the last leg (of canada)

okay finally i will conclude the canada trek.

So i left off last in Quebec... i enjoyed my last day there sitting in a restaurant with my english pals Vikki and Shona, feeling warm, watching the rain pour down outside, and eating salty french onion soup with gruyere cheese and bread melted on top, and a blue cheese, goat cheese and brie platter. perfect end to canada, no?

From here we ventured south across the canadian-usa border, where the US officials of course wanted to make a fuss about my passport (and my passport only), and only let me through after paying $6 to have a small sheet of paper stapled into my passport (which had been ripped out by US officials on me first entering the country anyway... huh.)

Once in Maine we headed down to Acadia National park, our last real destination and national park. Here we enjoyed watching the sunrise hit the first point in the US (the top of Cadillac Mountain, where we were positioned) and i tried my very first go at deep-sea fishing. I caught 1 mackeral and 1 pollock - a star effort i thought for a beginner! it was much fun too and we each got a free Maine lobster to take home and eat.

So, as you can imagine, we had an excellent dinner that night of fresh caught pollock grilled over the campfire, fire-roasted corn, and the most beautiful lobster i have ever eaten. so fresh and sweet and all.

After that we celebrated by heading in to Bar Harbour (the small little town on Acadia Island) and having delicious gelato, and then popping into a very small and sweet bar for special blueberry mojitas (not too great - very strong, very sweet, but free thanks to the local friends Jo and I made).

Last night! we ventured into the tiny outlet-shopping town of Freeport for some shopping (or a little stop to sit and watch the world, as i did) and then on to our last campsite, one which was closing up for the winter and meant that we had one whole half of the campsite to ourselves (huzzah!).

Ann made us a special mexican gumbo-type thing which was amazingly delicious and then we partying on into the night enjoying our last night together (and getting roused on once or twice by the camp ground owners) and doing the Cupid Shuffle (it's a modern-day line dance... look it up on youtube) together.

And so that fairly much concludes my canada trip. by no means is it all inclusive though, so you'll have to ask me more. honestly though, if you are ever doing a trek in america, go with Trek America and ask for the tour leader Ann and you will have the best time ever.