31 May, 2017 0 comments Leave a comment

This spring, we explored Canada's eastern provinces on a two month journey, traveling 8,000 km from Ontario through Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

This article is the first travel story from this trip, and the photos below show the top five things that, to me, make holidays memorable.

1. The Company of Good Folk

This was our first lengthy RV trip with others - friends who brought their trailers too. Our group is pictured below, left to right, John and Karen, Sheri and Al with their dog Jack, and Carolyn and Roger. We have known these friends for many decades, get along well, and we had a wonderful time exploring the sights together. Sheri and Al spent the first two weeks with us, while Carolyn and Roger stayed with us for the entire two months. We also met some lovely strangers along the way, fellow RVers or local folk, who shared their stories with us. We learn much from others, when we take time to listen.

2. Interesting Architecture

Wherever our trips take us, we love to discover unusual or historic buildings. In the town of Sherbrooke, in the scenic eastern townships of Quebec, we had a guided walking tour of 14 murals. These are some of the most outstanding and realistic murals we have seen. A few are pictured below.

3. Wild Places of Rock and Water

Scenery that demonstrates the forces of Nature excites and rejuvenates me, and provides inspiration for most of my paintings. New Brunswick is exceptionally beautiful and two of its natural wonders are shown below. Grand Falls was thundering with spring runoff when we visited. These two photos hint at the magnificence of the Saint John River flowing into the Gorge.

We visited Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy at two separate times, so we could explore the flowerpot islands and shore features at low tide, and then see the islands at high tide. They truly are impressive formations, as the following photos attest. The first one shows John and I beside a flowerpot island.

And below is the same scene at high tide. The seawater in the Bay of Fundy looks like chocolate milk, due to sandstone sediment.

4. Great Local Cuisine

We like to sample the regional food of the places we explore on holiday. So of course we had to have a lobster dinner feast, complete with fresh fiddle (fern) heads, while in New Brunswick. Yum!

5. Stones I Can Bring Home

I was thrilled to find lots of colourful beach stones to bring home as souvenirs and painting subjects, from Maritime beaches. These ones below are from near Cape Enrage, New Brunswick.

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