Coast to Coast: Prince Edward Island

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no
 mistakes in it yet." -Anne Shirley

After seeing Quebec City Laura, Lindsay, my mom, and I piled into Laura’s CR-V and we drove to Prince Edward Island. The drive was quite long and went through New Brunswick which, in my estimation, is nothing but trees. Laura coined the term “Boo Brunswick!” which we all shouted whenever something was annoying or didn’t work out right. We drove by a town called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!. Read the name of that town with a French accent and you’re sure to giggle.

"This way to Prince Edward Island!"

Dreams came true during our three days on Prince Edward Island. Lindsay and I are both big Anne of Green Gables fans and we’ve wanted to come here for years. We stayed in a house with a lovely view of the water and terrible Wi-Fi. We complained plenty about the Wi-Fi.

The view from our backyard. Our neighbors wanted to remind
us we were in Canada.

We toured the actual Green Gables which was way fun. Obviously Anne Shirley is fictitious, but L. M. Montgomery used a relative’s house for her description of Green Gables in the book so the house and surroundings are quite real. I loved it all and learned loads about L. M. Montgomery’s life and how she singlehandedly saved the north shore of Prince Edward Island by making tourists visit it. The only disappointing thing we learned was that the movies were filmed in Ontario. There was an “Anne” walking around the park all day and I got my picture taken with her twice.

Me: Is it okay if I put my hand on your shoulder?
Anne: Why sure! Thanks for askin'. 

Me: Can we get a picture with you?
Anne: Didn't I already take a picture with you?
Me: Yeah, but you were wearing a different outfit.

Lindsay became inexplicably obsessed with dunes and lighthouses during the visit. We went to a beach that supposedly had the best dunes and Lindsay shouted, “Dunes!” when she saw them (which is a perfectly logical thing to do). Laura and I started saying “Dune!” in the same way that a surfer might say “Dude!” We ran with that joke for a while. In Lindsay’s zeal for lighthouses we drove on a dirt road to see one. The road was made of PEI red dirt, so that was cool. But then the road got really rough. Like, so rough that a car couldn’t make it through and Laura’s Honda CR-V jostled, swayed, and bumped like the cars on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. But then we got a beautiful view and all was right with the world.

Dune!

The lighthouse was a letdown, but the view was superb

My favorite place we visited on the island we discovered quite by accident. Lindsay saw a painting of it at a restaurant and said, “I want to go there. I want to go to Thunder Core.” Laura responded, “Do you mean Thunder Cove?” She did, she just read it wrong. It took a little sleuthing to figure out where it was, but the old man at the information booth told us exactly where to go. As we were walking along the beach to the cove we realized we were on the famed “singing sands” that make a whistling sound when you drag your feet across them. Super cool and I’m sure there’s some science reason for why that happens. The cove isn’t very well known so it was just the four of us there and we laughed our heads off taking silly pictures.

Jump if you love Thunder Core. I mean Cove.

During the trip Laura got a glimpse of why I’m so full of myself. Out of nowhere and with absolutely no irony my mother would say things like, “Ben is just so handsome and smart. We just love him so much." One time when I was driving my mom said, “You’re doing such a great job driving, Ben,” and Laura and I burst into laughter because all I’d done was turn a corner which typically does not warrant praise. My parents have told me how awesome I am all my life and so I just believed them. But they’re totally right, I am awesome (or “rad” depending on who you ask). I’m a product of the Pygmalion effect.

My mom loves me even more than I do

Laura ordered invisible ice cream. Only really
smart people can see it.

While we were in Quebec City we had a really cute waiter that Lindsay and Laura were very taken with. After we left the restaurant Laura lamented that she hadn’t taken a picture of him and that she could have easily snapped a photo while pretending to take a selfie. For the rest of the trip whenever I’d see a cute a guy I’d say, “Laura, take a selfie!” and she’d pretend to take a picture. The only “selfie” she actually took was of our waiter at this delicious pizza restaurant in Cavendish. Not only was he cute, but he loved our banter so much that he told Laura and me that we should do improv. A guy who compliments us like that totally deserves to get his picture taken.

Jonathan the waiter talked to us for at least 20
minutes. He wanted us to like him and we did.

Coast to Coast: Vermont and Quebec City

After our visit to the birthplace of Mormonism Laura and I drove to Montpelier, Vermont to visit her brother and sister-in-law. This was my first time in Vermont and I couldn’t believe how rural it was. Seriously, I saw nothing but trees, rolling hills, and small towns. The state capital only has a population of 8,000 and it’s way small. It feels like the kind of perfect little town that would suddenly get destroyed by a volcano in some cheesy action movie (I mean you, Dante’s Peak). We took a tour of the state capitol which was actually really cool. I learned that two presidents have come from Vermont, but they both became president by being vice-president to a president who died. So apparently Vermont is good at electing vice presidents.

Vermont: Birthplace of vice presidents who outlive presidents

My friend Leigh drove an hour to visit with me and it was so great to see her. We had three years of gossip to catch up on after all. She stayed for dinner and Laura’s sister-in-law Sarah made an awesome meal from local produce. The salad even had flowers in it which I had never seen before. If I were to write a slogan for Vermont it would be, “Vermont: Pretty salads.”

Vermont: There are beavers here

Sarah also sketched our road trip so far
(based on the stories we told her)

The next day Laura and I drove to Quebec City which is when our car problems started. Unbeknownst to us Laura’s car was leaking oil. It was the result of a really poorly done oil change before the trip even started. During the drive there was no sign of any problem, but one block before we pulled up to where we’d be staying that night three different warning lights suddenly came on and the car did not sound healthy. We were super-lucky that the problems started when we were at our destination instead of in the middle of nowhere in a French speaking province. We put more oil in the car and it ran just fine (for a while).

The living room of our awesome Airbnb in Quebec City.
I should have taken a picture of Laura's gorgeous room.

My sister Lindsay and my mom flew in to Quebec City that night to join Laura and me on our Canadian adventure. We spent the whole next day exploring old town Quebec City and it is so cool. It feels like Europe with old buildings, winding stone streets, and people speaking a language I don’t understand. We took a bus tour of the city since we only had a day to see things. While we were sitting on the upper deck we drove a little too close to a tree and I ducked to avoid a branch. My sister was sitting right behind me and didn’t see the branch because my big head was in the way. She had no time to move when I ducked so she got unexpectedly tree slapped. She was totally fine thanks to her sunglasses and a healthy amount of laughter cured any embarrassment.

See, it looks just like Europe

In ascending order: Laura, Lindsay, mom, and I

Laura had spent the previous evening learning French phrases on Duolingo. I could hear her repeating phrases like “you’re a woman” and “there’s a cat.” I can’t recall if it was out loud or just in my head, but I was definitely making fun of her for learning such useless phrases. To show me just how wrong I was Laura had not one but TWO opportunities to appropriately say, “There’s a cat!” while we explored the city. The only things I can say in French are “My name is Ben,” “I’m from Washington,” and “I love you, my friend.” According to Duolingo Laura is 2% fluent in French. I won’t argue that.

I didn't tell my mom to jump. But she totally
could've. She's an athlete.

Quebec City: Too charming for its own good

There was an ice cream shop a block from our house with ridiculously long lines. We couldn't understand what the fuss was all about -- until we went there. The ice cream is a delicious soft serve that they dip in one of twelve coatings. It was awesome, just awesome. If you are ever in Canada and see a Chocolats Favoris you have to go. Lindsay loved it so much she's thinking about going to the one in Victoria for her birthday. 

More Canadian adventures to follow. 

Coast to Coast: Iowa to Palmyra, NY

Train travel is da bomb! I will vote for
whichever president will give us high speed trains

After a few days in Iowa City I hopped on a train in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and traveled to Chicago. This was my first time traveling by train in the US and I loved it so much I would totally do it again. I wanted to get the full experience so I had a meal in the dining car. Since I was alone I was seated with a man from California, a woman from Mexico, and an annoying man from Alaska. Seemingly out of nowhere the man from Alaska said, “I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t understand why Mexicans who move to this country don’t want to learn English.” The Mexican woman spoke very good English and looked a little stunned. I replied, “I think most of them do want to learn English, but learning a language takes a lot of time and resources and people who come to the US to work often don’t have as much time to dedicate to learning English as they’d like.” He responded, “No, learning another language is easy.” I then said, “Well, I’m getting a PhD in how people learn second languages and it really does take work to learn a language as an adult.” I wish this story ended with a fruitful discussion of second language acquisition and him apologizing for misjudging a whole group of people, but he was more of a talker than a listener. He just ignored what I said and started talking about something else. But the burger I had was delicious. 

When I got to Chicago I learned that my friends Kyle and Mary were just about to leave Chicago by train and we overlapped by 40 minutes. The unexpected reunion was awesome. I stayed with LeAnne for a few days and spent the 4^th of July with her and her friends. We watched the Chicago fireworks from a park that felt like a warzone. The park was packed with people setting off their own fireworks and the constant explosions, debris strew fields, and smoky haze made it feel like WWII.

20 minutes of unexpected catching up in Union Station

LeAnne and I have never lived in the same state, but we
manage to see each other a few times a year

Fun Laura picked me up at LeAnne’s on the July 6^th and then we spent a few days visiting her friends in Fort Wayne, Indiana and East Lansing, Michigan. We then hopped over to Canada to drive to Niagara Falls. The drive through southern Ontario was unexpectedly stressful. Laura had some pepper stray with her that they made her surrender at the border. The border agent made it seem like a huge deal that she had brought it. We had both contacted our phone companies and had been told that they would work just fine in Canada, but when we got there they didn’t. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to use the gas pump at first which just made me feel stupid. The drive through Canada really stressed me out and I was so relieved when we got to New York.

We quickly examined Niagara Falls from the US side and then walked back into Canada to see the falls from the other side. After being there for a bit we walked back to the US so we entered and left Canada twice in one day. I’m sure this was super-sad for Canada as we taunted her with our presence, but refused to stay. We stopped on the bridge between the US and Canada to watch the fireworks and they were spectacular.

We're in Canada -- again

Laura and I drove to Palmyra, NY the next day to watch the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Laura isn’t LDS so she didn’t care about the pageant, but I’ve been wanting to see it for years and she was kind enough to spend a day with me in the birthplace of Mormonism. I gave her a brief overview of Palmyra history during the drive so she’d know a little about the Hill Cumorah, the Smith Farm, and the Grandin Printing Shop. On the tour of the Printing Shop the missionary giving the tour asked who Joseph’s first scribe for the Book of Mormon was and Laura answered, “His wife!” before any of the Mormons could answer. My little lesson in the car made it look like Laura really knew her stuff. I also ran into one of my former students who is serving a mission there. When she was in my class she wasn’t baptized yet so I had absolutely no idea that she was on a mission and it was so great to see her.

Thumbs up for running into your old teacher

Laura at the Smith Farm: "I know so much Mormon history!"

The Hill Cumorah Pageant was super cheesy and I loved it. Laura was a great sport and was kind enough to spend the day doing Mormony things with me. What I found really odd was that some of the missionaries giving tours talked to us like we knew absolutely nothing about Mormonism while others talked to us like we were all Mormons. I really appreciate that Laura was willing to take an entire day doing what I wanted to do and the only time she complained was when I made her climb the Hill Cumorah (it's quite steep).

Laura: "What's a Nephite? Is it, like, a Pokemon?"

Laura made us awesome matching t-shirts for the trip. Apparently Korean couples wear matching outfits on their honeymoons so Laura says that we're basically Korean honeymooners. I can't think of any reason why that wouldn't accurately describe us. 

Laura: "It's that way!"
Me: "No, it's that way!"

More adventures to come!