Article Contributed on: 9/10/2009 9:52:21 PM
Bob loved National Geographic Magazine and was always talking about some of the places he wanted to visit in person, not just in his arm chair.
In 1990, we decided to take a trip to Newfoundland to visit the places Bob had seen and where he was stationed while in the Air Force 40 years before. He had regaled me with stories of the small fishing village at Placentia Bay where the service men would hang out while off duty. It was the only town anywhere near the base so they spent a lot of time there.
Bob had told me about boarding the small boat that would take them across the " gut" to the town but they had to wait until the tide came in to wash the boat down and over to the other side. He was very surprised to see a beautiful bridge built there now. Some things had changed but Placentia was still a small fishing town where nobody hurried. If you were really hungry, you would be starving by the time the small cafe got your food ready.
I did enjoy seeing the place I had heard so much about.
When planning our trip, Bob wanted to see the Bay of Fundy which he had read so much about in National Geographic. The magazine showed a huge wall of water coming into the bay when the tide came in. We stayed in New Brunswick over night so we could be up early to see all this water come in the bay.
Armed with our movie camera, we joined several other tourists on the edge of the bay and waited , so excited to see this and get some great pictures
.
Soon, we all began to see water coming in and thought this is what we had been waiting for. Wow.A small trickle of water came meandering in the bay...and that was it! Was that really what we had been so anxious to see? When we got back to our hotel, the desk clerk laughed when we told her of our experience, she said what we saw was what usually happens and many tourists are disappointed. So much for the Bay of Fundy.
We spent 3 days in beautiful Nova Scotia before going on to Newfoundland.
I am glad Bob got to go back to see a place he had liked very much and I got to see what he was talking about!
Newfoundland is beautiful too.