New Brunswick... you sly little devil...

Who knew you were so nice? and French? ( at least parts of you. ) It should have been obvious, crossing the border from Quebec and all... but man. You are one pretty province. And friendly? You bet! We spent a night and part of the day on our first stretch of New Brunswick in Edmonston, just in time for their jazz festival. Our bumbling french gained smiles and assistance, ( Me: " Voulez vous parlez anglais? "  Woman : " Non"....  Me: " how do you say.... 353325? " The lady was very helpful, and when our food order came up she was quick to point out it was ours number. ) Jazz fest was great, ( Polk chop and the other white meat, great blues/jazz band from Maine ) and next we camped out in Grand Sault ( Free camping! Yay! ) for the evening to explore and check out the local culture.

 Thus far, we have slowly been meandering our way down the coast, checking out all the small towns, and generally taking it easy. Our six weeks thus far of nice weather have taken a turn for a few days of rain and thunderstorms, but rain be damned! We're from Vancouver!!! Its like our normal summer!  Had our first official foot dipping into the Atlantic ocean, ( Coast to coast, baby! ) and have discovered a few interesting micro-breweries along the way as well.

 Ensconced in the trees at Point Wolf park in the Bay of Fundy, we decided on a few days of rest before embarking on further explorations of the coast. ( a bit of r & r is a great way to finally rid oneself of a cold... ) Quiet, rainy, and full of enticing trails to meander and hike, we hunkered down with books and music for amusement and plotted out the next few days. ( Side note, there are alot of frogs here at our campsite. And something I increasingly love, is how they chirp merrily away, only to pause at passing cars, people, airplanes.. and then, inevitably, one will chirp, and pause, and chirp again, and then they all begin their chorus over. " Hey! Hey guys! Dangers passed, s' all good! " Rob and I have decided they are either crying out in fear of the dark and lack of flashlights, or they are really terrible first year violinists. )

In an effort to escape the rain/torrential downpours, we decided to escape New Brunswick for the time being, and head to Halifax, Nova Scotia early ( we will be back to New Brunswick to finish our tour there in the next few weeks, ) to beat the rush for the Canada day celebration campspots, as well as to familiarize ourselves with the city for a few days before said celebrations began. ( Free Mother Mother concert and pancake breakfast anyone? )  Needless to say... torrential downpours were not avoided... ( sideways rain and 70 km/hr winds... ) but our first official lobster dinner here was a roaring success.

 Halifax is a great city. Friendly, fun, and easy to find  your way around. One day spent in the city and I have discovered a couple of great little galleries to submit some artwork to, and Rob has managed to wrangle a gig for July 5th. Its this great thing where they have 24 random musicians, and they draw everyones name out of a hat to form 6 different bands. Then they have 24 hours to practice and jam together before the big night where each band performs a 15 minute set!

 Much more exploration to be done before the next blog... so stay tuned for our Canada Day celebrations, Rob's band debut, and any other trouble we can rustle up while we are on the road. ( p.s. - We haven't avoided Quebec, we're going to do that, along with Montreal and Ottowa on our way back through... Just in case you were wondering our agenda... ;)   )

 With love, C, R, and Sir Vanagon.