Welcome aboard the M.V. Joseph and Clara Smallwood!

Lots of things have happened since I last had the chance to put some words down in this space. Circumstances of the last few days have made it very difficult to update properly. Nevertheless, an itemized list of events!

1- Bay of Fundy National Park. A fairly beautiful location with many steep slopes, providing a gorgeous view of the park at the peaks and valleys. While some of the trails are kind of boring (The wildlife seemed to be avoiding us), taking the trails near the shore provide the best returns. Though it's a very long trail, the Point Wolfe path, that leads to an inlet, is a very worthwhile path, so long as you don't mind a little off-path wandering. At the end of the path is a beach, with, depending on the tide, a little brook running underneath the pathway. At the head of the brook is a small waterfall climbing a great deal of the way up the steep slope. There are plenty of footrests and climbing spaces, so I heartily recommend climbing up the waterfall. It just gets better the higher up you go. We also went climbing over the rocks leading to the bay itself. Not especially pretty, but a good workout. Sadly, the camping did not go so well. Due mostly to a small oversight on our part, making food over the campfire proved a very long and exhausting task. In addition, light rain combined with the low temperature made for a very wet and unpleasant morning. I'd still highly recommend going, but check the weather beforehand.

2- Halifax. I expected Halifax to be a place very similar to Saint John. Confusing roads, up-and-down navigation, and an overall poor layout. At first, we had great difficulty getting into Halifax proper. Getting onto the bridges leading into the city proved a difficult task, and once in the city, promptly lost us. A little help from some locals got us to a place where we could stay the night, and review the layout of the city for the next day. (Note: the place we stayed was pretty awesome) With a new perspective on the road plan, Halifax became a much easier city to drive in. We found our way to the places we were trying to go with relative ease. On top of that, the city had a very pleasing environment. Lots of trees and parks, and the people on the roads seemed much less agitated than the ones in Saint John. All in all an apparently laid-back city, with roads that take some getting used to, but not overly complicated.

3- Cape Breton Island. I expect in Canada to deal with road signs in English and French. I was a little surprised to learn that a great deal of the signs about Cape Breton Island are in both English and apparently Celtic! I'm not sure how well the pictures of the signs came out, but it did add a feeling of difference to the island. Also, there is no real bridge to the island. There's a pile of rocks with a road over it. That's how you get there. Paved rocks. Again, pretty beautiful scenery, much in the same vein as the Bay of Fundy Park, but a much different local attitude. We were rushing to make our ferry appointment, so we didn't get too much into the local flavor, but we'll probably make another pass once we're finished touring Newfoundland. Accommodations on the island so far haven't been really impressive, but it's not the worst we've stayed in. That prize goes to the next point.

4- The M.V Joseph and Clara Smallwood. The 20-some hour ferry from North Sydney to Argentia. It's not a bad boat by any stretch. It's got food and sleeping quarters, and the like, but none of it seemed to mesh well with us. Rather than roll gently over the waves, it'd go smoothly over two or three, then shudder and shake uncontrollably for the next few. Again, not overly nuch, but it was distracting. There was also not much to do on the boat. With the amazing, all-encompassing Atlantic fog, there wasn't anything to see above deck, and below deck was mostly just seating and meal places. We spent almost the entire ride in the sleeping bunks, which were a feature unto themselves. Pretty much just a metal plate bolted to the wall, with a thin plastic mattress and sleeping kit on top. Not amazingly uncomfortable, but unfamiliar enough to rob us of just about any sleep at all, making the trip after landing exceedingly dangerous. Loading and unloading was fairly painless, so I don't expect our much shorter Port-Aux-Basques to North Sydney trip to go badly. There's probably more story here, but I think I'll leave it to Mark to write that up.