本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Third day, Sunday August 9th, was actually the first day of sight seeing. Booked a whale watching at 4:00pm, then drove to the opposite direction for visiting Fundy Trail. It was 78km away from Saint John. The trail was not worth the time and money, and we had to drive about 200km to St Andrews. GPS told me that we could report to Tide Runner at 3:17pm, two minutes later than expecting arrival time. But I felt sleepy, I had to hand over the wheel to my wife. She drove carefully but slowly, I saw the arrival time on GPS changed from 3:17pm to 3:20pm and 3:35pm ... Then on the single lane road, we had no way of passing local cars which drove exactly at the speed limit. We were the last group reporting to Tide Runner's registration office at 3:47pm. Fortunately, we were on the jet boat which was sliding away from harbour towards deep sea, searching for whales.
We all wore orange colored suits which kept us warm and served as life jacket under emergency situation. An old lady sit at front of me held railing tightly, with eyes closed and lip bitten between teeth. She was scared to death when the roller-coast like jet boat jumping up and down against wave. My wife had a frozen smile on her face, holing a strap of my jacket as a life saving straw. She was no better than the old lady. At a turn, sea water jumped over on us who sat at right side of the boat. And the water pulled directly into my orange suit from collar, all the way down to my pants and then stopped in my water-proof hiking boots. (I did not aware how much water I had taken until undressed the orange suit later.) Cruised about 45 minutes, we saw a whale spray at distance; captain David drove the boat close to where the whale was but it did not show up again. Then, at distance another whale lured us with its back, we closed in again and disappointed again. Finally, we caught close to a whale and the captain shut down the boat, he said we could hear its breath if everyone kept quiet. And indeed, we head a deep puff and then the whale showed its back. It was a minke whale who was about 25 foot long and never did tail flipping. We also saw a few dolphins and seals but that was the only close encounter with a whale during the whale watching trip.
A young girl sit beside me had dropped her head into dream while the captain was still talking about whales. Excitement was over, we came back to the dock and found our selves hungry.
But I had to change my pants, and shoes.
After changing, I decided to try a seafood restaurant that the hotel recommended on its guest guide. This time, led by GPS, we did not have any trouble to find the Steamer's. We ordered lobster for two, and lobster roll for my Daughter. The food was excellent. I asked my wife and daughter what was the highlight of the day. My wife tried to say whale watching but I said to J, it was the lobster dinner, wasn't it? She said "yea...!".
Checking the weather on the Internet, the next three days would be raining in all Maritime Provinces. Even though I had encountered thunder storm , snow fall and hail on my hiking trips, I would like to keep my family at sunny side. Since we did not even have a plan A, it was not difficult to draw a plan B. We would visit Gaspe on the north east corner of Quebec.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net