6/23/15
This time, exactly one year ago, I was happily ending a wonderful day in Montreal and settling down in to our hotel for the night. It was the eve of St. Jean Baptiste Day and while it seemed like all of Canada was out partying, after watching the most disturbing french film, we were falling asleep early with small dixie cups of Chocolate Liqueur sitting next to us.

I have wanted to write about our trip to Canada ever since we got back. It only seems appropriate to do so now, exactly one year later, so that I can properly relive ever wonderful moments spent in the grand ole’ country of Canada.

I texted my friend who lived just up the street and simply said, “I want to get away. We should go some where this summer.” Her response: “Let’s go to Canada!” I hadn’t said it, but that was the exact place I wanted to go. We continued to chat about this trip for months and told everyone that we were going to Canada. No one believed we were actually going to do it because we were a lot more talk than action. We spent several months on Pinterest and google trying to find all of the places we wanted to visit. Finally, one day in April we sat down and actually came up with a tentative itinerary. Still, we had no passports and had not booked any hotels. In May, we ordered our passports, picked exact dates, and finally booked a few hotels. Since my mom never thought that the trip would actually come to fruition, she suddenly became nervous at the thought of us galavanting around Canada by ourselves.

Ontario. Day1. June 21st, 2014 at five in the morning we packed up my little box car and headed north. We had enough luggage to get us through a month and a cooler full of food like apples, cheese sticks, bagels, peanut butter, chocolate, and chips to get us by when we ran out of money. By one o’clock in the afternoon we had crossed the boarder into Niagara and checked in to our first hotel.    While the falls were breath taking, we still felt like we were just in an extension of New York and did not feel like we had left the states. We walked around and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and purchased Made of the Mist night tour tickets. By this time we were starving and settled on eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. Our waiter was highly entertaining and we were famished as we had not eaten much leading up until then. The legal drinking age is younger in Canada than it is in the states so we figured it would be fun to have a drink with dinner. We cautiously sipped our drinks knowing that we had empty stomachs and the two combined could result in an unwelcome buzz. The sun went down and we lined up for our tour. While waiting, we decided to sing every song that we could possibly think of. I am sure that those around us were ready to pummel us. After what felt like an eternity, we finally began the walk towards the boat. We were handed little plastic rain ponchos and met a group of women who were visiting from various places in Europe. We took pictures for them and when they took pictures for us, one of the ladies said with her proper british accent, “You two look like you are wearing giant condoms!” We enjoyed our day and a half in Niagara, but were ready to reach our next destination.

Quebec. Day2: We packed up the car again and headed towards Montreal. The trip was supposed to take about eight hours, but ended up taking a bit longer. We also had our first experience with filling up the gas tank. At first we tried to calculate the difference between gallons and liters and how much it would cost. Eventually, we realized that it was just a gas tank and if I used my card it would fill up until it was full. Definitely a blonde tourist moment on our part. We entered Montreal late in to the evening and I had to pee like there was no tomorrow. There was no making it to the hotel and we finally had to stop at a dinky little gas station and beg for a bathroom. That was our first stop where the culture really began to visibly change.  I tried asking the attendant if he knew where the Days Inn was, but since he spoke very broken english he was not very much help. My gps took us to a quaint neighborhood and told us that some one’s house was the Days Inn that we were looking for. After laughter and a little freak out, we finally found our hotel. It was the most unique Days Inn I have ever seen. It had an elegant spiral staircase that was surrounded by bright green walls. There was a classy bar on the main floor and the desk attendant was quite helpful. She spoke English well, but had a heavy accent. At one point I told her that my extended family was from Quebec City which was why I have a French last name. She replied with, “Ah. I saw that yesterday and wondered because I though that girl is straight up English.” We took a walk and were stopped by a man in a car who was desperately trying to find directions, but was unfortunate to stop and ask the only two American people around who spoke no French at all. We consumed a poor travelers diet of sun chips and reese cups.

Quebec. Day3: The next morning we drove in to old town Montreal and visited the Basilique Notre-Dame. It may not compare to the Basilique in France, but it was incredibly beautiful. We toured the church and upon leaving were told, “You ladies are dressed awfully nice for a Monday.” There was something about Mondays there.. We ate a a quaint little café and found the staff highly entertaining. One of the staff members was writing a sign that read, “6/24/15 Closed due to collective staff hangover. St. Jean Baptiste Day.” They were also singing a long to a song that was completely ridiculous and entertaining. We later found it on Spotify and added it to our driving playlist (Electric Bloom by the Foals, in case you were wondering). We briefly drove through the University of Montreal because that is where my grandma graduated from. In the afternoon we went to Sainte-Hélène, Parc Jean-Drapeau and enjoyed a picnic of granola bars and apples under some trees. We walked through a beautiful garden towards the Biosphere Museum. The museum was close so we were unable to go inside, but it was pretty incredible to look at from the outside. That evening we went to Target (not the best choice) to try to find some kind of ‘Canadian’ snack. We failed miserably. Eventually we asked an attendant for her help on finding a Canadian brand. She spent some time scanning the shelves and after a few minutes turned to us and said, “Uhm. Uh. Maybe thi… No. you guys pretty much took over everything….. You guys are silly! Just eat whatever you want!” We headed back to the hotel and asked the desk attendant if she had any recommendations for us to do that evening. She informed us that it was indeed St. Jean Baptiste Day (National Quebec Day) and that we should go to a party. We decided that partying was not really on our itinerary, but maybe some wine before bed sounded pleasant. We headed out to go to a local store to pick up a bottle of wine, but discovered that in Canada everything is closed by nine, and I mean everything. Wal-mart was closed by nine and that is saying something. We were about to give up, but stumbled upon a gas station that was still open and sold alcohol. We settled on a Chocolate Liqueur that had a label full of French words that we could not read. After settling in to our hotel room for the night, we each poured ourselves a dixie cup of liqueur and turned on the tv. Our goal was to find a movie in French with English subtitles. Unfortunately, the subtitles failed us, but a movie in French was still appealing. Since we had no idea what the characters were saying, we were completely taken off guard when a happy spring break turned into a brutal rape and murder in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

Quebec. Day4: Once again, we packed up my box car and set out towards our next stop. While we were loading up the car, I noticed that the gentlemen walking in front of us had a striking resemblance to one of our friends. He was loading up a fifteen passenger white van. When the car was packed, we got in the car and said goodbye to our hotel. As we drove past the van I remarked that they had a California license plate. We turned out of the parking lot and I decided to ask Kaitlyn if she saw the resemblance between the guy and our friend. She agreed and then said it looked like they were a band. We looked at each other and immediately came to a mutual decision to turn around and go back to the hotel. We pulled in next to the van (creeper move for sure), rolled down my window, and simply said that we noticed their California license plate and were wondering if they were a band. Turned out that they were a band called Geographer and were on tour through Canada. The guy who reminded us of our friend was skeptical of us and did not seem interested in talking; his band mate on the other hand asked if we had Spotify and when I pulled it up on my phone he took it and found their album. He asked if we wanted to listen to dance or dark. A little confused we picked dance. We later discovered that the two albums had the same sound and neither were truly dance nor dark. It was only a three hour drive to Quebec City and we listened to Geographer nearly the entire way. As we drove in to the most beautiful city I have ever been to, Kaitlyn turned on the song “Keep the Car Running” by the Goo Goo Dolls, we rolled down the windows, and looked in awe. This was by far our favorite planned destination on the trip. Our hotel was an adorable little French hotel called Hôtel L’Ermitage, located on one of the main streets running through the city. We checked in and a valet helped us carry all of our luggage to the room. The hotel check in was in a different building then our room was, so we had to walk across the street. We found it reassuring that not only did you need a key to get in to your room, but also to get in to the building. It helped us feel even more safe in the city. The valet dropped our bags off in our room and we had to call him back to tip him. He took my car keys and parked my car in a little parking lot located behind the check-in. The hotel was beautiful and full of culture. We did not want to leave our room as it was so cute! Eventually we decided it was time to see the city, so we ventured out on a little walk. Every part of the city was breath taking. Everything was in French and the language barrier was much more apparent, but we did not care.We took several walks that evening, and ended the day by enjoying the roof top hot tub that the hotel provided.

Quebec. Day5: We walked through the Plains of Abraham and walked around the Fairmont Château Frontenac Hotel. We went back to our hotel and got all done up to take pictures. We walked back in to the city and took pictures of each other all over Quebec City.  We found a really neat back walk way that was full of bazaar and unique graffiti. We must have taken over a thousand photos that day. Since we had only eaten out twice so far, we decided that it was time for another meal. We found a cute little restaurant called Au Petit Coin Breton that served amazing food and the most delicious chocolate banana crepes that we have ever had! After dinner we went back to the hotel to rest for a while and then decided to venture out to a club. After googling popular places in walking distance from our hotel, we settled on a club called Dagobert. Once again we got all dolled up and after dark we decided to walk in to town. We found Dagobert, but it looked awfully dead, so we chose to stop at an out door bar/club. It was boring and we were unimpressed. After a few minutes we left and decided to go to the outdoor bar of Dagobert. We walked on to the patio and a man who looked to be in his mid to late thirties said something to us in French. Not meaning to be rude, we completely ignored him and walked by. After we sat we realized he had been talking to us. Eventually some people started going in to the club, so out of curiosity we decided to give it a try. We walked in to a building that was foggy and purple from the black lights shining every where. There was a dj who was playing to the whopping eight people that were in the club. Kaitlyn and I took a seat at a booth at the edge of the dance floor and just kind of sat there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the man from downstairs walking towards us. He came over and sat next to Kaitlyn and began to talk to us in French. Kaitlyn yelled repeatedly that neither of us spoke French, but he persisted. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he got the picture and started speaking english. He asked us a question and I heard, “Is someone with you.” I answered saying no and immediately regretted it. He got very offensive and started nearly yelling, “Why can I not sit with you!?” Kaitlyn and started laughing realizing my misinterpretation of “Can I sit with you” for “Is someone with you,” and eventually I told him he could sit with us, but we were leaving. We left the club and noticed that he was following us with several feet between us. With paranoia, we briskly walked away while looking over our shoulders. He gave up pretty quickly and went his own way. It seemed like a good time to end the day and stay in our hotel for the night.

Quebec. Day6: We remorsefully packed up our luggage yet again and said goodbye to our absolute favorite little hotel in the most charming city. We had purposefully only booked hotels for the first five nights and decided to leave the last few nights open for some spontaneity. We had a few destinations that we wanted to hit along the way, but our over all plan was to just drive east. We drove about twenty minutes outside of Quebec City and stopped at Montmorency Falls. While the falls did not compare to Niagara falls, it was a beautiful stop and the atmosphere was so different. We had to take an arial tram down to the falls and then it was just open land to explore. The falls fell in to the Montmorency River and are nearly one hundred feet higher then Niagara Falls. We walked around and got as close to the falls as we could. Every one watched as we were the only ones daring enough to continue climbing closer. We got some sandwiches from the visitors center and decided to get back on the road. We put in the address for Magnetic Hill and headed that way. We decided that if we saw anything of interest, we would take the exit and visit it. We had no time line and had the freedom to do whatever we want. Kaitlyn spotted a sign for a Maritime Museum and we took the exit to explore. At first we stopped at a small church that held the name of Notre-Dame. We thought it could be interesting, so we pulled in to the parking lot and went in to one of the side doors. We entered a small room that had a stair case to the left and a door to the sanctuary to the right. We started to open the sanctuary door, but then heard voices coming from inside and realized that something was going on. We didn’t want to interrupt so we decided to leave. As we went to leave the way we came in, we tried to open the door and it wouldn’t open. We pushed, we pulled, and we laughed hysterically. We were both in tears trying to be respectfully quiet, but unable to contain the uncontrollable laughter. I think we both felt a little bit of panic as we felt trapped in the church and had no way of figuring out how to get out. There was a sign on the door that read “pousse” and while we should have been able to figure that one out, we were too hysterical to have any common sense. I whipped out my phone and opened the convenient french to english dictionary that I had downloaded. We realized that the word simply meant push. We turned the handle of the door and pushed and the door opened without giving any trouble. As soon as the door shut behind us, we lost it laughing in the middle of the church parking lot. We got back in the car and continued driving towards the museum. Upon arriving, we walked in to the main building and were informed that they were about to go on a tour of the boats. We paid our dues and joined in. What they did not tell us was that the tour was going to be given in French (again, probably should have figured that one out ourselves). Our tour guide was a young guy named Jonathan (pronounced Jean-uh-ta). He was delightful and when he realized that we spoke no French he tried his best to translate as much of the tour as possible for us. He would first say everything in French and then signal for the group to go on while he spoke very broken english to us. The tour lasted about an hour and when it ended he offered to give Kaitlyn and I a private tour of the second boat. Even though his english wasn’t perfect, he gave us very informative and interesting tours. At the end of the second tour we discovered that he had actually worked past his clock-out time just to show us the second ship.We discovered that he was just slightly older than us and that he was studying at the university. I cannot remember what he was studying exactly, but I remember that he was very passionate about it and he talked about it for a long time. At one point we got to the deck and he pointed out towards the water. He was telling us how it was too dangerous to swim in. He turned to us and said, “I need your help. What do you call this…. This water. It’s like the Nile.” I said that it was a river. He responded with, “A river?? That’s pretty f***ing disappointing. This waters a b****.” Kaitlyn and I laughed hysterically. Obviously swear words were universal. His english was so broken, but we very clearly understood that. He talked to us about many things other than the museum and we had such a pleasant time at our impromptu stop. We got back into the car and continued to drive towards Magnetic Hill. When it began to get dark, we found a Days Inn to stay at. We checked in and when I told the clerk my last name she said, “That is my last name too! We could be related! Just kidding…. but seriously.” It was a very different experience for me to be somewhere where every one not only knew how to properly say my name, but also shared it. The  Days Inn was the creepiest hotel I have ever stayed at. The upstairs lounge room was decorated with a bassinet and a baby doll, a suit of armor, an antique small television, and a high chair with a doll in it. The hotel smelled like you would imagine the cliché grandma’s house would smell like. As we walked to our room Kaitlyn said, “We are going to be taxidermied tonight!”

New Brunswick. Day7: We started towards magnetic Hill again. After driving alongside a river for a while, we decided we wanted to find a public river access. We took a random exit towards Aroostook, New Brunswick. Everybody watched as we drove by and we could tell that they didn’t have outsiders drive through very often. We drove on a road that claimed to be a dead end. We continued to drive thinking that surely there would be a river access. After a while we reached the end of the road and were shocked to find that the road was not just a dead end, but a dead end of Canada. On the other side of the gate that marked the end of the road was the United States along with a camera pointing at right where we were standing. After taking pictures, we turned around and headed back in to town. We found a small community center that had an older gentlemen standing outside. We pulled over and asked him if he could point us to a river access. He pointed us in the right direction, and we finally found a perfect hidden little spot. We got out of the car and then realized that we needed to use the restroom. I decided that since there was not a single person around for miles, the woods would have to do. A little while later Kaitlyn came back with that she just couldn’t bring herself to squat in the woods. We knew that there was not a single public restroom for miles, but we decided to drive and look any way. We stumbled upon a small automobile shop and realized that it was all we had. We stopped and the owner greeted us. We apologized for our strange request and then asked if we could please use his restroom. He informed us that his shop did not have a restroom, but that his nephew lived behind the shop and he was sure we could use that bathroom. We had no idea what to do at that point, so we just followed. He went in to the house and came out a second later saying that it was fine. We walked in to this stranger’s house and it was one of the most awkward experiences I have ever had. His nephew’s wife was the only one home. She pointed Kaitlyn to the restroom and the she sat down in front of the television. The room had no furniture except for a chair that was smack in the middle of the living room. The legs of the cushiony chair were no longer attached; therefore, the chair just sat on the floor. It was just two or three feet away from the tv. She sat in her chair and watched television, never acknowledging that a stranger was standing behind her. After what felt like an eternity, but in reality was barely a minute, Kaitlyn returned and we left. We got back in the car and Kaitlyn turned to me and said, “You are going to kill me, but I couldn’t do it! I couldn’t use a strangers bathroom!” We laughed hysterically and headed back to the river. She worked up the nerve and decided that the woods was her only option. After much convincing that we were alone, she headed out in to the woods despite her fear of some one showing up. I am not kidding, within seconds of her finally agreeing to use the woods, we both heard a car coming our way. From the woods I heard her yell, “You have got to be kidding me!” While I just laughed hysterically. She emerged from the woods only to find that the man who had told us how to get there had followed us down. We were both pretty creeped out. He got out of his car and said that he realized this was not the best swimming spot and he remembered a better place up the road a bit. We decided that we obviously couldn’t stay there so we agreed to follow him with our personal understanding that if he led us to some creepy backwoods place we would continue driving. After following him for a bit, he pulled off at the community center that we had first talked to him at. He said that he had the key and thought that we might need to use the restroom and get some drinking water. It was definitely a welcomed invitation. He let us in to the community center and I stood in the door way, preventing the door from shutting while Kaitlyn went to the other side of the room to use the restroom. In the mean time, another older couple pulled up in a truck and began talking to our creepy old man. They began to discuss some local guy who had taken a mower that didn’t belong to him. At one point the woman in the truck said to the creepy man, “Looks like you picked up some beautiful women! Leave it to you to find them ’round here. Do you know where she’s from?” They continued to talk like this just a few feet from me, but never addressing me. It felt as if I was in a glass bubble where they could see me, but didn’t think I could here them. Kaitlyn and I traded places and then the creepy man gave us both some water bottles from the fridge. We all got back in to our cars and eventually he led us to a pretty public road that led to a small bridge. He pulled over there and told us that many of the youth like to swim there because there was a small cliff jump. He wished us luck and went on his way. Kaitlyn and I decided that it was a public enough location that it was safe to stay.

By that point, we did not feel like swimming, but we did explore the area and got to hike a good ways back behind the bridge. The town was really a quaint little place with some beautiful scenery. When we were done exploring, we headed back to our car only to see a few teenage boys pull up in a golf cart looking thing. They watched us for a while and we could tell that they wanted to go where we were, but were too shy to talk to us. So they went in the opposite direction and when they did, Kaitlyn and I decided to just have some fun and leave a little message on their windshield. With Kaitlyn’s lipstick, we just drew a big heart on the windshield and then went our merry way. It was mid afternoon at this point and we still had plenty of time for adventure. We drove for a little longer until we saw a sign for Potato World. Now, who doesn’t stop when they seen a sign for a world of potatoes?? I don’t know if we were just starving from our lack of a nutritional diet or what, but we were incredibly excited for Potato World. We arrived at a museum that was dedicated completely to potatoes with a restaurant that had a menu full of potatoes in different forms. We met two lovely girls that were working there that helped us. The restaurant had several types of french fries and we were having a difficult choosing. Gaila, one of the girls that was working that day, asked if we had ever had Poutine. When we said no she insisted that it was a staple and we had to try it. So we ordered Outbaka and Poutine. After our fries, she talked us into a chocolate cake made with potatoes. Again, I don’t know how delicious this cake was in all reality, but to two girls who had eaten a total of four meals in a week, it was incredible. We got pictures with our new friends and continued on our trek towards Magnetic Hill. It didn’t take us very long to get there and we paid our $5 fee to experience the natural phenomenon of Magnetic Hill. We did it twice, once forwards and once backwards. It was an interesting experience and definitely worth the $5! Once we got back in to the car, we started to see moose crossing signs which made me really excited. We had to pull over and take a picture, of course. Sadly, we never got to see a moose. We continued to drive until it got dark and then we started to run out of gas. My gas light came on, but I knew that my car had another thirty miles at least before we were in trouble. We started to freak out a little bit, but saw a sign for a gas station. We followed the signs which took us way off of our route and led us to a small town gas station. We pulled up only to find out that the gas station was closed because, surprise surprise, it was after nine o’clock. In the process of pulling out, we hit the curb and dented my hub cap and were even more freaked out. We had to back track several miles, but we made it safely to a gas station before we ran out. Then, we found a hotel and called it a night.

Nova Scotia. Day8: Thanks to Aroostook I had gotten it in my head that I really wanted to go cliff jumping. I googled places to go, but had a difficult time nailing down a place. Eventually, I found an address called 3 Pools in nova Scotia. We decided to use that address and hope that we would find something. We hit the road early in the morning and started driving towards 3 Pools. Around eleven in the morning we stumbled upon a little vineyard and decided to give it a try. We realized that it was pretty early, but figured why not. We walked in to the winery and met the employee, Lindsay. She offered us a wine tasting and we went for it. She explained each of the five wines that we tried and it didn’t take long for her to realize that we knew absolutely nothing about alcohol. After the tasting she offered to take us in to the vine yard. Since no one else wanted wine at eleven in the morning, she was able to dedicate her time to us. She walked us through the vineyard and explained a few different processes of making wine and then told us what alcoholic beverages we just had to try. After the tour, she asked where we were headed next and when we told her 3 pools, she got on the computer and found better directions for us. She also advised us to stop at the market that was just a few miles away. Kaitlyn felt a little tipsy from the wine tasting, so I agreed to drive and we drove a few minutes to the market where we walked around and saw several vendors that made homemade pasta, Chinese food, little baked goods, clothing, and more. After we walked through the market, we began to make our way to 3 Pools. The address led us to a wooded area, but there were no signs of a place to cliff jump. We found a little pull off area where two girls were getting out of their car. We asked them if they could help us and they told us to drive up the road to a yellow gate and park on the street. They told us to go to the yellow gate with a no trespassing sign and go beyond it. They couldn’t remember exactly what to do, but at least we were headed in the right direction. By the time we got to the spot, the two girls had decided to find the cliff jump as well. So, together, the four of us started walking through the woods beyond the no trespassing sign. We walked along a giant pipe that was half under ground. It turned out that the water fall we were going to was government property and was part of the water reservoir. The pipe we were walking on was part of the system that provided electricity via water. After we had walked along the pipe for some time, we came to a small opening in a field where there was an electrical tower of some sort and some guys exploring. They told us that we were close and pointed us in the right direction. Eventually we made it to the swimming hole that had various levels of cliffs to jump off of. There was another group of three, two guys and a girl, that were already there. The guys had already jumped off the cliff and were continuing to do so. Kaitlyn and I were wading in the water with the girl and when she found out I was interested in jumping, she called the guys down and told them I wanted to jump. Lindin and Tyler led me on the hike up to the top. Once we got to the top they explained to me that all I had to do was step on the ledge and jump. I insisted that Tyler jump first, and he did. It was my turn next, but every time I looked down to jump I panicked. Lindin stood with me at the top and just talked to me while I chickened out. I told him that he could jump if he was tired of waiting, but he refused to jump until I did thinking that that would push me to jump sooner. In the mean time, Kaitlyn stood at the bottom with a camera, waiting to catch my jump on tape. I stood at the top with Lindin for about forty-five minutes. We talked about his job and how he actually lived on the western side of Canada, but every now and then his job had him come out east and he made it a point to visit 3 Pools every year. At one point him and Tyler started talking to each other in French which I found unfair since I couldn’t understand anything they were saying. Lindin was incredibly patient and just kept waiting. Finally, at long last, I jumped. It was a terrifying yet exhilarating experience. It felt like my stomach dropped and it felt like an eternity yet just a second before I hit the water. Unfortunately, I had left the tie to my bathing suit in the car so when I landed in the water I basically lost my entire bathing suit. Thankfully I had plummeted several feet in to the water so I had lots of time to readjust before i resurfaced. I swam back to Kaitlyn who informed me that I took so long to jump that the camera died right when I actually jumped. So, I handed her my phone and went back to the top for round two. The second time was much easier and I jumped off within minutes of getting to the ledge. When I watched the video Kaitlyn had taken the second time, we realized that she hadn’t pointed the camera at the top of the cliff and had only gotten me falling out of the sky. I went for take three. I climbed up to the top, but was unable to jump because another girl was trying to jump from a lower cliff. In the mean time, several groups of people had found their way to the swimming hole and were beginning to gather around to watch people jump. I had to stand at the top of the cliff for another forty-five minutes before the girl backed down and refused to jump. Once again, Lindin had accompanied me and we were just talking while we waited to be able to jump. Kaitlyn had the video camera ready and a few times signaled for me to jump. I was sixty-three feet above her and was having a really difficult time understanding what she was mouthing to me. I thought she was telling me that the only reason I wasn’t jumping was so that I could spend more time with Lindin. I kept laughing and shaking my head no. What she was really trying to tell me was that the people around her were smoking a lot of pot. I am apparently really terrible at the whole lip reading thing. Finally, I was able to jump and Kaitlyn got it all on tape. When I found her again, she said that she was baked. I agreed that she had gotten some sun and her skin was looking pink. She said, “No, Christiana, I’m. Baked.” As her eyes signaled to look around. I then noticed that there were several groups, totaling about fifteen people that were all passing joints around. While I was waiting to jump, Kaitlyn was getting high off of second hand smoke. After I got a picture with Tyler and Lindin, we headed out. Kaitlyn was starving so we decided to find some food. We settled on some Subway. After we ate, we made the decision to start heading back to the states. I can’t remember if this happened before we got to the vineyard or after cliff diving, but at some point we were driving down the road and had gotten kind of restless so we decided to ‘race’ cars around us. One car seemed to have caught on and kept passing us, then we would pass them, and so on. It looked liked the parents were up front and two teenage boys who looked about sixteen were in the back. One of the times they passed us, the boys held up their phone number to the window. Again, we were restless so we decided to message the number. When Kaitlyn went to get the number from the picture she had taken, she realized that it wasn’t clear. So, Kaitlyn wrote her number on a piece of paper and held it up when we passed them again. Shortly after she got a text message from the boy. They told us to turn on some radio station and listen to some song about an angel. They asked if we went to “uni” and they told us they were fifteen and we told them we were nineteen/twenty. The parents even got in on the fun and waved to us several times as they gunned it past us. When it came time for us to take our exit, everyone rolled down their windows to wave and we both honked our horns. It was a nice hour long friendship on the highway through Canada.
As we drove through Nova Scotia down towards Maine, we encountered some of the worst bugs ever. My windshield was a magnet and it kept filling up with bug guts as they hit the windshield. We have a quote written down from when I said, “Do you hear that? It sounds like rain hitting the windshield. But it’s not. its bugs. Its bugs DYING!” We were slightly delirious from lack of sleep and food and after we had killed what seemed like thousands of bugs, we began to get a little dramatic. We turned up the music to drown out the sound of the bugs dying. I eventually ran out of windshield wiper fluid and it got so bad that we had to pull over and I poured water on the windshield while Kaitlyn ran the wipers. We made it to a gas station where we were able to pick up more fluid. The bugs continued to be murdered all of the way across the border. It was pretty late when we made it to the border and only one lane was open. When we got up to the booth, the man asked us if we had any whale bones or seal skin in our car. We found those items to be incredibly odd and specific. Luckily we were able to cross with out any issues. We found a Bear Inn in the middle of no where Maine and called it a night.

Maine. Day9. June 29th 2014: We were sad to wake up in the states, but we were also eager to make it home. We drove to Massachusetts where we stopped and had lunch with my cousin. We made it home that evening and were eager to sleep in our own beds.

With more than forty hours in the car and over fourteen hundred miles traveled, it was definitely the trip of a life time and I was, still am, so thankful to have had the opportunity and to have had such an awesome travel buddy! We got along so well and were both pretty laid back which made the trip so much more enjoyable. It is my goal to one day go back to Canada and travel West. I also would love to visit Quebec City again.

Again, we didn’t sleep a whole lot and we hardly ate anything of substance, so at times (most of the time) we were delirious and just having a good time. With that said, here are some quotes that probably won’t make a whole lot of sense, but I would like to hold on to them.
C “Can you find the conversion for kilometers to miles?”
K “You know your car has kilometers right there….?”

Cars get in between Kaitlyn and a truck she had been following
K “SCREW YOU!”
Purposefully got back behind truck
K “Doesn’t it just feel right?”

C “I have a really dumb question that will make me sound like a major tourist. What is a brand that is specifically Canadian?”
Employee ” Uhm. Uh. Maybe thi… No. You guys pretty much took over everything….. You guys are silly! Just eat whatever you want!”

Hotel Lady “Yeah I’m from here so I say it like that.”
C “Yeah. Well, my extended family is from Quebec. That’s why my name is Beaulieu.”
Hotel Lady “Ah. I saw that yesterday and wondered because I though that girl is straight up English.”

K “Are they saying sweet ho?”
C “Sweet Heart. Haha, I belong with you, you belong with me my sweet ho.”

Guide “I need you help. What do you call this… This water. it’s like the Nile.”
C “A river?”
Guide “A river? That’s pretty f***ing disappointing. This water’s a b****”

Guide “French people are annoying. Mean. Very very annoying. You could go to train station and if something happen to you, they won’t care. They are not good people. Don’t go to France.”
C “My sister is on her way to France right now…”

C “B as in boy e-a-u-l-i-e-u.”
Hotel Receptionist ” Beaulieu. Ah, that is my last name too. We could be related. Just kidding. But we could be.”

K “Were you just singing Better is One Day?”
C “What?”
K “Do you know the song Better is One Day?”
C “Yeah.”
K “So you were..”

K “Christiana, I can’t live like this anymore… Day to day, never settling down… We were going to have a baby!”
C “…..no.”

C “Can you find my wallet? The big one?”
K “Oh, so you do have a big wallet and you were lying to me!?”

At toll booth
Christiana pays toll
K “FOR NARNIA!”

C “Do you hear that? It sounds like rain hitting my windshield. but it’s not. It’s bugs. It’s bugs DYING.”

C “Oh look! A graveyard!”
K “A WHAT?”
C “A graveyard… What did you think I said?”
K “A rape yard.”

C “Are you okay?”
K “I’m trying to burp myself.”

Some more of my favorite pictures from the trip: