Gulf Shore, Montreal, Maine -- Summer 2009

This was our last little trip before becoming parents, about a month and a half before Chloe was born. Since Kristen was too pregnant to fly, we made it a roadie in our new family hatchback, spending a few days in a cottage on the Gulf Shore, NS and a night in Quebec City.

When we bought the concert tickets, The Beastie Boys were set to headline Osheaga, the annual music festival in Montreal. They had to cancel their performance, but we still got to see The Roots, K'Naan and Coldplay. Dartmouth reps Bridget, Brian and Meghan met us at the concert. Aaron and Leigh met us in the city the next night. Luckhounds strike again.

In no real rush, we took the long way home through creepy Steven King moose-filled Maine, notably spending a night in a hunting cabin down a long dirt road in a town called Jackman. Well, not exactly Jackman...

Having detoured through Quebec and spent the WHOLE day at Ikea, it was dark when we crossed into Maine. What looked like a hop-skip on our map turn out to be quite a stretch. The border guard told us not to drive more than 20. Yikes, and he didn't mean metric. The road was newly paved, no lines painted on it, and it was peak moose mating season. Hitting one would be fatal. We drove at snail-pace, white knuckles, eyes peeled. With our headlights lighting a small path in front of us, we saw a huge owl fly over our car, a red fox cross in front of us and a moose lurking hornily on the side of the road. Around midnight, we rolled into Jackman, Maine, but Jackman's motels had no vacancies, completely booked by bear hunters, getting ready for the season.

Through his office cluttered with enormous stuffed beasts, the most American-looking person I can imagine (6'2, barrel-chest, "God Bless the USA" T-shirt) lent us a hand. He led us to his daughter's cabins in the woods, which frightened us. On the way he said, "When you see a moose's eyes, it's too late." We arrived safely and slept in pine bunks. Super-scary at night, gorgeous in the daytime.

We motored on, crossed in Calais/ St. Stephen and spent the night in St. John with the Taylors. We stayed up late, chatting away.