7 June 2015
Hopewell Cape + Moncton
After a late arrival to a pretty Hicksville campground,
(Gastin’s Chocolate River Restaurant Campground), we plugged in and passed
out. We tried to make this as minimal of
an overnight stop as possible – didn’t even hook up the water. This morning we had breakfast in the car on
the way to the Hopewell Rocks. Low tide
was at 10:36am, meaning that we were able to walk the riverbed far below the
high-tide line among the natural gallery of arched and curved rocks carved out
by erosion of the tidal changes. We were
pretty impressed, except for Eloise. She
slept through the whole thing.
After cleaning the mud and muck off our shoes and hiking
back up the hill, Sis and I took a potty break while Dada and Eloise snuggled
in the grass. Eloise likes to be on Dada
Island. When we were on the beach at
Echo Lake, she tried her hardest to keep her toes out of the sand and stay on
Dada. It was the same in the grass today
– he said they just snuggled and laid in the sun for about 10 minutes, until
she heard us coming back.
With no real lunch plans, we drove up to Moncton around 12:30
in order to have time to eat and catch the tidal bore at 2:17pm. Moncton is a large town/small city a good
distance up the inlet, so when the tide drastically changes down at Hopewell
Cape, filling the rock formations, it sends a large wave up the waterway toward
Moncton. There is a riverfront park that
provides the best views of this twice-daily phenomenon. Initially our plan went from “let’s find a
grocery store for some meat and tailgate with our grill in the park” to “let’s
try the local fast food” (Tim Horton’s, which was closed) to “let’s see what’s
open on a Sunday in town – ooh they have a Thai food truck” (not there) – to
“let’s just park and walk around” to “look there’s a festival near our parking
spot and right on the river, let’s just go there.” Turns out, the festival (which had two food
trucks, score) was a Fan-Fest for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, for which
apparently Moncton is one of six host cities across all of Canada. Who knew.
Maybe we’ll try to catch a match on the way back. Probs not, but it’s out there.
There was a magician at the festival, which Sissy
enjoyed. We sat in the grass eating our
gourmet schnitzel (Matt’s had cranberry and brie, mine was gouda-stuffed with a
lime sauce and coconut flakes on it) while watching the show. The girls ate some spaetzle and chicken
poutine, (tw o separate things). Poutine
was a dish we first had in Montreal, but it has Quebecois origins. It’s basically French fries, cheese curds,
and a brown gravy, plus or minus additional toppings, like meats. It was good on a freezing cold Montreal food
tour day two winters ago. It wasn’t bad
today either, but it paled in comparison to the German food (and usually I find
German food to be sort of bland).
The tide bore (as one reviewer termed it a “total bore”) was
less apocalyptic than I’d hoped, but still a cool sight to see. The two guys who surfed it in were an added
bonus. It wasn’t a giant wall of water, it
was more of a slowly-moving shallow wave front of mucky brown water (hence the
name Chocolate River). Once that was
over, Sissy tried her hand (or foot, rather) at a kids’ soccer obstacle/skill
course. She got some arbitrary scores
written on paper, but scored a few goals and (I think) enjoyed it
nonetheless. She also got to make her
own facemask, (like Mardi Gras style mask) as well as a Brazilian flag, for
some reason probably World Cup related.
She won a small globe stress ball by naming 2 country flags (Canada and
America). Matt wanted me to see how many
I could get. To be fair, the woman
picked out the New Brunswick flag (which I got) followed by the Acadian
flag. But then onto Europe… whatevs.
We’re now on the road again in Nova Scotia heading to Cape
Breton for the next couple days. The
weather outlook is pleasant, and we’re hoping to catch some puffins or whales
(well, a glimpse of them) at some point while we’re up here.
Cape Breton is a pretty spread out and quiet place. We Yelped for open restaurants on the way in,
after passing what was apparently the
last one for an hour or so. We finally
made a U-turn into a little Scottish-themed restaurant called The Auld Brass
Door. A husband and wife team owned and
operated the place. Though the entire
restaurant was a tartan-fest, the Scottish theme wasn’t really reflected on the
menu. We asked about haggis, and they
said they used to serve traditional Scottish food, but no one really bought
it. They were Scottish, and had lived
everywhere from Scotland to the US to Canada to Zambia. The guy sat down with us with a cup of tea
and told us a few stories and jokes.
There was only one other couple in the restaurant, a retired older pair
just driving in from Tennessee. It was a
friendly little welcome to Cape Breton.
Baby Gear Used Today:
Transport:
Car Seats: Clek Fllo and Britax Advocate
Baby-Wearing: Matty hiked the Hopewell Rocks with Sissy in a
Kelty hiking backpack that (conveniently but more heavily) also converts into a
short-term stroller (a handle folds up and there are wheels on the bottom. (Genius, I think, but it’s an older model
that we were lucky to come across at a consignment store once upon a time. I don’t think they still make a similar pack,
for whatever reason.) I carried Eloise
in the Ergo Sport (it’s from when Charlotte was a baby – it pre-dates the Ergo
360).
Stroller: Another
City-Mini GT Double day for the FIFA fan fest at the riverfront park.
Feeding:
High Chair: Fisher Price Travel Folding Chair
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