Barry, Mona, Lorne and I traveled many kilometers to attend CMA 2014 (and I dont mean Country Music Awards!). We flew into Halifax, Nova Scotia, on August 9th, where we rented an SUV and drove more than 2600 kilometers (1650 miles) across beautiful Canada to attend the Congres Mondial Acadien 2014 (Acadian World Congress) and National Acadian Day in Madawaska, Maine. We also attended the 2 day Bourgeois Family Gathering held in Saint Basile, New Brunswick, Canada. I will post an album with pictures from our trip. After arriving in Halifax, we spent a couple of days in Nova Scotia visiting some historic sites of our ancestors. It was amazing and very moving, at times. It was awesome to visit Beaubassin, which was founded by our ancestor, Dr. Jacques Bourgeois. His name was on all the historic markers/plaques! My favorite, by far, was our visit to Grand Pre, NS. There we saw a film depicting the deportation of the French Acadians from Nova Scotia, which was very sad. Mona bought a copy to show at our family reunion so we can all get angry! After leaving Nova Scotia, we drove across New Brunswick, stopping along the way to visit historic Acadian sites, museums and monuments. We visited Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world. You can literally watch the tide rise at a rate of 4 to 6 feet per hour. The time span between low and high tide is 6 hours. This presents a unique opportunity to walk on the oceans floor from 3 hours before low tide until 3 hours after. So we did that! Then we stopped in Shediac (Lobster Capital of the World) and had a lobster dinner. That evening, we drove to Grande-Digue and met up with cousins, Iva and Randy Tullier. We spent the night with extended cousins, Nathalie Bourgeois, her husband, Paul Arsenault and their two beautiful children, Zacharie and Gabrièle. The children only speak French, so Lorne was the only one who could communicate with them and he loved it! Although, Randy did come up with a unique language of his own that they seemed to respond to!! lol Thank you so much Nathalie and Paul for you hospitality! We had a great time. We also got to visit Nathalies father, Louis Bourgeois and his wife, Helene. They had attended our Bourgeois family reunion here last year, so it was great to visit their home in Canada. We all (Iva, Randy and the 4 of us) left Grande-Digue and drove to Fort Fairfield, Maine, where we spent three nights with Polly Earl and her son Griffin. We had so much fun with them. . . thank you very much, Polly and Griffin! The last night we were there, we just had to have some Maine lobster! Griffin taught us how to REALLY eat lobster (and we taught him how to REALLY speak . . . cajun style, much to Pollys dismay!!) The lobsters were so good and sooooo big!!! So much for Shediac having the worlds biggest lobsters! Maine had them beat. We attended National Acadian Day on Friday the 15th in Madawaska, Maine. It opened with an Assumption Day Mass that was celebrated by 5 Bishops and LOTS of priests! There was an awesome 80 voice choir. It was a beautiful Mass attended by around 4000 people. We stayed at the festival until the evening and then started our 7 hour drive back toward Nova Scotia/Halifax airport, stopping to spend a night in NB along the way. We arrived at the airport Saturday, the 16th, and put Lorne on a plane to Europe at 7:45 p.m.! :( We checked into a hotel nearby for the night and left on an 8:00 a.m. plane the next morning. We traveled for 12 hours before arriving home Sunday evening. We had a great trip and want to thank all who made it so unforgettable . . Iva and Randy, Polly and Griffin, Nathalie and Paul, Louis and Helene and all extended family we met at the reunion. Hope to see you all again in 2019 for the next CMA!
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 05:41:30 +0000
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