Prince Edward Island, Canada 26 and 27 August

Prince Edward Island (PEI) is synonymous with Anne of Green Gables, but there is so much more on the island than just Anne. In fact other than going into a few tourist stores that had plenty of Anne souvenirs and trinkets we gave the whole Anne thing a miss.

We arrived on the island via a ferry from Pictou, Nova Scotia and stayed at a great bed and breakfast, Caleb's Outlook, that Chad and Lindsay had recommended to us. On our second night on the island we indulged in another lobster supper (in a place called New Glasgow), again on Chad and Lindsay's recommendation. Not quite as much food was consumed this time around, as we had learnt our lesson from Cape Breton island. Nevertheless we managed to get through a lobster each and more mussels than a grown adult should probably consume in a single sitting.

Our self portrait

"Hi everyone"

The view from our balcony at Caleb's Outlook B&B

Like we need to be told how to eat a lobster!

New Glasgow Lobster Supper, where the mussels are served to you in buckets!

PEI has some beautiful scenery and we spent most of our time there driving from picture postcard spot to even better picture postcard spots. While the weather wasn't on our side for the whole two days we were on the island, it rained heavily the day we arrived, we had a very relaxing two days.

We are glad we made the effort to get across to the island, as we never managed to while we were in Ottawa.

The red sands at SeaCow Head lighthouse

Confederation Bridge that connects PEI to New Brunswick. The Bridge is 13kms long.

St Mary's church at Indian Springs

Cape Breton Island, Canada - 23 and 24 August

Our time on Cape Breton Island involved both disappointment and amazing luck during both days we were there. One of the main reasons we were visiting the Island was on recommendation from Chad and Lindsay to camp at the northern most tip of the island in a place called Meat Cove. Yes folks, that is its real name!

On our first morning on the island we were driving up to Meat Cove to check it out, only to hear over the radio that the bridge leading into the cove had been damaged by previous rains and the cove was no longer accessible. While disappointed that we couldn’t see it, we counted ourselves far luckier than all the campers who were stuck in there with no way out other than by boat.

Instead of seeing Meat Cove, we drove the Cabot Trail, which is a scenic drive that hugs the coast on the northern side of the island. There are hikes and scenic outlooks along the way that were teaming with wildlife. Without really trying our wildlife count at the end of our time there was 2 coyotes, 2 snakes, numerous pods of pilot whales, a seal, 3 bald eagles and 3 moose.

...oh and a dragonfly, that I (emma) managed to get a picture of.

Cape Breton Island, Smokey Point

A good photography assistant on the Cabot trail.

Baddeck Bay

Our second round of disappointment that turned into good luck was our encounter with the final moose we saw while walking on one of the most popular hikes on the Cabot trail, called the Skyline Trail. After seeing two young male moose previously from a reasonable distance away, we came upon a group of people who had spotted a large male moose eating in the coverage of the trees not far off the trail. He probably would have stayed there for a while had it not been for 20 something year old German tourist who yelled said very loudly what we think translated to “Papa, look there is a moose. Papa get your camera”. Not surprisingly the moose didn’t hang around. Disappointed we continued to walk along the trail, muttering under a breath about inconsiderate people who have little regard for their surroundings, however our luck was about to change.

While walking back to the car Daniel spotted the same large male moose grazing and quickly got out his camera with the long telephoto lens so he could get some close up shots from so far away. After a few clicks of the camera the moose looked directly at us started to move on. We moved a little up the path at a respectful distance from the moose and I watched him through the binoculars. He was a beautiful animal, standing about 7ft tall and if you included his huge antlers probably stood at 10ft. It was just wonderful to watch. As I continued to watch him through the binoculars I realized he was getting bigger and bigger. In reality he was walking directly towards us and there was no longer any need for the binoculars. We stopped in our tracks, in fact I think I even stopped breathing, and this massive moose crossed the path we were walking on 15ft ahead of us. Poor Daniel was backing up madly as he had his telephoto lens on the camera and was way too close at that point. He got some shots nonetheless. The best part about this, which all took place in about a minute, was that there wasn’t a single person around and it was totally quiet.

Hiking, driving and wildlife watching, builds up quite and appetite so we headed to a restaurant for dinner to try some of the local produce. It was here we tried our first lobster supper. For those who don’t know, it is currently lobster, mussel and oyster season in the north eastern states of the USA and Canada. A lobster supper usually involves a whole lobster and all you can eat of seafood chowder, steamed mussels, salad and dessert. It will not surprise any of you who know us well that we got our monies worth at this restaurant. To embarrass ourselves or brag (however you want to view it) I’m going to list the total food consumed that evening rather than split it by individual. The total consumed was:
- 4 bowls of mussels
- 1 bowl seafood chowder
- 2 side salads
- 2 1lb lobsters
- 2 pieces of lemon meringue pie
- 1 piece of chocolate cake
- 1 piece of blueberry pie

Did we feel full and disgusting by the end of the evening….yes. Was it worth it….absolutely!

Seven States in Seven Days, 17 August

Washington DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut all in one day.

We were originally planning to stay in New York for a day or two but changed our mind and just stopped in for the afternoon to visit a friend of Daniel’s, who because of her celebrity status in New York and at Photoshop World only wishes to be referred to as “BS Chick”. After making a quick trip to the Guggenheim Museum we had a great time catching up with BS Chick over lunch. She even introduced us to the most interesting ice cream we have tasted to date…..green tea and black sesame. It was actually really good, although a pretty weird colour!

Dan and BS Chick eating green tea and black sesame ice cream

After devouring our ice cream we headed out of the city for our night stop at New Haven, Connecticut and then on to Boston the next day.

Boston, Massachusetts - 19 & 20 August

Boston continued our US history lesson and also turned out to be a city that we really enjoyed.

Things started off well with a stop at Plymouth Rock and our first of many lobster rolls that we would consume while travelling up the East coast.

We spent the next day walking around Boston discovering the historic sites along the 2.5 mile Freedom Trail, which is a red line that winds its way through downtown and north side Boston. Pete gave us a great recommendation on an Italian restaurant “La Famiglia” and it managed to feed us for both dinner and lunch the next day. How anyone can eat that much food in one sitting is beyond me!

We learnt pretty quick that Bostonians were direct and too the point, but they were also friendly at the same time. A Bostonian saying that I overheard and will remember for some time to come was “I want @#%*ing all of it, with change!” They are like rough diamonds really.

The Boston skyline.

Nature flourishes, even in the city. Dan took these pictures of the hawk at the same place the above night time photo of the city.

In short, we loved Boston. We weren’t quite sure what to expect of the city as neither of us had been there before but we were both pleasantly surprised. It has great people, great food, great architecture and is really easy to get around. There is plenty to do and we would definitely go back if the opportunity arises,......in summer of course as the winters would be too cold for us.

Washington, DC - 14-16 August

Thank goodness for air-conditioned museum’s in DC because it was our only refuge from the heat. It was hot and humid and while great to see the famous monuments the drinks at the end of the day with Maida, Alex, Brendhan and Jen were very refreshing.

The Washington Monument at night, taken with a "ground tripod" after a few beers.

US Congress Building

The Abe Lincoln Memorial

The White House

The Abe Lincoln statue in the Memorial

The Jefferson Monument in Washington, DC

We also got to checkout the estate that used to belong to George Washington, which was actually pretty cool. I would have preferred living there than in Philadelphia and dealing with all that politics stuff.

Daniel's friend at Mt Vernon.

Dan at Mt Vernon



One the way from DC to New York we stopped by Baltimore, so I could take a photo of a building any of you who watch the Food Network in the US may recognize.

Williamsburg, Virginia- 13 August

Williamsburg, Virginia was our time warp back to the 1776 and a history lesson on the USA Revolution and creation of the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.

Daniel, Mom and Dad at the Yorktown Monument in Yorktown, VA.

The is proof that we are actually on holiday together. I think this is the only photo of us together so far on this trip.

We had a great time hanging out with Mom and Dad and got to check out Yorktown very quickly before we headed to Mt Vernon just outside Washington DC.

Savannah, Georgia, 11-12 August

Savannah is the most beautiful city we have seen in the South. It is everything we hoped it would be, with tree lined streets and beautiful architecture. I’d like to tell you that it was a relaxing trip to get here from New Orleans but that was not the case. We experienced our first flat tire on our road trip and spent a few hours waiting to get it fixed after limping it to a local Walmart on its spare.

Thankfully we are staying at a beautiful house in Savannah (check it out atwww.VRBO.com/155961), which is a great change from hotel rooms. It made it easy to relax and recover from a long day on the road yesterday…..16 hours in all.

Despite being hot and humid Dan and I spent our day walking around the historic center of the city taking in the beauty of the oak trees with Spanish moss draping delicately from their branches. With no real plan in mind we just wandered the streets, city squares and local cemetery's and below are just some of the things we saw.

To say we both enjoyed our time in Savannah is an understatement. We wished we could have spent another day or so there, but with more interesting things to see ahead of us and looking forward to catching with Mom and Dad, we left Savannah with fond memories and more relaxed than when we arrived.