Sorry about the break... summer's getting busy already

As I said in my last post, Columbo arrived on 9th June for two weeks.

Guests are always a busy time. Well, not that there's extra business, just the fact that there is no lying around thinking about what to blog about time when there are actual friends here.

Not to mention blog time.

This time was particularly busy, as Kitty was doing exams at the same time, so there was coaching and prompting and motivating and of course it'll be fine and there-thereing to be done (having Columbo around helped as she shared the load on that). In addition, it's the start of the summer season so colleagues are coming and going and I generally have to be around in work, as I tend to take vacation in the winter. But still, we got a few days to hit the road and see a little bit of the Maritimes.

We headed off in the sunshine and went north into New Brunswick and got three days great weather, beautiful sunshine and enough wind to make it bearable (but not to get rid of the enormous mosquitos) and camped for two nights in French New Brunswick. Christ the mossies were big. Each morning we awoke at 5.30am to the dawn chorus, after which the sun came up and shone on the three million or so mosquitos circling the tent waiting, waiting, just waiting for us to slip up and open the zip.

A few got into the car and ate me alive the second day. Almost two weeks later, I am still covered in angry red bites all around my ankles.

We spent the first night in Kouchebouguac, a provincial park set on a lagoon about half way up the coast of New Brunswick. The warmest sea water north of Virginia apparently ... I thought that was Pictou County...

... well they're both in the lee of PEI, so maybe that's what keeps the water warm.

It was nice. Peaceful and the park people left us pretty much alone. We cooked steaks and drank some wine and listened to the wind die down and the birds go to bed and the fire crackle and then we crawled into bed.

About five minutes later we heard a clang as the top was knocked off our saucepan.

So I'm lying there hoping it's not a bear, but there aren't any bear snuffling noises so I hoped not.

More noises.

Eventually I clambered out of the sleeping bag and shone the torch on the cooler.

Nothing.

Next morning we discovered raccoons had opened the cooler, taken out the bananas, peeled them, eaten them and left the skins for us to dispose of.

And they had rolled all the eggs off the camping table to crack them so they could eat the yolks.

And left the shells along with the banana skins.

Raccoons.

Just like teenagers.

Next day we drove the Acadian peninsula and rolled into Caraquet about five, just in time to catch the Acadian living history village.

Nice place, but $15 each is a bit friggin' steep to watch a lot of local people sit around in old clothes pretending to run a farm.

I took careful note of how to make linen clothes from flax.

For the compound.

So we'll have clothes.

We camped just outside Caraquet and headed into town for dinner at the Chocolaterie, which was very nice and then did the fire thing again.

We got an amazing sunset and an amazing sunrise the next morning, over the Choc Choc Mountains in Quebec. That's where we were headed, but I looked at the map and thought about the drive home and we decided not to do it.

Maybe next time...

Still and all, it was nice to see another province for a change.

No moose but.

I'm never going to see a moose.