Maritime Provinces

I usually have my laptop with me on vacation, but I haven't been able to close my lid since it was broken in August 2025. So instead of writing a post for each day of our recent trip to Canada, I'm going to just summarize the whole trip in one post.

On this trip we went to many National Parks. Our pass had expired in May, so we purchased a new annual pass at the Vanderbilt Mansion. Our purchase paid for itself on the first day we had the pass because the tours at Vanderbilt and FDR's home cost money for those over the age of fifteen. No tickets were needed to tour Eleanor Roosevelt's home. The kids each earned seven Junior Ranger badges during the trip as we also visited Saint Croix Island International Historic Site in Maine on the way to New Brunswick as well as Salem Maritime, Saugus Iron Works, and JFK's birthplace in Massachusetts on the way home. I had included an eighth US National Park site in the itinerary (Frederick Law Olmstead), but we skipped it so we could get home a little earlier on Sunday night. We didn't need to buy an annual pass for the Canadian national parks because they are free for everyone from June 19- September 7. The only exception was we did pay for a guided tour at the Fortress of Louisbourg. While we were in Canada the kids also earned some Xplorers dog tags. This is the Canadian version of the Junior Ranger program. In 2018 the kids completed the Xplorers program at Fort George in Ontario. On this trip they earned one at Fundy National Park (New Brunswick), Alexander Graham Bell (Nova Scotia), Signal Hill (Newfoundland), and Green Gables Heritage (Prince Edward Island). We had to pay $4 each for the kids to do the one on PEI. There have been a few times over the years that we've had to pay for the kids to do one in the US. At several sites the Xplorers program has been eliminated in Canada so the kids were not able to earn a dog tag at the Citadel in Halifax, the Fortress of Louisbourg, or Gros Morne National Park. We didn't end up hiking at Terra Nova National Park or Cape Breton as planned, and we were at Cape Spear before the visitor center opened. Of all the National Park sites we visited, Gros Morne was my favorite. We went on several hikes there and also took a two-hour boat tour of the Western Brook Pond, which is a gorgeous site (reminded us of Alaska). On one of the hikes we were walking on the mantle. Just counting US National Park sites, our family has now been to 182 of them (out of 433 total). Nadia has earned 238 Junior Ranger badges, Ian has earned 237, and Oliver has earned 226. 

We also enjoyed some beautiful places that were not part of a National Park. We hiked to the Hopewell Rocks. Unfortunately, it was at high tide. I wish it had worked out to visit there at low tide like we did when I went with my family 25+ years ago. We walked on the rocks near the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, saw the sea arch and Spillars Cove in Bonavista, walked between Cavendish Beach and the Cliffs on PEI, and hiked the gorgeous Skerwink Tral in Port Rexton. That hike was one of my most favorite experiences of the vacation. In terms of animals, the highlights were seeing many puffins, seagulls, and cormorants near the shore of Newfoundland and also kayaking near a harbor seal colony off the coast of Nova Scotia. Paul has the most diverse interests of anyone in our family, so I think he enjoyed almost all of the activities. Some of his favorite historical sites were the Maritime Museum in Halifax, Halifax Citadel, Fortress of Louisbourg, Signal Hill, and Saugus Iron Works. 

We were gone for twelve nights. Two of those were spent on an overnight ferry going between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Seven nights we stayed at a hotel, and five of those mornings we enjoyed a free breakfast. Two of us could have had a free breakfast at The Guv'nor in St. John's, but since it was only for two people and the restaurant didn't open until 8:00 am, none of us had breakfast there. Three nights we stayed at an Airbnb. The mattress that Paul and I found to be the most comfortable was the one in Rocky Harbour, NL. At two of the hotels, I was able to book a room that had three queen beds, which was nice as typically Nadia sleeps on a couch. One Airbnb I booked had three bedrooms, so Nadia got her own bedroom that night, and Oliver slept on a couch so downstairs so that he and Ian didn't need to share a bed. On Cape Breton I had to book two separate rooms, so Nadia got her own bed that night as well. Ian slept well on the ferry going in both directions, but most of us got more sleep on the ferry back to Nova Scotia. I definitely got more sleep on the ferry than I do on a red-eye flight. I was able to do two loads of laundry at the Airbnb in Bonavista on the evening of our 25th wedding anniversary. 

Not counting the two ferry rides, we had three other outings that involved being on the water. The first was a four-hour kayaking trip off of Nova Scotia. The second was the boat tour of the Western Brook Pond that was almost cancelled due to fog. I'm very glad it actually took place. The third was what Oliver chose since we were on vacation on his 14th birthday. We took a two-hour tidal bore rapids tour that included mud sliding. I wish I had photos of the kids covered in mud. I was especially surprised that Ian changed his mind and participated in that part of the outing because since he was a toddler he has never liked getting dirty/messy. The tides change more dramatically in the Bay of Fundy than anywhere on the planet. Thankfully the titanium in the sand keeps the water nice and warm. 

Since we were traveling in our own vehicle, we were able to bring along more food from home. In general, we tried to save money when it came to food expenses. Some highlights included the soft ice cream that we had near the entrance to Fundy National Park, eating a donair in Halifax (I was the only one who tried one), getting sandwiches from a grocery store multiple times, getting breakfast sandwiches and/or donuts at Tim Hortons and Robin's Donuts multiple times. eating pizza twice (Paul's favorite) and eating a meal at Market Family Cafe in St. John's. The food there was amazing and reasonably priced. Four of us thought we had our best meal on the trip at that restaurant. The boys really enjoyed eating at A&W one time as they loved the root beer served in a chilled glass mug. The most frustrating evening for eating was on August 10 because a crow damaged a transformer and caused a power outage that lasted 44 hours. The restaurants were all closed, and everyone was buying the food at the gas station and pharmacy so there wasn't much available. 

In general, my least two favorite aspects of a vacation are #1 not getting much sleep due to all different mattresses and #2 how exhausting and unpleasant it is to spend many hours in an airplane, ferry, or van. Not counting the nights on the ferry, I think the night we had the hardest time sleeping was the Airbnb we stayed in on August 7 because it was way too hot inside. I slept on the couch because I couldn't sleep upstairs due to the heat. As far as time spent traveling, we drove a little over 4K miles in 13 days. Eek! Then when we came home, we were home for less than 48 hours before we drove to Yvonne's house in Maryland and then on to Virginia to take Nadia to college. That round trip was a little shy of 1K miles, so we drove a little over 5K miles in 17 days. Our odometer turned over to 100,000 miles near the end of our trip home from Maryland this morning. We've had the vehicle for 5 years. I'm hoping to do VERY little driving in the coming months. I had finished the license plate game at the end of July, but Oliver wanted us to start again. So far in the month of August, we saw license plates for all ten provinces of Canada. Nine of the provinces we saw multiple license plantes, but we only spotted Saskatchewan one time. By the end of our vacation, we had seen plates from 40 of the 50 states (plus we saw DC). By the time we came home from taking Nadia to college, we had seen 46 of them. The ones we are still looking for are Arkansas, Kansas, North Dakota, and New Mexico. Paul and I shared the driving. As was the case in Europe, we encountered a lot more roundabouts than we do here in the US. We were in three different time zones. Atlantic is one hour ahead of Eastern, and Newfoundland is 1/2 an hour ahead of Atlantic. During the drives Nadia read many books (some on her Kindle as well as some physical books that she brought). Ian, Oliver, Paul, and I listened to all of Priest and part of Warrior by Jared Dodd. Ian played a LOT of chess on his phone. Both boys also played with the Nintendo Switch. Thanks to a free trial of SiriusXM, we also listened to some music although it was challenging to get a signal on Newfoundland. 

I have now been to 8 of Canada's 10 provinces as I went to 7 of them with my parents. Paul and the kids have now been to 5 of the provinces as they've spent time in Ontario on more than one occasion. If all goes as planned, we will travel to British Columbia and Alberta next summer with Nadia after she finishes her internship. Our next vacation will probably be to Utah (with a little time in NV, CA, and ID) without Nadia in the spring. We're planning to fly for both of those trips, so I hope those trips involve a lot less than 4K miles of driving, but I'm glad I finally made it to Newfoundland for the first time. It's my favorite province of the five that the kids have visited. 

Ontario take two

We planned to visit Ontario for the first time in September 2017 in conjunction with visiting Niagara Falls. After I accepted a job offer to return to BU that month, we cancelled those plans. We visited Niagra Falls and spent a day in Ontario in August 2018. In May 2020 we planned to spend more time in Ontario and visit Quebec for the first time in conjunction with a trip to New England, but that trip was cancelled. The New England portion of that trip ended up happening in 2022, but the COVID restrictions involved with crossing the border at that time meant we didn't visit Canada on that trip. We still haven't been to Quebec, but we spent two more days in Toronto this past Sunday and Monday.

The Bible quizzing competition wrapped up late on Saturday afternoon, and then we headed to the dining hall for dinner at 5:00 followed by the award ceremony and then some team photos. We were trying to leave as quickly as possible as we had a three-hour drive to Toronto. We spent two nights at a Staybridge Suites, which was very nice. There was a door separating where the kitchen and couch were, which meant that Nadia had more privacy as the couch is always her bed. After eating breakfast at the hotel, we drove into downtown Toronto. Our first two stops were the Ripley's Aquarium and the CN Tower. The Aquarium was nicer than some (ex. the Virginia Aquarium) but certainly not in the top tier. We'd rate our top four as the ones in Baltimore, Chicago, Camden, and Atlanta. Some highlights included a giant octopus, two cuttlefish (one of Ian's favorite animals), and watching a diver feed some large sting rays. Although the CN tower is three times higher than the Space Needle, which we visited last September in Seattle, I would say the overall experience is much better at the Space Needle. One pays quite a bit of money to basically just ride an elevator at the CN Tower. Our third stop of the day was at Fort York which is also in downtown Toronto. It was attacked by Americans in the War of 1812. It was free to visit this site, and we had a guided tour. 

Our cell phone plan doesn't include Canada, and so we had turned our phones on airplane mode as we neared the border on Saturday night. We had free Wi-Fi at the hotel which made it possible for us to use my phone to give us directions to the Aquarium/CN Tower. There wasn't any Wi-Fi at Fort York, which meant we had no way to use the phone to give us directions to the Toronto Zoo, but we managed to get there. We received a 50% off discount with our AZA membership. I was most looking forward to walking through the kangaroo enclosure, but sadly that ended at 3:00. Had we known we could have gone directly to that exhibit, but we didn't, and it was closed when we arrived there. We spent over three hours at the zoo. Similar to the aquarium I would say it was nicer than some zoos (ex. the tiny one in Delaware) but also certainly not one of our most favorites. It was a large zoo in terms of how much walking was involved. One of my favorite sights in that zoo was of a baby rhinoceros. 

We planned to have dinner at a Cheesecake Factory. There aren't any Olive Garden's in Toronto, or I would have chosen that since it's Nadia's favorite and it was the day before her birthday. Cheesecake Factory is one of her most favorite places, and I got a $100 gift card from credit card points. This was a mistake because I was forgetting that we couldn't use a US gift card in Canada. We plan to make other trips to Canada in the future as I'd like the kids (or at least the boys) to visit all the provinces of Canada, so hopefully I'll remember this lesson learned in the future! When we arrived, the wait for a table was 90 minutes long, and it was already after 6pm. It was located in a large shopping mall. We were in sticker shock when we looked at a menu of another sit-down restaurant in the mall, so we opted to eat in the food court. One upside is the exchange rate was in our favor, but a downside was the additional 13% tax added to everything. Ian, Oliver, and I loved what we chose to get in the food court. Ian has been wanting to try a chili dog, and his wish came true. Oliver always wants to try new foods, and he had dim sum, and I got a burrito from Chipotle. We did splurge (and I do mean splurge!) and got two slices of cheesecake to go on our way out, which was when we learned they don't take US gift cards. I think it was a blessing in disguise that the wait was so long. I think the prices were likely much higher than at the same restaurant in the US, and we couldn't use our gift card. Nadia got her own piece of cheesecake, and the boys shared s slice. Paul got a soda at a gas station as his "dessert," and I didn't get anything. 

On Monday morning we checked out of our hotel after eating another nice breakfast and used the free Wi-Fi to give us directions to Canada's Wonderland. We had purchased the dining plan that included snacks and drinks in addition to meals. It was a bit of a letdown as there were very few options for "snacks," but none of us went thirsty or hungry. There are 18 rollercoasters, but the kids were only able to ride seven of them. We arrived when the park opened and went right to a roller coaster, but even that first line was much longer than we expected. Paul didn't ride any rides, and I only rode one. In hindsight, we probably should have splurged and got the kids fast passes. We did buy them each a fast pass to ride one ride one time as we wanted them to at least be able to ride the three best rollercoasters one time. They did really enjoy those three roller coasters, but this was our worst experience in quite a while in terms of time spent waiting in lines. The park was open until for twelve hours that day, but we left 3.5 hours before it closed because we had to drive a little over 5 hours to get home. So far, the only time we ever bought the kids a fast pass was at Carowinds, and back then we only bought two because Oliver wasn't riding the big rollercoasters at that point. We don't plan to visit any more amusement parks this year, but we'll try to keep this in mind if we encounter really long lines at Six Flags in Texas in 2025 or at King's Island in 2026. The kids have now been to 37 different zoos/aquariums and 30 different amusement parks. 

It was hard to get up early on Tuesday morning as we didn't get home until midnight on Monday night, but the kids and I helped out at our church's VBS this week from Tuesday through Friday, and the teen helpers are supposed to arrive at 8:00 for a devotional with the youth pastor. Nadia helped with the fourth-grade girls, I was one of the leaders of the first-grade girls, Oliver helped with the four-year-old boys, and Ian helped with the third-grade boys. They provide a lunch for the volunteers, so we were there from 8:00-1:00 the last four days. On Tuesday Nadia also had a physical, and I mowed the lawn as we had been gone for five days. On Wednesday we picked some blueberries, and Ian had a piano lesson. On Thursday I took Nadia to get her learner's permit, bought Ian some sandals, got some groceries, and let Nadia get behind the wheel (in a parking lot) for the first time. Today I drove Nadia to the Wilkes Barre airport so she could fly to Chicago to spend five days with Rachel, Grace, and Wendy. Paul and Oliver left for a one-night camping excursion this afternoon. They'll get back around lunch time tomorrow. Right now, Ian and I are holding down the fort along with Milo and Lily. I'm thankful I don't need to go anywhere tomorrow, and the only place I'm going on Sunday is church because Paul is driving Oliver, Ian, and Xandir to overnight camp on Sunday afternoon. Aside from church on Sunday, I think I'll stay home sweet home until July 4 when I promised I'd give Nadia some more experience driving in a parking lot.