Friday, October 23, 2009

homeward bound

We started our day in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, by taking a brisk walk up to the little shopping area. This picture shows Jane posing in front of some huge statues. I am slightly ashamed to tell you that I have no idea what the statues are.






I regret that I have no pictures of the actual torture that was the high speed jet ride over the class 3 rapids in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. This photo shows the frigid water behind us just after we have returned from the ride and changed our clothes. All I can tell you is that it was horrific. We were given rain pants and rain jackets to put on. These did absolutely nothing to protect us from the frigid water that the boat driver purposely dashed on us by aiming his jet boat right at the biggest waves. Picture having bucket after bucket after bucket of freezing cold water thrown in your face. Oh. it was joyful. I wanted to kill Jane. The ride was fun. The nasty, cold water was not. We were soaked by the time we got off the jet boat. We had been warned to bring a change of clothes and were provided changing rooms. We did survive!

Back at the dock, we zipped through the little shopping area in the terminal. I sat down for a rest and this moose got fresh with me. Of all the nerve!!!








That night, we played bingo. We didn't win. But nobody else won the big jackpot.












The next day found us in Halifax. Nova Scotia where we traveled to Peggy's Cove. Below, you see us posing in front of the lighthouse. It was just beautiful. The trees were every color - just stunning. Back in Halifax, we boarded the Hop On, Hop Off trolleys and meandered through town looking at historic sites and doing some shopping.











That night we played bingo again. We lost again. But we were both so close to winning the $1700 jackpot. We each only had one number to go. Here are our cards and our very sad faces:









2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was thinking about you. *smile* It's miserable, cold, snowy weather and to take a boat trip on the Reversing Falls must have been torture. I would imagine that the poor bastard employed to take you out just wanted to share his own misery.

Peggy's Cove always brings a surge of pride through me. When Swiss Air went down in St. Margaret's Bay that entire little village took every vessel out in the middle of the night to do what they could, which ended up being not much. Worth googling.

~Maureen~

Catherine Jones McClarin said...

Maureen, that driver was a maniac and appeared to enjoy every second of that boat trip! He had a madman's persona which was either very real or a very good acting job. But we were told that he really knows the river. It was fun, except for the freezing river. My feet were so cold!

Our driver/tour guide told us about the Swiss Air flight and the warm connections that developed between the villagers and the families of the victims. It was very touching and would make a wonderful book.

I really enjoyed the whole trip. Your neck of the woods is gorgeous!!!