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...
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