I felt upside down for most of the trip. It's just that trying to translate the speed limit signs from kilometers, dealing with "funny money" and also trying to comprehend French as the second language, well I mostly felt myself to be frazzled in the brain.
The people are nice, but not necessarily approachable. When I finally got in to the Charlotte Airport Terminal last Sunday, a Hispanic lady selling Barbecue greeted me with a warm and friendly smile. Well, I was so happy to be home that I went to the picture window of the terminal and took a photo of just what it looks like to fly in to one's homeland.
Charlotte, North Carolina
I heard Livingston Taylor (James Taylor's brother) once say that he generally feels like a weird person in the world (he lives in Boston, Massachusetts) but when he makes a return to his boyhood state of North Carolina and as he lands in the Raleigh-Durham Airport he doesn't feel weird anymore-- he just feels like everybody else. That is exactly how I felt when I got "home" to Charlotte.
The Mari times
In some ways, the Mari times hold a sisterhood with North Carolina. I heard from a tour guide that the Mari times were the 14th Colony, but a single battle of the Revolutionary War turned the tide in favor of the British, and so that alliance became their fate.Here are some of the commonalities that I noticed:
- Charlottetown, PEI - Charlotte, North Carolina
- Tryon, PEI Lighthouse and Community - named for NC Governor William Tryon
- Halifax, Nova Scotia - Halifax County, North Carolina
- Onslow, Nova Scotia - Onslow County, North Carolina
- Hillsborough River, PEI - Hillsborough, North Carolina
- Fanning Bank, PEI Government House - named for Edmund Fanning a former NC Registrar of Deeds in Hillsborough, NC - protege of William Tryon
- New Brunswick - Brunswick County, NC
Halifax, Nova Scotia
I fell in love with Halifax, it reminds me so much of New Bern.
This is how I described Halifax in writing to the folks back home:
"My first impression on the view of Halifax Harbor was very grand. Coming across the bridge of Halifax Harbor, I had a feeling of transversing our own River at home in North Carolina, only on a much grander scale! That was fun."
Halifax reminded me so much of New Bern that I offer some snapshots here:
Prince Edward Island
I have never seen such a beautiful place as Prince Edward Island. The sunsets and vivid hues there make it seem to be a mystic and supernatural place. Lucy Maud Montgomery did the place justice in her rapturous descriptions of the Island. However, I have suspected all along that within this sojourn I was as a mimic of Dorothy in the Land of Oz--My experience in Canada simply underscores the Oz experience-- that the knowledge has somehow been with me all along--
"There's no place like home!"
Confederation Bridge crossing the Northumberland Strait from PEI to New Brunswick
Myself standing on the Cavendish Shore
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