Driving to Fredericton

We started our road trip yesterday with a 10-hour drive to Fredericton. We packed everything in the car the night before and got up at 5am to hit the road by 6am. The unfortunate thing about leaving that early is that you hit some rush hour traffic in Montreal. It wasn’t all that bad, though and we made our first pit-stop on the Autoroute 20 just south of Quebec City. We stopped and had lunch at a picnic area in Quebec with a nice view of the Laurentians and the St. Lawrence. From there, Lara drove us into New Brunswick. We got into Fredericton around dinner time and loaded up on a big lobster dinner (what better way to start a trip to the Atlantic provinces?).

I’m always amazed at how well our kids travel. I’ve talked to people who wouldn’t even dream of taking their kids to Montreal because the two-hour drive would be torture. The kids played with their games, watched movies, too naps and didn’t even ask how much farther it was until we were seven hours into the drive.

When we got into Fredericton, we first checked into our digs. Before the trip I was looking into places to stay and found that hotels were crazy expensive. I guess that should be expected with high-season, last minute bookings. We were also planning on camping, but wouldn’t have had enough room in the car for all the equipment (we were pretty full already). We decided that we would look at accommodations at universities. Many universities open up their residences for tourists in the summer months for a pittance compared to the price of hotels. We stayed the first night at UNB in Fredericton for around $40 for the whole family compared with about $130 for a hotel. The rooms are large and clean and get the job done, and there’s a kitchen just down the hall. There’s no AC and things get a bit stuffy, but it’s not that bad. Mankind survived for tens of thousands of years without air conditioning, so I figure we can do it for a couple of weeks.

Today we’re going to be touring around Fredericton’s downtown and tomorrow we’re going to St. John. After that, the plans get a bit hazy, but we’re planning on seeing the Bay of Fundy and the flowerpot islands, going to Digby, NS for some whale watching (and Digby scallops!), Cape Breton, and then PEI. Mostly, we’re just playing it by ear.