Canadian Maritimes

Our last real travel was in November of 2019, to Sicily with OAT. That was before the pandemic. Almost three years since then and we have not been to anywhere except short driving trips around MA and to see daughter and grandson in Philly. So many things have happened/changed in our personal life in these few years. We lost our beloved old dog Djuna; we sold our house and are waiting to moved into our new townhouse in a 55+ community; our other beloved dog Iubi had splenectomy surgery and has gone through chemo sessions.

Now with Iubi having finished his chemo and doing relatively well, we really want to go somewhere that we can take him with us! Bob had wanted to see Cape Breton in Nova Scotia and I wanted to see more of that area, hence this trip! The few places we plan to spend night time are as follows, in time sequence:

Bar Harbor, Maine;

Moncton, New Brunswick CA;

Halifax, Nova Scotia CA - which was later changed and we stayed in Moncton instead.

Sidney, Nova Scotia CA;

Charlottown, PEI CA;

Bangor, Maine;

For the places where we stay more than 1 night we hope to take day trips driving to nearby interesting places. And we hope to visit interesting spots driving from one stopping city to the next. Looking forward to this trip!

Taking Off, Arrived in Bar Harbor, Maine. Sept 11, 2022, Sunday

We left the rental apartment around 11:30am, 1.5 hours later than planned, due to nothing special, just wanted to put the laundry load into the dryer. Five and half hours later, we arrived at the Bar Harbor Regency Holiday Inn. We stopped once at the highway rest stop near Kennebunk for the boys to relieve themselves, another time somewhere in Maine to get some ice cream.

This is the first time we stayed in this specific hotel. It is almost right across the street (Rt 3, aka Eden St.) from that Days Inn we stayed 1 night in June with Caleb and could not wait to get out. And it is next door to the ferry terminal, then the Atlantic Oaks hotel which is no longer Atlantic Oaks and no longer allows dogs. After we moved all the stuff into the room (Rm 107 on the first floor), fed Iubi his dinner, we then walked Iubi to town and came back shortly before 7pm. At the entrance to our floor, Bob tripped and fell, scraped his arm badly. Fortunately no big harm done! Phew!! We then drove out again, first to get some first aid stuff, then looked for a place for dinner. Our original plan was to eat at the “Salt and Steel” restaurant – the Yelp reviews were all good about its food. Unfortunately, it is closed on Sundays. We finally decided to go simple – we went to the Aloha Poke place (which we tried once with Caleb in June). Even though it cannot be compared with the poke we had in Hawaii, it is decent, and the price is reasonable. We each had a poke bowl and a beer – our first and only meal after breakfast. Not bad! Then we scouted out the “Thrive” breakfast place one of our morning walk friendly lady recommended to us – thinking we will have that for breakfast tomorrow.

Back to the hotel around 8:30pm. Set up Iubi’s crate which he happily examined and accepted. After writing my diary, I will watch a little TV and call it a night.

It was a day of travel from point A to point B, nothing really worth writing. Oh, I must say this hotel is not bad. Our room is close to the side entrance. Outside the entrance is a rather large parking lot which is not crowded. The ocean is right nearby and there is ample place to walk Iubi. They do charge a rather heavy fee, $75, for the dog – I assume it is per stay. But we are staying only 1 night. Also, bar harbor has much more tourists than I expected at this time of the year, especially down town.

Bar Harbor to Moncton NB Canada; Sept 12, 2023 Monday

Last night’s experience at the hotel had to be my first ever …. After the shower I got into the bed and sat there watching TV: CNN has the 9/11 event 21 years ago and Bin Laden’s killing on. After a while, I suddenly felt cold and damp – found out my night shirt and underwear were all damp. I could not believe it! I sat up and started examining the sheet. Wow!! The sheet was wet!!! Looked like the mattress was wet and the moisture soaked through after my body weight stayed there for a while. I jumped out of the bed, woke up Bob, did not know what to do …. Too late to call the front desk asking for remedy – what can they do? Change the mattress? And with our dog in the room ….. Ugh! So I took my top bedding and squeezed into Bob’s bed. Could not sleep until after 2 or 3 am ….. Finally dozed off, then woke up before 5, then dozed off again till almost 8! Got up, fed the dog, took him for a walk to where West Street joins Eden St. and turned back. We then went to breakfast at the hotel. By the time we checked out, it was almost 11am. Reported the bed event to the front desk. They apologized but did nothing else ….. Oh well! My first such experience with all these years’ travel!

The drive between Ellsworth and Bar Harbor is much much longer than I expected, especially on the way into Bar Harbor the day before. Border control between US and Canada we're going to is in Calais. There is really not much to see or do on the way. I had wanted to see what Machias is like (since the nice Korean lady from the Westborough restaurant moved there). Today we drove through that town. It was really really small! I went into a yarn store and really learned how small that place was. Don’t think I could live in that kind of a small town ….

By the time we went through the border control it was after 2pm. It turned out that they DO require a form to be filled. But when Bob checked online a month ago he was told US citizens do not need to fill that form. Today we were told we must! But we’re allowed once such omission, otherwise they would have to send us back to the US. Sigh ….

We're in Canada now!

Across the Canadian border the first town was St. Stephen. It felt much nicer than the area on the US side – seemed more civilized…. We stopped and took a few pictures by the water front. Many many flying insects! Quickly ducked back into the car!

The next stretch of driving was LONG! We wanted to see Bay of Fundy and stopped at an information center to ask. The lady there gave us great information. It turned out that today it was too late for us to see the few nice areas (note that we lost an hour because the time zone changed – 4 pm became 5 pm). So Bob decided we should change our stay at Moncton to 3 nights and cancel Halifax. Moncton is a much more convenient center point to see Bay of Fundy. I called the Holiday Express at Halifax and cancelled it, and called Crown Plaza at Moncton to change the 1 night to 3. This is actually better – I don’t have to pack/repack/unpack two days in a roll!

Checked into Crown Plaza in downtown Moncton around 6pm. Nice lady at the front desk. But the hotel location and room left MUCH MUCH to be desired! This hotel is indeed in downtown, among all the other hotels such as Hyatt, Hilton, etc. All tall buildings, with very little grass …. And this facility is quite old! Narrow hallways smell very stuffy. Our room is 203, on the 2nd floor (ground floor, lobby floor, first floor, then our second floor….). It is quite small!! Old room conditioning system, loud and inaccurate control, small bathroom ….. Sigh!! The only good point is perhaps they take dogs!

After feeding Iubi, we took him for a small walk – to the convention center across the street where there were a few small patches of grass. That was already 8pm. We had not had a meal since leaving the hotel in Bar Harbor. We were hungry and would like to find some decent oriental restaurant. The few listed on Yelp with decent reviews turned out were either closed for good or closed on Monday. We finally found a place called Osaka Hibachi. It was still open and turned out to be quite good. We each had a ramen noodle soup and some beer. We walked out of the restaurant around 9:20pm. By the time we came back to the room after taking Iubi for a little walk, it was almost 10pm. I’d better call it a night now. Hope NO wet bed tonight!!

Bay of Fundy, NB Canada; Sept 13, 2022 Tuesday

Today’s plan was to see Bay of Fundy as much as we can! We did not get to sleep until after midnight (local time), so today we did not get up until almost 8am. After the morning chores, we left the hotel around 11am.

Our first stop was Hopewell Rocks where there are the famous rocks in the bay which you can see all over the internet if you google images of bay of fundy. I did not know the place is called Hopewell Rocks, and I did not know the famous rocks are called Flower Rocks – I guess it’s because these bare rocks jutting out of the ocean/bay have green plants growing out of the top! So this was a specific park that you must pay entry fee. Nicely organized! There were multiple trails, none very long, paved with loose gravels (DANGER! Quite slippery especially at steep places). We took Iubi with us, so did a lot of others with their dogs. But everyone had their dogs on leash and all were courteous towards each other. We first visited the Diamond Rock, took a couple of photos. Then we went to the flower rocks. It was quite foggy but we could still see the rocks. We did not try to find out the low and high tide schedule until we got to the park. Today’s low tide was at 9:15am, high was at 14:33, i.e around 2:30pm. By the time we got there it was already after 11:30am, way past the low tide point. But it was still possible to walk on the sand around the rocks if you want. And they have sprinklers especially for you to wash off the sand. Many people did the walk, we had no interest …. I took photos at the higher and lower observation decks. And we planned to be back at high tide time in the afternoon!

Iubi was again a big hit – got lots of compliments! Sweet boy!! Glad we were able to let him walk the pleasant trail!

The map of Bay of Funday was a bit confusing. It turned out there is the Bay of Fundy national park, which unless you plan on hiking or camping, there was not too much to see, especially with the heavy fog. We drove through it. Then there was the Fundy Trail Parkway, which was really really pretty!! Lots of scenery points, observation points, etc. etc. To drive along that path without stopping from the east entrance to the west entrance takes about 45 minutes. We planned to mainly drive down to the west point, kind of scout out the various points, then stop to look at various places on the return drive. It was very very foggy, to the degree that if you stand by the view points, you could see nothing in front of you! We did not mind because the fog added some mystique and dreaminess to the whole thing. Bob had to stop many times for me to capture the S curve road. The drive took us quite a while! By the time we came back to the Hopewell Rocks, it was WAY past the high tide! By almost 3 hours! We took the same trail to the flower rocks. And the tide was almost the same as what we saw in the morning, minus the fog perhaps. Chatted with the rangers. They told us that today the difference between high tide and low tide was more than 40 feet! We missed it!! Sigh .... Must come back again! Catch the low tide, and just wait there for 6 hours!!

Back to the hotel after 6:30pm. Tried to feed Iubi, but he only ate Dr. Martin’s dry food,, maybe a cup – did not seem to be interested in eating so I did not try the can food. He only ate half this morning …. Then we went to this Malaysian restaurant called Cinta Ria which closes at 8! We got in just in time. The food was quite good! We were both happy! Back to the hotel, fed Iubi some more Dr. Marty. Glad he ate.

Now I need to get on wechat with my friends – did not dare to use the cell bandwidth during the day because yesterday I exceeded the limit and the high speed no longer worked, and the low speed was unusable!

Tomorrow our plan is to drive to Lunenburg and Peggy’s Cove near Halifax. But it will be a rainy day …. Worried how we’re going to take care of Iubi ….

Lunenburg & Peggy's Cove, NS Canada; Sept 14, 2023 Wednesday

It’s been a LONG day of driving (for Bob) – we left the hotel in drizzling rain around 11am, back to the hotel in darkness around 8:30pm. Out of the almost 10 hours, Bob was driving for at least 8 hours! Very heroic! Were the places worth it? Oh well ….

Lunenburg was our first stop after more than 3.5 hours of drive. Aside from the beautifully painted cherry red colored houses by the water, I would not say it’s worth that much drive. It was a fishing town/village, a little bit like our Rockport, but not as well organized. Some houses were much older and more casual, others were more contemporary, sort of …. Narrow old streets, a few quaint old churches …. I got out of the car at the pier, trying to capture a few shots, but could not really find the right spot or light. Snapped a couple videos for memory. The scene I saw on the internet must be taken from across the water, and we did not have the time to do that.

Next stop, Peggy’s Cove near Halifax, which was about an hour’s drive away. Wow! That place was definitely worth a visit!! Those BIG rocks by the ocean!! More lovely and more impressive than our favorite rocks in Bar Harbor! I was SO excited! Really want to get on all those rocks! But we were pressed on time, and the wind was very strong! Plus the sun was from the wrong angle to take photos of the light house and the entire parking area. We finally were able to let Iubi out to pee but put him back in the car before the two of us took a small tour on the rocks. Felt guilty for not being able to take Iubi onto one of those big rocks!!

After leaving Peggy’s Cove, we started our way back. Bob drove along the coast line for a little bit before getting on the highway. By this time, I was very very hungry. Our original plan was to go to the French restaurant Huan recommended, to splurge a little for my bday, but it’s too late for that. So we stopped at a McDonald’s and had our nuggets, 20 pieces each, then getting on the road again. Sigh …. Maybe we will make up the dinner some other day, IF there is a good restaurant!

Iubi did not eat too well. Tried to feed him a can of Evanger turkey in the morning, he ate half before we went to breakfast. We had to put him in the car while we ate – leaving him in the room would risk him opening the door and running out. Fed him the other half of his breakfast, had to force feed him a little ....

Now it’s 9pm. I fed him 1.5 cup of Dr. Marty food – he ate well. Need to take him out for a good walk, then feed him a little more.

I turned 74 today ….

Sydney, Cape Breton Island, NS Canada; Sept 15 Thursday

It’s been a pleasant day, even though Bob had to do a lot of driving, as usual.

No rain today. We left the hotel in Moncton around 10am (after the pleasant surprise that all our three days’ breakfast was included, and no pet fee! Even though the hotel facility leaves much to be desired, the service was top notch! BTW Our room’s AC was broken yesterday so the front desk changed us to another room, 204, which was right across the hallway from 203. We did not have to pack everything, only the night’s essentials (which took me a lot of trips). The new room’s AC worked fine. I actually slept well.

Bob decided to drive the first stretch on the small coastal roads, which were much more interesting! We saw the Canadian farmlands, cows, sheep, horses, hay bales …. Nice! Most of the time the sky was covered by heavy clouds, but the sun came out now and then. We were on the small roads for about two hours. Then we got on the highway, for about 3 hours, before we got to our destination, Sydney, on the Cape Breton Island. We had to drive across a causeway to get to the island from the mainland.

We got to Sydney around 4:30pm. This small city certainly cannot be compared with Toronto or Montreal, but it is a pleasant small city (or town?). Our room is again on the 2nd floor – I guess all the Holiday Inn Hotels are the same way – 2nd floor is for people with pets. But our room is SO MUCH BETTER than the one in Moncton!! This facility is much newer. It is by the water – a lake. After I got everything organized, I fed Iubi – he was hungry! He ate his full can of food willingly! It made my day!! We then took him for a walk by the water front – very pleasant! But the weather has certainly turned rather cold. Plus it was windy. Bob and I both changed into long pants. I will need my sweat shirt tomorrow.

Next thing: food! When we yelped, all the restaurants here seemed to close early. Many close at 8pm! Some even 7pm! One of the best rated ones is “The Olive Tree”, serving Italian/Mediterranean food, so we decided to try it. It was a few minutes drive from the hotel, and seemed to be in a residential area. Unfortunately it had a sign saying they’re fully booked for today. Disappointed! But we went in regardless. Surprisingly they decided to let us eat! We were very impressed with the food!! Had a wonderful meal! The host was actually the owner. His name is Gerard. He grew up locally, spent 10 years in Toronto, then came back. The chef was a rather accomplished one, used to cook for some important people. And he was really good! Will give our good reviews on Yelp and TripAdvisor!

Back to the hotel before 8 – how nice!! First time since we left home that we did not feel rushed. Iubi ate another cup of Dr. Marty from my hand! I felt so relieved! Boy seems to have lost weight again ….

According to the weather forecast it will be raining here tomorrow, so we decided to stay local – drive to Louisbourg and maybe some other places. And we will save the loop drive (i.e. the Cabot Trail) for Saturday when it is not raining. That is the main focus of this trip! Maybe I should not get my hopes up too high now ….

Around Sydney; Sept 16, 2022 Friday

It was the slowest day of the trip so far. Because of the weather forecast of rain today on Cape Breton, we decided to do the Cabot Trail loop tomorrow which is supposed to be a better day weather wise. Today we really did not know if there’s anything to do aside from the Louisbourg fortress. So that was our first target. We knew ahead of time that the fortress ground does not allow pet, but we should be able to walk Iubi in old town and outside the fortress. Louisbourg was quite close to Sydney so we got to the fortress before 11am. It was one of the best maintained/restored fortresses I’ve ever seen! Neither of us had any interest in going in, so we parked at the outside parking lot and walked Iubi. It was right by the ocean. Across the bay there was a light house. There was no rain but heavy clouds. The sun went in and out, making the sky quite interesting. After we left the fortress, I googled it and learned a little of the history. It was a French fortress and the British captured it in 1745. The fortress is a Canadian National Historic Site.

After leaving the fortress, we drove to the light house, which looked much better from afar. Getting close, one can see the peeling paint. It really needs to be painted at least. We stopped there and walked around a little with Iubi. It was right by the ocean and the wind was very very strong! Even though I had enough clothing on, I did not feel too comfortable. I must constantly hold on to my hat. And it was quite chilly.

Then we drove towards the hotel taking the small ocean side roads. Bob heard from the waitress at breakfast that it was a pretty drive, but not really to us. We did see scattered houses by the ocean at this remote place ….

Back at the hotel around 2pm. Bob took a nap, so did Iubi. I tried as well but could not fall asleep, so I watched some random TV. On the way back I started feeling not well so I was hoping to rest which I did, even though I did not sleep.

Around 3:30pm we went to The Olive Tree again, to have an early dinner/late lunch. We each had their spinach salad which was excellent! Then I had the fish and chips and Bob had a burger. We each had a cup of soup. I think I had enough of that restaurant. It is no doubt a good restaurant! But the fish and chip was not that tasty – it was really bland. I did not want to tell the owner that …. My pasta last night was also a bit bland. They don’t have salt on the table …. Their best thing we had so far was the spinach salad!! I think this is an upper scale casual dining place, mainly Italian. They do not have a baker so no home made fresh bread ….

After the early dinner, we went to the mall hoping to find me a beanie cap – did not expect it to be so chilly. We drove to the Mayflower mall which had a sporting good store called Sportchek. But they did not have beanie hat in the store yet. Finally we found one in the store called Winners which was like our Marshalls.

Back to the hotel around 5, fed Iubi – he ate well to my greatest joy!

That was our day. I’m putting too much hope on tomorrow’s loop drive. MANY spots to see and hoping to take photos. We need to be up early.

The Cabot Trail; Sept 17, 2022 Saturday

Oh what a day!! We left the hotel around 9:30am, returned after 9:30pm – without having dinner and grabbed two 20-piece nuggets. Came back first fed Iubi – poor boy was really hungry. He has been such a sweet and good boy!! After he ate his can food, we ate our dinner, then I fed him another cup+ Dr. Marty’s. It’s after 10:30 now. We will take him for a stroll before we all go to bed.

It’s been a fantastic day! We saw as much as we could on this first trip to the Cabot trail loop and I took as many pictures as I could with my iPhone. Did the best I could – there are a few decent ones, I think. At the Keltic Lodge we took Iubi and started walking the trail to the Middle Head, which was about 2km each way – the trail was very uneven, with lots of old tree roots, up and down …. We walked less than half the way to the end, I was afraid Bob might trip so he decided to stay on a bench with Iubi, and I continued forward, because everyone we met on the path said it was worth it. Well, I made it there. It was nice – the vast Atlantic ocean, the rugged rocky shore ….But was it worth the more than one hour’s time? Not sure … And by the time I came back, I had no legs any more. The distance does not faze either of us, but the tricky surface of the path made it quite difficult ….

So we stopped at the information center when entering the Cape Breton Highlands national park. The nice lady was very helpful and marked all the places we could see some good scenery. We were not able to see everyone, but we saw most of them. I hope to load all my photos and mark the places I could remember.

We really lucked out on the weather!! When we started today, it was cloudy. Then the sun came out. And the clouds made the scenery much much more interesting! The Atlantic ocean and the shore line were simply breathtakingly beautiful! The wind continued to be strong, making it quite chilly. I was very glad I got that knitted beanie yesterday!

Today I stopped at a couple stores and bought a few pewter necklaces. Hope Caleb and Shanyn would like what I got for them.

Won’t write more today. Too late. Tomorrow is another long transit driving day, to Charlottetown PEI. Need to walk Iubi now.

To Charlottetown PEI; Sept 18, 2022 Sunday

8:40pm now. We are in Charlottetown PEI, already had dinner, a very comfortable satisfactory Vietnamese dinner, and had the famous Cow Creamery ice cream. Now back at the hotel Holiday Inn Express and Suites, finished our ice cream, and Iubi is in his crate happily chewing his tar tar shield bone.

First relaxed evening of this trip, after a 7+ hour drive from Sydney to here. Did not even have to eat McDonald’s!!

From the little we’ve seen, Charllottetown is a really lovely small city. The city center feels like Cambridge, on a much smaller scale and cleaner, newer, with nice classic well maintained buildings. Such a contrast from what we had seen since crossing into PEI where there were vast farmlands.

I was on text messaging with Ming and Eric most of the way. Ming was on a business trip to England and met up with Eric. He sent me a picture of them two and we started chatting. I used up all my .5 G high speed cell allowance and paid $5 to double it for today.

This hotel Holiday Inn Express and Suites is a relatively new one. It just so happens that all the three hotels we stayed on this trip in Canada are the Holiday Inn chain hotels, because they accept dogs. They are pretty good, especially the ones with newer facilities. We’re in room 145, on the ground floor, with easy access to the outside. The hotel is not right in the town center which works out well for the dog – more outside space to walk him and let him do his business. Kind of interesting that some hotels have a charge for the dog, others don’t. The worst hotel of this trip was the one in Bar Harbor – a total ripoff! We paid around $500 for that one night including $75 for the dog, with me having a wet bed! Ugh!

We don’t have a definitive plan for the two days in Charlottetown. We will explore the couple of parks where we can walk Iubi, and drive around. Won’t bother with the museums or historical buildings, just not practical with the dog.

Oh today we came to PEI via the Confederation Bridge (vs the ferry). It was a really impressive bridge – 8 miles long, the world’s longest bridge! This bridge crosses the Atlantic ocean! Quite unbelievable! The toll is $50.25 Canadian, but is only charged one way from PEI to New Brunswick, so we did not have to pay coming here.

We had dinner at the place that used to be called Saigon Bistro (not sure about the current name). It is in the city center area, in a residential house. The food is not exactly the same as the Vietnamese food in the US, but it tasted good. I had the noodle dish with meat and vegetable. Quite homy! Wish I had such food in the last few nights when we got back to the hotel late …. We’ll have to have at least ONE meal of Canadian seafood this trip, hope we can find a good place!

Call it a night now.

South Shore of Charlottetown, PEI; Sept 19, 2022 Monday

It has been a relatively relaxing day, mainly because we really did not have any set ideas on where to go or see. Googled what to do/see in Charlottetown PEI, the 10 or 15 top attractions did not all speak to us, especially since we have a dog. We just wanted to see ths island and hopefully capture some good scenery.

We were up and about before 8am. Fed Iubi, then left him in the car (which he is used to now, no anxiety – if we leave him in the room he would be very anxious and bark) while we went to have breakfast. Well, it was the kind of included breakfast, all ready-made stuff, which I hate. I was going to go somewhere else, but Bob decided to eat something so I ate a couple of boiled eggs. Definitely would not eat there tomorrow. Quite a lot of people – a tour bus unloaded a busful of people in the hotel last night ….

Then I turned on the TV and watched the queen’s funeral. Bob then went to the information center to get some advice on where to go, while I stayed in the room watching TV, with Iubi. I would have loved to watch the funeral broadcast all the way, but we had to leave to start our tour after Bob came back. Even though I don’t know much about the queen, I have a lot of respect for her, and feel really sad for her passing ….

We drove along the southwest shore line, explored various seaside spots, saw three lighthouses that are not terribly impressive, especially from the angles we could see. The entire landscape is very appealing to me, vast, beautiful, tranquil, with very few people. The furtherest southwest shoreline spot we drove to was Victoria, a small quiet fishing village. We were going to have lunch there. Stopped at a well rated place called the Oyster House, but learned from a local that NOTHING is open on Monday in Victoria! Oh well …. She told us that there is a restaurant called Blue Goose that would be open, only a couple of miles away. So that was where we went. It was a local convenient store + restaurant by the road side, nothing fancy. We each has a lobster plate (like a lobster roll). I also had a chowder which was very good! We were happy. After lunch we drove to a place called port Amherst where there were some trails by the ocean and a couple of light houses. Not particularly photogenic, but at least we got a little walk in, with Iubi. Then we drove back to the hotel, for the necessary pee break. Fortunately this place does not seem to be too huge, or at least we did not drive too far out. Coming back to the hotel seemed quite quick.

We took off again around 2:30pm. I wanted to go to the Victoria Park in Charlottetown – recommended in the 10 or 15 things to do. I was hoping to take a good walk with Iubi. It turned out to be right in the city, and there is a long boardwalk right by the ocean. On the other side of the walk is green lawn, kids playground, etc. There were kids playing, people walking, I decided to skip it. We then drove to point Prim where there is a light house. I slept most of the 45 minutes drive. The light house was the best one we saw today! Unfortunately there was not a good spot I could get a good photo. Oh well …. We took some photos and came back. Got to the hotel before 5:30pm. On the way we stopped at the famous St. Dunstan’s Basilica, took a picture of its outside.

Fed our hungry boy after we came back to the hotel. Then we went out to feed ourselves. Found a Thai restaurant from Yelp called Lai Tai, which got good reviews and it was not far. We got there. It turned out to be one of those that you order the food from the counter, you can either carry out, or eat there – they had a number of tables. We ate there. It was just OK. Won’t go back.

That was our day today. It will rain tomorrow starting around noon, so we have the morning to go somewhere for a walk. We will probably drive to the north shore, the PEI national park areas. The landscape is supposed to be different from what we saw today. We will see.

North Shore of Charlottetown, PEI; Sept 20, 2022 Tuesday

It’s not yet 4pm and we’re back at the hotel. The weather has been very kind to us – did not start to rain until after 2pm! We left the hotel shortly after 8am and headed out to a diner which Bob found on yelp, as neither of us could stomach the hotel free breakfast.

The diner was indeed quite good – friendly and efficient service, well cooked eggs, toasts, etc. Nothing fancy but just what we wanted! After breakfast, we started driving towards the north coast.

Our first stop was the Greenwich beach, which is part of the PEI National Park. Very nice beach and environment, unfortunately it is closed so no facility is open. The beach does not allow dogs and we did not mind that. There must be birds there – might be a good birding place. We took some photos and a nice walk with Iubi, on the well-laid-out wooden walk.

Next stop was the east point lighthouse, which is the east most point of PEI. Nice view of the Atlantic ocean – so vast! We took some photos, and I explored the small gift shop.

We decided to take the coast route around the east point, along the south shore to come back to the city. It seemed that the south shore line is more developed than the north. There are a lot more nooks to explore, unfortunately we did not have the time to poke into every place. And somewhere the rain started – fortunately not pouring rain. We did not try to explore any small town, just drove mainly along the coast line then came back. Very happy of today’s exploration. Iubi got a few walks – he seemed to be very happy to be in the car. Every time we took him out for a walk, he always seemed eager to get back in the car. Silly pup!

We will go to that Vietnamese restaurant for dinner tonight, after feeding Iubi.

Our vacation pretty much ends today – tomorrow we’re driving to Bangor Maine and stopping at the Fairfield Inn there for one night, then on Thursday we will drive home. I must be back at 1:30pm to catch my 3pm bone density scan appointment. Life will return to the normal boring but relaxing routine again.

Have to add some more: we’re back from dinner. The Vietnamese restaurant is closed today so we went to a restaurant called “Splendid Essence” – a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. Learned about it on yelp but when I heard it was a vegetarian restaurant I had no interest. Then I read the reviews – raving reviews! Someone who loved meat gave it the best review. So we decided to try it – OMG!!! It was THE BEST meal we had this entire trip!! I wish we could stayed a few more days just for this restaurant! We only tried a few: the vege soup, the vege dumplings, the olive vegetable fried rice, the shanghai cabbage with mushroom, the eggplant and tofu pot, and a fried thousand-layer steamed bread for dessert. I pretty much licked clean every dish! As I guessed while we were eating, the chef is from Taiwan. Every dish was elegantly prepared, SO TASTY!! Wow ….

As much as we loved PEI, don’t think we will come back again – there’s not too much for us to do. I’ll really miss this restaurant!!

Bangor Maine; Sept 21, 2022 Wednesday

Back in the US! Now at the Fairfield Inn in Bangor. We left Charlottetown PEI around 8am, got to the hotel in Bangor around 2:30pm (3:30pm PEI time). It took us more than the estimated time, including more than half an hour wasted looking for a bathroom. The highway we took to Calais Maine was more than 200km long and there was no rest stations anywhere. To get to a rest room, we googled and ended up driving 20 minutes each way, off the highway, to a gas station. Wow! Need to remember this so if there is a next time we need to make sure we plan in what town/village we can stop to get gas and go to the rest room!

Bob felt he could have driven all the way back home today, but it was too late to cancel the hotel reservation. It’s good that he gets to take a rest. After we got to the hotel and settled down, we went out to take Iubi for a walk. Bob found there is a walk path along the river where we took a good walk, even though not too long. Iubi was such a good boy!!

After the walk we decided to have an early dinner/late lunch as both of us were quite hungry. From yelp we found a Vietnamese/Thai place which got good reviews of its food. We went. It turned out to be a place even lower than a dive …. In a neighborhood that was not the best (as one of the reviews said, but not as bad as I feared, at least I did not feel unsafe). The place was in a revised garage. It smelled of kitchen/cooking grease as soon as we stepped in. There were a few tables/benches outside, and two tables inside. I wanted to come out as soon as I stepped in, but I thought about the good reviews about its food, so we stayed. The young girl behind the counter was not terribly welcoming, and we seemed to have a little communication issue placing our order of two drunken noodles (a little spicy – she corrected me saying they can only do 1 or 2 star spicy, so I said 1). And we ordered 1 order of the fresh rolls with chicken, which came with no chicken I could see, only tofu. The table we sat down at was sticky. We waited for a long time, finally our food came. The drunken noodles were very good! I would give it at least 4 stars! Tasty, with decent amount of wide rice noodles, vegetables, and nice sauce. No wonder people gave good reviews of its food!! But the environment really took away from the food ….. If we were ever in Bangor again, and if we cannot find any better food, I would order takeout from this place.

We had our meal really early! It was not even 5pm when we got back to the hotel! I fed Iubi his can food and pills, will feed him another cup of Dr. Marty later – this seems to be his routine now, he needs a little break between the can food and dry.

Tomorrow we will be up early as we must get home before 1pm.

Home! Sept 22, 2022 Thursday

I forgot to write the details of today, so I'm trying to remember this day now - 9 months later.

The only thing that I can remember is that it rained SO VERY HARD that day - Bob was driving and he could not see anything ahead of him - blinding rain!! Very scary! Don't know how he did it!

We got back to the apartment safe and on time.