Trip highlights

[vaneramos]

Wake of the Grand Manan Island ferry, New Brunswick, August 22


We returned safely on Wednesday, but my Ethernet card is apparently shot so I don’t have connectivity in Guelph. The girls and I have come to Toronto for the weekend. Our trip was fantastic. I took 1,250 photos.

Here are a few highlights:

• The Cape Breton scenery was stunning, dizzying: cliffs dropping 435 metres (1,427 ft) into sea.
• We spent an idyllic afternoon on Brier Island, Nova Scotia, poking for crabs and watching seabirds.
• I added four bird species to my life list: black guillemot and common eider (Brier Island), willet (Cavendish Beach, Prince Edward Island), and greater shearwater (Black’s Harbour, New Brunswick).
• The studios and shops in Victoria, PEI, impressed us all. Thanks to lilactime for recommending it.
• We watched minke whales and the full moon rising from our cliff-edge campsite on Grand Manan Island, NB.
• Old Quebec was charming.

Ontario seems so flat! The Niagara Escarpment is nothing compared to the Laurentians north of Quebec or the cliffs of Cape Breton, northernmost end of the Appalachians. But arriving home after 7,200 km (4,474 miles), we were comfortably received by the long, soft arms of a familiar evening sun.

Further photos and reflections on the trip as time allows.