With the summer coming to an end DD and I decided to go on a road trip from Quebec to Nova Scotia. We didn't really have the resources or time to take any long-term official vacation this year so decided to take advantage of the Labour Day weekend and take 10 days off to visit Nova Scotia.

Neither of us had been to the Maritimes before, well...I had spent three months in Bishop's Falls Newfoundland when I was a Katimavik participant back in the, but basically we hadn't seen anything East of Quebec so decided it was time for a short road trip!

I had spent the first few days of my vacation at the Montreal Film Festival and we left on Tuesday after Labour day because we wanted to avoid the traffic of the families and holidayers who were returning through customs and going back to school.

We had our new Garmin Nuvi widescreen GPS unit which was great for navigating in uncharted territory. We had decided to drive through Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine instead of going through Canada on the way there.

We left Bromont, Quebec at 7am on Tuesday and got to St. John, New Brunswick at around 5pm where our first stop was The Irving Nature Park. When we hopped out of the car and started getting our hiking booties on we were greeted by a fox! Wow, I thought, this is some crazy wildlife nature park when the foxes come out to say "Welcome!"

We walked out on the boardwalk to these mangrove like salt swamps full of muddy undulated banks and grassy plains rich orange from the setting sun. There is a looping hiking trail through the Irving Nature Reserve so we did a 4 km loop across the Squirrel Trail, The Seal Trail and the Caribou Trail. The smell of the ocean was powerful and the low angle of the sun created fantastic shapes on the curling bark of the trees and dark shoreline rocks from the cliffs. The trails were well groomed and well marked; maybe we weren't there at the right time to see an abundance of wildlife but we did have several close encounters with the creature known in Latin as : Headphonus Joggernuts! I guess the local Saint John fitness freaks use the trails as a perfect spot to train...which might explain why there were no creatures in the forrest...the animals had been frightened by the sound of tinny treble through headphones and zooming spandex buttocks!

We loved the little hike to give us our first taste of New Brunswick...especially after a 10 hour car ride in the 2005 Salsa Vibe that is now paid for (sweeet)! We spent the night at the Best Western in Saint John New Brunswick where we got the room with the Jacuzzi and got there just in time for our episode of Hell's Kitchen (I know...admitting we watch Hell's Kitchen is saying alot but damnit we love the show) so had a hot soak and I made some pita vege-pate sandwhiches! Nothing like a jacuzzi in a hotel eating vege-pate and hopping into a king size bed and watching America's Got Talent!

Next day we goofed around in Saint John shopping for some swim gear (oops...DAMI forgot his trunks) and a coat (D'oh! DAMI forgot his coat) and a tuque (yeah...you guessed it...DAMI left that at home too!) and found it all at WalMart and Winners at the new shopping Mecca in Saint John in the Industrial part of town where the hotel was. We picked up a Kickeroo for Alaska and Jasper and some Salmon snacks at the Pet Shop where the girl had a cold and had never heard of salmon snacks for cats before...I guess they only know about Cod Crispies!!

We drove from Saint John to the Bay of Fundy National Park. The Bay of Fundy was way-cool...while we didn't get there to see the rise and fall of the largest tides in the world we did do some hiking and spent time on the beach to see Fundy at it's finest...another place we need to go back to! After a quick hike and a Spam sandwhich Picnic we drove through Moncton and down towards Truro and skirted around Halifax on our way to the Mersey River Chalets right near Kejimkujik. We had thought of taking the ferry to Digby but wanted to see a bit of the province so opted for the long way home!

It's a nice ride, good highways...we were surprised at the quality of the roads but I guess coming from Quebec anything that doesn't knock your suspension off or give you a flat tire is considered a good road. Highways in Quebec are like a third world donkey trail but the main roads in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia felt like a runway at Kennedy Space Center!

We arrived at the Mersey River Chalets & Nature Retreat after dark...the entrance was just to the right 5 km after the entrance to the National Park...the road was dark and the tires crunched on the gravel like walking kernals of popcorn on snow....skrunch skrunch as we rolled through the narrow treed road towards the cabins...we had wanted to get there before the sun set but it was actually kind of magical pulling into the darkness and not being sure of what was surrounding us as we pulled up into the parking space for our cabin...they had left the lights on for us! After the long drive we were a bit bushed and unloaded the car and lit a fire in the woodstove and then relaxed...ready to sleep and open our eyes tomorrow to see where we were...

Oh My Goodness Gracious! We woke up nestled in the wilderness of wild Nova Scotia in an amazing cabin built along the Mersey River on several hundred acres of pristine forest in a cabin with woodstove and kitchen facilites and complete amenities for the long-haul! It was incredible! The retreat has been lovingly built with the vision of a true wilderness experience and an obvious love of the Earth. It is designed as a fully accessible area with almost 2 km of boardwalks appropriate for wheelchairs and the cabins and canoe launch facilities all have addressed accessability concerns.

They have a Tipi Villiage, which we might try in the Summer, and several modern chalets that have roll-in showers, two bedrooms and wood stoves! There were no annoying TV's or WiFi connections in the room...there was silence and the river and the mist rising from the river! Awesome! They were so friendly when we went to say hi the next day and we were given maps and a full description of the facilities by Cindy who answered all our questions and made us feel sooo welcome!

We christened this our "FastCation" because we were on a vacation that was a total of 4 days including 2000 km of driving!

We started with a 90 minute canoe ride towards the beaver dam and the falls where we had been told we might encounter some "Little People" or was it the "Faeries" living near the Beaver Dam...I'm not sure what Stephan said and as we passed his Tipi on the shores we didn't want to disturb his peacful reveries and just paddled silently...the canoeing was stupendous!

After the canoeing we drove to Kejimkujik Park with our bikes to do some touring. We checked in with the Ranger and heard tales from one visitor who had been coming to the park since 1966 and had just scared a black bear out of his black fuzzy pajamas on one of the back country bike trails...he looked at me with a rascal spark in his eyes and told me "not to worry" about the bears...GULP!!

We drove to the head of the Mersey River Hiking Trail...this is the perfect time to visit the Park...just after Labour Day when all the munchkins are back in school and the summer holidays are bascially over....we had the whole park basically to ourselves!

The Mersey River bike trail was one of the best bike trails we'd been on...instead of a railroad trail this was an intense winding trail, fairly flat, along the brown delicious tannin of the Mersey River. We did the 3.5 km ride without breaking a sweat and then pulled into the Kedge Beach Area where a few folks were launching a canoe and we just waded into the brown waters and marvelled at the horizon of dense trees without any telephone poles or hydrolines or building anywhere...so quiet and peaceful!

After the loop along the lake where the mainly empty campsites were, we passed a few deers who really ignored us and got back to the Vibe and drove down to the Snake Lake hike which also leads to Peter Point. The Snake Lake trail was for hiking only but Peter Point was a bike trails so we decided to do both and rode in towards Peter Point to where Snake Lake Trail started and locked the bikes and took the 3 km walk and then returned to the bikes and drove the rather upphill crest towards Peter Point which was...WOW!! A tiny point of land with a white sand beach and flat stones and cries of Loons on the lake...incredibly intimate place and we were able to skinny-dip, take off our clothes and wade into the warm September waters of Lake Kejimkujik. We were hosted by a tiny little lake frog who perched himself on the flat slabs of stones that contained the scratching heiroglyphics of visitors to the point from years gone by. Like people scratching their names into a tree with a penknife the point has a few flat slabs with scratchings in stone like an aboriginal cave painting...the oldest one I saw was from 1954...the nesewst said something like "Buffy Loves Jimmy" and was from 2008. But it was a magical place!

After the ride we drove back towards the chalets and stopped at M + W Restaurant and had our encounter with Marilyn at her funky corner store/restaurant. We had some take out fried fish platter and drove back to the cabin to light a fire and relax after our hiking biking and conoeing day! DAMI fell asleep after supper, probably from a combo of physical activity and the 4000 calories in the deep fried seafood platter from Marilyn, but came to life after an espresso coffe in time to go for a walk under the stars.

DD hadn't seen stars so crystal clear and bright since her last visit to the Planetarium and with more and more light pollution in the world it is harder to find areas where you can see more than 200 stars...here in the Nova Scotia darkness we could see the cloudy whisps of the Milky Way and we brought a blanket to the canoe docks and layed down for half an hour to watch the stars and see a few falling stars...it was a magical moment indeed!

The next day we had an eggs and ham breakfast on the picnic table on the boardwalk and met a few British tourists who were excited to have heard a wood-pecker...we didn't have the heart to tell them we have a few resident woodpeckers back home in Quebec that eat out of our chickadee feeder on a regular basis! We took some pictures of the morning loveliness and then packed up the car and drove to Fort St. Anne in the Anapolis Valley but didn't want to stop and pay the $3.50 fee for the site so asked Garmin where there was a park nearby and she brought us to a small Zoo not far from the park.

We thought the place was closed but they had just shut the main pavillion down for the season...the gate was open and a donation box for payment...we rode our bikes and were like two children alone in a wild animal zoo! It was crazy! We rode to see the cougars, the owls, the lynx, the moose, the eagles...all alone...with just us to say hello to them and share some kind words. It was a quiet powerful 45 minutes riding between the natural outdoor cages and saying hi to the animals without anyone else in the zoo!

We had to say goodbye to the creatures and drive down to Yarmouth because we were catching the Fast Cat from Yarmouth to Portland at 4:30 pm and according to the schedule had to be there 1 hour in advance so we drove past Digby and down the West side of Nova Scotia to Yarmouth with only a small stop on the way when we saw the sign for Doucetteville so we could take a picture, naturally...right DD?



We got to the International Ferry Terminal in Yarmouth and grabbed a ticket, we had made our reservations on the Internet thing before we left so we just had to show ID. Loading up was similar to our experiences onboard the Sunshine Coast Ferry in British Columbia but this boat looked more like a jet with whiskers!

I was disappointed that the only observation deck for passengers was off the back and was only 50 feet wide by 6 feet deep so not many people could squeeze in...I guess coming from BC where the Queen of Cowichan had wide open sun bathing decks I had been spoiled...but I understand....with the speed the Fast Cat Ferry travels it would be too easy to lose someone overboard and tough to backtrack and find them again.

The Fast Cat was ultra-deluxe...more like a jumbo-jet with comfy seats and lounges and there were like 3 movie theatres and a casino! Restaurants and a gift shop, kiddie zone, a fancy bar and cocktail lounge, and all of this travelling at 46 knots across the Atlantic!

We found a nice seat with a table and had a truly Canadian moment when we had a game of cards using a deck of cards from the Season 6 DVD from Corner Gas while eating some Kettle Chips made in New Brunswick and drinking some Big 8 Cola bought from a Nova Scotia corner store! Holy Maple Leaf!!

We stayed in Portland overnight and decided that on our next visit the total cost of the Fast Cat and hotel of $600 USD wasn't worth it as we could have drove back the long way home and saved some money and likely some time...but we try anything once and that includes Marilyn's Seafood Platter!

We loved our trip to Nova Scotia and got back home on Saturday evening...a fast 4 day vacation but we have already planned to go back in October...it's too beautiful in Canada's Ocean Playground! But this time we don't take the Ferry and we Do take the Burmese Babies!!!



See our Pictures of Nova Scotia

We loved this film! Go see it! Seriously!

Instead of giving a review of the film "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" that involved four or five stars I would give it just three little letters...OMG! Well maybe I would add an "F" and say OMFG! Our review is: We totally loved this movie!!

It was during my last Saturday at work that we decided to go see a film! DD had been to some 3D films on her trip to Florida but I think last time I had seen a three-D movie was back in the day when they used red and blue 3-d glasses and the scariest thing was Vincent Price's fingernails growing into your popcorn! OUCH!

Normally I am a bit wary to going to spend $15.00 to go see a first run movie in the theatre...especially an animated feature...I mean, I loved Toy Story back ten years ago but stinkers like Shrek have left me unable to go to those Disney Animated flicks...

The previews I saw on TV for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" really grabbed my attention and so when I heard from PondChief that it made him bust a laugh I said to myself that maybe this summer autumn Saturday would be a good day to drive down to Brossard (?) to check it out?

The animation was fantastic, the characters were fantastic, the 3D effects were mind-blowing! I can't say enough about how much I got into this movie!

The characters were well drawn and the story was rivetting from start to end!

Since we don't have kids I must have missed the children's book that the movie was based on but we both had every emotion from tears to sweat to blood! Well....ok...so there was no blood but the experience was incredibly fulfilling!

The theatre was only half full for the 3 PM showing but there were alot of familes with kids and the kids all seemed to like the movie...none of them were bored or talking so it must have grabbed their attentions...there was only one spot when the dancing evil bar-b-que chickens were going after Little Brent that a couple of kids started bawling!

I can relate to that junior! Those brown skinned headless chickens were sooooo wierd! At that point in the movie with my Roy Orbison 3D glasses dangling off my nose, I realized that this was brilliance and genious at the same time!

At first I was just blown-away by the incredible 3D and animated effects of the film but as the characters developed and the plot developed it was clear that the film had a message but the message didn't whack me on the head...it was subtle...it was incredible!

The portrayal of gluttony, greed and selfishness in our modern culture was exposed but it wasn't moralistic...it was mainly the more sophisticated viewers who caught any sort of message...but there was a point in the film where it all made sense!

The music was perfect, the colors were techno-delicious, the action voices and backgrounds were brilliant in texture and saturation!

One of the best films I've seen in years!!

Montreal has always been known as being like a small town style of city. Everything is easy to get to and if you are biking in Montreal you can fly all over the city so fast it's great! They have introduced this new BIXI bike service which allows visitors and residents to rent a bike for a few hours or a few blocks...swipe your credit card and grab one of the bikes off a rack and you can drive all over the city!

I visited the Montreal International Film Festival in Montreal in September and it was once again one of the best times to be in Montreal. The weather has cooled down a bit so I wasn't swamped with the humidity of the city and most of the tourists had gone home. Of course, with Montreal being a fairly small city it is always kindo of tight to move around and since the weather was a lovely pre-autumn sunshine everyone was taking advantage!

The bike trails and downtown bike routes in Montreal have come a long way over the past 20 years. I remember when I was attending CEGEP Dawson back in the day and riding a bike was like wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey shirt to a game at the forum! We didn't have no stinking bike trails back then but now the city is criss-crossed with bike trails and even De Maisoneuve street has a long two-lane bike path for us! Wow!

I spent a few good years down in Saint Henri district of Montreal near the corner of Notre Dame and Atwater. Back before the area was cleansed with money dripping yuppies buying up condos on the Lachine Canal we used to walk quickly in the area that had a Little Burgendy reputation of being a dangerous spot. We survived and now that our lovely St. Henri has been developed and tidied up the only danger is getting hit by a Mercedes or BWM zipping into the Atwater Market to buy some potted flowers!

During the film festival I decided to avoid the Montreal Metro system and park my car and just ride my bike from my rented appartment in St. Henri where I was staying with up and coming Montreal Artist and Musician Marc Lacharite. I had known Marc Lachirite back in the day during my stay in Yellowknife North-West Territories where we had actually been on stage together in a crazy rock band called Small Town Rhino. Both Marc and DAMI have come a long way since then and it was fun to reminisce about the good times on tour and to see his new paintings and hear his new music!

One thing about Montreal is that it is a thriving metropolis of artists, poets and creativite types...There is so much more than the Plateau Posers have you believe is the center of Montreal...beyond The Main and the standard coolness that such pop-culture consumerist neighbourhoods would like the world to believe is the definition of Montreal.

But I was here for the festival and not for the crazy bar scene, not for the late night summer circus that is Montreal...full of the hot and heady sexiness that the city is grinding through your lungs!

The Internation Film Festival has moved down to the Quartier Latin cinemas down on St. Denis street...back in Old School days we had to run all over the city trying to catch our films but this year I was happy to be able to just park my bike down on Saint Denis street and buy my tickets and see all films in the same building...sure they were the small cineplex type of box-o-rama but still it was great to be able to see a movie and then come out to grab a thai dinner on Saint Dennis street before hopping back into the theatre for the next presentation.

Man...I remember when I was seeing 3 films per day during the Vancouver Film Festival and then would go to MTL for the Fest! This year I took in only three films and stayed within Quebec...I guess it was my initiation to being absent for so many years...I think I have the fever again...standing in line with my festival program and getting up to the ticket booth with my choices and seeing the sold-out board with my picks and then having to make a quick second choice while people pushed behind me waiting with their Premier Festival Passes dangling around their necks...CRAZY!!! I love the film festival...none of that pretentious Toronto TIFF high-brow stuff! Or so I thought!!!


Look at the snobby patrons of the film festival! We used to wear ballcaps with beer holders on each side but these film buffs fresh out of Concordia Film School and the New York School of Fine Arts are wearing hair-friendly wine helmets equipped with silcone straws that won't smudge their lipsticks!!

I can't believe the attitude of these film festival people walking around with hats carrying crystal wine glasses filled with expensive champagne!!

Anyway...I was there for the films and tried not to be bothered by the guests who made it a point to wear their VIP Festival passes wherever they walked!

The first film I saw was Wingless (Ocas Je Terky) from director Ivo Trajov from the Czech Republic. This was the story of a man who had been born with a premonition on his soul that he would die by the age of 39. On his 39th year his life started to fall apart and it looked like he wouldn't make it through the year to live to see 40! His wife and child had left him and he set out on the road after losing his job looking for a future...streaked paintings and rough bullies played into his madness...much the same as the paintings of Marc Lacharite! Ha Ha! I was sitting beside a woman from the Czech Republic who said after the screening that it was "painful" to watch...ok so maybe Ivo turned the tale into a borefest but I don't think I felt any pain lady!!

The film was opened with Never Drive A Car When You're Dead which was a great animated psychotic episode played out in black and white with splashes of red about a suicidal loser who cant finish his life...or maybe his dream is not enough...it was super freak fantastic and directed beautifully by Gregor Dashuber of Germany.

After the film I went for some hot and spicey General Tao Chicken at a restaurant on St. Denis street. It wasn't the best general Tao I had tasted and probably not as good as that little Thai restaurant at the Fauberg Saint Catherine that the Montreal Mirror readers have rated so high up the culinary charts...that wasn't too bad either but still DD makes the best Thai type of delicious noodle and shrimp bowls available this side of the Saint Lawrence River!

The sun was raging like a 800 Watt Projector Spotlight and the festival goers were hanging outside the theatre looking so suave and stern with their passes dangling arounf their necks...I was a commando film festival goer and just strode through the line of NFB wannabes! Outta my way...sure you know the DOP in the last production of the ONF production of the violin chronicles but have you ever wondered why Corner Gas was not produced by CBC?? I do...which is why I sit outside the festival doors with my Starbucks Cup in the heat of the Montreal Summer...

The Eternal (Abohomaan) was an incredible film from Indian director Rituparno Ghosh and was my after supper surprise film...a surprise because I was sure I had bought a ticket for an Italian Film about a film director who was competing against his father to win the accolades of prominant women...but when I sat down and started to hear the Tamil back-beat sounds of an Indian spectacle I realized I had either made a nig mistake or else I was in for a wonderful surprise!

The Eternal was great...a bit hard to understand in the start but the acting was fantastic and in the end I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat and a better appreciation of the lattitude of film and the creative process!

That was the end of the night and I was back on the city bike path. Stopped off at BattleNet.24 Cyber Cafe on Maisonneuve to say hi to DD...I much prefer this one to the BattleNet.24 Cyber Cafe on Fort where I had gone before where there were these junkies smacking up in the can and then harrassing the hotel tourists across the street...the guy looked like some soccer hooligan...staring down the drivers...the drivers looking like they were extras from the Ghosh Film!!

Strayed (Zhabludivshiisya) was presented at the Imperial Theatre also known as the Pavillion Sandra & Leo Kolber, salle Lucie & Andre Chagnon, and was part of the official film festival competition. It was directed by Akhan Satayev from Kazakhstan and he was in the theatre with his producer to introduce the film...

What a crazy film this Strayed! A family driving across the deserts of Kazakhstan becomes lost but then things get wierd! Is it the devil? Is it a dream? Is it a crazy combination of bad food and good drugs? The movie goes from desperate to pathetic to violent to stupid and back to potentially redemption...but did I like it? Not really...of course after the weekend I spent in the city it had a message of going astray and for everyone who has ever taken the wrong way in life due to sex drugs or rock and roll it can have a message! I likes the scenery and the characters...the acting was not too shabby either!

After the movie got out I rode back across the city, downtown through the streets on the bike paths that are new and safe...feeling good...riding back down to my appartment in Saint Henri for a nice sleep with the visions of the film festival in my head....you know...when you see two movies in a row you start to have a separation from reality and association...it's nice!!

As I drove on Notre Dame I saw brightly lit window on the corner where an antique store used to be, where once a local coffeehouse had been...now it was a gym and as I rode by the women were training for their kick-boxing...with the drug dealers across the street and the poor people straggling on the sidewalk it was so contrastic to see this group punching and sweating against the darkness of the night!

Sleep took me again...was this all a dream?

I think I'll start coming back to the film festival and the visual overload that used to bring my so far away from my daily drabness...Thank you Montreal!