Walking on the ocean floor

Tuesday we spent the day sightseeing. We saw the Hopewell Rocks Ocean Tidal Exploration Site in Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick. These giant red rocks are formed by the ocean tides. When the tide is out you can walk on the ocean floor through the giant rocks that now look like huge flowerpots because balsam fur and dwarf spruce cover the top of the rocks. When the tide comes in these giant rocks look like little islands. The waters are very dangerous when the tide comes in.
We stayed at this charming inn in Alma, New Brunswick, which is by the Fundy National Park. This is where we saw the tide go completely out. The boats had to be propped up so they would stay upright. Otherwise they would be lying on their sides in the red, dry ocean floor. Today, we actually walked on the ocean floor, it was incredible!! The tide goes out two cycles in twenty-four hours and fifty-nine minutes. After our dinner, the tide was coming in and the fishing boats were waiting for the water to rise high enough so they could dock and unload. (The tide started coming in at 5pm and the water was high enough for the boats to dock at around 9:30 pm.) It was truly amazing.

These are the Hopewell Rocks. You can see everyone walking on the ocean floor. When the tide comes in, the top of these rocks look only like small islands. The rocks are red as well as the ocean floor.

Here is a daylight and a night time picture of the same dock. The night time picture was of course taken at night with my new camera. It did a pretty good job but I had to hold it very still. The people and the boats were moving so I could not get a totally perfect picture. Remember these boats are in the same harbor - notice the difference in the water. The first picture was take in the afternoon and the next one after 9:00 pm

Wednesday we were in the city of Fort Hastings….. or so we thought. When we went to dinner it said we were in the Sky Lodge Restaurant in the city of Fort Hawkesbury. We asked the waitress where Fort Hawkesbury was located. She replied, "you are in it." We looked at her like she was nutz…and she looked at us like we were out of our minds…….like why are you asking me such a dumb question? It turns out they changed the name of the city but didn’t change the name of the signs. Go figure….we should have known that.
We went from the town of "two names" to the town of Ingonish Ferry, Nova Scotia. It is in Cape Breton, the most northern section of the province. We traveled about 190 miles on the Cabot Trail with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Giant Lake Ainslie had the bluest – uh… make that cobalt color water with a brilliantly radiant reflection --- it seemed as though you were looking in to natures splendid… enormous… looking-glass. Several miles later, we even saw whales at Pleasant Bay – a very unexpected treat. This wonderful ride today was twisty, turning and somewhat hilly – a very nice challenge for both the driver and the passenger taking pictures. The area we are in now has several ski resorts around here. Right now we are in the North Bay and we have this cute little cottage that overlooks the most "sparkly", shimmer-y, deep sapphire blue water with an emerald green mountain-view background. What more could you want???