Where I’ll update this blog Saturday.

Also coming soon.

 Coming soon.

  Renting a car can be very expensive and even more so if you plan to rent it from one place and leave it at another.   So that’s why we had to rent three different cars on this trip.

  We arrived in Montreal and rented a car for the first three weeks.  We headed back to Montreal after our time in Quebec City to trade cars. 

 The cheapest way to drop off a car at another location is to rent it for one day.  So we dropped off our first car, picked up another in Montreal and drove it straight to Toronto (five hours) and rented a third car. 

  and then we headed up to Haliburton (another three and a half hours).

  Charlottetown to Quebec City is too long a drive to make it one day so we stopped in Edmunston New Brunswick along the way.  Not much to report there.  It was a nice trip, some beautiful scenery but uneventful.

  Quebec City was as beautiful as advertised.  It’s great to walk around the old part of the city and “Les Fetes de la Nouvelle France” was on while we were there.  There were many events going on with people dressed as they would have been 400 years ago in New France.  Next year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City, so that should be a great party.

  We spent our days walking through the town and also took the tour of the Plains of Abraham where the decisive battle was fought between the French and English which led to Canada becoming anglophone instead of francophone. 

  We went to  some great restaurants where the boys once again had chicken wings while Alyson and I enjoyed the local cuisine.

 Our list of top chowders while in the maritimes:

1. Fish Chowder at Keltic Lodge in Ingonish.  It was the best I’ve ever had.  Almost had seconds but the fish and chips were coming.

2.  Fish Chowder at Red Shoe Pub in Mabou.  A close second.

3. Clam Chowder at wharfside restaurant in Boston.  Can’t remember the name of the restaurant but it was in a bread bowl.

4. Fish Chowder at Fish Bones in Charlottetown.  Not as good broth, but lots of shrimp and clams.

  We had a great time in Prince Edward Island with Dave MacEachern, his wife Triona and their boys Connor (9), Declan (6) and Seamus (1). 

The first day (Friday,July 27) we headed out on our own to Brackley Beach, which is directly north of Charlottetown.  It was packed with people, the weather was a scorching plus 30 and the water was a very nice.  However, there were a lot of jellyfish in the ocean, which meant a lot of dodging when we were playing catch with the football.  And I had to swim about 100 metres accross the water when Patrick missed one of my perfect throws and the ball started to drift out to sea.  That was after a few minutes of arguing about who should swim after it.

 On the Saturday (July 27) we headed out to Dave and Triona’s cottage; they were getting it ready for renters.  After they sorted things out we took the five minute walk to the beach.  Most of P.E.I.’s beaches on the north part of the island are behind big sand dunes. The beach near their cottage was pretty much deserted, unlike the crowded beach of the day before.  We had another great day at the beach.

  That night we had a steak and lobster feast at Dave and Triona’s house.  There were too many lobsters to eat!  We filled up and the boys didn’t even ask for chicken wings.

  Sunday July 29th was a birthday celebration for Seamus who turned one year old.  We headed to the beach again and had another great day with some of Dave’s family and friends. 

Dave and Triona own two gyms in Charlottetown.  One is a pilates studio downtown where Triona gives classes and they also have personal training.  The other is Dave’s gym at U.P.E.I. where he trains high level athletes.  I went to a workout session on Monday downtown and was stiff for two days.  Alyson went to a pilates class later that day and said it was the best she’d ever been to.

  Monday night Alyson went to Anne of Green Gables with Dave’s sister Marilyn and one of her friends.  I took the boys to Harry Potter.

 Tuesday we were heading out of town but were supposed to drop by Dave’s gym where he was training Brad Richards of the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The boys were going to get autographs.  Unfortunately, it was the first day of tuna fishing season and someone invited Brad out to fish, so he skipped training that day.  Dave promised to send along a few autographs later.

  We headed off the island on July 31st. Thanks to Dave and Triona for a great time!

  After a night at Margaree Forks on Cape Breton Island, we headed out for P.E.I. the next morning.  Along the way we stopped at the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou for lunch.  It’s owned by two of the Rankin Sisters.  It’s a nice little place with a good chowder.  Patrick had chicken wings and Jack had tortiere (which he didn’t like because it had onions in it).

  The ferry for P.E.I. leaves from Pictou, Nova Scotia and you can’t book a spot, it’s first come, first served.  We arrived at about 3:00 o’clock for the 4:30 sailing and were told it was touch and go whether we would get on or not.  We might have to wait til the 6:30 ferry.  As it was, we were the second last car allowed on the boat.

  After the short ferry ride, we headed into Charlottetown where we were booked into the Banbridge Inn, which is owned by Sean and Gael Ferris.   Gael is the sister of Dave MacEachern, who was my bobsleigh commentating partner for the past two winter Olympics. 

  We headed downtown for a bite to eat that night and settled on “Fishbones”, a  seafood restaurant (go figure).  And guess what the boys had?  Chicken Wings.  I had the chowder, which wasn’t my favourite kind.  It was big chunks of shrimp, clams potatoes and fish in a cream base (as opposed to everything all chopped up).

  The Cabot Trail is a highway around the north part of Cape Breton Island.  It’s absolutely beautiful.  A lot of it is through Cape Breton Highlands National Park where we stopped and had the best bowl of fish chowder on the trip.  That was at the Keltic Lodge at Ingonish.   Jack and Patrick had the chicken wings.

  After lunch we hit the beach for an hour before getting on the road again.  The trail winds along the coast with soaring cliffs and beautiful views of the ocean.  It heads inland accross the top of Cape Breton and then again down the west coast.  There are breathtaking views all along the way.  No wonder it was voted one of the seven wonders of Canada by CBC.

  We had intended to spend the night in Cheticamp but when we arrived the entire town was completely booked up.  One of the motels directed us to a place in Margaree Forks, which was another thirty minutes down the road.  It was a road side motel with a pool that hadn’t been cleaned in a while and beds that had seen better days.  But at least we didn’t sleep in the car.

  We spent five days on the Mira at the Hopkin’s cabin.  Cliff and Kay Hopkins are Lynn’s parents.  Lynn and Rodger Cuzner are friends of mine from Fort McMurray 25 years ago.  Rodger was my colour man for junior hockey for one year and the director of recreation for the city of Fort McMurray.  He was also a hockey coach and now he’s the member of parliament for Cape Breton (liberal).

  The weather was great the whole time we were there.  Some of the highlights included boat trips up and down the Mira (which is a river but it’s so wide it looks like a lake), jumping off the bridges that cross the river, jumping off the rocks at the gut, spotting a bald eagle 15 feet above our boat with an eel in it’s mouth, jumping off the boat for swims in the various coves of the Mira, Keith’s beer, water skiing and jumping on the trampoline in the yard of the cabin.

  Rodger and Lynn have three boys, Mitch, 19, Scott, 16 and Brad, 15.  Mitch was in Halifax but the other two boys came out to the cabin quite a bit to hang out with our boys. One night we went into Glace Bay where Scott was playing drums in a battle of the bands.  The boys had a good time watching that.  Rodger and I went and visited his mother and father that night.

  Some of Rodgers’s quotes to the boys: “are you supposed to be the smart one?”, “Okay, here’s the plan Patrick, you quit school, get a job…..”

  We had a great time and headed out for the Cabot Trail on July 25th.  Thanks Rodger and Lynn!