Catching Up!

Boy, it's been quite a while since I last posted. I won't go into to all the details but  mostly I've been away camping. This summer's big trip was to Prince Edward Island on Canada's East Coast. The last time I was to PEI was in 2019 for the Arsenault Reunion. That trip, as they say on PEI, was mostly"up West". If you look at how the Island sits in the Northumberland Strait, it's sort of on an east west axis. This trip we were "out East", staying at Brudenell Provincial Park. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Our first trip was to Emily Provincial Park here in Ontario. Just a shakeout trip before we took the long drive to the Maritimes. It was a longer drive than I thought but that probably was a good thing as our trip down east would involve some long driving days. While in Emily, we went to a small historical village and a dog friendly brewery in Bobcaygeon. 

Our trip down east involved three one night stops, one in Quebec and two in New Brunswick before we arrived in Shediac where we would stay 4 nights. I said we had long driving days, I'm not sure everyone would agree, we didn't have to leave really early and we arrived well before supper time but for me if the drive is longer than 4 hours, it seems long. After all by the time you include gas stops and rest stops, it makes for six hours or more in the car.

We stayed again at Parlee Beach in Shediac. I booked the tent site next to our RV sites and brought extra camping equipment so my brother could join us. Another of our sisters has a seasonal site in Caissie Cape about half an hour away.  We went up there for lunch one day where we were able to meet our newest great niece and have lunch with cousins that we hadn't seen in a few years. We also went to a dog friendly pub called the Thirsty Whippet.

The next stop was Brudenell Provincial Park on Prince Edward Island. We would stay here for a week. The sister who has the seasonal site, had booked two nights there over Canada Day, so we decided to have a Canada Day Party. We also have a sister who lives on PEI she, two of her children and their children were to join us for a Canada Day BBQ picnic. Little did we know though, that a plan had been made to have our remaining sister fly out from Alberta to PEI to be with us for Canada Day. When we went into Milton Station where the PEI sister lives to have dinner one night and to do laundry; she welcomed us in but kept saying they had company and to come see. So we went out to the back deck and there was our sister from Alberta. That was quite a surprise as I had not expected to see her until our trip to France later this summer. While in PEI, we also took some nice drives, visited some breweries and a cidery. The dogs got to go wading in the Brudenell River and see some horses.

Double Hill Cidery

After a week in Brudenell which passed by rather quickly, it was time to head home. We went for two nights to Kouchibouguac National Park. It was the first time I'd actually camped there, we used to go to the beach there when I was a kid.  The dogs got to go swimming at Callender's Beach as it's the dog friendly beach, where we used to go, Kelly's Beach, isn't dog friendly.

The next stop was back to Mactaquac Provincial Park where we had stayed one night on the way down. We stayed 3 nights this time so I could have a chance to get together with friends in the area. Teddy got to go wading in the Saint John River and we found some painted rocks.

Mactaquac Provincial Park

Our second last stop was at Parc de la Republique for 2 nights, again we had stayed one night here on the way down. We went to another dog friendly brewery that was located on a golf course that wasn't dog friendly, figure that, so we had to check if dogs really were allowed.

Parc de la Republique

The last stop of the trip and where we had started the journey was at Camping des Voltigeurs near Drummondville, Quebec. Both stops were just for the night. My drive home was easier than the drive there as I didn't let the GPS take me through the city of Montreal.

Camping des Voltigeurs

Now, I've been home for a little over a week. The trailer is back at the storage location but I do have another camping trip booked for Sep, just a short one closer to home.

Hot, Hot, HOT!

 We went camping last week at Woodlands campground, it's one of the Parks of the St Lawrence. It's located on an island on the Long Sault Parkway on the St Lawrence River. We were facing Ontario and not New York state at this campground. The weather was very hot so we didn't do very much at all during the week.

I arrived first; they no longer give out campground maps nor were there signs directing you to your campsite, I couldn't find the road to my campsite. I had planned to try to back in but after driving around once, I decided to just drive over the grass to get to my site. Afterwards I found out I was turning, one turn too soon, had I gone a little further I would have been on the loop that went to my campsite. 

My sister and brother in law arrived while I was still backing the trailer in place. From the time we arrived until just before 5 pm, they mowed the grass in the campground. We thought it was a maintenance day after the weekend and that would be all we'd see or hear of the lawnmower. No such luck, they started at 8:24 am on Tue, 8:14 am on Wed and 8:35 am on Thurs. On Thurs, thankfully there wasn't hardly anything to mow so the mowing didn't last all day, that and there was a few downpours during the afternoon. 

The first night was a bit of a crisis, my sister and brother-in-law got locked out of their trailer and had to sleep in their car. They had the trailer keys but they weren't working. An early morning call to a locksmith got them back into their trailer. It turned out that some screws inside the lock had been shaken loose and the deadbolt had slid across. 

We did have a beautiful sunset the first night due to all the wildfire smoke in the air. 

We didn't do much on Tues but try to stay cool, chasing the shade from two big maples around our two camp sites. I took the dogs for a walk to see if I could find a place for them to get in the water. There used to be a few places where there was a sort of path on the shoreline but most of it has grown over.

It was even hotter on Wed. I had made plans to go visit a friend in Cornwall about 30 minutes from the campground.  My friend has Shelties too, as a matter of fact, she had the litter sister to my Beckett. We thought they would enjoy playing but at 34C, they didn't even want to play a little; the dogs just wanted to be inside with the air conditioning. She invited another friend and her Sheltie over too.  All the dogs except Teddy are from the same breeder.

I did take Teddy and Liam to get wet when we got back to the campground. We tried the boat launch across the road but it filled with algae and branches so we went back to one of the campsites where you could get down to the water.  It was a bit grassy but Teddy didn't mind and even Liam didn't have to be coaxed to get in. That night we had a bit of a downpour. I got up to make sure rain wasn't coming into the trailer as with no AC, I hadn't closed the door, just had the screen door closed. After I got back in bed, there was flash of lighting and a crack of thunder that seemed like it was right overhead, then almost immediately the rain stopped. It was kind of weird.

The next day, it was still hot in the morning but there was a weather front that was to move through and the temperature was supposed to drop. There were weather warnings about hail, wind and even possibly tornados. In the afternoon, we went to a dog-friendly brewery, the Lost Villages Brewery. I think Teddy and Liam were happy to relax on the cool concrete. They got a bowl of dog beer and a cookie too.

The wind had really picked up by the late afternoon.  I was making pulled pork sandwiches for supper. We served them food truck style. I kept all the toppings in the trailer and after getting pulled pork onto a bun, I put whatever toppings each person wanted on their sandwich. Had we put the food on the picnic table much of it would have blown away. The temperature did drop; it was a good thing as the wind lifted up my awning up over the trailer so I had to take it down and so that last night I had to close the door to the trailer. In fact, the temperature dropped so much we had to put on pants and jackets and the fire was for heat and not just camping décor.

So we made it through another camping trip with stories to tell, being locked out, lawn mowers, more good food and beer, and on the this trip, the HEAT!  I hope on our next trip it won't be so hot or at least that it will cool off in the evening.

Prague

With the Amawaterways journey over, we took the train from Vienna, Austria to Prague, Czechia. Rail service in Europe is quite good, we had booked tickets on a nonstop train. We arrived in Prague in the early evening. We walked from the train station to our hotel: I was glad it wasn't too far as wheeling luggage over cobble stones isn't always easy. The street our hotel was on was a little dreary, but the hotel was nice, and we were right off of Wenceslas Square and very close to the Old Town. After checking into the hotel, we walked back to the square and found a nice place for dinner.  My sister and I shared a jumbo kebob with chicken, beef, zucchini, corn and red pepper washed down with a Pilsner beer for which Czechia is famous.

The next day we toured the Old Town. The Old Town in Prague is quite extensive, and you could easily spend two full days there exploring all the little side streets. We saw the astronomical clock on the Old Town Hall, walked to Charles Bridge and all the way down to the Dancing House where we stopped for iced coffees. We also did a river cruise in the evening. It was nice not to have to meet a schedule. 

Charles Bridge

Dancing House

Evening view of Prague Castle

The next day we went to the Prague Castle which was on the other side of the Vltava river so off we went again to cross Charles Bridge. Little did I know that there would be many stairs to walk up to get to the castle.  There are quite a few places to explore in the Prague Castle, the palace, the church and the Golden Lane depending on which ticket you buy will determine what buildings you can tour in the castle complex. We didn't do any of the towers, I didn't mind as I wasn't up for more stairs. The tickets are good for two days which is why we went on our second day as then we knew we wouldn't have to rush to see everything and could, if we wanted to, go back the next day.

The memorial to the Victims of Communism was also on the same side of the river so we walked along the river until we found that memorial. There was no one there when we got there which was nice because the group of people who showed up a little later seemed to be making fun of the memorial.

On the first day as we were walking around the Old Town, we noticed a tour guide pointing up to show a group of people a statue and we found out in Prague you have to look up or you'll miss some things.  So, on our third day, we decided after visiting the Museum of Illusions to go on a hunt for some of Prague's whimsical statues. I'm sure if we went back we would find ones that we missed.

On our last day, we went back across the river to Waldstein Palace Gardens to see the Dripstone Wall.  The gardens have an avenue of statues, a pond with large koi, and peacocks wander around certain parts of the garden and, of course, the dripstone wall. 

On our way back to our hotel we stopped at the Pilsner Beer Experience. Pilsner beer was invented in the town of Pilsen, about an hour and half from Prague, and it is still brewed there today.

Prague was spectacular and you could see much of it without spending a lot of money. There is so much to see just walking the streets. I certainly wouldn't mind going back to Prague.