The Best Day Of The Year!

What could be the best day every year? 

Nikki’s Birthday of course!! Happy Birthday, Nikki!!!

Now the thing you need to remember about Nikki is that she is the optimist of our relationship and I am the pessimist. As a result, I do not think it is possible for Nikki to ever have a bad birthday. She will look at a situation and say this is going to be amazing and fun no matter how different the day may be from the original plans. This year we planned to be on the boat so Nikki could celebrate her birthday on our new boat sailing around, perhaps a swim in the morning followed by some wind sport.

Instead, we are in New Brunswick at my folks' empty house and the weather is not looking fantastic, this may be the pessimist in me. Our new plan was to pack up the truck with our camping gear, the dog, and all our wing gear and flee Cambridge-Narrows for a cool wind sports area in North East New Brunswick called Shippagan. There is a cool campground right on the water where people can kite, wing, or windsurf. Camping Lameque is a cool locals' campground, I say locals because it was packed with locals just chilling over the weekend and participating in some kind of bocce-like tournament. Now many of you will know this but for those that do not New Brunswick is a French-speaking province. Since we are not in a major city and in fact way out in the North East I think we were the only English-speaking guests and staff, aside from the owner. I really should have paid more attention in French class. 

Now for some people having to move your birthday celebrations from your sailboat that you just started to live full time on to a campground, swapping a comfortable bed for a tent and sleeping bag would break most. Not Nikki! Nope, she was as happy as can be, once we stopped driving as that is not her favorite thing to do. We got there August 17th so we had time to get the lay of the land. The wind conditions were not good right from the campground and the water was a little on the shallow side for foil boards so we headed out to Pointe-Alexandre about a 10 min drive. This was a super cool location and Nikki’s first venture to wing on the East Coast of Canada. It was a small success followed by some water walking back to the shore. The nice thing about this spot is that it is a peninsula and you can kite from different wind angles. It is also shallow, not too much so foil boards are still good, but it makes it great for beginners and it keeps the waves from getting too big. Nice spot and not too crowded but still enough people to get some good local info. 

On Nikki's birthday, we headed back to Pointe-Alexandre and Nikki got another short session as the wind gods were not on our side. We went back to the campground to get ready for dinner at Le Kabernet Gourmet-Pub, it was a nice spot with good food. As the wind was not great and scattered showers were coming the next couple of days, we visited the Big Shippagan Lighthouse (not really that big) and also visited a couple of cute tourist towns in the area, Shippagan and Caraquet.

A super cool surprise was getting to hook up with Bev in Caraquet as she was there visiting, working the family farm, with her partner Ben. It was so nice to catch up with her as it had been 8 years since we last worked together, she has not aged a day making me feel really old.  

After we visited with Bev we headed back to the campground but with the current rain there was no dry spot for us to just hang out as the campground had locked all the common buildings we’re not sure why. We decided to pack up and head back to Cambridge-Narrows and the shelter of my folks house. The real reason to head back to the house was the hot tub. Despite being August the area was unseasonably cold. 

Now you may read this and think it was not a good weekend or birthday for Nikki but you have to remember it is being written by a pessimist and Nikki had a great time. Especially since she got to spend it all with me, and Zorro. Nikki did get a few days of winging, my folks’ house is on a lake and she was able to launch right from the backyard! 

Oh yeah and somewhere along the way it was warm enough for ice cream! Can't have a birthday without ice cream

Next, we visit Fredericton, Moncton, and Saint John then head to Halifax to pick up Sharon and Bob for our epic Nova Scotia road trip. So much fun ahead.