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August 3, 2004
I lost my heart in Prince Edward Island.
And then St. Andrew's by the Sea, New Brunswick.
And finally in North Conway, New Hampshire.
Now if you had a gun to my head and insisted I pick my most favourite place, no way, I couldn't do it. But if you had taken that gun to my head during parts of the 4000 kilometer jaunt to those beautiful little treasures, I'd have made it worth your while.
We had a wedding in Florenceville, New Brunswick, home to McCain Foods, the french fry capital of the world. 18,000 people work for McCain but only 18 people live in this little town. Our initial plan was to take off about three in the morning so the kids would sleep half the trip, but we half killed ourselves to make it out three hours later than that. After eight or nine hours driving in torrential rain (it's all a blur), we pulled up to the Florenceville Motor Inn and I had a bad feeling. It was a long drive and we knew we were in the middle of nowhere but nothing could be worse than thinking you can't possibly sleep in the place you have to sleep in. It's the crazy in me. What now? The woman at the desk smiled a warm, welcome smile. I gently, embarrassingly asked if I could see the room, said I have a horrible dust allergy, asthma if you will. She gave me a key for the purple walled room with shiny blue satin beds. It was dark, but it didn't smell. Back out at the car, Remo and I rationalized our options for finding other accommodations were nonexistent and there were quite a few very nice cars in the parking lot, if they were ok staying there, we could be too...
We hauled our stacking bins up the flight of stairs. (Fernanda, if you're out there, I've made some modifications to this little traveling tip) and now what? There was a pool, but we hadn't seen it yet, there was no town save for a drug store, pizza place, a bar, a small grocery store, no park and the only restaurant was downstairs in our motel. Everyone we knew was in the wedding and occupied with wedding itinerary. We decided to eat supper then go to the pool. My, how fast we ate crow. The dining room, with all it's doilies and knick-knacks, had charm. The people who worked there, the people who ate there had to be the most cheerful, friendly people in the world. Next to you, of course. Maybe it wasn't the fanciest place in the world, but it was sparkly clean and the pool was great, with warm water. But our beds? I can't find one charitable thing to say about them. Well maybe that they were a standard bed size.
Our sleep was a nightmare. The mattress was so hard you could knock on it. The next morning, even Brandan, who could sleep on a teeter-totter, said the bed was too hard. At three o'clock in the morning, without nudging or shaking Remo, I said out loud my hip bones had broken through my skin and he responded by mentioning his rib cage was finished. It was THAT bad. When we went down for breakfast, I asked a couple of people we knew how their sleep was, though I knew by the dark under eye circles that we had unanimously joined the mattresses-were-awful club. One more night.
The wedding was great. Jody and Thom looked fantastic and more importantly, incredibly HAPPY. We two-stepped the night away.
We set off early the next morning for three days Moncton, New Brunswick. It was a great hotel with an in and outdoor amusement park attached to it and a theme pool. We were going to meet ShelleyandFreddie (she posts on my board). Given that I'd happily trot into every Costco in the world, how convenient, that's where we'd be meeting. I'd seen a picture of her and thought I'd be able to pick her out, but I was grateful just the same when she said a lunar satellite could find her, the lime green she was wearing was THAT bright. Wouldn't you know, everyone and their mother was wearing lime green, did Remo play with me. When he actually found the real her, I didn't believe it. Yah, yah, sure. But there she was, glowing like I thought she would. Now Shelley's the one who turned me into the Barefoot Contessa. We share a passion for food, cooking and baking and all things cute. They were all SO nice. Hats off to Greg for coming along to meet a bunch of people his wife met over the internet and for encouraging us to go to PEI. Freddie was adorable and probably overwhelmed by my overwhelming brood. We headed over to the amusement park at our hotel where Freddie went around and around on his first train ride. At one point I was up on these stairs and I jumped down backwards onto a sign, smashing into my hip/thigh. I saw stars and was left with a bruise, I swear to God, the size of my hand, I couldn't sleep on that side. Speaking of sleep, on the bed front, the mattresses at this hotel were better, but the pillows so thin you could see through them. That's one point for the first motel, they actually had decent pillows. Now am I sounding like a princess? I had no idea I had so many issues. I bought a sign I have to hang up somewhere that reads "IT'S ALL ABOUT ME."
On Monday, we set off on a day trip to Prince Edward Island. Though we have great intentions, we can never swing an early start. The bridge to the island is a single lane 8 miles long and the pot of gold at the end of it is breathtaking. I imagine this must be what Ireland looks like with emerald green hills and royal blue sea as far as you can see. The little villages and the wharfs (wharfs or wharves?) were from right out of a picture book and the beach, THE BEACH, I tell you, was beautiful with the reddest, cleanest sand you ever saw. We went to Rainbow Valley which had acres of rides and activities. Now in the eyes of the children, Remo is way more fun than me. All the time. So I went on way more rides with Kaillan and Brandan. Though he had to stretch his neck to crack the 48"line, it was the first time Brandan hit the big rides, his eyes glistened with pure zeal. My stomach rolled with pure ill. And I thought I was tougher than that. Maybe part of the problem was the mother in me as we whirled and flew past the trees, the creaks of the little chains that would keep us from smashing into the ground, didn't sound so reliable.
We went to see Green Gables, the national park, and I can't do justice to what I felt there. I read every one of Lucy Maud Montgomery books and loved Anne like she was one of my closest friends. Now I was in her house and I walked down Lovers Lane and through the Haunted Woods and drank raspberry cordial and no way will I ever accept it's all make believe. I bought the Anne of Green Gables cookbook after we ate some knockout squares and I'll share some recipes as soon as I've tried them. Speaking of recipes, Shelley baked us some fantastic cookies the day we saw her and has to, HAS TO share the recipe. Shelley? The Snickerdoodles?
That night we stopped at a buzzing fish and chips place and ate more french fries (how come I didn't turn into one?) and then considered heading to Charlottetown on the way back to Moncton. Only two hours out of our way at 8:00 at night, I had to convince Remo we couldn't do it given that as it was, we were still two hours away from our hotel. An adorable lady at the restaurant wrote down a shortcut on a scrap of napkin and we set off. There didn't seem to be a gas station anywhere, but surely we'd pass one on the way.
Wait a minute! It's ME telling the story.
It seemed impossible the scenery could get more spectacular, but it did. Those rolling green hills. Wow. As we bumped along country roads, the warning light came on in the van. The one that says you better fill me up right now or I'll have the last laugh. We convinced ourselves our warning lasts a good sixty kilometres and surely we would come to something, the island couldn't be that wide. No houses anywhere and poof there were two women walking along the road. From where to where, I couldn't imagine. They assured us a gas station was a little ahead. We found it, all dark and closed up. We saw taillights leaving, considered chasing them down and begging the guy to turn back but we didn't want to waste gas if he couldn't. We didn't even know if we were going the right way when a paved road turned up. Thank GOD. Now my napkin didn't want to tell me which way we should turn so we made an executive decision and to get you back on your seats, let me tell you a gas station happened on us. Remo put 58 litres in our 60 litre tank. The luck of the Irish or I'd still be there. Painful as THAT would be.
Now we had a very exciting plan for the next day. I was going to see Jen H. again and meet Jeanette for the very first time. I met Jen already when she came and stayed with us last year and found her as solid and calm and graceful as before. Her husband was charming and baby Andrew? Soooooooo cute. As I held him and considered how fast the time goes yet what a little peanut he is, I heard diaper peculations and discovered green goop up the front of my dress. A connection. He marked his territory and was obviously after me. ME. His smile was captivating.
Jeanette, her Dad and Bella were running late, Bella had a bout of car sickness, so we continued to make our place known in a tiny little McDonald's in the town Jen and Jeanette had gone to University in. Hey, did you know you can buy apple slices instead of french fries in your happy meals? Finally, out the window and across the parking lot, we saw a car park and people clambered out who belonged to us. I was excited. I think the world of Jeanette and was curious to see if she who writes is really her in real life.
I know she's really pretty but if I try to imagine a picture of her in my mind, I can't really. I think she was everything I expected but not exactly. Because I kinda knew her before? The figure! If you saw her figure, you'd think lucky girl. The Jeanette I know from her diary is warm and loving and intelligent. The Jeanette I met was all that. It's a crazy thing how shy you can get, I mean here you know everything about someone, she probably knows more about me than some of my own family, but then what now? What if she meets me and is disappointed? In this little trickle of time, what if I bored her out of her skull? What if my kids ran wild, um wait, wilder?
Jeanette is a wonderful person. Really. A friend past the internet forever. My impression of her (and I'll admit I was partly predisposed to it), is someone who is fair and compassionate and passionate. Kind and sincere. Now Bella I can picture in my mind in a heartbeat. She's a stunning little girl with perfect features and royal blue eyes and porcelain skin. She was shy (we're an intimidating sort) and so in love with her mother. She and Kaillan could be friends - Jeanette, we should start their pen palling from now!
I need to write a word or six hundred about Jeanette's dad. A total sweetheart. You know by the path he chose for himself (as a minister), that his value in life is to do greater good. Jeanette lives a million miles from her father and I live a million miles from mine. It was touching for me to know that while her dad cheerfully and happily drove her to meet us, mine would have done the same thing. Stand back proud of his daughter, grateful to be part of whatever time. Jeff (first name used not with lack of respect but to ensure cyber fans can't track him down) and Remo planned the rest of our trip over a map. So what MapQuest had other plans for us, the rest of our trip would absolutely include a stop at his house.
We went that afternoon to the beach and then back to the amusement park at our hotel. Brandan bit the roller coaster bug and was so excited we couldn't follow his conversations. Round and round I went on the thing while Remo fed Emmie bottle number 653. Now she's officially walking but she wouldn't eat baby food or our food, nothing. If I could've stuffed cookies and french fries in her, I'd have been grateful. So long as she had a bottle of milk, she wasn't crying for one. It was actually easier for us on the road because she was content in her car seat during the never-ending stretches but what saved my life, the gift from heaven my sister in-law lent me and probably the rest of the world already owns, was the TV and VCR for the road. I couldn't find enough awesome, fantabulous, words to describe how grateful we were to have that thing.
We left the next morning to see Jeff (and Bella and Jeanette too!). Actually seeing them again was great because the awkwardness was over and we were family by that point. They had these little people toys, you know the tiny ones with the little round heads and you could stick the limbless bodies on your finger tips? The mom has yellow plastic hair, The grandmother has the same hair only it's white, the baby was yellow with a bib and the baby had a little plastic playpen and high chair and change table... I never had a collection myself but I loved them. I had a little bit of time to catch up with Jeanette before we really had to get going.
Next stop, St. Andrew's by the Sea, near the Maine border. A sea town from right out of the movies. It was out of the way but we wanted to say we were there and I wish like crazy we had time to set anchor. Real live sailors from the movies were all over the place, with wool turtlenecks (in the summer were they crazy?). The town was beautiful with rock cliffs, quaint shops and restaurants, we stopped for a nice lunch with clam chowder and reluctantly climbed back into the van. I told Remo if we didn't retire in PEI, then I'd be happy in St. Andrews. I'd settle for North Conway too. I'm not even a seafood person but I have such a strong pull there. I can't wait to go back but we're considering Martha's Vineyard next summer, maybe Florida this winter. I'm really grateful we're past having babies, and I love how much more fun and tighter we get as a family as the kids get older.
North Conway is fantastic if you're traveling with small children. Restaurants and hotels are family friendly. Ours had an hour of craft time in the mornings and a kid's movie every night in the lounge. Oh would you look at that, we were ten steps away from the outlets. I picked up things I could probably get cheaper at home and we spent two afternoons at StoryLand. The kids LOVED it there.
We had a few car seat crises, Kaillan learned how to pop the arm off her car seat which would send that spring sailing somewhere in the van. They thought it was a riot, we had to pull over and unpack the entire van to find the friggan spring. Every time. Emmie would sit in her car seat with her legs off to the side (as if we should fan Cleopatra) and pee the 653 bottles all over the seat. Our backup plans got really MacGuyverish. I actually expected Kaillan and Brandan to torment each other more than they did. We had one spell, I think they fought over who drank more from the water bottle, when Kaillan screamed bloody murder if Brandan even looked at her. Obviously he pushed that one. They shared a bed in the hotels and would whisper secrets to each other at night. That was cute.
I hated packing and unpacking and would make one road trip suggestion. A plead, if you will. If you're going to do a trip and you're going to get a new car. Do it in the old car. Things that shouldn't spill, do. It's like some sort of absolute.
The final journey home from North Conway to Montreal was about four hours. I had hoped we could go through Burlington, Vermont (six hours) because the Costco there had these tiny little bottles of water that are perfect in Brandan's lunches. (I lead a sad, sad life, huh?). I mentioned it casually, sure Remo would veto and was surprised he said, why not? We pulled in there with two hours to eat something decent; way back I stupidly said loud enough for the kids to hear we should find a place that served mashed potatoes and now they were obsessed. It's not like restaurants advertise mashed potatoes. We ate, made it to Costco, to Shaws for a quick grocery run and were in the car, ready to roll by 9:30p.m. Still three hours from home. I pulled out the map as it started raining and told Remo we had two options for getting to the border. Take the highway first and then do country roads in Quebec or do the country roads while we were most alert and then highway after. We pulled onto country roads so country they turned into people's driveways. There were no lights or signs of life. Remo and I were so busy talking, that was one of my favourite parts of our vacation, how much time we talked, that we got confused at the twelve road intersection and got on the 78. Maybe two minutes after he asked me if I was sure this was the best way, with everything around us pitch black and torrential rain, lights that belonged to a semi truck whipped by on the highway twenty feet away. Remo said, in the line that still makes me laugh out loud,
"What the hell was that?".
Eventually we landed home. With laundry up the kazoos and ten times more ironing. Hansel left crumbs and can't find his way out. Our cleaning lady is coming tomorrow and in contemplating which rooms I'd tell her to skip (because I couldn't pick up enough to let her in), I've accepted I don't even have an empty chair.
So sue me.
You all ok?
Allisun
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