Living Life out of a Van

We've had 24 hours to unwind from what was an amazing experience for our family.  We were certainly blessed to have been able to take 61 days and visit many wonderful places in North America.  Someone asked me today if I had to do it all again would I and the answer would be a definite yes.... and I'm pretty sure the rest of the family would say the same thing.


We spent nearly a year planning for this trip and I think all those up front preparations allowed us to experience as much as we could during our adventure.  Our two week "test trip" last summer to Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia also provided some invaluable lessons on how far we could expect the kids to travel on any one day and we tried to follow that pattern as best as we could.


As we unpacked the van this morning, we were amazed at how much stuff we actually had in it but it was also a great reminder of how we really don't need a lot of stuff to get by.  We certainly didn't lead a life of luxury on the road but we also didn't do without and it was kind of fun knowing that you can get by with one kit bag, plate, fork, spoon, cup per person.  I for one plan to go through my stuff and find a place for many of my extra coats/clothes... I'm sure there are many people out there who could use them.


While traveling we were fortunate to have lots of family time and for the most part we enjoyed each others company.  It goes without saying that if you put five people in a small space there will be times that we would get on each other nerves and that did happen a bit, but probably not nearly as much as we might have expected.  I think a big reason for this is that we all had our particular roles and everyone knew that we were counting on them to live up to their end of the deal.  I'm very proud of the way the kids traveled and the way Tanya co-piloted/navigated.  We traveled the entire trip by reading a map and only once did we run a bit off course and even that was only a few kilometres.  We did take a few extra streets here and there and had to make a few u-turns which always raised the question from the kids - are you allowed to do that?


Now that we've had a day to reflect on the trip, we asked the children (and ourselves) what some of their highlights were and here is what was said.


David - Loved going to the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland A's Baseball Games
Andrea - Loved Calypso Water Park, Canada's Wonderland and Yellowstone Park (especially getting her Jr. Ranger badges)
Natalie - Loved visiting family and friends and doing fun stuff with them
Tanya - Seeing Mt. Rushmore, Lake Louise and going to the Christmas Store
Francois - Driving across Canada and all the beautiful scenery.  I especially enjoyed Southwestern Saskatchewan (driving to Fort Walsh) and Wyoming


In total we traveled 19,182.8 kms and except for the stretch of road from Quebec City to Edmundston never traveled the same road twice as we went from point A to B.  We traveled through 8 Provinces and 14 States and our total gas bill was $2,234.88 with the most expensive gas being purchased in Ignace, ON (Northern Ontario) at a price of $1.399/L and our cheapest was in Idaho Falls, Idaho at $0.918/L.


Over the past two summers, Tanya and I have had the chance to visit with each of our siblings at their homes which has been a lot of fun for us.  On this trip we stayed a total of 27 days at friends and family's houses, 19 days in hotels and 15 days camping.  We really want to thank those people who gave us a place to stay for those 27 nights.  In many cases this meant people rearranging their lives so that we could stay with them and we really appreciated this.  We would also like to thanks those that we had a chance to visit with while on our journey.  We had many delicious meals and conversations with many wonderful family and friends over the past two months.


We also need to thank all our wonderful neighbours and my parents who helped to take care of our home while we were away.  A particular thanks to Darren for all the grass cutting and yard work he did while we were away. We owe you big time.


We know that there were quite a few people following our blog as we traveled and we apologize if some posts were long or too detailed.  We were using our nightly blog posts as a diary to track what we did and where we went.  We have some wonderful memories of this trip and in case we forget any, we have 5,347 photos of the places we've been and things we've done.  This number doesn't include the many photos that Tanya deleted each night as she organized/downloaded them.


In closing here are some of our top travel tips for anyone ever planning on doing something similar.


1. Community Parks and Public Libraries are great "free" family places to visit and our kids just loved them.


2. The Parks Canada Discovery Pass was awesome.  For $135 we had access to every Parks Canada site (except the Banff Hot Springs) across Canada.  These parks were fun, educational and great places to visit.


3. The Jr Ranger Program at National Parks in US was wonderful.  The kids couldn't wait to get to the park to complete the tasks to earn their badges.  We know that our children learned a ton of information by participating in these events.


4. When traveling through the US, stop at the visitor information kiosks on the highway and pick up an accommodation book.  We stayed at some beautiful motels at very low discounted rates.  We used trip advisor (internet site) to get information on hotels and it never lead us astray.




This trip has been a fabulous experience for our family.  We saw many wonderful sights, visited many fun places and met lots of great people.  We spoke to many people at visitor information centers, libraries, parks, grocery stores and wherever else we were and not once did someone not want to help us or answer our questions.  Thanks to those who followed our trip, sent us notes and prayed for our safe return.  We are happy to be home and blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends.

Thanks to our van for taking us 19,000+ kms

Thanks for cruising with the Carons,
Francois

Home on PEI Soil

Natalie catches a fly ball

We had a great night sleep last night in Tracadie-Sheila.  Gilles and Joanne had set up their hard top trailer for us which we really appreciated.  We woke up this morning to a beautiful sunrise and a big blue sky.  The river was very calm as I watched a fisherman out checking his nets.  We had breakfast, packed the van and decided to make our way to Miramichi for a church service that was scheduled for 11:00 am.

David on the phone

We arrived at St. Patrick's Parish a few minutes late for the mass but quickly found a seat at the back of the church.  The church service was nice and the homily had a great message around not judging others but finding ways you can help those in need.  After church, we headed across the street to a heritage park that had some green space and picnic tables.  It was right on the Miramichi river which was very picturesque.

Our last day in New Brunswick

We were getting to the bottom of our food supplies so we had a mixed meal to use up what was left.  After lunch we played some catch as the girls are eager to join their ball team this week.  They've missed most of the summer practices and games but are anxious to get out and play with their friends.  After playing around for a bit we made our way to Tanya's Aunt Marie and her husband Gerald's place.

Tanya with her Aunt Marie

We were warmly greeted at the door and it took Gerald no time to become best friends with the kids.  He got on the floor with David to show him a dinky car toy and then set the girls up with the outdoor badminton net and rackets.  The kids were off and playing which gave us a chance to get caught up on how their summer was going.


After a few minutes Gerald announced that he had to get the potatoes started for our late lunch.  They had prepared chicken, potatoes, salad, home-made biscuits and desserts which was very appreciated.  Even though we had only eaten a short while ago, we found the room to enjoy the wonderful meal that was prepared for us.  We took a few minutes to share some of the many photos we had taken with them on the way because Gerald had shown some interest in the Midwest States that we had visited.

Marie and Gerald with the Kids

After a couple of hours of visiting, we decided to make our way back to PEI.  About 15 minutes after we got on the road we came into a huge thunder and lightning storm.  The rains were torrential with some hail mixed in.  Many cars had pulled off to the side of the road but we decided to slowly drive through it figuring the storm was likely heading in the same direction we were.  We drove through it and had clear sailing all the way to PEI.

We're almost home - Confederation Bridge
 in the background

After a quick bathroom break in Cape Jourmain, we crossed the Confederation Bridge and were all smiles when we could see the red soil of PEI.  The kids kept seeing things on the way into Summerside  and would say there is ..... and then say, we are getting closer to home.  We safely made it to our driveway and were happy to see our home.  We were so blessed to have great neighbors and parents who looked after the place for us while we were away.  In fact my parents and the Frasers had even stocked the fridge with some food and had a casserole ready for supper.

Welcome to PEI

Cruising with the Carons back on PEI

Once the van was parked the kids quickly jumped out to run over to Darren and Cindy's house to say hi.  It wasn't long until many of the neighbors were out in the street welcoming us back.  As they say, there is no place like home.  The kids were looking forward to sleeping in their own beds and I'm happy that we all got back home safely.  Natalie said as we drove into to town.  It's kind of hard to believe that we did everything we did this summer... and I have to agree with her.  Tomorrow will be our last post of the trip as we have a few stats we want to share and talk about a few of the highlights of our 61 days on the road.


Good night,

Andrea was very excited to be getting out of the van

Francois

Saturday August 13th - Streets Decorated with Acadian Pride

The kids in Campbelton

 We woke up to the sound of the trucks using their brakes on the highway next to us.  There was construction zone on the highway right behind our campsite and trucks needed to go from 90km/hour to 50 km/hour in a short amount of time.   We were told that usually the traffic is not so close to the campground, but they are twinning the highway and it should be much better when the construction is completed in 2018!  The campground in Cabano was great – it had a beautiful outdoor pool, trampoline and a wonderful games room area for the kids to play in.  The bathrooms were clean and nicely decorated.  Natalie said this was the best campground she stayed in while in Canada.  After we left the campground David decided to make his Christmas list because he had so much fun in the games room.   He asked for a ping-pong table and a pool table plus a lot more other items too.  Did you know Christmas is only 4 months away? 

Andrea shows off her catch

Natalie with the fisherman while David throws rocks

On the train to PEI

The kids with Emilie-Sophie paddle the canoe

Natalie takes Nugget for a walk

Francois et Joanne

We left the campground around 10:00 and hit the NB border thirty minutes later and quickly lost one hour.  We stopped in Campbelton around 1:30pm for a late lunch.  The kids were excited to see the waterfront and spent some time throwing rocks into it.  They also posed with the large fisherman near the boardwalk.  They saw a teenager climb up onto the fisherman and thought they would do the same.  Initially I thought it was a good idea, until I tried to get David down – it was harder than I thought, but when you take a picture of one of them up with the fisherman you need to take a picture of each of the three children with him.  It was a good thing there was a gentleman who helped me get Andrea up – her legs were not long enough to pull herself up.  Francois couldn’t help because he was back at the picnic table making lunch.  After eating lunch, we took a few more pictures and we made our way to Tracadie-Sheila – which was our destination for the evening. 

Gilles, Andrea et Tanya

As we traveled through the roadsides, the communities along the way reminded us of driving through Evangeline and Mont Carmel.  The houses were decorated with the Acadian colors of red, white and blue.  The kids enjoyed pointing out the different kinds of Acadian flags as we passed.  We found out the houses were decorated for Monday, August 15, which is a huge celebration for the Acadians.  There will be a huge parade and lots of different activities, but we will miss it – but it is something we can add to our list for another year.

Andrea et Emilie Sophie

Andrea was very excited to see her friend, Emilie Sophie and Emilie Sophie’s parents, Joanne and Gilles, were very welcoming when we arrived.  We were treated to a lovely BBQ kabobs and a yummy salad.   We sat outside and enjoyed the beauty of the waterfront view and the beautiful weather.   I commented to Francois how much I missed seeing the water – we didn’t see a lot as we traveled throughout US and Upper Canada – and how I forgot how beautiful it can be.

The kids enjoyed playing volleyball and making sand castles on the beach.  They also played in Gilles’s canoe – it was tethered to the beach, but had a long rope line so they could “paddle” down the river a little way before the rope got tight.

David eating a marshmellow

Later in the evening we had a huge bonfire and Joanne brought out extra large marshmallows to roast.  The kids enjoyed roasting the marshmallows and I enjoyed eating them.  The kids entertained us with their stories and then with their dancing routines. 

It was a late night to bed – after 10:30 for the kids and it didn’t take them long to go to sleep.  Francois and I went back out with Gilles to enjoy the fire a little bit more before calling it a night.

Having a picnic with friends

Tomorrow we head to Miramichi to visit my Aunt Marie and Uncle Gerald and then we will make our way home.  We are getting excited to be so close to our house, although I am not sure what the kids will do with Francois and I not planning their days.

Take Care

Tanya

Bonjour Quebec!

In front of the Basilica

We woke up this morning to the news there was a suicide jumper on the bridge leading into Quebec City.  This was the bridge we needed to cross to get to our activities today and traffic was backed up for several kilometers.  So we didn't rush as we packed up our things.  We  had a lovely breakfast of homemade pancakes with fresh fruit.  Thanks to Rejean and Rachelle for the lovely hospitality - we were glad we made the journey to St. George to visit.   

Sibling love inside the church

Shortly after 9:00 we discovered the suicide jumper was talked off the bridge and traffic was flowing freely so we said our good-byes and made our way to Sainte Anne de Beaupre, which was a place we visited 8 years before when Natalie was a little baby.  We arrived shortly before lunch time and walked throughout the church and the grounds.  What a beautiful building and somehow you feel more at peace with yourself as you walk up and down the aisles looking at the beauty surrounding you.  The children were great, I think they realized the importance of the building and the need to be reverent.  They carefully looked at all the paintings and statues and asked questions about the things they saw.

They were amazed at the wall of crutches and asked how people were healed.  Natalie said our neighbor Cindy should have visited this place when she broke her foot last year.  

Way of the Cross

We also walked the large outdoor Way of the Cross - I think it gave the children a better perspective of what happened to Jesus.  They had lots of questions about why things happened.

The kids with the Royal Guard

We had a quick lunch in the parking lot of the church and then proceeded to Quebec City.  The beauty of the city is amazing as you drive down the streets and it is a place Francois and I would like to come back to visit.  I think it would be great to roam up and down the cobble streets looking in the gift shops and eating in some of the French restaurants.

Je Me Souviens

We did walk a little bit in the downtown area and took a tour at the Citadelle, which is coined as the Gilbrator of North America.  Our tour guide was an energetic young man who made the history of Quebec come to life.  It was really interesting to walk around the area and the kids appeared to be interested in the information we were told.  On the tour we met a man from New Zealand who was driving across Canada from west to east.  Once he heard we were from PEI he had some questions for us about our province.  Francois was a great tour guide and advised the gentleman that a trip across Canada would not be complete without visiting our beautiful province.

We also got to see the Royal Guards on duty in front of the Citadelle and the kids were amazed how still they could remain - Natalie said even their eyes didn't blink.  We took a few pictures with them although we were not sure how close we were allowed to get to them.

Quebec City

Spaghetti for supper

We had supper at a rest stop outside of Riviere du Loup and then we decided to camp for the evening.  This may be our last night for camping on our trip, so we looked at the weather forecast many times during our travelling wondering if it was going to rain.   We were told it did rain hard several times today in the area we chose to camp, but the forecast is suppose to be clear for the evening.  We decided to stop in Cabano and although the campsite is a little tight for our huge tent and the location is next to the highway - the kids are excited to camp again.  The bathrooms are beautiful at this campground so I know the girls will approve.

Tomorrow we head to New Brunswick to visit Andrea's friend, Emilie-Sophie.  We are slowly making our way closer to PEI and expect to arrive back on Monday, at the latest.  I think the kids are looking forward to being at their house although David said this evening he forgets what our house looks like!  

Take Care! Happy Friday!

Tanya

A Day with Family

The climbing wall in St. Eustache

After a great night sleep, we got up and got ready for the day.  We had a short drive from our hotel to St. Eustache where my Aunt Monique lives.  We stopped at the park down the road from her house and played around.  There was an amazing park and then the kids wanted to play baseball with the new bat that Uncle Michel had given them.  We had a great ball game with the kids using some the new techniques they saw at the Blue Jays game the other night.

Jean Denis, Monique and Francois

Just before lunch we went to Monique and Jean-Denis' place for a visit.  It is always so nice visiting with her.  She made us a lovely lunch with a variety of different salads that were just delicious.  David really enjoyed the tray of olives that she put out with lunch.  The visit was also a great chance for the kids to practice their french.  They really enjoyed trying to tell their favourite things about the trip in french.  It was neat to see the exchanges between them.

Monique's Backyard

After lunch we spent a bit of time in their backyard, which was very pretty with a new gazebo and lots of flowers, and then we said our goodbyes and we hit the road.  Our next destination was my uncle Rejean and his wife Rachel's place in Saint George, which is located about an hour south of Quebec City.  The traveling was good with only a slight delay in Quebec City.

Tanya and Monique

Francois et Rejean

Upon arrival we were greeted by Rejean and his family.   They had arranged a lovely supper and they had invited all their family as well.  This was a great chance for me to spend some time with my cousins and there was two girls who were the same age as Natalie and Andrea.  We spent the evening in the kitchen sharing stories and enjoying each others company.  

Rejean, Rachel and their family

Once all the cousins headed home, we got the beds set up and got the kids to sleep and then went back to the kitchen to chat with Rejean and Rachel.  It was a great night sharing lots of stories and having lots of laughs.  During our visit, Rejean showed us some of his handy work that he has been doing around the house.  His craftsmanship and attention to detail was very impressive.

Natalie, Andrea and David with Leatitia et Amylia

It was a great day and a chance for me to spend some time with my two godparents and visit with my cousins on the Caron side of the family.  It was also a great chance to speak french and use the skills that the kids have been using at school.  


Later,

Monique's Backyard

Francois

Life in the Early 1800's

Entering Fort Wellington

This morning we packed up our van and said good bye to our family in Stouffville.  Thanks so much for the wonderful hospitality.  We had such a great time!  It's hard saying good-bye, but at least as we know we are making our way home.


We left Stouffville around 10:00 am and drove to Prescott, which is on the other side of Kingston, Ontario.  There was a National Park Historic Site, Fort Wellington, that we thought would be a good thing to tour today.  The kids did not seem to mind being back in the van and travelling, although 20 minutes after being on the road David asked us how much longer were we travelling today?  We drove about 3 hours before we stopped, but we kept busy with activity books and searching the letters of the alphabet on road signs and vehicles.


We arrived in Prescott at 1:00 pm and located the National Park.  It was under construction and there was not much of an area for a picnic, but we made the best with what we had.  The kids were a little jittery with the bugs flying around, but they have been fine dining for the last week and not use to the bugs wanting to eat some of their lunch.

The cannon guards the fortress walls

There was not a lot of people around the Fort, but we proceeded in - again the Discovery Pass is great when visiting a lot of these historic sites - they are certainly worth the investment as we have used it in most of the provinces - all admission prices are free when you have the Discovery Pass.


We were greeted by a soldier at the front gate and then we took a self guided tour throughout the area.  We could walk the line around the fort walls, which I thought was really interesting.  I was curious how they built the fort - if they dug the soil out from the inside or if they built up the ground on the exterior portion of the fort walls?  Prescott overlooks the St. Lawrence River and was an important junction on the railway lines between Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa - so maintaining the fort was very important in the mid 1800's.

Heading underground

The underground room

There was a tunnel dug into the ground leading toward the seaway.  Soldiers would protect the fortress by firing guns out at the enemy.  As we walked into the tunnel, Natalie commented that Auntie Marlene would definitely not be able to walk into the tunnel because there was no exit.  The interior room was quite impressive with the brick walls  - it is so interesting to think they made these with basically their hands and hard work.

The lavatories

There were a few interesting things at the fort.  The first one was the latrine - it was an open room where men, women and children would use the bathroom.  The toilets were certainly not one of comfort, but one large rectangle with squares for people to squat over.  We read that later the area was excavated and all the crap removed as they discovered "artifacts," which was stuff that people had dumped down the toilet (either intentionally or unintentionally).  I am glad I did not have to help with that work!

The kids sleep under the bed in the 1800s

Another interesting fact was the soldiers and their families lived on the top level of the quarters at the fort.  There were at least 10 families living in the area which would have been no more than 700 square feet.  Each family had one bed and their privacy was a blanket that acted as a curtain that they were only allowed to pull over after it was dark outside.  The soldier on duty told us the parents slept on top of the bed and the children slept underneath.  He said because food was eaten in the same room, the place was infested with rats and mice, so when the children would complain about holes in their clothes their parents would get them a cat.  I told Natalie she shouldn't complain about sharing a room with Andrea because at least she sleeps on a bed by herself!

Dressed in 1820 period clothing

As we were visiting the fort the heavens opened up and a huge thunderstorm hit - the rain was coming down in buckets! We didn't rush our visit at the fort because we really had nothing else planned for the day and was there a need to be stuck in the van longer than necessary?  The soldiers on duty taught the kids how to play Nine Man Morris - which looks somewhat like Chinese Checkers.  The soldiers also gave us clothes from the period of 1800's and we dressed up for a picture.  All these soldiers were students working for the summer and they were excellent with the kids.


We stayed as long as we could, but it didn't appear as if the rain was going to let up so we made the dash from the quarters to our van - we were soaking wet by the time we got into the vehicle.  We decided to make our way to Cornwall.  As we drove on the highway Francois yelled out, "Look at that vehicle's plates".  Most of us thought it would be another PEI license plate, but when we read it we discovered it was a Newfoundland and Labrador plate - the first one we have seen since we started our trip in June.  So now all we need is Nunavut's plate and we will have found all the license plates in Canada and United States - even Hawaii!


It kept raining on and off, which meant our plans for camping this evening needed to be cancelled.  We looked at the forecast for the evening and there were chances of thundershowers.  We found a library in Cornwall and Francois did some research on the different hotels in Cornwall and Montreal.  He discovered we could get a better hotel in Montreal - better hotel meaning a pool for the kids to unwind and use up some of their energy.  So we headed to Montreal - which was about another hour.  We munched on bagels and fruit in the van during our drive as the rain really didn't let up.  The kids were happy to swim in the pool for an hour, but not so ready to go to sleep - even though they had two late nights and somewhat early mornings.


Tomorrow we visit Francois' aunt Monique and then make our way to visit his uncle Rejean.  Slowly we are making our way back to the Maritime provinces.


Take Care
Tanya

Traveling the Subway and Watching the Blue Jays

The Manicure

We had a quiet start to the day since we had no big plans until later in the day.  We lounged around the house during the morning with the kids watching the second half of Finding Nemo and Tanya and I took a trip to Walmart to pick up some supplies for our next leg of the journey.

Making Sure David Is Safe

Around lunch time Jen took Natalie and Andrea for a special trip up town to the mall.  She was taking them for a professional manicure, their first one.  They were excited to go and Auntie Jen said that they took it all in while they were being worked on.  The women working on them were Asian and apparently the girls had a few difficulties in understanding.  When they got home, they were quick to show off their new nails and explain to us all that took place.  Thanks so much to Jen for doing that.

The girls at supper

While the girls were away, David and Justin were busy playing mini-sticks in the basement.  Justin has really taken David under his wing just like a big brother does.  It has been neat to watch.  David has also played the little brother part fairly good by times by finding ways to pick and torment his "older brother."

The boys at supper

After a little bit of lunch and some organizing of the totes in preparation for our departure tomorrow, we were off to downtown Toronto.  We wanted to get to the downtown before rush hour hit and were successful in finding parking once we arrived.  Our first destination was the Eaton Center to check out the mall and kill some time before the game.  The kids were in awe of all the large buildings and the different sites and sounds that come with a big city.

Tailgating at the Game

Mommy and Andrea

After a bit of shopping our next destination was the Subway system.  We wanted to take the kids on the Subway even though we only had a short distance to travel to the game.  We purchased the tokens and got on the ramp and waited for the train.  The kids got quite excited when they saw the single light shinning down the tunnel getting closer.  Once the train arrived, it was quite full, but we piled in and found places to sit or stand.   We traveled the four short stops to Union Station and when we got out there were people everywhere.  We each grabbed one of the kids hands and worked our way through the crowd to East Side Mario's, our supper location.

Natalie and Daddy

We had a great supper, after a bit of a wait to get a table because it was very busy downtown.  Not only was there a Blue Jays Game but there was also a Foo Fighter concert going on at the ACC.  We gobbled down the food and then made our way to the Rogers Centre.  Our plan was to get some scalper tickets but we couldn't find any so we made our way to the ticket booth and picked up some seats in right field.

Ready to catch a fly ball

We made our way into the game and to our seats.  It was Tanya's first Major League Baseball Game and she said she was very impressed with how everything looked and the ambiance in the park.  The Blue Jays were playing the Oakland Athletics and were up by a score of 1-0 in the early going.  It was such a nice evening the roof was open and it was neat to see the moon and all the sky scrapers towering over the field.

The CN Tower at Night

The kids pose with a statue

The A's scored some runs in the late innings and ended up winning 4-1 but it was still a great game with some great defensive plays and some good hits.  After the game, we cleared out with the crowd and dealt with some traffic on our way out of town.  Natalie was the only one not to fall asleep on the drive home. It was another great day with lots of wonderful memories and the kids also learned about the crowds and waiting in the big city.


Later,

Francois