One of my best friends is getting married and I couldn't be happier for her (and her awesome soon-to-be-husband). The wedding will take place in their friend's back yard in Fredericton. I was almost as excited about the wedding as finally getting to go visit New Brunswick. They are getting married on a long weekend and although it's a quick flight to Moncton and a reasonable long weekend adventure I started debating my options. The more I thought about it, the more I rationalized that the only obvious choice I had was to extend the trip and visit even more of the East Coast. I'd never been East-er than Quebec and after all, I was already paying for my flight, right? So I booked a round trip ticket to Moncton with my favourite airline (Porter!) set to arrive the Saturday prior to the wedding (july 28th) and leave the day after the wedding (August 5th). About a month later, I booked my accommodation for the wedding night and then decided to put planning on pause (this was exhausting!).

Very lucky for me, my parents had spent 2 weeks in the Maritimes in May and gave me all of their information, road maps and travel books. One night in July I sat down at my kitchen table (probably with a glass of vino .. um .. or two) and spread out all the information determined to map out a route. Before too long I compiled a list of possible points of interest and a very loose itinerary. Then about 1 week before departure I finally booked my first night accommodation in Halifax and a car rental. And yup - that was it.

Despite all of my travel books and never-ending information on the World Wide Web, I was still struggling with picking and choosing where I wanted to go. What if the places I picked weren't as great as they looked in the pictures? What if I didn't like the vibe? OR what if I ended up stumbling onto a spot and loved it so much that I just wanted to stay there all week (that happened to me once in Honduras - I stayed 2 weeks on the best little island instead of my originally planned 2 days)?? Clearly there were just too many wonderful options out in the Maritimes! And in all honesty, I hadn't really looked at any of them that closely… trying to make any sort of decision felt a little um… claustrophobic. Of course, there are might be some underlying issues that caused my chest to tighten but I prefer to think that I'm free-spirited rather than commitment phobic - it sounds much more romantic.

Regardless I'm armed with 1st and last night hotel accommodation, car rental reservation, and a bag full of travel information - ready to set off on an 8 day Maritime Roadtrip Adventure!!!