpretitve Centre in Maitland, Nova Scotia for the 12:53 p.m. Tidal Bore where we were yesterday.  It is suggested we arrive by 12:30 and we would prefer to be there by 12:00.  This Tidal Bore won’t quite be like the one at Moncton, New Brunswick but is supposed to still be impressive.  There will even be people who will be rafting, approximately 20 minutes after the Todal Bore coming through.  On our drive to Maitland, Nova Scotia, we saw some of the remains from last years forest fires that hit the Halifax area, specifically Hammond Plains.  So unfortunate. We have arrived at the Maitland location and got a great spot on the observation deck.  The Tidal Bore is expected to arrive at 12:53 today and it was late, arriving just af...

Digby, Nova Scotia / 7:40 a.m. / 16 degrees to Hackett’s Cove, Nova Scotia / 5:45 p.m. / 17 degrees for a total of 439.8 km of driving. Starting our day to check out the Point Prim Lighthouse in Digby, Nova Scotia.  They had a neat set up, if you stood in a specific location and looked at the image, you would see where and what the lighthouse looked like in the past. Interesting note, there is municipal transit system servicing Kings, Annapolis and Digby Counties.  The drive along the Annapolis Valley is beautiful, with lots of agriculture, orchards and colourful flowering plants.  There is also plenty of farmers market to pick from. We detoured and took a tour of CFB Greenwood (14 wing Air Force).  Very nicely maintained large base.  They also have the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum with various airplanes (approximately 12) outside to view. We stopped at Burncoat Head, Nova Scotia to check  out this location and the impacts of the tides.  Tide was...

Hackett’s Cove, Nova Scotia / 8:29 a.m. / 15 degrees to Digby, Nova Scotia / 7:45 p.m. / 20 degrees for a total of 560.9 km driving. Today starts with a return trip to the Sandman hotel in Dartmouth to pick up a small case accidentally left behind on our travels.  No one ever likes to make one of these trips but on a positive note, we determined where we last saw it and that the hotel was able to locate it. We then returned to the Southern Shore of Nova Scotia to continue on our journey around this loop on the lighthouse trail.  For old country music lovers, Liverpool, Nova Scotia is where you will find the “Hank Snow Home Town Museum”.  It is also the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame. As we reach Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, we stop in to the Visitor Centre.  As we drive through a residential area within Yarmouth, a deer crosses in front of us.  Not a sight we were expecting.  Note: Yarmouth is where you can catch the ferry to Maine (U.S.A).  We will ...

Hacketts Cove / 9:25 a.m. / 16 degrees to Hackett’s Cove / 5:50 p.m. / 21 degrees for a total of 293 km of driving.  Today’s journey will have us visiting the South Shore of Nova Scotia.  Now this is a Coastal drive, so beautiful.   We make our way around St. Margaret’s Bay, then East Chester as we follow the Lighthouse Route.  On to Chester and Mahone’s Bay.  Since Halifax, this is the first that we have seen leisure boats.  On our previous travels it was all working fishing boats.   Mahone’s Bay, home of the 5 churches with 3 of them within a close proximity on the main road. We make our way to Lunenburg, a beautiful town with colourful homes and older buildings including a well maintained church.  Ideally, make your way to the waterfront and park.  Very hilly but worth the trip.  We were fortunate to see the Bluenose Ship as it was in town.  An area we did not visit but looks very interesting is “The Ovens Natural Park” which is ...

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia / 8:25 a.m. / 14 degrees to Hackett’s Cove / 4:25 p.m. / 21 degrees for a total of 126.6 km of driving. Another day, another friend.  We are off to have breakfast with one of our previous neighbours who called Ottawa home for many, many years.  So nice to have the opportunity to meet in person and catch up.  We met at the Esquire Restaurant on the Bedford Highway just outside of Halifax.  A nice community restaurant and a great meal.   We took the scenic route on our way to Peggy’s Cove via Herring Cove, Portuguese Cove and Ketch Harbour.  Nice highway and some beautiful homes. As we enter the Peggy’s Cove area, we stop in to the Visitor Centre.  As previously mentioned, we always like to check out these centres when travelling.  Lots of great information. We arrive at Peggy’s Cove, a popular tourism location.  There is so much rock in this area.  This is beautiful location but it can also be very dangerous especia...