Vacation 2009

So I've been meaning to write this, well, since we got back. But in the midst of settling into our apartment in Dallas and starting orientation, it didn't happen. Tonight it must happen as tomorrow I start real work and there is not much chance of anything besides sleeping, eating, and working happening for a little while until I get the hang of being a doctor (will that ever happen?!?!?) -- ok, atleast get a little more comfortable around the hospital to where I can resume somewhat of a normal life.

Here is a photographic journey of our trip (prepare for a long blog!)

We flew from Dallas to Newark, New Jersey and then met up with our friends from med school Ed and Andrea for a walking tour of New York City and dinner in Little Italy.
The reason we went to New Jersey (and what started this whole vacation idea) was the wedding of our friends from med school Chris and Marti. Above are 3 of my best med school friends with Andrea on my right, and Marti and then Marisa on my left. The wedding was wonderful with a cocktail hour that consisted of an appetizer from any country you could think of...sushi bar, fajita bar, classic cheese and veggies and fruit, pasta bar, hummus and olive bar, carving station, other hot dishes)....it was insane. And then a 3 course dinner! It was a lot of fun to celebrate with our closest friends from school one last time before we all went separate ways across the country for residency.
On Memorial Day, we took an amtrak train from New Jersey up to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. We had a hotel room with a view of the falls which was so neat to go to bed looking at them and wake up to sit and drink coffee while staring at the power of the water. On Tuesday we explored the falls all day going to Maid of the Mist where a boat takes you sort of into the falls (above), crossing back over to the American side to see the falls up close (below left), and then fighting mist and rain to get some pictures of the lit up falls at night (below right)



Wednesday morning we headed back to the train station to catch an early train to Montreal. After checking into our hotel we met up with one of my friends from highschool, Joanna. She showed us around the city walking by tons of cute boutiques and restaurants and then took us to dinner. The next day we took ourselves on a walking tour of the city, trying (unsuccessfully) to find the boutiques we'd walked by the night before, visiting a market to buy dinner and breakfast for our next train trip and just a lot of time wandering. We decided we had to experience the Canadian French specialty, Poutine (french fries drenched in brown gravy and sprinkled with cheese curd)













Thursday evening we hopped back on the train on our way to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We had this little double room to ourselves. It had a couch that made into a bed and then a fold down bunk above it and a little bathroom. A little small, but kind of fun for one night. We got to Halifax Friday evening in the midst of terrible fog, but we did manage to find our motel. To the right is a picture of our little train room.

The first day in Nova Scotia it was still really foggy, but we headed along the coast toward Halifax, stopping at a farmers market to get food for breakfast for the week and at Peggy's Cove, a famous fishing village and lighthouse (picture below). We then spent the day walking around Halifax.
Fortunately, the fog lifted that afternoon and didn't really come back.
Although we had eaten awesome fish and chips with local microbrew the night before, Sunday started the real seafood extravaganza with fresh lobster and muscles for dinner that had been preceded by seafood chowder earlier in the afternoon. We had a tourist map and brochure that had all these "scenic drives" in it, so used that whenever we drove anywhere to stop off at lighthouses, touristy little towns, or any thing else of interest.

This is an awesome fire hydrant that we saw, painted like a Mounty.

After one of our daily adventures (and after another dinner of seafood...at least one of us ordered seafood every night for dinner) we had a bonfire on the beach across from where we were staying. Gosh I love being near water!

To the left is Lunenburg -- we stayed about a km outside of town and had a beautiful walk around the harbor every night to dinner.

To the right is the Bluenose. It is a famous ship (still not exactly sure why it is so famous) that is moored in Lunenburg. Lunenburg was a fantastic little town with lots of art galleries, crafty shops, and of course (notice a theme?) good seafood restaurants.


Aaron inside a sea cave at 'The Ovens' park where we hiked around on the beach and then a trail through the woods that led us down to several sea caves.

After a few days in Lunenburg we checked out and drove to the Bay of Fundy where there are the biggest tidal swings in the world (sometimes they can change as much as 50 vertical feet between low and high tide). Such big tides bring....mud flats! So we went walking/sinking through the mud. Above right I am digging for clams. Below Aaron is getting disgusted with the mud between his toes.


Here are low tide and high tide pictures of Advocate Harbour where we stayed the night before kayaking. These aren't extreme low and high either....they are before and after dinner pictures, and although we did get dessert....it was still a normal length of dinner.

To the left is the lighthouse at Cape D'Or near Advocate Harbour. Center is the sunset we saw from the point and Right is a picture taken as the sun was setting.

The last day before we flew home (from halifax back to Dallas) we went kayaking on the Bay of Fundy. It was awesome! We left near high tide so got to paddle under rock arches and into little coves that when we paddled back after lunch were completely dry.

It was a great end to a wonderful trip. Hope you survived this mammoth of a blog and enjoyed the pictures :) We both highly recommend Nova Scotia. Especially when we went it wasn't peak tourist season yet, so prices were cheaper and places weren't packed with people!