These are in no particular order.

1. People in Nova Scotia love them some adirondack chairs. We saw them everywhere – on porches, on decks, on the beach, on the lawn,  on the boardwalks –  you name it, if an adirondack chair could be on it, it was. And like their houses, Nova Scotians paint their adirondack chairs bright colours. I loved seeing them everywhere, they’re happy chairs.
2. In Cape Breton, the diners, cafes and bakeries brew their tea in a pot that sits on a burner just like the ones they have coffee in. But the tea doesn’t taste like coffee so the pots must be dedicated just for tea. So when you order a cup of tea they bring you a cup in one hand, the pot of tea in the other and they pour you a cup. It was delicious every time, not too strong, not too weak, just delicious. And they come around with the pot to top your cup up, just like the coffee drinkers get. About time I say because putting more hot water on a used teabag in a little metal teapot doesn’t equal another good cup of tea.
3. We must have seen at least thirty dead porcupines on the side of the roads in Nova Scotia, and we didn’t drive on every road so there must have been many, many more carcasses than the ones we saw. I have no idea how many porcupines there are in Nova Scotia, but I hope the remaining ones mated well because they are dying on the roads in droves.
4. We didn’t see one moose on our trip, however, there were signs everywhere telling us to be on the lookout  for them. We saw habitat areas that would be perfect for moose, all boggy and wet. But not one moose, not one hair of one moose, nada. However, I did have this vision of moose jumping out on the road after we had driven by, high-fiving each other, maybe doing the odd chest bump, because they had avoided detection.
5. There are signs on the highways that tell drivers to keep right unless passing. We did not see one driver that stayed  in the left lane, travelling there for kilometres, making drivers pass them on the right, like they do in BC. And we didn’t see anyone driving way over the speed limit, like they do in BC. We drove about 3100 kilometres and didn’t see one a$$h@le driver. Try doing that in Vancouver.
6. There is a definite Maritime accent. It is softer than a Newfoundland accent, but it’s there. I wonder what those of us from the west coast sound like to them. The accent is most noticeable in the smaller communities, we didn’t hear it that much in the cities.
7. Everywhere we went, when we said “thank you”, we got “you’re welcome” in response. That is the correct response by the way, not “no problem” or “no worries” which is what we hear just about everywhere in BC. When I get home I’m going to petition the local and provincial governments to make “you’re welcome” the legal response to “thank you”; any other response will be subject to a fine. That should add millions to the coffers.
8. Lobster tastes good. It doesn’t need drawn butter, just crack that bug and eat it! For a change, mix it with mayo and seasoning, add some shredded lettuce and pile it into a toasted hot dog bun. Yum-yum!
9. My BC education didn’t cover much of the history of the Maritimes, and there’s a lot that could have been taught. I knew a little about the Loyalists and the Acadians but I wish I had known more before I came. I think I’ll be brushing up on that part of our collective heritage. I’ve always felt an affinity to all things Scottish, but I didn’t feel like I was coming home when we went to Scotland. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place because some places in Nova Scotia felt very homey to me.
10. It doesn’t cost anything to take a ferry or the bridge to get onto Prince Edward Island. You only pay when you leave. Interesting concept. The toll bridges between Halifax and Dartmouth cost a dollar. And the ferries and bridges don’t have the volume that BC ferries and bridges have, yet they still manage, hmmm.
11. Cortland apples are delicious!
12. Nova Scotia has a harmonized tax of 15% that is put on everything! in Halifax the accommodation tax was also added on top of the harmonized tax, a tax on a tax, how Canadian!
13. The forests of the Maritimes are beautiful but they don’t compare to the forests of BC. We saw few really big trees. On the Cabot Trail the forest floor was relatively open, with a dense canopy overhead. In other places the forest alongside the road was so dense it was hard to imagine how the early settlers got through it. There are also many boggy, swampy areas, perfect places for the moose we never saw.
14. We saw an albatross at Reversing Falls in St. John. At first we thought it was an eagle as it had a black body and black wings with a white head and tail. But when we saw it again it was clear that it was a gull-like bird, not a raptor. Later I did some interweb research and discovered it was an albatross, cool.
15. Many of the intersections in the Maritimes are roundabouts, or rotaries as they are sometimes called. For the most part they keep the traffic flowing. We only had to drive all the way around one circle when we missed the exit we needed.

This was a wonderful trip. Some of the photos will find their way onto our walls and the memories will last as long as we can hold onto them!