A Trip To Canada

In the mid-1980's, my family lived in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.  Our family had a red full size van at the time.  It had to seats up front, a carpeted area in the middle, and a bench seat in the back.  It was a great vehicle for when we went camping.

One of the summer's we were in Rhode Island, our family vacation was a road trip to Canada.  We drove up to Bar Harbor, Maine and caught a ferry to Nova Scotia.  There was gambling on board the ferry once we got to international waters.  My sister and I were maybe 4 and 8 at the time.  We thought that the slot machines were so cool because they were called one armed bandits.  Pulling the lever down was enough to keep us occupied on the 6 hour trip.  My parents pushed a chair up to one machine so my sister could reach.  She apparently had beginners luck on her side as she won enough money to pay for the whole vacation.

After we arrived in Nova Scotia, I remember driving past Halifax.  I was fascinated by metric speed limit signs.  I remember hanging over the drivers seat telling my dad how fast he was going in miles per hour.  (This was before seat belts were an absolute requirement both legally and in our car.)

We camped at a lake on this trip.  I have several photos of me and some unnamed children who became fast friends during our few days together.  Looking at a map, I am sure that the lake we stayed at was one of the larger ones in New Brunswick, Canada.  We were driving a large loop back to the US.

Another highlight was visiting the incredible tides somewhere along the Bay of Fundy.  That is the large Bay between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  The water rises and falls incredible levels in this area.  The tides in the area rise between 11 and 36 feet.  Looking at photos online, I believe we may have been in the Hopewell Cape area.  You could actually see the tide moving when we were there.

My last memory of that trip is our yellow popcorn bowl.  We used to have this large plastic bowl that my dad always used when he made popcorn.  I do not remember who started it but the flu came though our family at the end of the trip.  The popcorn bowl saved us(or I should say the van) at least once on the drive home.  At least we got sick at the end of the trip!