We decided this year to do a trip from Florida to the Canadian Maritimes. Going West again was something that we felt should be put off for the immediate future. Plus the need to see something new and enjoy an area close at hand.
We started North later in May for a change this year as we wanted to make room for a trip to the Keys with some friends from New Orleans.
May 9 -14 was spent at Casa Marada in the lower level garden suite. The trip was fun with lots of fishing but an unfortunate case of ptomaine poisoning from Ceviche. Left a bad taste in my mouth, to say the least.
May 16
Van mileage is 65,724 leaving Delray at 11am
Thursday May 16, 2013
Stopped at port St. Lucie and
visited Nancy's Aunt Mary Hill. Sandy, Sherry and Wendy a retired
teacher.
Stopped at 6pm at HK Wus in Ponte
Vedra for the night.
Friday 5/17/13 Left after breakfast
at The Inn in Ponte Vedra and drove to Ashville NC on 26. Went to a concert downtown. Big
street party with about 5000 people. Cool town. Dinner at The Boucheron
Creperie. Stayed the night at the Renaissance Inn by Marriott. Nothing special but central.
Saturday May 18, 2013 - We had a very nice breakfast at Mayfels rest. on
College St.
Drove up onto the Blue Ridge pkwy via Town Mountain
Rd. early spring with the grass at the side if the road still uncut. Nice views
of the Ashville valley. Near Mt. Mitchell it got so foggy we
elected to get off the Ridge.
Arrived at a fancy shmancy B&B picked out by Nancy called The Mast Farm Inn around
4pm. Had a nice dinner with a decent Shefield Cab Franc wine from NC. Stayed in the
Aunt Leonia room on the 3rd floor up under the eaves.
Sunday May 19 got up at 7am to make
an early start. Batteries in van were dead due to fridge and our forgetting to
flip the switch. Obviously we aren't used to the road routine yet. Got a jump
from the owners wife Ken and on the road for the 3 3/4 hour drive to Lexington
VA to visit Aunt Margery.
After a great lunch we hit the road
at 3pm for the 6 hour haul to our hotel in Carlstadt, NJ just outside NYC.
Arrived at 11pm. Hotel is in bad section but van was not bothered.
Monday May 20 we drove into NYC via
Holland tunnel at 10am. 11 miles in 55 minutes. Dropped our bags at the
UC and then parked car with Pablo at Trump on 69th and 3rd after taking
the paddle boards off the roof and storing them inside.
Visited a house I manage and filmed it from
top to bottom. Inspected all roofs and outside areas.
Dropped cameras off at UC then had
lunch at American Wraps on 3rd. Walked thru park to Plazza then up park and
around Sheap meadow. Had bad cramps so we headed back to UC. Cramps passed.
Maybe the result of Islamorada food poisoning bout perhaps or just the Wraps place - it was nothing fancy.
5pm we had some nice wine with Michael Altman at the house. He then
gave us a treat and had his limo take us to Sotheby's with 2 assistants. There we viewed an exhibit of
American western art then back to UC. Cocktails with my cousin Stanley Stillman in the South
room. Our son Will was kept waiting outside by a clueless doorman. I will know net time to always communicate with a doorman as he is "in charge of the door". Stanley was quite talkative and held forth in grand fashion. Will stayed behind to chat with us. He wants to
change jobs which is something he eventually did.
Monday May 21. Up at 8:30, breakfast
at club. Picked up van, loaded surfboards, loaded bags and on the road at 11am.
Took rte 278 and got charged $7.50 for nothing.
MV May 22nd. We had a GREAT Memorial Day weekend with the Smiths and Oakes.
June 21 we left MV for Tabor Academy and my 40th reunion (1973) - where does the time go.
June 23 - Sunday we had a great day of windsurfing at Ned's Point on Buzzards Bay and then Kiting off Second Beach in Newport - a two sport day.
June 26 - Flew back to Florida from Boston for appointments
July 4th in Florida was a ton of fun
July 5th back to Boston
July 6th - ROund the Island Race with Billy Mac - we won.
July 28th - Left Newport and our cute house on Coddington Wharf and headed to Boston.
July 30th - Ipswich MA with my niece Jennifer Eddy and her family.
July 31st - Two day stand in Portland Maine at the Holiday Inn - Not grand but a nice central location. We rode bikes, saw the sights and generally enjoyed everything about this cool city.
August 2nd - A visit to Bath Maine and Nancy's Aunt Mary who is 90+ years old and, as they say, sharp as a tack. We got in another awesome bike ride.
August 4-6 - A visit with Chris and Lydia Bouzaid in Cushing Maine. Chris put on an awesome meal, as usual. As part of the festivities we bought the lobsters.There we had a chance meeting with some old friends from Virginia. This turned into an invite to go on the New York Yacht Club cruise. Quite a 2 week detour. Here is a note I sent to our hosts.
"How lucky were we to run into you in Port Clyde, and the fact that Struther and Rives also felt we could be useful to have along! The experience was fantastic, the southern component was great you all are so warm and welcoming we easily felt like part of the group. Your lovely daughter Cyane was great fun to sail with, so accomplished and knowledgable on everything Carina, following her mom's footsteps in a great sailing career!"
August 7th - We stayed at a friends house in Boothbay Harbor Maine until August 24th.
August 8 - 10 - We did a short cruise with Stanley and Adrienne Stillman up Somes Sound in the rain. It was short and sweet.
August 11 - 16 were back at the Smith's house and enjoyed lots of road biking on Mt. Desert Island including two trips to the top of Cadillac Mountain. We also did a road trip up the Maine coast where we camped in ___ and then took a wonderful trip out to FDR's summer place on ___ island.
August 16 - 24 we were onboard yacht Carina for the New York Yacht Club Cruise. This was the best cruise I have ever done. Great friends, great food and unbelievable weather.
August 24 - 25 - We spent the night in Bootbay Harbor at a fantastic little spot across from a wonderful house where a final cruise party was held. A great way to end our Maine stay.
August 26 - Diary Entry
"We left Boothbay Harbor early Sunday and are now in Prince Edward Island. Yesterday was a long drive and it is getting cooler as we travel north. We are even glimpsing some trees turning on the edges of the lakes and rivers. Today (August 27) we are going kiting in Malpeque on the North side of P.E.I. Our Florida friends are not looking forward to the cooler days ahead. We hope we are made of sterner stuff."
WE stayed in Cavendish where Anne of Green Gables was written.
PEI was a bit of fun and from here my travel notes and calendar entries get less annotated.
September 5th we left PEI and took the ferry to the Maggies. On the ferry back I met Fred who also had a sportsmobile. He is a professor and keeps a wonderful blog.
http://lugnutlife.wordpress.com/ You can see his entries on the maggies by searching
Magdalen
September 10th - We left the Maggies for Nova Scotia via a stop in PEI. The trip from PEI was titled Wood Islands - Caribou and was onboard the vessel Confederation. These are run by Bayferries and are very well organized. Steamship Authority could learn a thing or two from them.
September ___ - We looped Bedeque on the Cabot Trail twice in wonderful weather and spent a stormy night near Meat Cove on the extreme NW coast.
We spent a few nights in Halifax and toured the fort there. We took the ferry to Labrador where we spent a day exploring and then a
September 18th - A quick drive SW to spend the night at Ted Hutchinsons in Rangely Maine.
Mileage on return was 72472 miles back into the USA from
Canada We are now at 6,748 total miles.
September 19th - We met the Jamie R., Tim & Laura B., Michael & Carol B. and Bill B. at the Northern Kingdom for a weekend of unbelievable MTN biking.
September 22 - We were back in Boston and then back down to Newport.
September 29 - 73,236 Miles - Heading to MV 9/29/2013
To October 15 - Back to MV to work on the house and do more MTN biking and some kiting. It was a great.
October 15 - We left the vineyard and made one quick stop in Newport before driving down to VA.
October 17 - Dinner in Richmond with a group from the NYYC cruise.
October 21 - Back in Florida
Some odd notes on the PEI trip given me by a friend
PEI
The Serpants Coil - book
Nell's Harbor
Cabot Hwy
Inganish
Harpoon brewery to brewery
Mark Barlow. Isles de
Madeline.
Nova Scotia
Peggy's beach
Bedeq
Harry Anderson
Isles de Madeline
Rigolets
