Driving in New York City - don't do it!

Well folks this will be the last blog entry we write as soon we will be home in Bonnie Scotland and then you will get to hear these stories in person and will be able to come and watch and be bored by our mammoth slide show!!!

We left you last time when we were about to go and watch an ice hockey match and what a match it was. Our friend Ben was brilliant and we felt very proud!!! Gavin adored the game as within the first 10 minutes a fight broke out and the referee simply stands and looks on. Helmets, jerseys and gloves were lost in this fight!!!

We left glorious Halifax and travelled to the Bay of Fundy and in particular to Hopewell Rocks. Hopewell Rocks experiences the highest tides in the world and it is really cool as you can walk on the ocean floor at low tide around these huge rocks and then you can watch high tide come in. It comes in at 2 metres an hour so you don't want to get stuck out there!!!
Low tide

High tide

Then we journeyed towards America and crossed the border into Maine where we met a very rude American border control man and had an experience just before crossing where I left my handbag with all our passports, bank cards, etc in a coffee shop!!! So that day was slightly stressful, thankfully we went back to the coffee shop and my bag was still there with everything in it. Maine was beautiful and the fall colours were spectacular, we would have liked to have spent more time there but unfortunately you can't do everything...... just means we will have to come back one day!

Foolishly we drove towards New York City which was interesting driving. I am sure I could use a lot of other words but we will settle with that one. Let's just say we wouldn't advise anyone to drive in New York City....at one stage we were nearly lost in the Broncs. Anyway we found our hotel with the help of a lovely lady and parked the car in the garage and were able to take the subway into downtown Manhattan. It was wonderful, New York City is everything you imagine and more. We did all the tourist things: The Statue of Liberty, Where the twin towers once stood, the empire state building, 34th street, times square, central park, Tribeca markets and soho shopping..... so much to do in only a couple of days. The highlight though was going to broadway to see the musical of The Lion King, it was breathtaking and something we will always remember.
Times Square

Manhatten

Central Park

We then travelled back to Teen Ranch and had a few relaxing days just seeing friends we had made during the summer. I managed to ride again every day which was just wonderful... there is nothing like galloping across a field just you and your trusty steed!

Hope your looking after yourselves, see you in a couple of weeks!

Camping again!

So we are happy to report that we have taken very easily back to camping and it is much warmer than when we last camped so that is good!

Our first stop on the trip East was in Quebec City. The french city was celebrating it's 400th anniversary which is old in Canada terms so we thought we would check it out. It felt like being in France and no one spoke english so we struggled through with the little french we knew!!! It was a beautiful city though and had an old part which was enclosed in a wall which reminded us of Bergamo in Italy.


On we travelled to one of the highlights which was Prince Edward Island. It is so beautiful but it has an extra bonus of being where Anne of Greengables is set. Me being the huge fan I am dragged poor Gav around all the tourist sites. We walked down Lovers Lane and through the Haunted Woods!! The first night we were there we splashed out and went to the musical and it was amazing and even Gav loved it. The other famous thing about PEI is the national park. PEI has red soil and so the cliff edges where the sea meets land are just spectacular!
Greengables

Lovers Lane

National Park

Beautiful red sand

Next we went to Nova Scotia which means New Scotland. We headed up to Cape Breton and did a famous drive called the Cabot Trail. It was spectacular and at points we could really have been in Scotland.

We got off the roads though and hiked in to the forest and it was amazing as we saw a moose and her calf! It was so brilliant and we were so close to them. They were not bothered by us at all which was good as we had earlier heard of a story where the mum moose had chased this guy because they get kinda protective over their babies!!!! We stood and watched them for ages and it was simply wonderful.

We are now in Halifax which is the capital of Nova Scotia and we are staying with some friends we met while at Teen Ranch. It is really great to see them again and tomorrow we are going to see and Ice Hockey game with them so that will be cool. Their son plays at quite a high level so we are going to be groupies and watch his team!!!!

Hope you guys are all well.