I see the sea

After we left North Hatley, we headed south west to the coast of New Hampshire. The first town we hit on the coast was called North Hampton. Judging by the thousands of people stacked on the beach, it was a popular spot for bostonites to visit. Not our scene, so we headed up the coast in search of paradise and a campsite for the night.

Boat shed on the coast

Catchin some rays on a beach by Freeport, Maine.

Me and crustacean go head to head. I win.

After a couple nights in small towns along the coast, we arrived on Mt Desert Island and Arcadia national park. We found ourselves a campsite and then headed out for a hike. We parked on the side of the road with about 50 other cars and expected the hike to be crammed with people, but there was nobody. This was probably explained by the fact that it was 95 degrees F (about 35 C) and about 90% humidity. Needless to say, we were sweaty by the time we reached to top of Mt Arcadia. Instead all the people that were parked at the bottom of the hike were hitting up the local swimming hole which seemed like the better idea on a day like that.

On top of Mt Arcadia (puddle of sweat not shown).

The next day we explored the largest town on the island, Bar harbor. This was a cool little spot with lots of restaurants’ and shops. Jo managed to find the chocolate shop and we also booked a kayak trip for the afternoon.

The saying should be "like a Jo in a chocolate shop".

More crustaceans.

That afternoon we headed out to a large inlet on the south side of the island for an afternoon on the water. Conditions were perfect, still and hot. We saw some seals, porpoises (porpi?) and lots of birds.

Perfect day for a paddle.

Jo was happy.

Sunset on the island.

The next day we packed up camp and headed back to Quebec and Quebec city. Jo booked us a hotel that was supposed to be "downtown" but after driving the extremely narrow streets of the old town, dodging horses and fat tourists and still not finding our hotel we decided to ask at the tourist info. Well our downtown hotel wasn’t downtown at all, and it also turned out that non-smoking rooms also mean something else in Quebec. Needless to say, we spent as little time in the hotel as possible.
Apart from the hotel issue, Quebec City is great! More restaurants’ and cafes than you could ever visit and the city constantly buzzes with life and energy.

Just about run over by a runawy horse and carriage in the old town of Quebec city.

In the old port of Quebec city.

Unfortunately we had to leave to get back to Montreal to catch our plane back to Calgary.

All and all, it was a great holiday.