Camping!

The last time I went camping I had just become legal. In fact...the last time I was camping it was a celebration party with my graduation class and it just happened to be the same weekend as my 18th birthday. Lucky me!

I imagine this camping trip will be shockingly different. I can imagine a few things:

-I am definitely not 18 anymore

-It will only be my boyfriend and I--and any other campers at the campground

-I will be in Prince Edward Island

-AND I am betting that there will be way, way less alcohol involved....

Anyhow, back to my point.

Tomorrow we leave for PEI!!! Yay! camping, Yay! travelling and Yay! to seeing new places. Tomorrow morning before we leave we have much to do. Pack our clothes, pack the car, go grocery shopping and once we get into PEI we have to stop at the tourist information centre because we honestly have no idea where to start when it comes to "things to do in PEI".

We are definitely going to Cavendish and the Anne of Green Gables Provincial Park...and we are going to Charlottetown Summerfest and then we will browse Charlottetown itself...and we are most likely digging for crabs, but apart from that we don't really have a plan. Oh crap..no plan...eeek!

The good news though..we did go shopping and we now have a whole car load of camping equipment including this sweet combo pack that we found on sale at Canadian Tire!

Our New Tent and stuff...

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

So, this is a quick shout-out to everyone who is following my blog. I have photos slowly trickling onto my Saint John, New Brunswick photo album, which can be found under Snapshots of My Life!! These are photos that aren't always included within the text of my blogs, but ones which are available through Picasa. They are also photos (for my Facebook friends) which are usually uploaded onto that site as well.

After the long weekend I will be adding photos to a new album from our camping adventures in Prince Edward Island so make sure you check that out...I can't wait!!!

AND..

Make sure you remember to continuously check-out my boyfriends blog Steps of Foreign Soil as he also blogs on things we are up to--but it definitely shows his own "twist" to things.

The Poor Man's Escargot

For us it's easier to get stuff done once we have a plan. So, plan is what we did. Yesterday was another spare day for us to investigate much of the area, so we did just that. We started off bright and early and took the ferry to the Kingston peninsula, which, from what we know is famous for its farmers market. From what I saw, it is much like any other farmers market, although, unlike Alberta it is not based around beef or Ukrainian food, but seafood! Makes sense huh..?!

From Kingston we came back to Saint John to take in a charity event for the Saint John Regional Hospital. It was called "We Give" and they were offering Ice Cream Sundaes for those who came out to help support their need for renovations and new equipment in the hospitals ER.

We had some very, very delicious sundaes, and is was great to contribute to a beneficial cause in Saint John.

"We Give" Saturday Sundaes

From there it was a hop, skip and a jump...pretty much down the street to the 9th Annual "Country Fair". It honestly took us a whole 5 minutes to walk around, but we did stop and have some amazing freshly cut curly fries and snow cones to make it feel like we really were at the fair!

When we were in uptown Saint John, we were also close to the Bay of Fundy Harbour. This is where many cruise ships stop-over so their passengers can visit and "International" destination. This was the huge cruise ship that was in the harbour when were there....

Cruise ship

You've probably been wondering what the title of this post has to do with what I've been upto..but in the next few paragraphs, don't worry, it should all make sense. Late afternoon seemed like the perfect time to go digging in the forest to find some fire wood for our planned beach barbeque that was to happen, so off we went. Not too long after we had a trunk full of fire wood and three sticks ready to be used for our hot dog and marshmallow roasters. A friend of ours, who lives across the street would be joining my boyfriend and I on our evening outing to the beach.

Around 6pm we headed out to Bay Shore Beach, which is rocky, but perfect for hunting for "periwinkles"-- the poor man's escargot. So, this particular adventure was just like China, I promised I would try all new foods, even if it was just once. With that being said, after collecting just over a dozen periwinkles, starting a fire and cooking hot dogs, we boiled up some periwinkles to enjoy. All three of us had some, and they tasted just like...seafood.

Fire

Periwinkles

After periwinkles and hot dogs we enjoyed some smores and then took our full belly's home to rest.

On a side note, that cruise ship that was docked at the harbour all day left the Bay of Fundy when we were packing up our stuff after our barbeque on the beach! This is a picture of it. We were a long ways away from it and it still looks huge!

Cruise ship heading home...

Me..Baking?... Oh Boy!..

So, since in the days right now I'm home alone, I thought I would do something useful with my time-- such as bake!! It always seems like a good idea at the time until...(well read on and you will see why it might not be).

We had some oldish ingredients hanging around that needed using so into the cupboard i went to find everything i needed to make cornbread. Mmmmmm!!! Yummy, yummy cornbread....

I've made the exact recipe before and the cornbread turned out awesome. I can do that again! Right?! The buttermilk said "best before June 10" I considered throwing it out, but then the cornbread wouldn't get made, so the next best thing..ask the person I know who has the best cooking skills around. My boyfriend! He said it should be okay to use, so i continued to mix my ingredients. Upon mixing all the ingredients and re-reading the recipe i realized i put in a little extra baking soda....

No big deal..it'll just be a little bit puffier right?!?

Well...not really. In fact, my cornbread barely rose at all and it turned into a huge heap of cornbread rubble.

Cornbread Rubble..oops!

I ended up burning my finger...the last time i used the oven i burnt my hand ... and worse yet.. I still had all the dishes from the "mixing-the-ingredients" process to wash up.

Clean dishes! Yay!

All jokes aside I think my homemaker skills are lacking...especially in the baking department. Yesterday I did manage to do laundry without hurting the washing machine and dryer..or myself, so maybe one day I will learn to do that while baking.

I'm still persistent the cornbread didn't turn out do to the Buttermilk being like... 15 days past due...thoughts?!?!

Adventures: St. Andrews, New Brunswick

So On June 19th my boyfriend and I started our adventures of investigating the Maritimes. This particular occasion we figured we had better keep it somewhat local. With a busy weekend planned and a car not quite up to par we went to St. Andrews, a small-ish touristy town about an hour and a half away from Saint John. The map to the left shows where St. Andrews is in comparison to Saint John. It is the "A" on the map!

We had a quick stop at Tim Horton's for breakfast and then set out on our day-trip adventure. Our first stop was Minister's Island. Literally an island just outside of St. Andrew's that we could only access during low tide. So, we drove across the sand bar while the tide was out and set out on investigating that area. Minister's Island is the largest tidal island in the world-- and former summer residence of Sir William Van Horne. It was indeed very interesting, and astonishingly beautiful. The warm weather New Brunswick is enjoying and being surrounded by water made the time fly by.

Bath House on Minister's Island

Next, we went for lunch-- enjoying a quick bite to eat at a small pub in St. Andrew's. It was shortly after lunch when we embarked on our whale watching adventure.

St. Andrews Main Street

I had heard from a few people that this isn't the best time of year to go, but they had said that whales had been spotted out in the Bay of Fundy. I probably should have listened....some of the boat load did see one whale; a Minky--- but it went back underwater before my boyfriend and I spotted it so we were slightly disappointed with that. The best whale watching period is after the end of August so we will probably go again. We did see bald eagles and harbour seals and learnt interesting facts about the fishing industry, so it wasn't a waste by any means.

Harbour Seal

After whale watching we had planned to go to the Kingbrae Garden, but it takes an hour and a half to walk through and we figured we better do that another time.

So...off we went to Letete- a small community that has a free ferry service which takes passengers to and from Deer Island. The southern tip of Deer Island boasts the largest title whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere. The peak of the whirlpool is about three hours prior to high tide, but the swirling water can be noticed whenever.

Deer Island, NB

Deer Island was the last of our days adventures and so we went home satisfied that we had seen another part of New Brunswick!

One Week

It's shocking how fast time flies. I have already been in Saint John, NB for a week. Though it is a lot different than what I am used to, I am settling in. Because I am not working right now (though I'm hoping that changes by the end of the week) I have a ton of time to check out the city.

I am encouraging myself to get out of the house- I have gone to downtown Saint John, (here its called uptown), walked around Brunswick Square, where I went shopping, and I have walked around King's Square, which is a small war memorial park.

In the evenings my partner in crime and I have walked to the K-word river, gone on a few drives; checking out beaches, admiring the Reversing falls (where the tide changes directions), driving over bridges, and touching the cold North Atlantic Ocean.

We have also taken in our fair share of movies so far. We had decided prior to my arrival in NB that Robin Hood was on the must see list, and upon checking that show out we realized Tuesdays were the cheap day at the theatre, so last night we went and saw Prince of Persia.

While I have time on my hands I am sorting through photos from my previous trips, planning future day and weekend trips throughout the maritimes, and most importantly keeping track of potential job opportunities.

This weekend we are hoping to go on a day trip to St. Andrew's. I am hopeful that we will get to go whale watching---it would be incredible. St. Andrew's is much like Saint John; rich in history, but I will tell you more about it after the weekend!

Birthday Surprises!

Most of you know that my boyfriend is taking his MBA in Saint John, New Brunswick. I have seen him on and off over the last year. Our longest break without seeing each other has been 98 days from the end of February until now. I decided that since I was done school and not employed anywhere I could live a little and move across the country to be close to him.

At 12:50am on June 9--also my 22nd birthday I left Edmonton International for Saint John. With a quick stop in Toronto- to unload, fuel up and re-load our plane continued onward to Saint John. I arrived in the maritimes at about 10am June 9th, 2010!!!

Expecting my boyfriend to be at work, since he is on internship for the next few weeks, I made my way lazily into the airport and headed for the luggage area. To my surprise there he was!

He had managed to get off work and get out of his evening university class so that he could spend my first day in Saint John with me and so that we could celebrate my birthday together.

It was, by far a birthday I will never forget.

With a bouquet of red roses on the dresser and a huge rib/cornbread/cake dinner already planned I couldn't ask for much else.

We spent the day together, for the first time in three months, and I had a wonderful 22nd birthday!!

Convocation

People have asked me over the last few weeks, well ever since I finished my last final, if I was excited about graduation. My reply to everyone was that it hadn't really sunk in that I was actually done school. To be honest, I didn't get excited, or have any wave of emotion regarding convocation until I was promenading into the University of Calgary gymnasium with hundreds of other students. It was then that I realized I wouldn't be coming back; I wouldn't need to study textbooks and I wouldn't have to take the LRT for an hour morning and night just to get to school.

So with that being said on June 7, 2010 I graduated from the University of Calgary with a degree in Communications Studies!

Around noon on June 6 my family and I drove down to Calgary where we all met at a lovely B&B along the river. Because I was graduating, leaving and my birthday was two days away my family felt we should celebrate. So, out came the wine, the barbeque was lit and we enjoyed a lovely dinner together.

Monday morning I made my way to university where, upon arrival I was thrown into the crazyness of a big universities convocation. I was, well it felt like, herded around like one of many cattle. I got my gown, signed in, got my degree, pinned my colours and lined up in alphabetical order in at the sign which had my pg. number and column number!

I was the first one from my degree to graduate officially as I was "B"

Yay me.

From convocation I had lunch and my family separated. I had a great time seeing my friends- some of whom I probably won't see for a really long time.

Now its on with my life...I am officially a post-grad!

New Blog

Hello everyone!

Since I've been travelling a lot lately I thought it would be a good time to start a blog so that my friends and family could:

1.) Keep track of what I'm doing

2.) Hear about my impressions of where I am and what i'm doing

and 3.) See somewhere new that maybe they won't be able to see in their lifetime

I hope you enjoy.

Don't expect too much.

I'm hoping to get busier, so the blog will end up at the bottom of my priorites