Welcome to Our World...

It was time to leave Canada. We arrived at the American border in New Brunswick and went to cross into Maine where we were greeted by a pleasant and polite border patrol officer. She asked us to pop the trunk to have a quick glance and she sent us on our way with a smile. We were expecting a worse experience than we had coming into Canada, but it was the other way around from our anticipation. We passed by a lone gas station on I-95. Seeing as we had a half a tank of gas, we elected to wait until we had 1/4 left. We drove through the peaceful interstate admiring the red, orange, and yellow leaves of the autumn trees. Much of the area was scarcely populated. We went a long way and nearly ran out before we found a gas station we could fill up at. We decided it was time to replace two of our tires as the nearly 4000 mile trek had worn these older tires nearly bald. The last thing we needed was to end up stranded after a sharp rock punctured them. We pulled into a Walmart a

Nova Scotia was without a doubt our favorite place on this road trip. From the moment we passed into it to the time we left, we were awestruck by the natural beauty the province offered.  We made our way into Cape Breton Island and stayed at a small motel in a small city called Whycocomagh. It's a rural community with a small population and no distractions.  We got a nice lake view from where we were staying and we ate at a small diner frequented by locals just down the street.  Our main purpose for coming to this little town was so we could explore the famous Cabot Trail; specifically the Skyline Trail. We hiked 8.2 km at a 455 m elevation.  Here are some pictures we took of our adventure.  Our next stop was  Halifax .  We went to Peggy's Cove. Peggy's Cove is a small rural community located on the eastern shore of St. Margarets Bay in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality, which is famous for the Peggys Point Lig

Oh Québec City.. We fell in love with it as soon as we walked in. Our first destination in this city was Quartier Petit-Champlain. Given the atmosphere, we felt as if we'd gone back in time as we walked along the cobblestone streets admiring the old style building. There are so many stores, boutiques, bistros, and people. The stairs are really steep. Because of that, they are famously known as the "Breakneck Steps." It is the oldest stairway built in 1635.  From across the street, you can't miss the magnificently beautiful hotel building, Château Frontenac which we at first thought was a museum or something similar.  We then climbed the stairs to the famous place in  Québec City, Terrasse Dufferin (Dufferin Terrace). The are so many local artists singing and playing instruments around the terrace, and you can see a beautiful view of St. Lawrence river. There are benches, gazebos and (interestingly) cannons with the fact that it was actually a military fortif

Montréal is all about breaking stereotypes. The stereotype about Canadians with nice manners? Montréalers eagerly prove that wrong. Stereotypes that Canadians are courteous drivers? Montréalers will run you straight off the street to put that perception to rest. Now, we don't mean to generalize, but we come from a city of horrible drivers. With as bad as Louisville traffic is, Montréal takes the cake. We stayed in a small apartment (read: basement) in Rue Radisson during our visit. Every apartment in this city looks exactly the same. It was a nice, clean apartment with two twin beds and a kitchen so we were able to cook some food. We spent the night to rest and enjoyed the free wifi this apartment provided to explore the places we wanted to visit. We actually planned to go to the Jardin Botanique de  Montréal until we found out that the ticket was $20.50  CAD   per person. We know, we know, we're cheapskates but Montreal was the 4th destination on our road trip and

Ottawa is within French Canada and as such, most people speak French as their first language. The signs of course are also mostly in French, which is interesting. We stayed in a motel in Gatineau area. It was a very old motel judging by the furniture but at least it serves breakfast for free and when on a budget vacation, we were not really picky about where we  are staying.  On our first night, we had dinner at a bistro not far from the motel. Upon our arrival, the waitress approached us by giving us the menu book and started speaking French. We were advised by some of our Canadian friends to say, "je ne parle pas français" which means I don't speak French as a polite response so they will speak English instead to us.  It actually felt like we were in a city somewhere in France instead of Canada. The next morning we visited Rideau Hall. Since 1867, Rideau Hall was the official residence in Ottawa of both the Canadian monarch and his or her representative, the G