Mini Road Trip - Saint John

As I sit writing this it sounds like it is raining. It is making me smile. The sun is shining beautifully through my window warming my cheeks and the snow is rapidly melting tricking my ears into thinking it is raining. I'm not getting too excited yet though...there is still two feet of snow in my front yard and the snow mountain my husband made from shovelling the driveway is still over my head. But, if I squint my eyes really tightly and look outside I can imagine it is almost spring.

Last week I had spring break from school. But, since I attend school in a different province from my kids...they have spring break this week. I wanted to have at least one day off together to do something fun - so I pulled them out of school one day last week and we took a mini road trip to Saint John, New Brunswick.

It has been so long since we have had a road trip together! (We currently have two exchange students living with us, which brings our family number up to eight and we do not have a vehicle that seats eight. But, there was a day last week where one of our students was on a ski trip and so the rest of us jumped at the chance to take off for the day).

I also had a food photography assignment for school and Saint John has a really cool, old market. Also, our favourite missionary had been recently transferred to Saint John and we all missed him already and wanted to see him. So it was a win-win-win-win kind of a day. We started our day with lunch at Billy's...

Billy's was a restaurant that gave me a free lunch when I was a travel agent visiting Saint John for the first time in 1998...

I remembered it being really good and since it was still there I thought it must be okay... our family has been sampling fish and chips all over the maritimes and I find it a good way to make an equal comparison between local restaurants.

This one was pretty good...not the best...but also quite far from the worst. I think we all enjoyed our lunch.

We had a good visit with Elder D - aside from the usual crowd control we had to do with the boys. With all the good-byes my boys have had to make over the past few years it was good to see someone they had just said good-bye to - reminding them that good-byes aren't always permanent. At the end of lunch the owner asked if they wanted to hold a lobster...and really what's cooler than holding a lobster.

After lunch we headed into the market so I could work on my food photography skills...

I've heard that photography like writing takes ten years to become professional...I still have a few to go...but I like the practice.

The market is still in winter mode and is really a glorified grocery store this time of year as far as food goes...

But, everything was still really beautiful and I had fun rushing around taking pictures - yes, rushing - remember I had five kids with me!

We ended our day with a visit to the Saint John museum - we had a lot of fun looking at (and playing a little) with the exhibits. We love museums and haven't been able to visit one for awhile so it was really fun being able to spend a few hours there.

We all had a really fun day although it left us all craving a longer road trip. My daughter keeps asking when we are moving west again...

I still haven't completely finished unpacking from this move!

I know I have a few things left to accomplish here...but who knows where life will take us - it's one big adventure.

Home

Right now, this is what I miss the most...

Rustico Beach, Prince Edward Island

Northport Beach, Nova Scotia

Blomidon, Nova Scotia

Somewhere along the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (The word Green comes to mind...but I really can't remember the name of this exact spot.)

Joggins, Nova Scotia

When my hubby decided to leave architecture school, we decided to go back to Nova Scotia. The reason we returned to BC was so he could do his Masters of Architecture at UBC.

Our experience in Vancouver taught us how much we missed Nova Scotia. When we left Vancouver, we returned to the Okanagan because the hubby had a show booked at a local art gallery that he needed to do some paintings for and because we had to move only a few weeks after making the decision to leave Vancouver. Moving across Canada with little notice at Christmas was not appealing.

We decided that we would move in August after the show opened.

His show opened last week.

I am still in BC.

Things haven't worked out exactly as we planned. We need to save a few more pennies before we can pack up and go. The hubby also needs a day job in Nova Scotia. ( I am still in school so I am leaving the day job to him).

Because things haven't worked out exactly as we planned...I think we are here for another year.

Staying has some good points. I do love BC...

but this week I am feeling VERY homesick. I feel like I have been on an extended vacation that is dragging on a lot longer than I want it to. Do you know that feeling?

Home...funny how Nova Scotia feels like home to me. I only lived there for just over two years in my nearing forty years of life.


If you have the time I'll tell you a little story...

I grew up in a smallish town not far from Vancouver. I loved it. It was home to me. I had family, friends and lived in a great house on five acres outside the city; my granny lived in town - walking distance to everywhere I needed to go.

Unexpectedly (to me anyway) my parents decided to move to the Okanagan - to a very small town. VERY small town. Nothing was really within walking distance, unless you count the fish and game club. I was fifteen when we moved. I hated it. I couldn't wait to leave. As soon as I was eighteen, I did. I moved around a lot.

When the hubby and I became engaged (over fifteen years ago) we realized that we could go anywhere and do anything. I was working as a travel agent and brought home dozens of brochures from tourist boards all over the world. We read through them all looking for a perfect place to live. We researched for weeks, searching the internet for additional information on our favourite places.

For a reason that I no longer remember, we chose Prince Edward Island...probably because it had pretty much everything on our must have list and we could stay in Canada avoiding mountains of paperwork.

In hindsight, I think I was looking for a home. In all the moving I had done in the previous decade, I hadn't really felt at home anywhere. Something was missing. I didn't know what, but I wanted to find it.

After we married...we stayed where we were. We had a mortgage to pay and moving to a place we had never been seemed a little too risky. My husband became my home. I was so happy to be married to him that it didn't matter too much where we lived.

Less than a year after we married I was offered a trip to New Brunswick - three nights, all expenses paid, packed itinerary - by the New Brunswick Tourist Board. I was very excited to go and had an amazing time. I loved everything about that trip and I am sure that I bored everybody by announcing "I want to live here" every stop we made. I called my husband every night trying to figure out a way that he could just meet me there so I didn't have to leave.

I can still vividly picture my last night there. I went for a walk late at night around the grounds of the Algonquin Hotel in St. Andrews-by-the-Sea. It was a beautiful night. I could hear piano music softly escaping through the open windows of the hotel. I could smell the ocean. I stood outside for a long time with a cool breeze blowing over me. Even though the breeze was cool, I remember feeling very warm and thinking "this feels like home - I don't want to leave". I remember crying and smiling at the same time. I hadn't felt like that in such a long time. I felt safe, comforted and happy... and then my mind would remind me I was leaving in a few short hours and the crying would start up again.

Ten years later, my family and I moved to Nova Scotia so my hubby could do his Masters of Fine Arts degree. The second I arrived I felt that feeling of home again. I had felt at home often with my hubby and kids. They were home to me, but I hadn't experienced that feeling about a place until I returned to the Maritimes. I missed it. When I look back my two years in Nova Scotia were probably the best two years I have ever had. Even though we struggled a lot (with long commutes - that's another long story - and financial problems) we had so much fun and grew so close as a family.

I know that Nova Scotia is not perfect and that there are many people who will look at me like I am crazy for wanting to live there instead of BC. I love so many things about BC and there are things that I don't like about Nova Scotia.

But, for a reason unknown to me,  the Maritimes are my home. I love Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island and have spent many hours exploring all three. Right now, I could list dozens of activities I want to do and places I still want to see or go back to that would keep me busy for decades. The list I have for BC is comparitively short. I was born and raised in BC and could live here happily all my life if I didn't constantly feel like I needed to go home.

Hopefully, someday soon, I will.