Our British Columbia Friends

This past weekend we had a visit from Caroline and Rene who were touring about the Maritime provinces for three weeks. They spent a couple of nights with us at the end of their holiday. They are long-time friends of Paul from his Chilliwack BC posting days and are now my new friends.

On their first evening we gave them a quick drive about the City of Bathurst to show them a little of our area. The next day after a hearty breakfast at the Atlantic Host Hotel, we set out to show them a little more of the area and took the scenic drive along the coast to Caraquet. We stopped to enjoy the gardens at Carey's Beach Chalets again. The gardens were so bursting with flowers that you can hardly see Caroline and me. I always have garden envy there and yes, I will return again and again and there will be more photos in my blog.

Caroline is an ocean lover, like us, so we took a walk on the beach at Carey's Chalets and we introduced beachcombing/treasure hunting to Rene and Caroline. Standard pose is head down and stroll. Rene not only found one piece of blue seaglass, but two in one day, which is quite rare. The odds of finding blue seaglass is one in 500. Lucky guy...

Caroline stood in the middle of the busy highway to take this photo but no harm came to her.

We stopped at Pokeshaw Park in New Bandon and since it was low tide, Caroline wanted to walk out to the bird rock. There was a little brook to cross and she was the only one of us daring enough to walk the log to get there. We didn't want to risk wet feet for the rest of our journey.

This is a photo taken on our return trip when the tides were high. It was quite interesting to see how high the tide came in on the shore.

This year the northeast coast (the Acadian Peninsula) of New Brunwick is hosting the World Acadian Congress until 23 August. The Congress was formed in 1994 and held its first gathering among 9 municipalities in southeast New Brunswick. It has been held every 5 years since, with gatherings in Louisiana in 1999, and across the entire province of Nova Scotia in 2004. The Acadian colours are red, white, blue with a yellow star and as you drive through the communities there are a wide variety of decorations to be found. At the entrance to Grande-Anse there is a colourful boat, as well as a lighthouse, which is an Information Centre.

This decorated house can be found as you drive into the town of Caraquet. There are many flags flying, streamers decorating the streets and houses, etc. It is all quite festive.

Even the fishing boats in the harbour are showing signs of celebration.

It was quite a colourful drive and it ended with a nice dinner at our favourite restaurant, before returning home.

The last day of the visit of our friends was more relaxing and ended with a swim in the Bay of Chaleur at Beresford Beach, at least for Caroline and me. It was hard to believe that the water could be so warm. Rene and Paul opted to stay on shore.

Our friends have now returned to Chilliwack BC but we hope our next time together will not be long in coming.