Kernville, Nova Scotia July 27

Drove here on 24th.  Went to see Grand Pre in the evening.  It is a memorial to the French speaking settlers called Acadians who  were deported from here in 1753.  This land had passed back and forth between the English and the French but finally the English won out.  The French had gotten along with the local Indians for 100 years, but they did not like the English.The English were afraid theAcadians would help the Americans against them, so they came in one day and called the men to a meeting and arrested them.  A poem by Longfellow called Evangeline made this event famous.  They shipped them southward, but some places would not let them in, so they spent many years drifting around.  Some went to Lousiana and settled in the New Orleans area.  What we were interested in was the fact that they choose this land because it was a tidal flat of the Bay of Fundy, and they thought they they could make it good farm land.  They built dykes to drain the land .  We were told it took 2 years for the rain to wash the salt out of the land so they  could farm it.  What did they have to eat in the mean time?  So after all that hard work, the English shipped them out with nothing separating families as they did it.  The next day we drove 130 miles down Digby neck to go whale watching.  Saw lots of blue whales and birds called petrals who swam around with their head under water looking for fish and a few puffins and seals.  It was lots of fun! The next day we drove to Halifax and looked around the city.  Started with the Citadel which is an English fort where they have people dressed like the Scottish soldiers in their kilts  like they would have been around 1870.  They were marching around drilling and practicing shooting off their muskets  and cannon.An interesting fact was that all though the fort was built on the harbor, it was built to defend the land.  They said other forts on islands in the harbor were built to defend the harbor from ships. The fort is on a hill over looking the harbor.  We walked down the hill and went to a Maritime Museum which had lots of boats in it.  We had a very English lunch- fish and chips- very good.  Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia.  Enjoyed looking around there.

July 24th Prince Edward Island

Arrived here on 21st.  Prince Edward Island is a large island about 100 miles long.  Beautiful rolling farm land - bright gold flowers we were told were canola flowers.  Potatoes and corn and barley are  big crops here also. Had some excitement when we were setting up the trailer.  The handle came off the water spicket when dad  was attaching the handle and a very strong  plume of water was shooting out.  He was afraid it would hurt the trailer and tried to direct it away while Becky  ran to the office to tell them  All they knew was to call a plumber who turned out to be on vacation.  The maintenance person did not know what to do, so Becky asked for another site.  Becky  ran back and tried to cover the water with her hand while dad moved the trailer.  We left water spouting in the air.  First thing we did after we got set up was go  to a lobster supper at St Ann's church.  They have been putting them on there for 40 years.  It is a big business-long lines waiting to get in.   They had a Irish country and western player who was fun to listen to.  It was great!  Thought we would sit at a long table with others so we could talk to some Canadians, but we were placed at a table for 2.

We are camping in a national park which is very nice.  Canadian parks have showers and laundry mats.

 Some people are camped on the hill right over the beach. The beach has sand, but it is red with out croppings of red rock that is so soft you can rub a line in it.  The water temperature is 64 degrees.  I could not bring myself to swim in the water, but dad did.  It is the Florida of Canada. There are Band Bs every where.  We took a long beach walk.  Drove to a near by town and walked a board walk around their bay and ate some of the oysters from that bay- Malpeque.  There is a famous book called Ann of Green Gables which was about a girl who lived on this Island.  We went to the house that the author lived in and talked about in her book.  Walked a trail around the dunes and some the places the girl in the book talked about.  Today we drove to another beach to a beautiful inn on the beach and rented bicycles and biked up and down the trail which followed the dune lines.  It was fun.  This area is covered in wild roses.  It is one of the reasons it is so lovely. Today the ocean is very rough.  Yesterday it was smooth.

Fundy National Park

Thursday July 21

Hi kids.  It is BB- Barney Bear.

We like the Campground here.  Nice wooded lot where you can not see anyone else around.  The National Parks here are much nicer than ours.  They have showers, golf, a room nicely set up with skins and 2 wood stoves, a salt water swimming pool right on the Bay of Fundy.  The funny thing is that all most everyone we have talked to comes to Florida for the winter.  Canadians are very nice.  We walked down to a pretty water falls and a trail through the woods.  The woods here are full of ferns and moss also.  Today we drove to Hopewell rocks. Very interesting.  We are told that there have not been very many people here from the US in the past 2 years.  This place had lots of tourists but we saw only 5 cars from US.  There were a lot of French speaking people from Quebec.  We walked around the rocks when the tide was out.  We wanted to go kayaking among them when the tide came in but the wind got too high and the tour was cancelled.   Had a wonderful lobster tonight.  They are as expensive here as they are at home but really fresh and good.  Also they have soft shell lobsters but they are not in yet.      

At Bay of Fundy New Brunswick, Canada

Hi kids,
We arrived here 3 days ago.  We are staying in a campground bout 30 feet from the Bay of Fundy.  The picture is of me waiting for the tide to come in.  Here tides go out 30 feet.  At low tide you can walk a block out in the water.  Like all this area the beach is covered with stones, so if you wanted to play on the beach, you would gather stones.  There are no shells or sand.  We walked out to some caves in the side of a cliff the first day we were here at low tide.  We went back there today and the caves could not be seen.  They were under water.  We went to a church supper yesterday where they served Salmon.  I learned that there is no such thing as commercial fishing for salmon.  All salmon that says it came from the Atlantic is farmed raised.  Over 500 wooden boats were made here in the late 1800s- early 1900s.  Timber cutting was the main employer is some little towns.  A lot of the lumber was taken by ship to England to make ships and other needed things.  England had all ready cut down most of their trees making ships.  All most everyone I have talked to goes to Florida during the winter.  It is very cold and snowy here.  The big thing they do here  and all up the coast from Maine up is  catch lobsters in little wood traps they put on the bottom of the Bay.  They are stacked up all over the place and every restaurant serves lobsters in hot dog buns for lunch.  I had fish cakes for lunch yesterday  Went to a market  in St Johns that has been around since 1880 and got the fish cake there.  The fish was mixed in with mashed potatoes and fried.  It was okay.  I got a dish called poulain.  It was french fries covered in something like mozzarella cheese and gravy.  Hmm.  Went to see a place there called Reversing Falls where the water from the Bay of Fundy is suppose to come in so strong in the river that the water falls flow backwards away from the sea.  It was going backwards, but it was more like a rapids than a water falls.  We took a trip up a road called Fundy trail today and saw a pretty water falls and beautiful  views of the Bay.

Saturday, July 16 Arcadia National Park

Arrived here on Thursday afternoon.  Staying in a very wooded campground.  There is no running water or electricity here, so we run a generator to refill our battery for an hour once a day.  It is hot during the day but the breeze is cool.  Bob was going to save water by taking a shower.  He got all his stuff and walked down to the bathrooms.  He forgot that national parks have no showers.  I think it is awful.  It is very crowded here.  They say a quarter of the US population lives within a days drive of here.  There is a free bus service to all the surrounding towns to try to keep cars down.  The park has the typical Maine rocky coast line with moutains behind it .  One interesting thing is that about 30 feet from the water line water flows through the pebbles down to the sea like springs in the rocks.  The park does have a couple of sandy beaches which are extremely popular.  We went to the big one Thursday evening before the crowds descended on it.  We drove around the unpopular side of the island to day to get away from the crowds and took a quick  cold swim at a small sandy beach called Echo lake.  It was beautiful.  We hiked on a carriage road this morning.  Rockefeller wanted roads only for horse and carriages so he began building these 16 ft wide roads through this area before it was a park.  Bikers love them.  No cars allowed.  They wind around about 50 miles.  We went to a unpopular area and had few other people on the road.  We have mainly driven around the island but have taken a few walks on the cliffs.  Drove up to the highest point on the east coast- Cadillac Mountain 1500 feet.  If you are here at Sunrise, you may be the first person in the US to see the sun. This is the 2nd time Becky has seen the rocky coast.  The first time was the Calf. coast. The area reminds her of Point Lobos there- beautiful, dark blue water roaring over rocks.  We went to Thunder rock where the waves crash into a hollow cave that really hollows. Tired of one way roads that make it take a long time to get anywhere and anxious to get to Canada, so will leave a day early- tomorrow.

In Maine

Hi again.

Next we went to Kennebunk and Kennebunkport Maine to see the houses there.  They are more like normal houses- not castles.  We saw the house of former president Bush.  The next day we drove here to Rockville Maine.  We saw the Farnsworth and Wyeth museums with paintings by painters from New England the most famous of which is Andrew Wyeth.  Most of his paintings look like black and white pictures.  The other paintings looked too fancy compared to his simple ones.  We took a walk a mile out on a wall called a breakwater which is built  to protect the boats in the harbor.  It stuck out all most a mile in the water and led to a light house.  It was made of large blocks of granite in 1891.  Then we walked down to the river where we are staying through a field of purple flowers that smelled wonderful.  If you know what they are anyone, please let me know.  Today we went to the Owls Head transportation museum.  It was wonderful. Becky fell in love with cars for the first time in her life.  They had different engines, early cars, and early airplanes all of which they use occasionally.  Wish we had had more time there.  Wish we could see these old cars and planes in action at one of there shows.  The picture is of me in front of one of them.  Then we took a 2 hour ride on a 45 foot long windjammer into the harbor here.  We saw a few seals going by.  We love this little town.  Would like to stay longer here.  The flowers are beautiful.  We have seen Rhododendron all over and wild roses and beautiful blue and lavender flowers called Hydrangea and pink and white dog wood.  It has been hot in Main.This town has the largest fishing fleet for lobster in the US.  Every restaurant has fresh lobster.   We have had lobster in some way for the past 4  days and wonderful mussels.  We cleaned our trailer and clothes today getting ready to go into Acadia national park tomorrow for 4 days.   Do not think we will have water or electricity there.  Do not know if we will have Email either.  Will write you when I can.  Would love to here from you kids.

   

On the road

July 8th

 Hi everyone.  I am Barney  Bear.  I am traveling with Bob and Becky Clapp ( often know as Grandpa. Grandma, Mom, Dad, or friend.  We have been traveling north since June 25th.  As you know, we started our trip going to see Nana and Papa.  Then we spent 4 days in the mountains of Virginia.  I had forgotten how beautiful they are.  Logan, Miranda, Nathan, and Cameron can follow our trip on a map if they want to.  We then went up and spent time with Heather, Rob, Nathan, and Cameron at Swallow Tail State park almost in West Virginia.  Had a good time climbing on the rocks there.  Then we went home with them and headed to New York to see Becky's cousin.  Then we arrived here in Newport, Rhoad Island.  We came here to see the enormous homes rich people built here on the water.  They are ridiculously big.  You can see me in front of them.  The beaches here are very popular but not as nice as ours in FL.  Most of the coast line is covered in rocks, so a sandy beach is pretty rare and popular even if the sand is not very nice.  We took a walk on a trail along a cliff and got to see a lot of the fancy houses from there.The next day after we got here we drove to  Mystic Seaport to see a museum of old wooden sailing whaling boats where they restore the boats and show how they were built..  The next day we drove to Old Bedford to see another museum about whaling boats.  Got to climb in them.  Very neat places.  The houses here look very different from ours.  Many are covered in dark wood shingles about 6inches long by 8 inches tall.  We went to a farm and picked raspberries.  It was the first time we had ever done it.