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Feeling European

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 Hugging the shoreline of the Saint Lawrence, the North side of Gaspe is more rugged and less populated.  The beaches are hard, uneven planes of black granite and not friendly to boats in most areas.  This is a farming, lumbering and mining side of Gaspe, still a hard scrabble life today.  Murdochville is an example of a town that once depended on copper mining until the mine closed in the 1980's.  It once had one of the largest copper deposits in Canada, but eventually even rich deposits run out.  The town is hoping for a resurgence as a new enterprise tries its hand searching for the remnants left from previous endeavors.  Along the hill tops there are many huge hydro windmills, showing the changing times.  An oasis of beauty is the Jardins des Metis.  We heard about this heritage site from a fellow traveller who assured us it was well worth the stop.  Like Butchart Gardens, this site was also developed by a wealthy woman who had a vis...
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Turn Around

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 Charlottetown captivates our hearts.  It has an old core of history spanning back to pre-confederation.  This is the place Canada was formed as a Nation.  The streets of downtown are lined with wonderful old brick and stone buildings dating back 250 years.   In 1864, delegates from the colonies of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the province of Canada (now Quebec & Ontario) met to discuss forming a federal union. This meeting was the precursor to the Quebec conference and eventually the British North America Act of 1867.  The delegates arrived in Charlottetown the same day as a circus, so the hotels were already at capacity.  The delegates ended up being housed in private homes or remaining on the ships on which they had arrived. Two of the delegates, one from New Brunswick and the other PEI"s premier at the time, were both named John Hamilton Gray.  What are the chances of that? Surprisingly, Prince Edward Island d...
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