Vacation Update #1

Well, here we are in Sydney, Nova Scotia. We left Victoria last Thursday evening, flew all night, and arrived in Halifax at 6:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. PDT). We drove north 4+ hrs from Halifax to Cape Breton Island (Sydney). Spent Friday night here in Sydney, then Saturday morning we were up early (early for us West Coasters, anyway) and on the Maritime Atlantic MV Joseph & Clara Smallwood heading for Port-aux-Basques, NFLD. I should add that this is a 96 nautical mile/7 hour ferry crossing. DH always wondered why I wasn't so enthused on spending 7 days on an Alaskan cruise for our 10th anniversary (he ended up taking ds instead!) - I get sea sickness. Luckily, I knew this and had brought accupressure bands. Wearing them the entire team alleviated most of the nausea and we had a cabin with two bunk beds so we could rest comfortably, too. For some of the crossing you are on open ocean - no land in sight - and the Atlantic Ocean can get some good waves. Arriving in Port-aux-Basques, we drove 216 km north to the second largest city in Newfoundland, Corner Brook and spent the evening there (after dining in Stephenville en route). The next morning we were up early and were surprised to see the beautiful view from the hotel - the fantastic fall colours - truly amazing! - and a beautiful view down to the harbour. But we had to leave early and drive back down for the ferry ride back to Nova Scotia. The kids & dad went swimming at the hotel's pool last night and we had a tour of the Coast Guard College where dh is studying. The kids were very happy to spend the weekend with dad, after not seeing him for 2 1/2 months, and Dad had made a lot of effort to make us feel welcomed - veggies and dip on ice when we arrived at the hotel, flowers for dd & myself... little gestures like that.

Today we are going to be heading back South to Halifax. Depending on how we're doing, we might drive the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton Island on our way south; I'm not sure yet.

As far as eating raw on the trip, I'd packed my Vitamix and ended up at Sobey's buying fruit and veggies and juicing them in the hotel room, which works just fine. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a big 4L portable drink cooler and with some ice in it, it works very well at keeping an entire day's worth of juice cold and accessible. It takes me about 60-90 mins in the morning to juice and clean up; I'm sure I could do it faster in my own kitchen, but travelling alone with children everything seems to take a little longer.

Oh! And we saw a fox when we first arrived on Cape Breton - a real fox! I was so stunned, I pulled over and took photos. I'm sure people thought I was nuts, but I've never seen one before. And apparently there are moose around, although I haven't seen any yet.

I guess that's all for today. We're off to take our photo in front of the giant fiddle. :)