New Brunswick, Nova Scotia & Ottawa, 2011
Yikes, look at baby Mish (age 20). New Brunswick
I can barely remember a lot of this trip.
Mostly because all I can remember is driving from place to place and wishing I was at home. I think under different circumstances, I would have loved to see the East Coast.
Let me back track… It makes me sound super ungrateful. Listen. I’m not. I had a great time with my grandparents, meeting new family, reuniting for a bit with family I hadn’t seen in a while. It was a good time, and kind of reintroduced me to my roots. I think I was just a little too emotionally immature to fully appreciate what was happening.
Our first stop was Saint John, New Brunswick, where we stayed with my great aunt and uncle. It was my great uncle’s birthday that week and they were planning a huge family party with all of these people I’m apparently related to, and that I will 100% never see again in my life.
Coming from a direct extended family consisting of twelve people maximum, a party of forty people was so overwhelming. At first it was horrible, but once I got more comfortable in the group, it was a really positive experience, to see everyone being so genuinely kind and caring towards one another. Definitely not like Toronto. Or my immediate family. East Coast people are something else. And I’m very happy that I’ve got that blood in me.
My grandparents on the ferry from PEI to Nova Scotia
The next family-driven stop on this trip was in Nova Scotia. As previously mentioned, this stop was so quick, I don’t even remember the town we stayed in. We stopped in to visit my other great uncle, who I’d never met before. It was a very fast visit, then we stayed the night in a hotel and continued on our way. I would have liked to see more of Nova Scotia.
My uncle has lived in Ottawa for as long as I can remember, so I only ever typically saw him when he came to visit for Christmas. But this time we were able to go to his house and explore Ottawa. We went to Parliament Hill and went to the top to get a beautiful view of the city (see below). We also got the chance to take a walk of the city and visit a museum or two. I really liked being able to spend some more time with this uncle outside of a holiday setting.
Ottawa views.
Overall, the purpose of this trip was visiting family. Family wasn’t something I ever particularly valued. I’ve thought for most of my life that loving someone because they share your bloodline is absurd. I also lived most of my life knowing the same twelve or so immediate and extended family members.
It was nice to visit these people who were also related to me and learn a little bit more about what family meant outside the people I saw all the time.
I guess even if you’re going on a trip to visit someone you’ve never met, it sort of follows my theme of travel as a form of escapism. I’ve never travelled to see these New Brunswick family members since, and I don’t think I’ll travel to visit anyone in the near future, but it was a trip that allowed me to realize that travel isn’t about running away from something. It’s about running toward something new and unexpected.
