Friday, August 30, 2004, 37.4 miles: After a restful night, we joined Dalton for his morning dip in the Gulf. Cool, but not cold, and very refreshing. Certainly got our blood moving. And what a beautiful, wide beach. With sand, vs. the rocks that make up the beaches in the Bay of Fundy.

After breakfast, the three of us took off for a 34 mile ride that morphed to 37 with a few sightseeing detours. Dalton, though he’s done a lot of touring, had mostly been doing 15 & 20 mile rides, so we tired him out a bit, but he was right with us the whole ride. We stopped for gorgeous views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, little harbor villages, a rec center, and finally, to Kensington again for lunch. The Island Pub had a two hour wait, so we opted for the C&B Corner Cafe right across the street, and got our order in just under the wire as they were closing soon.

We headed west and then north back towards Darnley, but with a couple of interesting stops in-between. Stop 1 was at Knead-a-Brake — a combo bakery and bike shop that served as our lunch dessert — for me, a insanely good brownie. Didn’t need any bike stuff or work done, but if we had… Stop 2 was at Under the Spire — an old English style wooden church that had been converted to a concert venue. Remember that Dalton has a PhD in music? Well, he asked the folks if he could play their grand and put on a jazz piano revue just for us. The place was a wonder of woodwork and amazing acoustics. Check out the gallery and the video at the bottom of this post.

From there we headed back to Dalton’s for another warm outdoor shower. Dana took a chair to the beach and I worked curating the pics for this post. Dalton used the leftover mussels and veggies from last night’s dinner to make a scrumptious seafood chowder. We spent the evening exchanging touring stories and hearing about Dalton’s “real” pre-retirement life back in NH. Another wonderous touring day.

Dalton’s Under the Spire premier!