Posted by Seth on July 18, 2011 under Hotel, points, Review, Trip Reports | 
Passing through Moncton for a few hours and looking for a place to stay? We were, too. Thanks to the folks at hotels.com (I love me some Welcome Rewards points!) we ended up at the Rodd Park House Inn. Arrival was at 11pm. Departure was the following morning at 8:30am. Honestly there isn’t all that much that can happen in a hotel during that brief a stay to make it stand out as awesome, though there are plenty of things that can make it suck. Fortunately for us nothing happened in the latter category.
The hotel was actually fine. Free breakfast in the morning, similar to what you’d find at a Hampton Inn and the rate was quite reasonable. The room is nothing special, but it has all the necessary fixtures to serve for an overnight. Free WiFi in the room that worked great helped, too.
After the quick breakfast we were on the road so I cannot speak too much to the quality of the area around the hotel. It looked rather bleak, though the tattoo and piercing shop across the street appeared to be reasonably nice. Our window did face the street side but I didn’t notice too much noise filtering in, either because there wasn’t or because I was too tired.
There is a small park adjacent to the hotel that I discovered while trying to find the Avis facility to pick up our rental car. Nothing particularly special about it but the monument there was pretty cool.
It is hard for me to muster too much of an opinion on the hotel, both because the stay was so short and because it is so plain. For the price paid it was exactly what we needed. The location was across from the rental car which made it easy to get the car in the morning and the bed worked. Hard to do too much wrong with that.
Apparently there is some construction going on in the hotel but it wasn’t clear to us what was involved, other than that we got a cool hard hat squishy ball toy as part of the stay.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
Posted by Seth on July 17, 2011 under Trip Reports |
There was brief mention of some excellent hiking trails near Mabou, Nova Scotia in our guide book. Given the other benefits of staying there – namely a couple hotel options and some awesome live music options – the hiking was something of an afterthought. But the guidebook said it was there and not really a problem so we took a chance on that.
When I started searching online for more details and was coming up rather empty I should’ve taken that as a bit of a warning that maybe the hiking wasn’t really all the guide book had led me to believe, but I’m foolish like that and I pressed on. After all, with a recommendation like this, one of the few references I could find, why wouldn’t you try?
The community has constructed an excellent trail system throughout the Mabou Highlands (there is a map of the trail network at the trailhead). Several of the trails follow the coastline and up along the highlands, affording spectacular views.
Maybe the directions to the trail head should’ve tipped me off. They involve heading 4-5km down a road until you come across a dirt road on the right and then taking that for several more kilometers until you get to the small parking area that represents the trail head. Really it was the part that they weren’t particularly specific that I found disconcerting, but a good hiking trail should be out of the way, I figured, so these instructions weren’t all that bad, right?
And it turns out that the hiking was mostly all that. The views were phenomenal once the fog lifted, which was pretty much as we were finishing the hike and well after we had made it back down from the look-outs. But what we didn’t realize until we finished our day of hiking is that the trails are all closed.
Whoopsie.
The trail head closest to town where we parked had the maps and the markers on display but not the notice that the trails were closed. Only when we made it to the other end of the trail was there any indication that we probably shouldn’t have been there.
Okay, maybe there was one other indication. The "excellent trail system" was barely maintained, showing no signs of any recent management activity. There were points where it came quite close to petering out and even where the trail was rather obviously marked it was also rather overgrown with underbrush. It was most certainly not easy hiking, though it also wasn’t too strenuous. Just a bit hard to stay on track at times.
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| Yes, that’s the trail in the middle. A machete might’ve been useful. |
The views are, to be certain, spectacular. Even with the limited visibility we got to see some stunning vistas. And, except for the part where I slipped off part of the trail and bruised and scraped myself up pretty good, the paths were passable, though not immaculately groomed. Of course, that makes a bit of sense given that the trails are closed.
We weren’t the only folks who made the mistake of hiking the closed trails. In log books scattered along the paths we noticed a few other folks who had been out there recently, enjoying the Mabou Highlands trail network. A few of them had comments similar to ours, "We didn’t know the trails were closed."
The views definitely made the hike worthwhile. That the trail system is apparently closed makes it a bit hard to recommend it as a destination. Hopefully it’ll be open (officially) again soon.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
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Posted by Seth on July 16, 2011 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
Booking a hotel in a town of only 1,300 residents can be a challenge. Even in Mabou, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the economy is heavily dependent on tourism dollars, the choices are quite limited. There are basically three hotels, two restaurants, a grocery and a gas station, as well as some of the most beautiful scenery you’ll ever see. Still, with limited choices or competition chances of finding a stand-out hotel are pretty low. It turns out we got lucky with our stay at the Mabou River Inn. It was top notch.
The hotel doubles as the local pizza shop (so I guess three restaurants in town, not two) and check-in was handled at the pizza counter. OK, a bit interesting, but I’ve had worse. Like most of the other small properties we stayed at on this trip check-in was a matter of giving my name and being handed a key. No paperwork, credit card imprint or other formalities. I like that relaxed vibe. Certainly helps me stay in vacation mode.
The rooms are newly renovated for 2011 and they’re pretty darn impressive. Ours came with a desk and seating area, along with the king bed. As you can see from the photo below there was quite a bit of space available.
Similarly the bathroom was spacious and reasonably well appointed. No 300 thread count Egyptian cotton towels, to be sure, but good water pressure and sufficient space in there to hang out our stinky hiking clothes to air out. Not bad at all.
A continental breakfast in the morning is included in the room price (we paid ~$135/night), with cereals and fruits along with fresh homemade biscuits and muffins. Additional breakfast choices – eggs, pancakes, etc. – were also available at quite reasonable prices.
Free WiFi is included in the room rate as well. Even better is that the coverage reaches out onto the spacious deck and lawn they have. I love being able to relax outside with a cold beer and still get my blog posts written or research the next location on the travel itinerary. Very nicely done.
The other advantage that the Mabou River Inn has is the location. The "downtown" area of Mabou is not large by any stretch so only being a 10 minute walk to the other end of town might not seem like that amazing a feat. But at least one of the hotel options is much farther afield. After a night of drinking and music at the Red Shoe Inn I was not in much of a condition to be driving on narrow, winding roads with forest or sea on the sides. Definitely much better to be able to easily stumble back to the hotel room for a restful night’s sleep.
Plus, along the walk to and from the other side of town you get great views like this one:
Overall it is quite easy to see why spending a few nights in the Mabou area is a good idea if you’re touring Cape Breton. And if you’re in the area the Mabou River Inn is the best of the hotel properties available, especially with the recent renovations.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
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Posted by Seth on July 12, 2011 under Trip Reports |
I was incredibly excited by the prospect of visiting the Joggins Fossil Cliffs on the edge of Nova Scotia‘s Bay of Fundy. The area has fossils that are 300 million years old, way earlier than the dinosaur era. And it has a pretty cool beach that you can hike on to go search out such fossils while hopefully avoiding the famous Fundy tides leaving you stranded on the each as they rise rapidly on the Bay.
We drove about two hours out of the way that fateful morning just to see the cliffs and the fossils. What me mostly saw was fog.
It was certainly beautiful in many ways, but it was definitely not what I expected from a visit to my 45th UNESCO World Heritage Site. Alas, time was short and our itinerary that day was quite long, so we saw what there was to see and got back on the road.
The visitors center at the park is pretty cool, though if you want to skip it there is another stairwell that provides access just a bit up the road (see this map) though I couldn’t really find the road when we went looking for it. Just pay the few bucks and enjoy the museum they offer, as well as some details about the tide schedules and, if your timing is correct, a guided tour down on the beach, showing you the fossils.
So, yeah, our trip to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs were mostly a bust. But I’m still convinced that it can be cook, assuming you get decent weather and give it more than 30 minutes for the visit.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
Posted by Seth on July 8, 2011 under Dining, Review, Trip Reports |
Of everything we learned about seafood on our trip through the Canadian Maritimes this was the most startling. Sure, we also learned that it was, in fact, possible to eat lobster every day and not tire of it. But learning that the oysters I’ve come to know and love as Malpeques are actually not was quire a shock. Sure, they’re still delicious and I’ll still eat them, but now I know their true heritage.
It started when we drove up to Malpeque Bay to visit an oyster shack there for lunch. Turns out we were too early for the season to really be started and the shop hadn’t opened up yet. OK, no problem. It was late and we were hungry but we recovered and found a suitable replacement nearby at the Shipwright’s Cafe.
Set in a house on the northern side of the island, Shipwright’s is one of the nicer restaurants in the region and the food we had bore out those reviews pretty handily. Sure, it is hard to screw up a lobster sandwich too much but they didn’t come anywhere close. It was delicious. And like everywhere else in the region they believe in a proper, thick slice of bread when the time comes. Good stuff all around.
Dinner that night was at the Claddagh Oyster House on Sydney Street in downtown Charlottetown. The restaurant is nearly 25 years old now and started out as a diamond in the rough in many ways. Focused more on quality food and flavors than cheap and fast, the restaurant opened on a block that was most definitely known as an area folks would want to be after dark. Over the years, however, they’ve held the line on the food and other restaurants have popped up in the area, turning it into a great little night time hangout in downtown.
Oh, did I mention that the food is still phenomenal?
For starters, Claddagh goes out of their way to explain the local oysters in great detail. Rather than just getting Malpeques, a name that is actually applied these days to oysters mostly from other parts of the island and which are mostly exported, they offer up choices from a variety of farmers that vary on a bay-by-bay basis. With names like Colville Bat, Shiny Sea, Lucky Lime and Uncle Willy’s these are not oysters that are generally found in great quantities outside the region. It is a shame, too, as the smaller farmers have some incredibly flavorful product (I’m particularly fond of the last two there).
After the oysters we headed into what has become a rather common approach to dinner for us: lots of appetizers. More variety and the food is often more fun and imaginative. We weren’t let down. We ordered three and each was delicious. First up were the mussels. Simple preparation, incredibly fresh and a great sauce for the bits of bread we had left. Absolutely no complaints there.
Next up was the pork belly with a Guinness glaze. Looking at the photo again it appears there was also a salad of sorts served on the side but that was definitely extraneous. The meat was tender and the sauce just the right balance of sweet to offset the saltiness of the pork.
Finally, my favorite of the meal (and probably of the entire trip), the lobster gnocchi. Homemade gnocchi that were perfectly done, about half a lobster worth of meat and a light cream sauce that was simply incredible. It was hard to pick a favorite, to be sure, as everything was delicious. But if I was stuck and could only have one thing this would absolutely be it.
Overall the food choices we availed ourselves of while on the island were top notch. Combined with the amazing scenery and Prince Edward Island is definitely a great place to visit.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
Posted by Seth on July 8, 2011 under Trip Reports |
Given my penchant for picking different routes to get between cities it should not come as much of a surprise that I took full advantage of the opportunities presented to us during our Canadian Maritimes adventures. Driving the Confederation Bridge on the way in to Prince Edward Island was a blast. Taking the ferry to get off the island gave us both a different ride and also left us closer to our ultimate destination in Cape Breton. It was a no brainer. So cruise the Northumberland Straits we did, on the mv Confederation, one of the Northumberland Ferries ships sailing between Wood Islands, PEI and Caribou, Nova Scotia.
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We arrived at the terminal to a bit of a surprise: our reservation was apparently canceled. Only a minor bit of panic set in as I was fiddling with my email to find the confirmation details when the agent found a second reservation that was intact. Phew. It was now time to drive down into the belly of the beast.
Like most of the mornings we spent in the region, this one was fogged in pretty badly. Every 3-4 minutes the ships horn let off a long, loud blast warning any other boats in the area. It also startled everyone who was on the deck hoping the fog would clear for some decent views during the crossing.
The crossing was only about a hour long and the fog did clear about 45 minutes into the trip, leaving us with some phenomenal views for the arrival into Nova Scotia.
And then it was back down into the hold. Back into our car and back on the road again. We had another few hundred kilometers to cover, an awesome friend to meet and we needed to get to Mabou in time for dinner and some music. Just the first part of a very full day but a great ride, even with the fog. The views coming into Nova Scotia certainly set us up for what was to be five amazing days of scenery.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
Posted by Seth on July 7, 2011 under Trip Reports |
The Confederation Bridge, joining Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick in Canada, is a modern marvel that I’ve been pretty much infatuated with since I first saw the construction documentaries on the Discovery Channel several years back. Built across a eight mile long gap in the Northumberland Strait between the two provinces, the bridge is set against incredibly difficult natural forces. Ice floes are common, as are tremendous winds and fogs that still close the bridge from time to time. But it is the support columns, reinforced against iceberg impact that I still find most amazing to this day.
And so, as we started to plan our Maritimes itinerary crossing the bridge quickly rose to the top of my "to-do" list. Sure, I initially balked at the ~$50 toll rate for the crossing but in the grand scheme of the trip that’s a drop in the bucket, especially given my obsession. A bit of encouragement from some great friends pushed me over the edge and we were off.
Our route would take us eastbound across the bridge, starting on the New Brunswick side and crossing into PEI from there. But before we even got to the bridge I wanted some photos. Welcome to the Cape Jourimain National Wildlife Area. There are two exits off the highway just before the crossing. The first, Exit 47 at Route 955, offers access via an unpaved road through the middle of the wetlands that make up the park. Pull off on the side of the road and you’re rewarded with views like this one:
The next exit ( #51) is the visitors center for the wildlife area. The center is a non-profit organization that offers up a few trails in the area and provides parking if you want to snap a couple photos from directly under the bridge, sortof like these:
Once we got that out of our system it was finally time to cross the bridge. So I set up the video camera and off we went. I managed to set the camera directly behind a bug splat on the windshield so I’m pretty annoyed but the ride is still pretty cool. Oh, and at 8 miles long the bridge crossing takes a while but I chose to speed up the video to avoid putting folks to sleep while watching.
Sure, it was just driving across a bridge at ~80km/h but it was also a great opportunity to experience a true marvel of modern engineering. Most definitely worth making the trip.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
Posted by Seth on July 6, 2011 under Trip Reports |
Historically Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has been known for a number of different things. Some of these industries – namely coal and fishing – are dying, taking away much needed money from the community and the population reflects this change as many youth who can are fleeing the region. But there is another industry that survives and thrives to some extent in the area: music.
Born out of a mix of Celtic, Scottish and Acadian influences, the Cape Breton musical style is slightly difficult to pin down as anything but its own. But the traditions surrounding the music are easy to find just about anywhere on the island as the locals and tourists alike celebrate their cultural heritage. Generally it starts with a fiddle and a piano. Add in some drums or a guitar if you wish. And then kick back, relax and enjoy the show. Or, if you’re feeling particularly bold, join in the celebration. That’s what we did!
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| Taking in the show at The Red Shoe in Mabou, Nova Scotia. |
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| Driving the Ceildh Trail on Cape Breton |
The performances, locally known as Ceilidhs (kay’-leeds), range from a couple friends gathering in song and dance to larger performances put on in pubs or halls around the island. The western side of the island south of the much more famous Cape Breton trail is known as the Ceilidh Trail, with every town along the way hosting music at least one night a week and some towns much more often (especially when the tourists show up).
Each of our four nights in the region included some sort of music. On our first night in Mabou we ended up at The Red Shoe along with what appeared to be pretty much everyone else in town. The crowd was split about 50/50 between locals and tourists, most of whom were also staying at the same hotel we were. We were all there for the same reason and soon enough everyone, local or visitor, was clapping or dancing along like old friends.
At one point during the set I moved to a different seat to get a better angle for some photos. No sooner than I was seated did I find myself engaged in conversation with Frank, one of the local residents. Over the course of our brief conversation we discussed a number of topics but the most important was the weekly town square dance that was happening the following night. After the great music at this show and the warm hospitality shown to us it was pretty much a certainty that we’d be there.
The square dance was much, much,much different than the last one I attended. For one thing, I was there voluntarily rather than because it was the evening entertainment at summer camp. For another thing, it was not a called dance. It seemed that everyone else more or less knew what they were doing and we most definitely did not. Of course, that didn’t really stop us and after watching for about 20 minutes (and getting over the fact that we were dead in the middle of a roughly 40 year age gap amongst the other attendees) Linnea and I rose to the challenge and joined the fray.
I’d like to think that I showed a bit of rhythm and some ability to pick up the dance steps. During our second go of it one of the women I ended up paired with even complimented me on picking it up so quickly. I’m pretty sure she was just being polite. Still, we managed to make it out of there without causing an international incident or embarrassing ourselves too much. And we had a lot of fun, too.
Each "set" is actually three dances in one. The first is relatively simple except that instead of dancing with your partner you get to meet someone new. I love this aspect of the dance except that it meant the very first thing I did was start a dance with absolutely no knowledge of what I was doing and with a partner who clearly did. Fortunately she was friendly and I was picking it up in no time. The second dance adds a few more moves to the routine and the third dance adds even more, building up to a bit of a frenzy at the finale.
Best of all, we saw Frank again, as he promised. We got to thank him for being such a welcoming host and making sure that we saw a part of the island life that perseveres, even in the face of a shrinking economy and population base.
Read more of our Maritimes adventures here!
Posted by Seth on March 8, 2011 under Flying, frequent flyer, points |
In part one of this report I recounted a great award booking – even though it was all in economy and on small planes – to the Canadian Maritime provinces. Part two will cover my exploitation of the bmi Diamond Club program and their quite flexible routing and award zone rules.
It all started with plans to visit Bangkok in July for a friend’s wedding. With Thai Air still operating their incredibly long LAX-BKK flight I figured it would be nice to get a change to fly that route. Plus I have never been on the Airbus A340-500 so that’s an added bonus. It turns out that Thai has had a TON of award inventory available for westbound travel but nothing available coming back east. Turns out that isn’t much of a problem for me as I’ve turned a long weekend in Thailand into a RTW ticket adventure.
By sheer coincidence a friend of mine is going to be in Capetown, South Africa the week after the wedding. And I have the points available so why not? Even better is that the award cost from Thailand to South Africa is pretty cheap with Diamond Club. Oh, and I am flying via Mumbai, flying in on Thai and out on South African Airways. South African operates the A340-200 on the route which is also new to me.
And then I needed to get home from South Africa. This is where the Diamond Club rules become VERY favorable if you’re willing (or wanting!) a bit of an adventure. Most carriers only permit North Atlantic crossings for that award. Diamond Club permits South Atlantic crossings, too. So I’m taking one. Award seats form Johannesburg to Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo are pretty readily available.
Seats from there back north are a bit harder but I found some availability with Air Canada from Santiago to Toronto. Getting from Toronto to New York City is pretty easy with a ton of frequencies and a couple airports to choose from. To get from Buenos Aires to Santiago there is really only Star Alliance routing. It just so happens to leave 40 minutes before the flight from Johannesburg arrives. So I have a 23 hour 20 minute connection in Argentina. That’ll be fun.
So I’ve made it back to New York City and I’m home. That’s the end, right? Not for me. Diamond Club considers Puerto Rico part of their South America/Caribbean zone. And award flights from South Africa to South America are less expensive than those to North America. Based on straight geography that sortof makes sense – it should be fewer total miles flown – but getting to Puerto Rico can only be done via North America with the existing partners and routes. So I have a stopover in New York (one stopover is free on the bmi award) and then, two months later, a flight in first class from Newark to San Juan. It was actually many fewer miles to take the extra flight. Plus, I’ve been looking for a good excuse to get back to Puerto Rico, possibly in daylight this time. Given that the flight down there is better than free, I see no reason to skip that bit.
Put it all together and I’ve got this 31,586 mile masterpiece:
And all the flights save two short ones are in business class. All but one of the lines are new and a few of the aircraft are, too. All for under 200,000 Diamond Club points. I could’ve done it as cash & points for even fewer but I’m trying to use up my stash and this is a great way to do it.
The booking process was bit more frustrating than I generally enjoy, partly because my Skype connection was flaking out but mostly because the agents at the Diamond Club call center don’t have the best grasp of geography nor of the rules of their program. They initially tried to charge me 5 separate awards rather than the three I booked and all at higher rates than I should have paid. Fortunately I was able to eventually get a supervisor to understand and put it in correctly, but that was two extra hours of annoyance on the phone that I didn’t really need. Still, at the end of the day, completely worth it for this trip. Retail value on the ticket is somewhere north of $10,000; getting it on points for the routes and dates I wanted is just phenomenal.
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Tags: Africa, Air Canada, Airbus, Argentina, award, Bangkok, bmi, Canada, frequent flyer, New York City, points, Puerto Rico, RTW2011, San Juan, South Africa, Star Alliance, Thai Air, Thailand, Toronto
Posted by Seth on December 2, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Downtown Yellowknife does not have a lot to recommend it. The old city is quaint but almost all residential with a couple art galleries scattered throughout. The lakefront scene might be fun in the summer but in the winter the few houseboats out there are ice-bound and there really isn’t much going on to speak of. It is that ice, however, that provides for some excellent recreational options as well.
The two main winter sports represented in town are snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. We didn’t do much research into the former but the latter was quite accessible and incredibly fun. Not far from the center of town and most of the hotels is Overlander Sports. For CAD$25/day ($40 for a weekend) they rent out skis, poles and boots for cross-country skiing. And the region is literally covered with lakes, most of which are small enough that they freeze over pretty early in the season, leaving nearly limitless options for where to go out skiing.
In our case, in part because it was my first time on cross-country skis and in part because we didn’t have other transportation options, we chose to simply walk across the street, pass behind the RCMP local headquarters and wander out onto Frame Lake, smack in the middle of town.
As we set out on to the lake the sun started to peek through the clouds, offering us a beautiful day and a beautiful setting on which to enjoy the great outdoors. There were several others out on the lake. Some just walking, some skiing and some on snowmobiles. There was more than enough room for everyone to enjoy the afternoon without bumping in to each other.
Plus, the sun resting low on the horizon made for spectacular lighting when I paused at the random islands out in the lake to take photos.
Indeed, downtown Yellowknife doesn’t have much going on, but even if you do not have a car to get out of town to see some of the awesome local parks and sites there are things to do in town that don’t completely suck. I actually really enjoyed my first cross-country skiing experience and I can see having a lot of fun doing more of it in the future, especially if I’m not carrying a 30 pound backpack around with me.
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