Atlantic Canada

I had a grand scheme to drive up to L'anse aux Meadows to see where the Vikings landed.  Unfortunately, that didn't come to fruition.  That said, I managed to have a great week with my friend J exploring the Canadian Atlantic Coast, someplace not far away but where I'd never been before.

We started with Acadia National Park in Maine.  My parents took me as a baby but I had no memories of the trip.  J had never been.  We arrived just before sunset and then had the next morning to explore a little.  It was peak tourist season so the park was crowded.  We got up to Cadillac Mountain pretty early but by the time we started back down the roads were getting busy.  We drove down the coast for a ways and walked around Jordan Pond for a while before having to head north.

That night we arrived at Bay of Fundy.  We got there just after lowest tide and about an hour before the park closed.  Bay of Fundy has the most extreme tides of any place in the world.  When it's low-tide, you can walk on the ocean floor!  We spent about an hour exploring down at the bottom of Hopewell Rocks Park before being chased out at closing time.  We were staying right by the entrance but unfortunately had to drive a half hour away to find dinner.  Next time I'll plan better.

Our first full day in Canada we headed for Prince Edward Island.  I grew up on Anne of Green Gables and the Road to Avonlea series, so I was excited to see the place that inspired it all.  We stuck to the South Coast and Charlottetown.  Highlights included Cows Ice Cream, the red sand beaches, and gorgeous canola fields of bright yellow flowers.  We drove back to Nova Scotia that night, on our way to Cape Breton Island.

The next morning it was an early start to finish our drive across Nova Scotia and onto Cape Breton Island.  We had lunch by the water and then stopped to check in at our bed and breakfast.  Then it was a little more driving to get to the Middle Head Trail, which headed out along a peninsula.  The views were breathtaking.  I didn't see whales (I looked!  A lot) or moose but the trees and water were just gorgeous.  I really loved this hike- walk in the woods, climbing up and down rocks.  This was one of my favorite nature excursions ever.  We had dinner at the hotel near the trail head and then finished the night at the pebbled beach by the B&B.

In the morning, we drove around the island, stopped to take pictures and look for wildlife.  We did the bog trail, a boardwalk short walk through the swamp, and then the Skyline trail, a beautiful long hike along the cliff on the west side of the park.  It was busy, and we didn't see any animals which was disappointing, but it was definitely the wrong time of day.

The next day we headed back to do some genealogy research for J.  We visiting her ancestor's hometown, dug through the archives in the historical society, and even drove out to the middle of nowhere on dirt roads to see where the house once stood.  It was rainy and cold and miserable, so we didn't stay long. That night,the weather cleared as we arrived in Halifax and walked around a little before a great pub dinner.

Our last read vacation day was spent exploring the city in the morning.  The Maritime Museum was fantastic.  They had a cool exhibit on women in different nautical roles, including a lot of environmental workers.  I would have liked to see more of the city but it was drizzly and cold and just.  Miserable.  So we grabbed some donair (local shwarma speciality) for lunch and got on the road home.  We stayed in St. John's the night.

The last day was just a long drive.  We picked up some Canadian snacks before leaving the country and then just cruised back down to Massachusetts.

I can't believe I've lived in the Northeast almost 40 years but never done this trip before.  It was a perfect summer vacation. 

Road Trip to Ohio

So, I bought a house.  Which is great, but it means I'm grounded for a while until my disposable income rebuilds.  That means this is the year of the road trip.

I co-opted my cousin (also a teacher) and her children to drive across the northeast on the grand family road trip.  Along the way we visited her sister and parents, and our cousin a little further away.  It was low key, full of pretty scenery and great visits.

This was a route I've done before, so I was dedicated to finding new adventures along the way.  Some of the sites we visited were:

Serpent Mound

In college I learned about Native American sites in the US.  I'd seen Mesa Verde when I was a kid, but I became fascinated with the Eastern Mound Builders and their legacy.  Serpent Mound was one of those sites I'd been around several times but never managed to see.  It's a man-made mound shaped like a giant snake.  It doesn't look like much from the ground but climb the tower and you can see the full shape of the serpent.  It was a cool stop in the middle-of-farmland Ohio, a good chance to stretch legs and remember a bit of history.

Cincinnati Zoo

My cousin's family are members and always sharing photos of the zoo.  It's really well regarded as a place of education and conservation, so I was excited to see the animals there.  Their African Savannah exhibit brought back memories of Etosha National Park in Namibia, and I loved seeing the gorillas with my little cousins.

Niagara Falls

We stopped first at Poutine and Cream for the amazing poutine and freak shakes.  While not really going to Canada, it was a great taste of the land across the border.  The perfect dinner.  The best part was that they did milkshake flights, so you could get a little taste of several shakes.

Then it was off to the falls.  I was the only one with a passport, so I walked across the bridge to Canada.  Seriously, I walked to Canada! Who does that? It was pretty awesome, and you can stand on the bridge in the middle with one foot on each side of the border.

 

  

Iceland

When I was approved for Sabbatical, a lot of friends wanted to go with me on trips.  Amy went to London with me, Julie to Jordan and Ecuador.  Mindy met me in Greece, and Kim went to San Diego (with bonus visit in Barcelona).  My mom went to Berlin, and my parents both to Italy.  I certainly had company in my travels, but three great friends from work still wanted to do SOMETHING.  All along I'd said that Iceland would be my last stop on the way home, and they flew over to meet me there.

Kudos to these ladies, they handled all of the reservations.  I was completely tapped out of trip-planning energy by May.  We stayed in two different AirBNB cabins, one on the south coast and one outside of Reykjavik.  We rented a car and explored the south coast and the Golden Circle for five days at the end of July.

Iceland is expensive- $18 for soup lunch expensive- but having a cabin with a kitchen made it a little easier on the wallet.  I fell in love with skyr for breakfast (it's basically yogurt).  We also cooked pasta and tacos for dinner.  The last night we made "Icelandic nachos" with leftovers.  It was great.  Our lunches out were simple but hearty.

The first day we picked up the car and drove down along the South Coast road.  We stopped at the Lava Center and Skogafoss, a huge waterfall.  We walked to the base, and then climbed the stairs up to the top and walked along the river a bit.  Since everyone was jetlagged, we made it an early night with just a trip to the grocery store and checking in to the cabin.

The next day, we set out south for the Sólheimajökull, a glacier where we could hike right to the edge and touch the ice.  It was pretty dark and dirty, but still massively impressive.  I can't believe how much it had shrunk back from the parking lot.  Gah, global warming is so real and painful!

Next, we went to the blank sand beaches.  We ate lunch in Vik, then drove further west to the Fjadrargljufur canyon.  The drive went through lava fields covered in moss.  It looked the the trolls scene from Frozen, honestly.  We got out for photos a few times, then once we got to the gorge we walked up to a few viewpoints.  After dinner, since the sun was still brightly shining, we went to the  Seljalandsfoss, a huge waterfall with so many rainbows.  We walked behind the falls, climbing all over the rocks and getting very wet and dirty.  Yay, raincoat!  Yay, rainbow!  Yay, sun at 9:30 pm.

On our third day, we took the ferry to the Westman Islands.  We did a walking tour of the town, had lunch, and then went to the Volcano museum. The island had a huge eruption in 1973, which buried houses and dramatically enlarged the island.  The museum showed the impact of the eruption on life, and had excavated some of the buried houses.  It was pretty cool.  We switched cabins that night, and enjoyed the hot tub at the new location.

Day 4 was the Golden Circle. We drove north to Thingvellir, where the North American and European continental plates collide.  We could walk through the rift created by shifting plates.  It's also the site of the early settlers (Vikings?) Althing, or democratic-style community meeting that governed the island for thousands of years.  There weren't any real remains, but lots of information about the history of the site.  Further along we stopped at Geysir, where we stood in the rain for 30 minutes looking at the wrong thing (grr) before eventually seeing the geyser, and Gullfoss, where we walked down in the rain to see a big waterfall.  As the rain let up, we arrived at Secret Lagoon for a soak in the hot spring for a few hours.  That, that was heavenly.  The last stop of the day was a Kerid, a crater formed from a collapsed volcano.  We walked around the rim.

Our last day we went in to Reykjavik. We did a walking tour that went through the old port, the traditional homes, the seat of government, and up to the big church.  We ate hot dogs on the street corner, and took photos of Leif Erikson's statue at the top of the hill.  We shopped and had soup in breadbowls for lunch. It was a perfect last day in Iceland.

I can't believe that this was the end of my sabbatical.  I'm not ready for it to be over.  I'm not ready to go back to being in one place for week after week.  I'm not ready to hear only English.  I've loved my year on the road.  It's been the experience of a lifetime. 

Day Trips from Stobi

Part of Field School were weekend excursions, which showed us some of the sites in Macedonia and northern Greece.

First, we went to Lake Ohrid, on the west side of the country.  The water was beautiful and great for swimming (once you got past the snakes!).  We started with a walking tour of the city and then ended up down by the shore.  We had a great lunch and then got some time in town too.  All in all, it was a great day.  The lake was really beautiful and I could have spent a lot more time there.

Another trip took us to Bitola, another Roman ruin. We got to see some of the work from previous years of Balkan Heritage work at the site.  We also toured the museum and had a lunch of traditional Macedonian food.  There was a great eggplant condiment and not so good grape leaves.  I wish I liked them more but can't get past the bitter.  We then had free time to walk around.  I bought the most delicious blueberries in the supermarket.  Good times.

The next weekend we had two trips.  On Saturday we went to Skopje.  I'd seen a lot of the sites when I arrived in Macedonia, but it was fun to walk through again.  We went into the Archaeology Museum, which was fantastic. The building itself had some cool architecture, and we got to see some artifacts that our supervisors had found at Stobi. That was amazing.  After lunch we had free time, so I went to find a knock-off Gucci track suit with one girl, and then ate ice cream in the old bazaar neighborhood.

Sunday we crossed into Greece to see Pella and Vergina, the two capitals of the Ancient Macedonian Empire.  The museums at both were pretty phenomenal and had some remarkable artifacts.  The walk through Pella was a little hot.  Very hot.  Broiling.  Some good mosaics, but so hot.  I much preferred the cool dark of the Mausoleum museum at Vergina.  The grave goods on display there included some really fancy carved benches and a golden box with the sun of the Alexander's Empire.  The site held the tombs of Alexander's father and son. No one yet knows where Alexander the Great is buried.  If he was at all.  But that's a mystery for another day.   After the museums we ate Greek food, and of course, Oregano Chips, the best thing in Greece.