new brunswick

Canada Day in Saint John was quite nice, except for the fact that it was so foggy (how foggy was it?) that they had to cancel the fireworks because they simply couldn’t be seen behind the clouds. We left fairly early in the morning, despite the continuing fog, and soon arrived at Fredericton—my old stomping grounds, as it were—where we saw soldiers drilling in a parking lot just outside the historic garrison. Some carried rifles and some carried axes, but I am nearly certain that a few of the axes were simply made of tin foil, so I can’t even vouch for the reality of the rifles. It was like some crazed LARP or SCA meeting or something like that.

After Fredericton, we turned north and went through Edmundston, New Brunswick into Québec, where we made a small detour to the town of Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!. Yes, Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! is a real place, but you don’t have to take my word for it—check out its entry on Wikipedia. Apparently nobody really knows where the name comes from—it’s probably just as well. At any rate, I have photographic evidence proving that (a) it exists and (b) I’ve been there. Count another notch on my list of places with crazy names that I’ve been to.

We camped right near Québec City and went into town for the 400th birthday of the city, which was celebrated in a torrential downpour with church bells ringing simultaneously all across Canada at 11 am (eastern time, natch). Thousands of people turned out despite the rain, but we west-coasters were the only ones sans umbrellas, nyah nyah. There were boring speeches by dignitaries and a military parade that almost didn’t happen because of the rain. Of course, the anti-war protesters came out in force anyway and the Québec City police were ready to meet them face-on, as it were, in full riot gear with gas masks. I did not think it wise to try to snap photos of some of these events.

So, bonne fête, Québec ! To 120, or something like that.

As always, the full photo gallery is available here. Next stop, Montréal!

My prolonged absence, as it were, is mostly due to the fact that I stopped in Princeton, New Jersey for about a week so as to witness the nuptials of one of my friends from high school. I did not feel it necessary to blog about these in the Road Trip Update series because not only did I not have the time to do so, what with wedding preparations and suchlike, I have been to that part of the United States so often that it simply didn’t seem notable. (No offence to any of you who inhabit the Mid-Atlantic, of course.)

But now I’m back on the road, this time passing through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine to get to Saint John, New Brunswick, where my travelling companion and I celebrated Canada Day. I call it a celebration, but what it really consisted of was hanging out on increasingly foggy docks by the harbour waiting for them not to shoot off fireworks. On the other hand, we met some extremely nice Maritimers with Opinions About Things, who were delightful, it appeared, to finally find a new audience at last. (They also had great accents, but that’s pretty much a given with Maritimers.)

Not too many photos of Saint John; we didn’t get here early enough to get any really good ones. Hopefully we’ll be able to take some more on the drive today while it’s sunny and not too foggy. As always, full gallery available here.

Next stop: camping probably somewhere outside Québec City!