Postcards from the Mothership

Even though we’re home now, I still have a whole bunch of things I want to tell you about our trip to Nova Scotia. Finola hit on one subject I wanted to address with her questions in the comment box yesterday: “Do you recommend all the driving with young kids? Did they enjoy?”

Would I recommend it? Absolutely! In a heartbeat! Did they enjoy it? Mostly I think they endured the driving part. In fact, Tristan suggested on the ferry from Digby to Saint John that “maybe our next vacation could have a little less driving?” But would they tell you that it was worth it? I’m sure they would.

The driving was long. L-O-N-G. The first day we drove just over 800 kms from Ottawa to Grand Falls (aka Grand Sault) in New Brunswick. It was clear and warm, and the driving was so easy that we were filled with optimism and excitement for the rest of the trip. The Best Western in Grand Sault was comfortable and had a great pool for the kids.

I’d intentionally chosen Grand Sault over Edmunston as it was about an hour further down the road, leaving us with a slightly shorter day of driving on the second day. By sheer luck, that turned out to be a great choice because day two of driving? Was horrible. Awful. Really, really bad. It started to rain about 20 minutes into the trip. It poured torrentially for the entire day, 700 + kms of hydroplaning, soaking, white-knuckle driving. Near Fredericton, we accidentally took an off ramp we weren’t supposed to take, and then took the same off ramp back into Fredericton again when trying to get back on the Trans Canada. Then we needed to turn off anyway when the low-fuel light came on and I was about to burst my own tank for need of a bathroom. We turned down a country road in search of a promised gas station that was no-where to be found. That’s when Simon gacked all over himself. It was the lowlight of an otherwise spectacular trip.

We broke the return trip up into three legs, but the next time we go to Nova Scotia (and even before we left, we were already planning for next time, we loved it that much) we will stick with a two-day return trip. The ferry from Digby to Saint John left us unimpressed, and although we had a lovely visit with a friend who completely redeemed Fredericton (more about that in another post) it made the return trip longer than it had to be. And the accommodations the last night in Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, were another lowlight of the trip. In fact, next time we will probably take the American route home, taking the ferry from Yarmouth to our other favourite vacation destination, Bar Harbor, and making our way home from there.

I’d been most worried about how Lucas would handle the driving. The big boys are already well-experienced with road trips, as our relatives all seem to live about five hours away and we do the trek a couple of times a year. Eight or nine hours in the car is a lot to ask of a two-and-a-half year old, though. We put a DVD player on the headrest of the seat in front of him and fed him a steady diet of Muppet Show, Max and Ruby and Bob the Builder, but to my surprise and delight it was the books that really kept him engaged. He carefully paged through all the books I had for him, plus his brother’s colouring books and word search books and puzzle books, over and over again. He fussed on and off, but never with much conviction. Unfortunately, he now demands a movie and his soother on even the shortest of car trips to the grocery store, but we can wean him of that one over the summer. In the end, he was a trooper!

We sedated the big boys with a DS and a game boy, and a separate DVD player that they only used on the very last day of the trip. Simon found that playing the handheld games upset his stomach, so he spent a lot of time either looking out the window or watching Lucas’s DVD player from the seat behind him. Tristan would play the video games for stretches, but then put them away of his own volition.

We did go through almost two full packages of gravol. I cringe at the idea of them consuming that much medication, but both Simon and Lucas seem to have inherited Beloved’s childhood susceptibility to motion sickness, so we gave them each a dose each morning, and any day we’d be spending more than an hour in the car. And Tristan took advantage of a dose on the ferry, during some choppy seas in the Bay of Fundy.

The other part of the actual driving that had worried me was cramming everything into our little Mazda 5. With one back seat folded down, though, and the roof rack, we had more than enough room for everything we needed. We packed two large suitcases and one overnight bag, a booster seat, an air bed and pump, a big bag of extra shoes and hats, and a backpack for each boy, plus two bags full of toys and activities, my camera bag and the lap top easily into the car with room to spare.

I’m so proud of how well the boys behaved in the car, and how well they traveled. Lucas only asked a few times, “What are we doing?” and told us he wanted to go home not too many more times than that. I don’t think Tristan uttered a single, “Are we there yet?” and Simon finally learned that asking doesn’t make the trip go any faster. My “magic bag of tricks” full of snacks and books and playdough and crayons and a handful of other small diversions definitely made the trip easier, but I have to give credit to the boys and their inherent good natures. That’s what made the trip easy.

It’s only been a little over a day since we got home, and I’m already looking forward to the next road trip. If we can do 3,420 km in nine days, we can go *anywhere*!!

Taking the ferry across from Digby, Nova Scotia to Saint John, New Brunswick seemed like a good idea in theory. It’s more or less the same amount of the day eaten up, but instead of driving up and around the land portion where Nova Scotia meets New Brunswick, you take what is as the crow flies a much shorter route, 72 kms across the Bay of Fundy.

With a three hour crossing, though, the time spent in the car seems to be more or less the same, except letting the boys out for three hours in the middle of the trip seemed like a much better alternative than having them strapped in the car for all that time.

Or not.

They were, um, a little squirrelly on the ferry. Out on the deck, up on the upper deck, down again. Into the “arcade” (three ancient video games) and out again. Sit, flip through a book, up again. Over and over again. I had a brilliant flash of insight based on desperation about two-thirds of the way across, and asked the purser if there was any way to arrange a visit to the wheelhouse. (Is that the right word? The cockpit of a ferry is a wheelhouse, right? Ugh, I am such a city girl.) And to my surprise and delight, he brought us right up!

There was another dad up there entertaining his kids, and they each got a turn to steer the boat, too. The crew was great — they were explaining all the levers and dials to us, and they told Simon that the old (but still functioning) telegraph system from the old days was actually the torpedo and they used it to torpedo the whales. I think the kids still believe him!

Then the purser introduced the crew by name — the captain’s name was Mark and the first mate’s name was Danny. I laughed out loud and said, “Wow, my name is Dani and my husband’s name is Mark, and it’s our anniversary today!” The crew chuckled, and the other dad there with his kids said, “Hey, it’s our anniversary, too!” Turns out we were married on the same day AND we’re all from Ottawa. And that’s when the crew laughed rather nervously and started talking about looking for some salt to throw over our left shoulder!!

In all, the ferry was a long trip that smelled like fried fish on the inside and worse on the outside and that seemed to take about six hours instead of three. Next time, we’ll bank the $200 and drive the long way around! But, props and thanks to the Holiday Inn in Saint John (the *only* nice thing I can say about Saint John) who left us a bottle of wine, two wine glasses, and three bottles of water and a bag of BBQ “Crispers” for the boys when I called up in advance and told them we’d be arriving on our anniversary. That’s a lot better than last year at Great Wolf Lodge, when all we got was a chipper, “Well! Happy Anniversary to you!”

We’re home now, but I have more stories to tell, including five ideas that saved the trip, our new favourite obsession, and the story of a bloggy playdate. But for now, I have a whole lot of crap to put away!

After spending most of the last week driving in and out of and through Lunenburg, I’m pretty sure that either the whole town is colour blind, or the housepainters are on some trippy drugs.

I mean, really!

And the view from the harbour is even more riotous with colour:

Even their old abandoned boats are beautiful!

And to think we started out in all that colourless fog. Ottawa is going to seem positively drab by comparison! I’m thinking of painting my house that hot pink from the first picture above, and the trim in that lime green. How much will the neighbours love me?

Sometimes when you’re on vacation, you have to let go of the plan and go with the flow.

Today, our last full day in Nova Scotia, we’d planned for a morning fishing trip and an afternoon drive up the coast to see the lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove. But when we arrived in Lunenburg at the wharf, the fishing boat was out and would be another hour. We decided to head out to Peggy’s Cove for the morning, and do our fishing adventure in the afternoon, but before we were 10 minutes out of town we’d managed to make two wrong turns, the baby was melting down and another boy was complaining about tummy trouble. We scratched the Peggy’s Cove plan and wandered around Lunenburg for a bit hoping that everyone would settle down a bit. By the time we’d explored for a while, the hour had elapsed and we were able to head out to sea after all.

We had the old fashioned fishing boat and Captain Fred all to ourselves, and we started with a pleasant little jaunt around Lunenburg Harbour. Then we set anchor near the (snicker, it’s true) Highliner fish plant, and put in our lines.

Can you see the stoic look on the littlest one’s face? He was not impressed, right up until I showed him how to crank the reel, and then he was (snicker) hooked. Tristan got the (only) catch of the day, a good 3 or 5 lbs of flounder. (And? A flounder is a spectacularly ugly fish!)

So we never did make it out to Peggy’s Cove, but we can always save that for our next Nova Scotia vacation. Come to think of it, we didn’t see a single lighthouse the whole trip. Isn’t Nova Scotia supposed to be lousy with them?

My mom wrote me an e-mail telling me she was loving the pictures, but maybe I could hand the camera off to Beloved every now and then, she’s quite sure he wouldn’t break it, as she’d love to see a couple of pictures of me with the boys.

Here ya go, Mom! Me and the boys on the cliff at Ovens Park, with the big blue ocean behind us.

(I guess smiling into the sun with your eyes open is an acquired skill. Tristan was *trying* to smile for you!)

Edited to add: and here’s a little mosaic of our very laid-back Canada Day at the Lunenburg community picnic. After five solid days of adventure, we all needed something simple and low-key, and this was just the ticket.

(There are a few more pictures here!)

It’s been foggy since we arrived in Lunenburg around dinnertime the day before yesterday. Funny, we drove into Halifax/Dartmouth (to pick up the keys for the luggage rack!) yesterday, and the fog seemed to have pretty much lifted by mid-morning, but as we drove back down scenic Highway 3 (“The Lighthouse Route”!) around dinner time the fog started rolling in again. I’m not sure it actually lifted around here!

You know what, though? I don’t mind the fog. It’s not raining, and it’s not really cold, although it is damp and I worry a bit what all that moisture is doing to my camera! But the fog makes everything so ethereal and enchanted. Like this, I think my favourite picture since we arrived.

Did you know the white balance setting to get the colour right on fog is daylight, and not cloudy? And that there is as much light, if not more light, in fog than on a cloudy day? I’m becoming a “shooting in fog” expert!

It’s actually starting to roll back out to the ocean this morning. I can see further into Lunenburg Harbour than I’ve been able to since we got here — we’re up to maybe 100 feet instead of 30! And the stuff on land is a little less foggy, too. The fog is really not so bad, though, for two reasons. The first is that I really don’t have much to fear of an ocean I can’t see! And the second? Foghorns. All through the night, you can hear the foghorn going off. At first, I thought they were on the boats, but I think they’re fixed at the edge of the harbour so the boats can hear them. Maybe boats have their own too?

Just before the fog started to lift this morning, around 6:15 while the rest of the house was still sleeping, I stood on the porch and filmed this little video to remember that mysterious, beautiful sound of a foghorn on a still summer morning.

It’s supposed to be sunny and warm for the next three days, which is exactly the weather I’d hoped for. But I’ll miss this for the rest of our trip. It’s… magical.

Fog + ocean + porch = Best! Coffee! Ever!

The fog still hasn’t lifted enough for us to see more than five feet into the water, but I can tell there’s a huge bay out there by the sounds of the foghorns calling out to each other, and a distant clanking.

So amazing!

So I’m in Nova Scotia, and I have a lot of stories to tell you already. Like torrential rain for eight straight hours of driving, and the inevitable bit where someone barfs (not me) and someone misses an exit (also not me) and we end up lost and really unhappy for a bit. And the bit about how the Queen arrived in Halifax the same day as us, and the part about how un-freaking-believably beautiful this little house on the ocean really is, and how it’s so foggy I can’t really see more than five feet of ocean but I can hear the fog horns calling out to each other. Truly fan-fucking-tastic.

Nope, this is the story about how my mother is on the way to the Ottawa airport to the Fed-Ex people there, and how I’ll drive to Dartmouth tomorrow to pick up the package that she’s overnighting to me. The package with the key. To the roof rack. With half our luggage, including all the boys clothes except the ones they were wearing yesterday, and all our jackets, and most of the boys toys. Oh yes we did. We locked the Thule rack up nice and tight the night before we left, Beloved hung the keys on the hook, and there they stayed.

Heck, I was planning on heading up to Halifax eventually anyway… tomorrow now seems like the perfect day to do it! Oh, and if you want to see the pix of day 1 on the road, Ottawa to Grand Sault, NB, they’re on Flickr!

Much more to come — for now, I’m going for a walk in the fog at the edge of the ocean… with my boys and my camera. Life is good, and my mother and father are truly a treasure.

Thanks Mom and Dad! I owe you (another) one. Wait, I think after Beau’s great escape, we might be even on this one. 🙂

Edited to add: by the way, UPS told them it would take up to four days and cost $65. Fed-Ex shipped it from Ottawa to Dartmouth from 6 pm to noon tomorrow for $25. Yay Fed-Ex!