After spending a week in Nova Scotia on our honeymoon we both had a desire to return and get the most out of this amazing province. And here we are, settled into our apartment enjoying a much more extended Fall than what we are used to back in Winnipeg.
In the grand scheme of things, this decision was made relatively quick. We had been playing around with the idea of moving elsewhere, but there was a lot of things holding us back from fully committing. What would I do for work? Who would rent our condo? Where would we live? It was a lot of big questions and none of them had answers, but while standing in a cactus patch in the middle of New Mexico we decided that we were just going to do it.
Over the course of the summer we spent our time tackling those unanswered questions. I resigned from my job, and found remote work for a company based out of Toronto, Amy discovered our gorgeous apartment in the heart of Halifax, and we both painstakingly went through our belongings and determined what we were taking with us on this cross-country journey. By the time the first weekend of October rolled around, our tiny hatchback was stacked right to the brim with no room to spare. On Thanksgiving Monday we said farewell to our family and started heading east.
Our Pontiac Vibe full to the brim!
Instead of going through Northern Ontario, we traveled south through the US. Amy has family in Minneapolis, so it made for a good opportunity to stop and visit.
We had a wonderful visit in Minnesota with Amy’s family along the way!
To try and save what money we could on the trip, we rented single rooms on AirBnB. Unlike renting a house, I think you get much more of a host’s character leaking into the space, for better or worse. During our stay in Michigan we stayed at a sweet old lady’s house. Her, along with her dog Sissy, were wonderful hosts, albeit a little too friendly for our tired state.
We arrived at the AirBNB with a takeout pizza in hand, hoping to head straight to our space and crash for the remainder of the evening, but she insisted that we eat at her kitchen table. So we made small talk while shoveling greasy pizza into our mouth, and doing our best to not fall asleep.
(Left) Our very cozy private room in Grand Ledge, Michigan. (Right) While in Michigan, we visited Amy’s childhood home. Over 15 years since she last saw it.
After Michigan, we made our way back into Canada and towards Toronto. The sheer size of the Greater Toronto Area is quite astounding, especially to a Prairie Boy like me. All you see for miles is city, and the highways stretch on to upwards of ten lanes. The traffic on the highway was nothing I had seen before, and we had just driven through Chicago the day prior. Something as simple as stopping for gas added an extra 30 minutes to our commute. After a full day of traffic and skyscrapers, we pulled into our AirBnB in quiet and secluded Napanee, Ontario and had a good night sleep. While it wasn’t our longest day of the trip, it was definitely the most tiring.
After our stay in Napanee our driving got shorter, allowing me to work half days in the cities that we stopped in. We made a quick stop in Montreal to check out a café that one of Amy’s colleagues owns.
Our stop in Montreal to visit a café owned by Amy’s colleague and her husband.
Since I have never been to Quebec, I wasn’t sure how much of a language barrier there would be, but in Montreal everyone still spoke English. Arriving in Quebec City was a different story. French is the default language in the city, and we sheepishly had to ask if our server could speak English when we stopped at a coffee shop, restaurant, or drive-thru.
It’s a strange sensation to feel completely foreign in your own country, and a first for me traveling to a place where English is the not the primary language. We plan to return to Quebec when we have more time to immerse ourselves in the culture, and hopefully have a better grasp on the language.
Our stay in Quebec City. We had a cozy room with special amenities, including a Scrabble board!
From Quebec City we continued north up into New Brunswick. I’ve never really had a mental image of what New Brunswick looked like as a province until we drove through it, so I was surprised to witness the prominence of the mountains in the Western part of the province. As we approached Fredericton the landscape began to flatten out into what I think I imagined Eastern Canada to look like: bush. With the exception of a town or a river, the Trans Canada gives you the luxury of looking at the millions of trees that cover the province. I will say that the Saint John’s River was quite impressive while crossing, looking more like a lake with islands spread across it, but I really don’t know what else to comment on it for now. Hopefully we will have some more opportunities to visit New Brunswick properly in the future and discover what lies behind the never ending forests.
Our last night on the road was spent in Fredericton. We arrived in the city reasonably early, as we only had a four hour drive and hunkered down in a coffee shop for a few hours to get some work done while Amy explored the city. The city is much smaller than we realized and by the time I wrapped up work I was able to catch up to her and we got to walk a good chunk of the area around downtown before settling on a Mexican restaurant to celebrate our long week of travel. We checked into our AirBNB early enough to catch an episode of Love is Blind and get an extra long sleep.
On Saturday morning we got into the car ready to put our last day of travel behind us. We were eager to finally set our roots down in a place for more than 12 hours, but not before stopping for coffee with some friends from Manitoba who had also made the move out East.
We had a special visit with dear friends who used to live in Manitoba.
In the early afternoon we made it to Halifax. We met our landlord for the first time and he toured us through the apartment. You could tell he was very proud of his property, and that gave us a good reassurance that we made the right decision renting from him.
Arriving and finally unpacking!
This likely is a rare experience, but I think the space showed better in person than in the pictures. There is tons of light flooding in from all sides and plenty of space for the two of us (plus guests, please visit!). The rest of our day was unpacking, hooking up our internet, and just decompressing after a week of driving. It was good to finally feel like we could stop after non-stop moving. It doesn’t feel like home right now, but it has potential to begin feeling like it soon.
We are excited to enjoy our time in a new city, exploring our neighborhood, and taking in the new sights that are found around every corner!
J & A's Adventure 
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