Maritime Vacation May 27th-June 10th

Hurrah! Our vacation's almost here!

David and I are leaving on Saturday morning at 7am for a two-week maritime trip. For non-Canadians, the "Maritimes" refer to the three smallest eastern provinces in Canada, which border Maine to the east...they are New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (PEI). Newfoundland isn't actually one of the Maritime provinces, although many Canadians think it is. However, the four are also called the "Atlantic" provinces, as they all border the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway, we'll be visiting my family in central New Brunswick, as well as travelling through Nova Scotia and hopefully Prince Edward Island. New Brunswick is a small province, from which you can reach the ocean within 250km in any direction. Good for lovers of the sea!

Although David is well-travelled, he hasn't been east of Quebec City in Canada, so I'm excited to see the maritimes through his eyes, to have him meet my family for the first time, and to see the place where I grew up.

We fly through Toronto to Fredericton, and arrive Saturday evening. I can't wait to see my lovely Mom, who is busily preparing the house for guests, and is excited that her lilacs and apple blossoms are in full bloom to delight her visitors. Their property is nestled in a little valley full of trees and greenery with a lovely view of the river across a giant meadow. I love it there, but the best part is seeing my Mom. She's my No.1 fan and best friend, and I am hers. She's just a lovely lady, so interesting and interested in people. I know David will love her.

After a few days of visiting the family, we're driving to Nova Scotia to visit Cape Breton Island and drive the famed Cabot Trail. Since David is of Scottish descent (and I am as well), it will be neat to visit the Cape Breton highlands, and the Scottish towns of our ancestors, all bearing Gaelic names. I also want to visit Fort Louisburg and the Alexander Graham Bell museum. On the way back from Cape Breton, we're thinking of driving along the coast and catching a ferry to PEI for a quick tour and some lobster. I've visited PEI only once, but recall lobster suppers at church halls that were to die for.

The second week we spend with my family, with day trips planned to St.Andrews, an old touristic coastal town near the Maine border. On the way, we'll visit the Ganong chocolate store at St. Stephen. Then we're hoping to visit the Fundy coast and see the Hopewell rocks, Fundy National Park and the Irving nature reserve. All places I either haven't been to, or visited long ago as a school kid.

So I won't be blogging after today for a couple of weeks.

After my Great Headache Escape of the past 2 weeks, I had a brutal headache yesterday and today. I missed work and slept all day today. Not what I wanted to do as I prepare to leave for vacation, but necessary to break a brutal headache I guess. I always feel so bad missing work. I want to be there, want to get stuff done, and hate being the person who misses days with her health. But it is so, so hard to work effectively with a bad headache. Most days I can white-knuckle it through the moderate ones, and the bad ones, but when they get severe, I am simply unable to function, let alone work on heady intellectual tasks. I am also exhausted often, from the Elavil, and from living with pain, that I find I can sleep all day and still not feel rested. It's a constant struggle to maintain "normal".

I'm working tomorrow morning and then taking the afternoon off to do laundry and pack. We need to go to bed very early, as we'll be getting up around 4am. I am dreading that, fearing I will have a brutal headache to contend with. I often have terrible head pain when I fly, and a long day of airports and airplanes just kills me. It is about 10h in airports by the end of the day, and I am usually spent. But the reward is at the other end....visiting my Mom and showing David a quiet, lovely place I still miss to this day.