Maritime Roadtrip - Rimouski, Quebec to Miramachi, New Brunswick

 

We woke to sun, the first we had seen in days, and were down for breakfast by 7:30

A warm, flaky croissant filled with ham and fried egg, yogurt with maple syrup and granola, fruit and a couple of cups of coffee. Great start to the day.

The building has been a hotel for a long time

as there were photos and documentation on the dining room wall referring to famous guests from the past. Some of the rooms were named after them. Ours was not - just room No5.

As we loaded up the car it was clear and sunny looking in one direction

and a dark, threatening sky, looking in the other.

We enjoyed the sunshine for a while and then it clouded over but was still a pleasant drive South down a deep valley with steep, tree covered hills on either side and a rushing river below.

We pulled off at a picnic spot to document the piles of snow we were seeing frequently and

the ice, still on the lake.

Just like in Ontario, we were seeing lots of "We are hiring signs"

I had to take a picture of the moose statue because I figured it was probably the only moose I am going to see. We wondered if he was life size.

The hill sides were a mix of deciduous (bare) and coniferous trees but the valleys, beside the river, were long swaths of Silver Birch. Nic commented she had never seen silver birch like that, in Ontario it is usually just in small clumps. As there was no indication of leaves the trunks are the white and black but the upper branches do look silver. On looking it up I found that it is native to Europe and Asia and is considered invasive in some parts of the U.S. and Canada.

We saw some logged slopes, logging trucks barreling along the road, huge piles of logs and lumber and a couple of pulp mills.

We crossed the river

into New Brunswick, and lost an hour.

Whereas, before, we were on the shore of the St Lawrence, now we were on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean and decided to get of the Highway and follow the coast.

Lobster pots. We drove the coastal road for a while but gave up on it: there were no communities just random houses along the road, we couldn't see the sea as the "low cloud" had settled in (the kind that requires you to constantly mess with the intermittent wiper dial) and it was generally uninteresting (sorry, that sounds harsh, I am sure that the introverts that live there must love it)

View from our window at the Days Inn, Miramachi. The receptionist was lovely and recommended and gave us the address to a restaurant overlooking the river.

Glad to get out of the car, we settled into our room for a while and then set off to find the restaurant. This panel was at the entrance

made of driftwood.

In spite of the misty weather

it was a great location on the river and we had a table right by a window.

My pineapple curry with tofu and

Nic's bacon burger (sans bun) with double baked potatoes. A glass of wine each and it felt like a splurge but when the bill came, it wasn't really.