Day 1 - On the Road

And we’re off…!

We’re off to a great start. We arrived at the Monticle office early at 7:30, excited and ready to go. There were clear skies and fair weather and with a few final preparations, we went to buy food for our next few meals.

We had our Dim Sum lunch outside the supermarket where we bought our groceries. With a beautiful taro cake, we wished our awesome fun-loving elite member Vivian a happy birthday! :D

Back on the Sprinter we got caught in some traffic; but it was alright, since the scenery outside was definitely worthwhile.

The promise of rain threatened our plans to camp out tonight, but the cloudy skies soon cleared, and revealed the sun.

We finally reached our destination of Grundy Lake Provincial Park…to find that it was full! There was no more space at all in every park in Ontario for the entire weekend! Can you believe that? So we decided to find a motel to stay at.

After stopping at a motel with, guess what, no space, and there would be no space for the next hour and a half drive! We didn’t have dinner but we had refreshments, and before we found a place to stay for the night, we filled up at a gas station.

When we finally got to the motel, we had lectures on wildlife and vehicle safety. We’re ready to take on the grizzlies now! (Kidding :D)

Once we get our good night’s sleep, we continue to head west tomorrow!

West Preparations--Welcome Magdalen!

MONTICLE IS BACK! And with more excitement. Tomorrow, we are going to head to the west of Canada.

We welcome Magdalen to Canada and into our Monticle family. Together we are going to have an adventure of a lifetime!

Today we started with the lectures about safety, toughbook, camera usage, vehicle and GPS. Tomorrow, the adventure begins so remember to check up on us for more exciting update! :)

We Are Home!

Time flew by just like that. In a blink of an eye, it’s already time to return to Toronto!

It was a great experience for everyone to have a chance to travel across East Canada. We learned many things along the way, all the while having fun.

In the beginning, we barely knew each other and by the end of this trip, we became a family. We experience things together, laughed together, ate together, learned together, worked together and enjoyed the trip together. We formed a bond that cannot be broken and the bond will continue to expand.

22 days are over but soon, another 22 days will start. The Monticle experience continues and the adventure will continue. It’s not the end for Monticle but the beginning! See you all, very soon. :)

Anthony – GOOOOOO MONTICLE!!!! Long live Monticle!

Jacky – Live Long and Prosper!

Calvin – Don’t make Vivian mad!!....Only I can :1

Edwin – good trip long living !

Michael – Oh yeah I saw a MOOOOSE on my trip!!! So I had so much fun, do you want some fun too???? :)

Day 21 - Quebec City

Time is ticking, one more night and we’re going to head back to Toronto!

We woke up early in the morning to fill up our stomachs and quickly headed out to the highway. Our next destination was Quebec City and the distance from PEI is about 950km so we spend most of the day vehicle, and sightseeing along the way.

Occasionally, we stopped to have some refreshments and stretched. The car ride all together was about 10 hours! Don’t you feel bad for Billy?!! He was driving all day!

A little while after we crossed the boundary onto Quebec, our vehicle started beeping. We stopped to have a look and we found we had Diesel Engine Failure. Oh NO!

But our lucky streak continues! We couldn’t get it fixed right away but we could drive for another 1000kms2` before it warns us again. Do you know the distance from where we were to Toronto? A little more than 950km! What a relief.

We parked at a military base and took a nice walk around Quebec City. The way the city looks is quite beautiful and peaceful. We even walked past Chateau Frontenac. We continued to walk until it got really late and everyone was hungry. We drove to Cassey’s grill and bar to have a final dinner together.

Before midnight we checked in the hotel and rested up because we would have a really busy morning tomorrow. Sorry Billy, more driving. :(

Day 20 - PEI, Charlottetown

Oh no! There are only 2 days, what can we do? The trip is almost ending! Well, we plan to make the best of the rest of the trip and enjoy ever last bit of it.

Today is day 2 that we are in Prince Edward Islands. We planned to go sightseeing, deep sea fishing, jogging and swimming but unfortunately, today was a really rainy day and we could only enjoy the scenery from inside of the vehicle.

After eating breakfast the hotel provided us, we left to explore PEI. Along the way we saw Cow’s Creamery Factory and decided to stop for the tour, unfortunately the tour wasn’t what we expected. Cow’s is Canada’s most famous ice cream; people from Alberta drive all the way just to have a taste! They also sold t-shirts with very interesting cow humor, such as; “High School Moosical”, “Finding Nemoo”, “Hello Cowey”, “Lightening MooQueen”, “Elmoo” and “Super Moorio”. It gave us quite a laugh!

Later we drove to Charlottetown and visited the Provincial House, the place where Canada was born. We learned about how leaders from all over Canada got together in 1864 to discuss the National Union. It was quite the historic lecture!

We then drove to the National Park of PEI, it is suppose to be a really beautiful park and we had planned to go swimming there but the weather proved impossible for us. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t enjoy the true beauty of the park. Along the trail, we discussed what we should have for dinner and planned to go to Cavendish to buy our dinner, which we will talk about soon enough. :)

As soon as we purchased our mysterious dinner, we drove to PEI’s famous boardwalk and did a little shopping. After awhile, we started to get hungry since we missed lunch and decided to head back to the hotel so we could cook.

Drum roll, please! Are you ready to hear what we had for dinner?! We bought 20 pounds of Muscles, 8 lobsters (1.5pounds), scallops, salmon and PEI’s famous potatoes. They were so sweet, so fresh and OH SO DELICIOUS. Does your mouth water from just hearing about it? Yummy! And you know want to know something? We finished it all. Every last bit of the scrumptious seafood. :) Amazing, right?!

Everyone was satisfied and we’re ready for tomorrow! We all can’t wait to see New Brunswick and of course, remember to stay tuned for more fascinating update!