Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Livin Life Based on the Tide Chart Part 3 of 7




We spent the next few days in St. Andrews New Brunswick. We arrived late the first night and checked into the Montague Rose. Our hosts were very friendly and the bed and breakfast was very nice. We were hungry and they recommended a place to eat called the Harbour Front. The folks at the bed and breakfast might recommend this place, but we wouldn't. We had an awful experience. First we were greeted by a gruff waitress and then three scary raccoons on the deck. Yikes! We moved inside and were served frozen fried scallops and tarter sauce that had already been opened and used by another patron. Yikes again! We ran into some nice people on the street who informed us that there were only three good restaurants in town. We woke up early the next day and had a yummy breakfast at the bed and breakfast and then we took a trip to Kingsbrae Garden. The gardens were beautiful. We had a good lunch at an oyster bar in town and then headed over to the pier for a late afternoon whale watch. We saw some cool things on the whale watch including a bald eagle, seals, some finback whales, Campobello Island, a herring weir, and a salmon farm. The next day we hung around town and drove over to Ministers Island during low tide and took a tour. You can only drive over during low tide...because...if not...you could get stuck over there. Kinda cool huh? Hence the name....Livin Life Based on the Tide Chart. The Bay of Fundy has some of the highest tides in the world. That night we had an amazing dinner at the Rossmount Inn (one of the three restaurants the person we met on the street told us about). This truly was an incredible meal. We were happy to have finally found an exceptional meal in St. Andrews. We left the next day for Fundy National Park. Stay tuned for more on that.........

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Livin Life Based on the Tide Chart Part 2 of 7

We left Bar Harbor on Monday and headed towards St. Andrews, NB. This is what we saw along the way......

We first stopped off at Schoodic Point, which is the less populated part of Acadia National Park. Schoodic was amazingly beautiful and my favorite part of Acadia. We also made a stop at this really place called Wild Blueberry Land.



Wild Blueberry Land is this really cool BIG blue blueberry that pays homage to this yummy berry. Wild Blueberry Land has blueberry pie, and blueberry coffee, and ten pound boxes of blueberries, and anything else you can do with this versatile fruit of nature.

Stay tuned for more information on our trip to St. Andrews By the Sea.....

Livin Life Based on the Tide Chart Part 1 of 7

B and I recently took a trip to the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy. The next seven posts will give you a taste of what we saw.....

We started our trip with a few days in Bar Harbor, ME.



Bar Harbor was great. We spent a couple of nights at a great bed and breakfast called Aysgarth Station. If you need a place to stay in Bar Harbor...this is the place to go. Jane and Steve are great hosts...and they serve the best breakfast we have ever had at a bed and breakfast.

We also spent some time poking around town. We had a yummy dinner at Galyn's and also went on a whale watch. We ate dinner another night at Rosalie's Pizza and saw ten shooting stars. Perseids was going on and we were psyched to get to see it. We drove through the Acadia National Park one evening and got to see a beautiful sunset from the top of Cadillac Mountain. We ate the most amazing maple walnut ice cream at Jordan Pond Ice Cream Shop. This was probably the best ice cream we have ever eaten in our lives. It is definately worth a trip just to try to ice cream.

Bar Harbor was beautiful and we were bummed that we had to leave....but were also excited about moving onto the next leg of our trip.

Getting Back to My Roots

A friend of mine from high school lost her father last week. I went to the wake in South Boston to say goodbye to her father and to show my support. While in line to pay my respects I noticed that what seemed like all of Southie was there. In addition I also saw that the Principal and Vice Principal of my high school was in attendance. It was nice to see such a show of support for my friends family during this time.

A few days later I had a desire to walk around Castle Island and so we went. I spent alot of time at Castle Island as a kid and with this friend who recently lost her father.

That night we went to a Greek Food and Music Festival at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church in Somerville. We met a woman who had grown up in that Church and who seemed to know everyone at the festival. I realized at that point that I had completely lost track of the people I had grown up with in St. Williams Parish (now known as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta Parish) in Dorchester. I felt a sense of sadness for my lack of connection to my roots.

I went to church at the Paulist Center in Boston this morning. As Mass was celebrated I was reminded of the Catholic traditions I was taught growing up in my parish in Dorchester. I acknowledge that Mass at the Paulist Center is celebrated very differently than what I had learned growing up, but the core of the beliefs and traditions is the same. I was happy to to feel a sense of connection to that.

This is all very wierd to me. I spent a good part of my life early adult years trying to erase alot of these parts of me. I deliberately lost my Boston accent, I wasn't in touch with many of the people I had grown up with, and I hardly ever took the trek over to Southie and Dorchester to appreciate the beauty of the neighborhood or the ocean. This all started to come to me when I had a conversation with the husband of my friend who had lost her father about where I was looking to buy a house. When I mentioned that I really wanted to buy in Arlington, he told me that Arlington lacked character, unlike Southie, Somerville, and Salem. I have a good friend who grew up in Arlington and she would be shocked to hear what he had said, but after more thought...I started to think maybe he was right. Arlington is nothing like Southie, Dorchester, or Somerville. This made me feel sad. I really want to feel close to my roots, be true to who I am, and to appreciate it. I have alot of good memories of my growing up in Dorchester and Southie and I hope to continue to celebrate that. Even if I get a ticket for double pahkin my cah on Broadway.