Thought I’d add some French culture today. How’s your French? If you actually know French and this isn’t right, blame Google. : )
We took a long day and went to three, yes three different National Parks (all free!!). First was Brackley-Dalvay where we rode our bikes for 15 miles (between Brackley and Dalvay) on a relatively flat, paved bike path along the shore. It was kinda weird for us riding alongside moving vehicles and not having to worry about it. We started well and finished pretty well, though the wind had kicked up again and was in our face coming back so it was much more difficult – for us anyway – especially me.
We stopped on a bridge to get this picture of a fishing village.
I don’t know the name of this, or even if there was one. It was just by the side of the road as we biked past.
The map of our bike trail
This is a hotel called Dalvay-By-The-Sea.
It’s part of the National Park, so we could walk around the grounds, the inside and use the facilities.
Looks really nice from a distance, but the outside needs quite a bit of work – painting, replacing window frames, etc. Surprising, since everything we’ve seen in Canada is so well kept.
You’ll want to look at the foreground on this one. : ) Creepy or cute, you decide. He’s a Newfoundlander and about the size of a St. Bernard.
Next was Anne of Green Gables. We were glad we didn’t have to pay for this one. Maybe if we’d read the book?? They had this constructed house, barn and grounds based on the descriptions in the book by Lucy Maud Montgomery that she wrote in 1908. The house was furnished like the book described and open to walk through, but there were so many people in it, there was absolutely no way we were going inside! All we did was look at the door and we could see that no one was moving – just standing on the steps inside and in the roped off hallways. Yuck!!
This is Lucy
Lucy’s typewriter she purchased nearly new in 1906.
Take a minute and look at the keys!
The House and Barn in the background
Preparing to go into Haunted Woods
Wouldja look at that! A golf course right in the middle of the Haunted Woods trail! Now THAT was a surprise!
If I remember right, this was Lucy’s grandmother.
They had these info signs all along the two trails there.
On our way to our last park for the day, we stopped alongside the road at a local park somewhere because they had a gazebo – and shade! Two women on bikes got the same idea at the same time, so we shared our small amount of shade with them and their tiny, but cute, canine friend.
When we got back to the Jeep, a woman in the car next to us told Blaine, “I put a note on your car.” Now seriously, what would you think? Yep! That’s what Blaine thought too. Did you hit my Jeep? And that just proves that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions! Turns out they were from Chagrin Falls and saw our OSU tire cover and Ohio plates and wanted to say ‘Hi!’ Wasn’t that nice of them?? Anyway, we got back just as they were getting ready to leave, so we talked for a few minutes.
Last stop – Cavendish in which the scenery was very similar to B-D, so we didn’t stay long. And we found our first Canadian tourist trap in the town of Cavendish – two or three tiny amusement parks, large mini golfs, antique picture-taking, etc. What a contrast from everywhere else we’ve been!
Just a view from the road on the way home.
And then the wind visited us again. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like it! It blew relentlessly for about 40 hours without relief! I’m talking gale-force wind! It took my entire body to close the coach door from outside! And you didn’t dare let go of it when you were going out! There were times I wondered if we would topple over, but Blaine assured me we wouldn’t. There were times I wondered if the Clark’s 5th wheel would come tumbling into us. But they didn’t. Another VERY long night for me as I was up from about 2-5:30am listening to the coach rattle and shake! Blaine said he made it until 4. I don’t know how . . .