Upon leaving Sussex, I made the drive to Fredericton NB, and then on to St. John NB. In and of itself, it was an uneventful drive, through small towns and past farms of various sizes. It was after I left St. John that the camera got some action.

One thing to know about Canada is that there's often a lot of water to contend with. If you're around Vancouver or in Atlantic Canada, at some point, you're going to have to deal with a large expanse of open sea.

Last September, my good friend Zach Arntz and I made the drive from St. John to Halifax. The weather could've been better, and it took us about seven hours. With the two of us taking our turns driving, it sucked the life out of both of us. As I was traveling alone this trip, I wanted to avoid that drive at all costs.

Enter the Princess of Acadia.

The Princess of Acadia is the ferry that makes the run from St. John NB to Digby, NS. The trip is about three hours long, and offers the opportunity to relax and rejuvenate. My rejuvenation came in the form of a two hour nap, but I did manage to capture some images.

Atlantic Canada, in March, is covered with snow. By my southern California standards, a look back to St. John from the ferry shows an almost inhospitable climate:



I'm not entirely sure what the temperature was, but it was hovering in the negative single digits. It was cold.



The ferry itself is quite a feat of engineering. It can carry over 100 vehicles which range in size from a sub-compact to a tractor trailer. Not sure of the specs; length, draft, etc, but it's pretty impressive.

Now, the morning I was on board, I couldn't help thinking about a "worst case scenario". Here we are, on a three hour trip across the Bay Of Fundy, in the middle of March; what if something went wrong? This water was cold, after all, and ending up in the drink would likely mean one wouldn't survive very long.

Again, unhospitable.

The ferry was outfitted with a number of lifeboats, however, should the need ever arise. Bright white boats against a deep blue sky. How could I resist?





Nice to know those boats were there if necessary. Did I mention that the water was cold?



For most of the crossing, there was nothing much to see, hence the aforementioned two hour nap. That changed as we closed in on Digby NS, however. People build their houses about as close to the coast as you can get. It must be absolutely gorgeous during the summer months, but that word "inhospitable" keeps creeping back into my mind when I see a scene like this:



By the end of the trip, I found myself mildly amazed at the fact that there are people who make this trip, everyday, back and forth. I don't know that I could do that. I might be okay during the summer but, in the winter?

I think I might rather make that drive after all. That said, though, the views aren't quite as spectacular from a car as they would be from the ferry...

Road Trip...

As much as I might like reality to be otherwise, I don't make my living with photography. I work for Taylor Guitars, as the Regional Sales Manager for Canada. The obvious upside, of course, is that I get to travel to Canada.

Now, when people think of Canada, they tend to think of Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton. Why? Well, they've all got hockey teams. Beyond that, though, people who aren't Canadian tend to not know a great deal about Canada.

So, the nice part of my job is the opportunity to travel, on occasion, to those areas where many will never go. Such was the opportunity this week, as my travels take me to Atlantic Canada, specifically the provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island (PEI), and New Brunswick.

Of course, being March, it's cold. It's really cold. One night on PEI, it was fifteen degrees below zero. Of course that's celsius but, be honest, does it really matter? Living in San Diego, anything approaching such a temperature is unheard of.

I didn't let that deter me, though. This part of the country is so gorgeous, it deserves to be photographed at every opportunity.

My travels started in Halifax, Nova Scotia this past Saturday. It was cold, and there was plenty of snow on the ground to greet me. Rental car, hotel, and I'm in for the night.

When I awoke Sunday morning, I looked out the window to gauge what the weather was like. Having been here before, and having spent time photographing the historic waterfront, I'd forgotten that Halifax has a certain amount of industry:



Not what you might expect to see in a "seafaring port", but, there it is.

On Monday, I had to make the drive from Halifax out to PEI. It's too cold for the ferries to run, so driving is the only option.

When driving to PEI, you cross the Confederation Bridge. This bridge is 8.6 miles long. During the warmer months, the Northumberland Strait waves beneath it. This time of year, though, there's just not much waving going on. It's frozen almost from one side or the other, and it's quite an impressive sight:



That photo was taken as I drove across the bridge. The obvious caveat here is that you really shouldn't be taking pictures while you're driving.

As I said before, it gets cold here. On PEI, it was well below any temperature than a human should have to endure. Even still, I felt the urge to go out shooting. I have to be honest, that urge didn't last too long. My jeans were freezing it was so cold.

I did, however, find out what happens when all the Island seafarers pull their boats from the water for the winter. Looking almost like a "boat graveyard", they go up on stocks to wait for the ice to thaw in (most likely) late spring:



Honest to God, it was just too cold to walk around and take photos. Boat graveyards is what you get.

Tuesday, though, was a bit nicer. The sun was high and the driving was good. It was also a pretty good day for taking some pictures.

Now, one of the things I find cool about Canada are the old farm out-building that invariably line the roads of every small Canadian town I've ever been in. It doesn't matter if I'm driving through British Columbia, Ontario, or somewhere way out east here, they're right there, just waiting for someone to pay attention to them:



Of course, you can't have a farm out-building if you don't have a farm. These, too, are plentiful throughout the provinces. Something I've noticed on this trip; perhaps just because they're contrasted with the snow on the ground, ar some of the vivid colors of various parts of various buildings on various farms. An example:



And, sometimes, they're not very vivid at all:



Now, things like that you can see from, more often than not, the main road you're traveling on. But there are other, even more unusual structures, that you'll only find once you've gotten off the beaten trail.

On Wednesday, I was leaving Sussex, NB, after a night in the worst hotel in all of Canada. The All Seasons Inn is to be avoided at all costs. Paper-thin carpeting, a desk the size of a foot locker, and the absolute worst internet service I've ever encoutered.

BUT, it's in a really cool, small town. Sussex has somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 covered bridges. I know Americans who've lived their entire lives without seeing a covered bridge, and here are over a dozen of them in a ten square mile size area. Some are for foot passage only, and some are for vehicle traffic, but they're all very cool:





Clearly, I've gone on far longer than I anticipated, but I wanted to share some of the cool things you can see out there, provided you get to the road less traveled. There will be more to come; more thoughts and photos, but I think that's good for now.

After all, there's more traveling to do this week...