Atlantic Canada Review

So... this is a LOOOONG overdue blog post, as I took my first Atlantics work trip back in July, but I took a second work trip the second week of August- so naturally, I figured I would eventually review the Atlantics as a whole- which makes things easier, but considering I just finished my wedding blog (and let's be honest, that takes precedent) this one took a back seat.
Newfoundland
Well.. I have to say, I found my second home. Being that I am very proud to say I was born and raised in the great beach community of Pensacola, FL, and minus the hurricanes and poor economy that has everyone in the dumps- my city normally has some of the nicest people you will find. More characteristically, there is a laid back personality, that you find. I have to say, of all the places I have traveled around the world, I have never been able to duplicate that 'small town feeling' quite like my P'cola home- until I landed in St. Johns Newfoundland! The people are decendents of Irish and Scottish settlers, which leads to a mixed and BEAUTIFUL accent which is a hybrid of the two. The second you hear a Newfoundlander speak (which by the way, they pronounce it Newfunlan) it is a distinct accent that is both appealing to hear, and memorable. The people are half of what makes this place so great. They are genuinely NICE people! The drive down the streets and the horn in the car is used to honk at someone you know, not in the manner that we traditionally use it. Oh, and EVERYBODY knows EVERBODY in this city. If Cheers is the bar where everybody knows your name, then St. John's is the city where everybody knows your name. There is a famous band (known across Canada, and now making it in the US) called Great Big Sea, and they are AMAZING! Their music gets you up and dancing, and the crowds at their concerts are lulled into a happy go lucky attitude that can be found all over the island. Newfoundlanders spread happy, period.
So the other 50% of Newfoundland's charm, is the scenic landscape. Absolutely beautiful! It is the farthest eastern point of North America, so a short 360+ miles off the coast is where Titantic went down. (Marked by a sign on top of Signal hill). The landscape is rolling, with several climate changes as your drive along the coast. This small fishing community has exploded over the years, many people coming from all over, and choosing not to leave. They are visited by whales every summer (approx mid of July to Aug 1st) for mating season, before the pods of humpbacks go south to the Dominican Republic (Far yes, I thought so too) for the winter. These whales were AMAZING to see up close! There were several large males, but one particularly MASSIVE one... absolutely stunning to see! He was larger, much much larger than our 35+ft boat.. and I only saw HALF of him. We also saw 1 Sperm whale (think Pinoccio whale). What amazes me about these creatures, is they actually put on a show for us. They know when the boats come out into the harbor, and they come alive showing their tales, and swimming around excitedly. As the boat went back in... the whales essentially disappeared.
I was also impressed to hear about a holiday in the end of July called Regatta day. Essentially, Regatta day does not fall on a specific day per say, but a week. The have it typically on a Wednesday... unless the weather is bad, then they roll it to Thursday, and so on and so forth (week day only) until they get a gorgeous day where everyone goes outside to the lake for regatta races! The holiday is marked by a large horn that sounds across St. Johns, notifying everyone that they are not to go to work today, that today is Regatta Day!! How cool is that? You get a 'go outside and socialize in the sun day' and best of all, its a surprise! The whole city shuts down and enjoys the day!!
Finally, my highlight of the trip was being 'screeched in' which is a ritual in Newfoundland. It is a 'right of passage' to becoming an official Newfoundlander, by saying the creed, kissing a cod, and taking a shot of screech rum. Definitely a sweet way to be inducted into a community! I love Newfoundland!
New Brunswick
To be honest, after Newfoundland, I didnt give New Brunswick the chance to be cool. I wasnt that impressed with the southern half of the Province, save for the Bay of Fundy- which is a natural wonder in itself, as the water goes in and out of the Bay of Fundy and can drop more than 25ft when the tide goes out! Very cool to see, but that about sums up my 'favorites' of NB. I did however, miss getting to go up to the NE corner of New Brunswick, where the Acadien population lives.. the Acadiens were the group of people who were exiled from Canada, and who later migrated to New Orleans. This is why the Creole language has influences from French. The Acadian language is a cross between English & French called Chiac, and Creole is a further breakdown from that! Missed this part of the Province, and truth be told- this is where I wanted to go, but business kept me down south. The Acadians are a very proud group of people, with a unique language and accent I wanted to hear myself!
Nova Scotia
Need to go back! I didnt get to review Halifax to the extent that I wanted to... stay tuned for a good report in 2011. I have been told since I loved St. John's so much, I will love Halifax!
Prince Edward Island
The land of potatoes!! No really, most of Canada's potatoes come from PEI! This place was great! And the potatoes were amazing. I definitely believe that native food tastes best where it comes from, and PEI potatoes are no exception. The island is also know for its seafood, in particular lobster, but I cannot eat lobster, so you'll have to try that one out for yourself. The island is pancake flat, but like all of Canada, gets snow in the winter. Fishing and potatoes are what PEI is known for, and we went on a fishing trip the last day in PEI.. which was the shortest fishing trip on earth (approx 45 minutes) as the swells were so bad over half our group got sea sick- myself included! I did catch 3 fish in 15 minutes though, so it wasn't a complete wash! Our group also learned how to chuck oysters, but since I am allergic, I was the judge of the best chucked oyster, since I cannot touch!
So in a nutshell, if you are planning a trip out to the Atlantics (Maritimes, as it is called in NB) I fully endorse NFLD, as it was the most amazing place I have been to! (outside of Quebec of course!) Time it so you can hopefully see the whales, or go in the winter when the whale watching boat tours convert to iceberg exploration tours (already looking forward to this!) as St. John's is notorious for getting large icebergs floating over from Greenland. (And it all makes you wonder if only Titanic had been sailing the part between Greenland & NFLD during the day...) the seafood is incomparable, and the people make the trip even more amazing.

"Monsieur et Madame Vaillancourt"

It's been awhile! I have wanted to blog, I have thought about blogging, but I have been so darn busy with all the life changes, traveling, working, trying to Ironman train... it seems there are never enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I want to accomplish!! Such is life, right?

The biggest highlight since my last blog is of course, marrying mon homme!! We had a beautiful day, honestly, I could not have scripted it better! It was a small intimate wedding of close family and a few friends who were able to make the 'destination' wedding to the Arctic tundra "where it snows 365 days a year, 24 hours a day" or so they advertise in Epcot's "O'Canada" :)

I decided that rather than recap the entire day: which I could easily do, there were so many great moments, I figured I would recap my top 5 favorites from the day:

To recite the vows~ It was extremely important to Simon & I that we hear our vows in our respective mother tongue. Being that our wedding was entirely in French, save for a few readings, etc, and my French is getting pretty darn good- I still wanted to hear Simon say his vows to me in English. He completely agreed, and was secretly thinking about doing that before we discussed it (as we were wedding prepping). This was special not only to me, but to my family and friends that cannot speak French. They were able to understand what Simon was vowing to me- without having to read it translated in the program. Obviously I said my vows to Simon in French, and it was a special moment I know we will never forget. Most importantly, it was the biggest part of the day!!! :)

Lola's moment to shine! For our get-away car.. it was no surprise we used Lola! Simon's "mexican mistress" and beetle he purchased when he was living in Mexico in 2007 and drove it from Puebla, Mexico to Montreal, QC!! Needless to say, Lola has been quite the little traveler herself, and Simon has rebuilt and worked on that engine as a side project for the past few years. It couldn't have been scripted better, that Simon's sister-in-law drove Lola (all clean, and dressed- complete with bow & Canadian maple syrup cans affixed to her rear bumper) to the Church, and positioned her on the Limousine row outside the church. There was Miss Lola in between two gigantic hummer limousines... smiling and happy! After we did the family photos outside the church, Simon and I were getting into Lola to drive her the 3 blocks to the reception (for photos mainly) and wouldn't fate have it: Lola did not want to start! Simon tried 4 separate times- no power from the battery!! Marie-Josée (Simon's sister-in-law) at this point is freaking out because she thought she broke Lola, or didn't turn her all the way off/causing battery to run down, or WHATEVER, but needless to say, she thought it was her fault. Louis, Simon's brother as well as my brother are leaning in Simon's window to ask what was going on.. as Simon tries starting Lola several more times. At this point, we have a massive audience of pedestrians stopping to watch the situation unfold, our entire group of wedding guests, the drivers of the other limo's (laughing) and even police! People were taking photos!! This went on for what felt like 5 minutes, and as I put my hand on the door and began opening the door to get out and walk to the reception, Simon immediately has a light bulb situation, yells out "Wait!!" and reaches behind to lift up the backseat, and jiggle the battery terminal. Two seconds later.... VROOM!!!! Lola springs to life!! I kid you not.. THE ENTIRE STREET erupted in cheer!! Strangers were yelling and whistling and taking photos. It really couldn't have been scripted better! Lola, upon her big moment to shine- got embarrassed, but held her audience in suspense just long enough before she let out the performance of a lifetime!

The machete... Simon & I used a machete to cut our two wedding cakes. The majority of our family and friends present, did not know the significance of why on earth we used a gigantic machete to cut our wedding cakes- so the story was repeated several times over. It was, more than just a large knife. When Simon was living in Mexico, he took a several month backpacking trip all through Central America. (The stories are many, of which you can read/or use google translate to read- all about on his blog) One of his many destinations was Guatamala. Being that Simon climbed mountains several times on his adventures, he was eager to climb a mountain in Guatamala- and this time, decided to do it solo. There-in is one of several key learnings: never climb a mountain solo, & gps is your friend. Long story short, Simon got lost in the cloud Forest descending down after climbing the mountain, and had to spend the night IN on the mountain, all alone, in Guatamala. Keep in mind, there are animals you have to worry about- BIG, TEETH, HUNGRY animals! He began rationing his food & water, but luckily the one thing he did have with him, was a machete he had purchased the day before. That machete in effect, 'saved his life' in that he was able to cut down branches to build a fire to sleep next to through the night (as the temperates drop significantly on that mountain when the sun goes down). So THAT is why we used it.

My sister. I had the best maid-of-honor EVER! I was so excited that I could have my sister be the person by my side, and the signature on our wedding certificate. Although, truth be told, she is so much more than that! I am so proud of her, and all that she has accomplished! She is going to do big things, and turn the occupational therapy world on its head! Additionally, she will be the one taking care of all of us when we get older!! But for the wedding, she was amazing. She thought of everything for the pre-wedding rituals. I even learned several things about weddings & traditions! She had the something old/borrowed- my grandmother's wedding band, something blue- blue garter, new- was my dress, the sixpence- this was a new one for me- but traditionally, the groom carried a sixpence in his coat, now it is customary that the bride carries it, so in my shoe it went! She had cute things we all wore at the rehearsal dinner, and a 'bride to be' top while I got ready that morning! Even though we didn't do formal toasting at our reception, she prepared the most touching MOH speech, which she had written down- and Mom gave to me later. It was amazing. I was so glad she was there by my side! I also had the largest experience of nerves I have EVER had in my life (and I do NOT get nervous)! She was great, she did lunges with me, she made me laugh, she got me dramamine, she made the morning so much less stressful! It was amazing. (And a special thank you to her rere boyfriend John, for keeping the humor up in the room, and going on coffee errands for us!)

Last, but certainly not least- my Family & Friends! Simon and I were blessed to have our close family and friends there with us to share in the day. For me, it was especially wonderful, to have my family travel up from Florida, my Aunt from Arkansas, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins from NY, second- cousins from NY, second-cousins from Illinois, Aunt from Georgia, and my goodness- the close family friends who made it: the Quinns from NY, the Colley's from FL, and my second Mom & Dad from Pensacola- the Cooks. I was blessed to have my sister's from other mother's make the trek: Michelle (and BJ), Jill, Andre-Anne, & Katie B who would have been my bridesmaids if we had decided to have a big wedding. Of course, it was understandable that many could not make it- for all intents, it was a destination wedding for my side. The family and friends that sent me beautiful messages regretting not being able to make it- were so sweet & touching. I know they were there in spirit, and that is what matters to me.

The great thing is, these are only the tip of the iceberg. There were so many other memorable parts of the weekend, day, that are for the most part, encapsulated in photos, but will take a novel to write here. I haven't even mentioned my AMAZING nouveau famille that I have married in to!! A few lines wouldn't do them justice, they deserve a full blog! I am so excited and honored to merge our two families together, and cannot wait to get everyone together again soon. We're still working on a trip down to FL!

It was a weekend we will never forget.