Montreal - Quebec City - New Brunswick - Prince Edward Island - Nova Scotia - Maine - and home

First Stop: Quebec City Aquarium:

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FIRST NIGHT: Motel Leo in Grand Falls, New Brunswick - and it was a Motel! But fairly decent compared to most motels I have been to.

We ate breakfast near the beautiful Grand Falls...

Alas, it was New Brunswick Day so a lot of things were closed. Our stop off for the day was the Covered Bridge Potato Chip Factory and the Hartland Covered Bridge, which is the longest covered bridge in the world (not to be confused with the first pictures of the shortest covered bridge). There was a Fair going on in the longest bridge and Asher loved the car show on the other side. 

Before we went to PEI, we stopped in Moncton. No pictures, but we did the Magnetic Hill (look it up) and Shevi drove. Then we stopped at the amusement center across the way and did some go carting.

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Prince Edward Island! 

A really full day. First stop was the beach at Cavendish. Cavendish is a little town totally dedicated to tourist amusements. However, it also has one of several Anne of Avonlea sites, the one that has Green Gables. After that we went to a Haunted House. It was soo cheesey - but so much fun how scared Asher got. We then went to an artist stop, where an artist built houses of bottles. A few miles up the coast, we stopped at this cute activity where they have a bunch of goats running around the beach and they love people! So fun. Shevi really loved it. And the last stop of the day... or so I planned - was the North Point Light house. (After supper, we decided to go back up to Cavendish and spend 45 minutes at an arcade.)

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a walk down "Lovers Lane"

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bottle house

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Wednesday Morning was really bleh weather. We drove to Charlottetown to look at the historic houses and then headed to Nova Scotia. To be honest, it was a day of intense driving. Our original plan was to stay in the Northern part of the province, and then I changed plans, canceled the hotel and rebooked us to Halifax so we could get in a really full day on Thursday. So Wed pics are only of our pre-dinner walk along the Halifax Boardwalk, of which we only did a little because we were just tired. 

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NOVA SCOTIA

The girls ditched us for shopping, but Asher and I went to the Halifax Citadel, which was awesome! Then we drove to Lunenberg, which was gorgeous. We then crossed the peninsula to get to Digsby for our 5:30 ferry to St. John, New Brunswick. I stayed on deck for a good 45 minutes after we headed out. Shortly after the kids retreated inside, I was lucky enough to see some dolphins or porpoises in the distance. yay!

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ST JOHN to BANGOR

Driving day. We headed off to Bangor, where we needed to be by 2 pm to pick up Shabbas meals that we ordered from shuls sisterhood. Along the way we made a random stop when we say a sign for an aquarium. It was...er...quaint. A lot of beautiful driving, not many pictures. Oh and we got in Leah's promised Target run.

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For Shabbas we rented an Airbnb in Newport, Maine. We were deep in the country and had a lovely and relaxing day. Sunday morning we drove south to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor. We then decided that we really missed out beds, and since we had nothing scheduled for Monday except getting home, we would push it through the day. We got home at 11:30 pm. So here are some shots of Acadia National Park, which was spectacular.

Parshas Eikev - From Manna to Minim

In the beginning of this week’s parsha, Pashas Eikev, there is a seemingly benign description of the giving of the manna. This description is a prelude to a direct contrast to what Bnei Yisrael could expect after entering the Promised Land, which is a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of wheat and barley, vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil producing olives and honey - a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, you will lack nothing in it” (Devarim 8:8-9). This description of Eretz Yisrael is well known, but it is not commonly realized how it contrasts with the manna.

This section of the Torah begins with the statement: “And He afflicted you and let you go hungry, and then fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your forefathers know, so that He would make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but rather by, whatever comes forth from the mouth of the Lord does man live” (8:3).

The language here seems quite drastic. Did Hashem afflict them? Did he let them go hungry? It is almost possible to read this in a sarcastic nuance… how many times have we heard our children whine - or complained ourselves - “I’m starving.” Moshe here is reflecting the overwrought emotions of the nation when they complained and demonstrating to them that Hashem answered them with something miraculous, something incredible - food from the heavens. 

The manna was meant, according to pasuk gimmel, to teach Bnei Yisrael to recognize the ultimate source of our sustenance, which is Hashem. However, after reminding them further of the good Hashem did for them and the filial relationship they have with Hashem, Moshe tells them:

“For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land with brooks of water, fountains and depths, that emerge in valleys and mountains, a land of wheat and barley, vines and figs and pomegranates, a land of oil producing olives and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, you will lack nothing in it, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose mountains you will hew copper” (8:7-9).

Life and sustenance are about to get more complicated. There will be variety - which one did not have with manna. There will be abundance - in contrast to the manna that could be collected for only one day’s portion. And there will be work - which was not a facet of living in the Wilderness. 

One can, perhaps, see in this a fascinating comparison to Adam HaRishon. Adam was placed in Gan Eden and given everything that he needed to live a peaceful life. After the chait (sin), he had to work (“By the sweat of your brow shall you live). It was a curse, but it was also a means of enhancing humanity’s awareness of their need for Hashem.

Bnei Yisrael’s time in the desert was always limited because mankind after the initial chait cannot exist long term on unending benificence but must put in effort. Thus the manna was simple, pure, and, perhaps one might even say, limited. The wilderness was like Gan Eden in that everything was provided, but in truth, the Promised Land was the destination - lush like Gan Eden, but requiring effort, and in requiring effort also requiring Bnei Yisrael to know and acknowledge that all things come from Hashem. Indeed, the next pasuk of the perek says: “And you will eat, and you will be satisfied, and you will bless Hashem your God for the good land that He gave you” (8:10).

Moshe was telling them that they were on the verge of entering the world of abundance and variation, but that they should never forget that sustenance is not their acheivment, it is a gift from Hashem. They must do the work, but they must let the work lead them to appreciate Hashem’s graciousness.

Human beings crave a sense of success and accomplishment. In many ways, this was lacking in the wilderness. But with the freedom to achieve comes the possibility of forgetting the ultimate source of success - Hashem. Remembering that everything - our trials and our triumphs, our successes and are failures - come from Hashem, is not an easy task (as i think most of us know). In Parshas Eikev, the Torah records Moshe’s eternal reminder to help us stay focussed on the real work we have in this world…to follow the path of Hashem. 

I wish you all a beautiful Shabbas.