New Brunswick for the Day

 The Bay shows many faces, her wonders to behold; sculpted from the ancient rock and eternity's undertow. -- Unknown poet 
 

One day we crossed "the bridge" and went to New Brunswick. It was an amazing day from start to finish. There is only one bridge from Prince Edward Island. It is called Confederation Bridge and is the longest bridge in Canada and the world's longest bridge over ice-covered water. It took 3.5 years to build and was completed in May of 1997. The other way (besides airplanes) to get to the mainland is by ferry. We left early in the morning and crossed the 12.9 km bridge right after breakfast.

 We drove about two hours to get to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park on Fundy Bay. This area has the lowest and highest tides in the world. We arrived a little before the lowest tide which occurred that day at 11:40 am. The pictures below show the area from above and then from closer as we made our way down and walked on the bottom of the ocean! It was an incredible experience, knowing that where we were walking would soon be covered up by enough water to kayak on! (More to come on that...) The rock formations are especially awesome due to the constant tidal changes and the due to the force by which the tides come in and out. 

After walking and walking and walking and climbing back up the steps to the top of the cliff, we ate the Subway sandwiches we brought with us. (We had also stopped at the gift shop on the way in, and I was clothed in a new long sleeve t-shirt and NOT HOT.) Lunch never tasted so good. We rested and then decided to explore the area outside of the park since we could get back with our original receipt. We drove to a lighthouse (mentioned in another post) and tried to see another one. As we drove higher into the mountainous region, the fog got steadily worse and worse. By the time we arrived at the gate behind which the second lighthouse was located, the fog was awful. We just didn't think it was worth the entrance fee to not even be able to see the lighthouse. We turned around and headed back, and the lower we got in elevation, the less fog there was. We were excited to see an ice-cream sign, and I was even more excited when I saw the covered bridge right by the ice-cream place. (Side note: You will see Cow's Ice Cream posted everywhere as the best ice cream in PEI. We disagreed. We actually preferred Campbell's Ice Cream.)

We got back to the park with enough time to visit the gift shop again and hit a couple more trails before our big event of the day. Kathryn signed us up for a kayaking tour! It would take place at 5:40, right around the time of the highest tide and then as it began to go back out. When we had filled out all the paperwork for the tour, the guides announced that it would be a little riskier than usual because of unusually high waves. Kathryn was doing the ride no matter what! I was a little less enthusiastic, only because I did not want to be cold. I could picture myself drenched by waves and stuck in a kayak, teeth chattering and knees knocking. It wasn't like that. We did get hit by a couple of waves, but it wasn't as cold as I'd expected it to be. This was not my first time to kayak in the ocean, but Kathryn was surprised at how much work it was. We only got a couple of pictures because the ride was not conducive to photo shoots. Oh, for a go-pro!!

Needless to say, we were soaked, weary, and exhilarated after our ride. We changed and headed out. We stopped in nearby Moncton for dinner. The town is smaller than Greensboro but had a very vibrant and busy downtown area with lots of restaurants. We ate at a place recommended by one of the kayak guides and were pleased. I voted mine the best hamburger of the trip. It was dark by the time we finished and we still had a long ride back to the island. Sad to say, the one of us who can't see in the dark drove, and the one who can see slept. Go figure! She did decide after that late night ride that she would drive on all night drives in the future!