We drove the Cabot Trail today. We started in Baddeck (which I learned is called Ba-deck, not Bad-deck) and drove counter-clockwise. We drove up the east side of Cape Breton Island in the fog. At times it was so thick we couldn’t really see anything, especially if we were at higher altitudes. Here are some photos from that side.

As we crossed over the top of the trail and started heading west instead of north, the fog lifted and soon we were in bright sunlight. The spring colours were in full display; it is amazing how many variations of green there are. It was easy to imagine how beautiful the dense woodland canopy would be in autumn. We passed by a little stone cottage and slowed down to see where the exit was to get in to see it. It was a just a short walk on a dappled trail, a nice break after being in the car for a while. It is an authentic representation of a hut built in the highlands for shepherds. Many highlanders ended up on Cape Breton island when their farms were reclaimed by the landowners.

According to the Google there are over 5000 moose on Cape Breton Island. There are signs all over the place reminding you to be on the lookout, however, we did not see one moose. We saw a goose and some moss, but no moose, just the signs.

The west side of the island is prettier and more interesting than the east side, in our opinion. There are more little settlements and the vista seems to be more open, however that may not be true because we only saw the east side in the fog. As anywhere in Canada in the spring, there was construction on the trail and we were stopped several times. But we finally got the bright blue sky and sea against the green land, incredibly beautiful.

We stopped in Cheticamp for lunch at the Happy Clam Diner.. It was great. We could see a large boat in the bay. We asked our server about it and she said it was a small cruise ship. We did a little research, again on the Google, and it could have been a ship from Adventure Canada, perhaps the Ocean Endeavour, which carries 200 passengers. The picture on the website looks like the ship we saw. As we had our lunch we listened to the locals in the diner. They were all speaking French, although there were a few words of English thrown in here and there.

After lunch we continued back to Baddeck, and as we left the west coast and started heading east again the fog returned. We had spent about seven hours on the trail, losing only about half an hour to construction stops. Later in the season the little settlements along the trail might be busier, with more shops and cafes open. The foliage in the autumn would be spectacular. But the east side of the Cabot Trail on a misty morning was evocative of a Scottish highland island and the west side in the sunshine was the icing on the cake. I wouldn’t trade it for any other experience.

Drive the Cabot Trail – checked off the bucket list. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt – actually we bought a onesie for our grandson.

It was a windy, rainy day when we left Antigonish. We drove to a well reviewed place for breakfast (it was okay, they got my order wrong but I didn’t say anything) and then we got on the road. We were heading to The Highland Village in Iona on Cape Breton Island. It was another scenic drive although we saw it through rain spattered windows.

The Highland Village Museum is amazing. It is a ways off the beaten path but so worth the trip. It chronicles the life of the Gaelic people who left the Highlands and Islands of Scotland to find new lives in Nova Scotia. The site covers 43 acres. There are houses representing the Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia, starting with a stone house similar to one that might have been in an island village in Scotland in the late 1700s and ending with houses and businesses from the 1920s. In several of the buildings there are museum volunteers playing the parts of people from the time periods represented. They are in costume and are performing tasks appropriate to their situations. The pamphlet describes them as “first-person animation”.

This is the stone cottage. Inside we found a woman swathed in wool. She told us of the wealthy, greedy landlords who raised the rent so that basically no one could pay it. She told us how hard her life was but that she was more fortunate than many, she had a solid roof over her head, healthy animals and enough food. She knew of many, many people who had emigrated to Nova Scotia where it was possible to get free land. She and her husband were planning to leave as they didn’t have the several years of back rent they owed. It was 1820.

When we left there we walked up the path. It was very windy and rainy but we were excited to continue on. The next house was a log cabin, like the ones the first settlers built, from 1770-1850. It did not have an interpreter so we just looked at it and moved on. The next house was identified as a centre chimney house. The house was built around the chimney and the floor of the second storey was built with small gaps in the floor to allow the heat to rise. The young man here was personable but he seemed to be giving us information, not sharing his life. The house was warm though and smelled companionably of wood smoke.

From there we walked through a barn with carriages, farm implements and wood working tools. The barn was draughty and we didn’t linger. Up the hill was a Presbyterian church. We went into it and looked around. It was small and simple. Down the hill was a centre hallway house from the 1860s. It was very warm and cozy. The woman of the house had just finished making biscuits so the house smelled wonderful. She told us that she had been born in the white house up the hill. Her husband and sons were fishermen so they were gone most of the year but her sons’ families lived nearby. She didn’t leave the village much as she only spoke Gaelic (which was interesting as we could understand her) and most places nowadays spoke English. She was particularly proud of the new, modern stove her husband had brought back from Lunenburg. She made sure we noticed her loom and her quality weaving. The wind had picked up while we were inside and it was very hard to leave!

The next buildings in the village represented the early 1900s, when many of the young people were starting to leave and the village was becoming less insular. There was a young teacher in the school house who told us the government would not allow Gaelic to be spoken and that she strapped the children who did. The young storekeeper told us he did a good side business in prohibited alcohol, for who expected Scots not to drink? And the blacksmith entertained us with all the things he did for the village. He even made a nail for us to keep as a souvenir.

It was a wonderful experience and we were glad we had gone out of our way to find it. The bad weather hadn’t diminished our experience in any way, in fact, it may have enhanced it because on a hot day there wouldn’t have been fires burning in the fireplaces and the houses wouldn’t have been so inviting.

When we left we headed towards Baddeck, one of the best places from which to start the Cabot Trail. Our route  involved a short ride on a cable ferry across Little Narrows. It cost $7.00, which was a bit of a surprise as all of our other trips on cable ferries, mostly in the Kootenays, were free. We got a very official receipt:

Now we’re holed up in our room in Baddeck, drying out and warming up. The Cabot Trail awaits us tomorrow, hopefully the weather will improve.

We left Cavenish early this morning. It was slightly overcast. The route the map app on my phone took us on wound through picturesque valleys, that was until we hit the outskirts of Charlottetown. We were on the perimeter road and so we passed by all kinds of commercial and industrial sites. We turned off onto side roads and ended up back on Highway 1, but on our route we saw a lot more of our beautiful smallest province. We got to the ferry terminal at Woods Island about 11:00, the very first car in the lot. Dale got out and walked around, snapping the photo you see at the top of this post. I sat in the car and read. When Dale was finished his walkabout we went into the cafeteria building to pass some more time and have some breakfast. At about 12:30 we headed back to the car. Shortly thereafter the ferry arrived and a spry older woman on a golf cart raced up and motioned for us to follow her. We pulled ahead a little from where we had been parked and watched as the ferry docked.

It was a little disconcerting because as the ferry was moving forward to the dock, the entire front was opening. Moving upwards. Have you ever seen a whale bath toy? You know, the one that looks like a caricature of Moby Dick, with the big head and huge mouth? It was like a whale had arrived at the dock and was opening its mouth. Then motorcycles and cars and vehicles pulling trailers emerged. At first we thought the ferry couldn’t carry many vehicles because not many disembarked. But then… Imagine the opening is the whale’s mouth. The vehicles were inside its mouth, the deck was its tongue. But then part of the tongue lifted up. Yup! There was a deck under the main car deck! It was like the whale had burped and all the little fish in its stomach were disgorged and able to swim out. Most of the vehicles had been below the main vehicle deck. The part of the deck that lifted up stayed up, and we were directed to drive down into it!

The opening was quite narrow and quite steep. The ferry worker inside directed us to drive right to the other end. We were positioned at the bottom of the ramp on the other end but the opening to the main deck was closed. Because there were vehicles parked on it and when everyone was in, the opening on the other end would be closed too and vehicles would be parked on it! Needless to say, we couldn’t stay down there. Everyone left to go up to the main passenger decks and the entrance to the stairway was roped off once we got underway. No one was allowed to be on the car decks while we were in transit.

We stayed up on the top deck, playing Scrabble on our iPads, passing them back and forth for most of the trip. When the ferry was close to the Nova Scotia terminal there was an announcement that we should head down to our vehicles. We sat there, looking up the ramp, listening to the hum of the engines and then the thunder of the vehicles above driving over us. Eventually a loud buzzer started beeping and the hydraulics started lifting up the deck above the ramp. A ferry worker appeared beside us. We looked up, it was like we were coming out of a dark tunnel into the light. As we drove up all we could see was sky until the front wheels pulled us up onto the main deck. We were out of the whale’s belly and back on solid land. Welcome back to Nova Scotia!

Lucy Maud Montgomery described her beloved Prince Edward Island as “that colourful little land of ruby and emerald and sapphire”. The weather while we were there was not great so we did not see a sapphire sky or sea. However, the emeralds and rubies were very well represented.

Our first view of PEI was of red soil as we came across the Confederation Bridge. And it is not a subtle red, it’s RED! Every bit of exposed soil is red and what’s not red is green. We saw acre upon acre of tilled fields surrounded by acres and acres of rolling grassy fields. Most of the grassy fields had dandelions in them, making yellow PEI’s other official colour. Some of the fields had weathered farmhouses and other outbuildings. And we saw a lot of cows.

As we neared Cavendish, many of the farms had cottages. This is the land of Anne of Green Gables and getting tourist money must be too easy to resist. In Cavendish there are also many other places to entice the tourists to happily keep spending money, including amusement parks, water parks and kitschy stores. Green Gables is a national park and as we were in the neighbourhood, of course we had to go.

The park was not busy so we were able to get around the site easily. There was a small group of older Japenese ladies ahead of us when we got into the house but they were polite and moved along quite well. I have read all the Anne of Green Gables books but I’m not an über fan so I appreciated the house as an historical building more than as the home of my favourite fictional character, because Anne isn’t.

Along the gulf is another national park. We were able to get in without paying the fee, I guess it’s still too early for that. The parking lots are huge so they must get a lot of visitors in the summer. Some people were walking along the beach. Again, the access to the beach was by a boardwalk as the dunes would have been very difficult to get over. The sand wasn’t that red but the cliffs in the distance were. It was easy to tell the local vehicles in all the parking lots; they’re the ones with wheels and wheel wells coated in red dust.

One of the highlights of our trip was a lobster supper, actually two but who’s counting, at Fisherman’s Wharf in North Rustico. Every town we drove through has a place that does a lobster supper. In North Rustico they have the island’s longest salad bar, which includes desserts. They are a high volume establishment, and so the food is simple but good. Dale had a lobster in Digby but he said the lobsters here were much better. The first night we had a lovely server, Catherine. We learned she is a substitute teacher who grew up in Charlottetown but who now lives just outside it with her husband. She also works at a hotel in Charlottetown so if you’re counting that’s three jobs. She had a maritime accent and it was neat listening to her talk. It’s softer than the Newfoundland accent. I wonder if we have a west coast accent? I do know that when we were in South Carolina people had trouble placing our accents. They think the east coast accent is what Canadians sound like.

We went into Charlottetown and we weren’t too impressed. Again, it’s early in the season and so I’m sure we didn’t see it at its best. We did notice that there were more brick houses in the downtown than in any other maritime city we’ve visited. Charlottetown aside, PEI is intriguing and the small towns seem to have enough personality and charm to carry the province. We would come back again. Tomorrow we’re back to Nova Scotia, to travel the famed Cabot Trail. Stay tuned.

When we got off the ferry from Digby, we followed the signs to Reversing Falls. This point of interest was well marked and soon we were parked and enjoying the view. This phenomenon is amazing. On our first visit we saw the flow going the usual way, the waters from the Saint John River were flowing out into the Bay of Fundy. The waves were white-tipped and the rapids were really visible. The tide was going out so there was no interference for the outgoing water. However, the next time we saw it was approaching high tide. This time the strong tide was pushing against the river flow and the bay water was actually flowing into the river. We saw cormorants landing in the water and riding the current up the river. Right in front of where we were standing they would dive down and then re-emerge with fish in their beaks. When they got too close to the rapids they would fly back down the river and start all over again. It’s not clear in the photos, but the first one shows the water flowing into the Bay of Fundy, the normal way, and the second shows the water flowing upstream.

We stayed in downtown St. John. We saw many wonderful old houses. Most have been converted into multi-unit dwellings. When we searched the real estate listings few were single family homes. The house prices were very low compared to what we are used to in Vancouver. I teased Dale that we should buy one of the two unit ones; we could live on one side and our older son and his family could live on the other. With the difference in the market we could buy it outright and have money in the bank. We would both have living quarters much larger than we have now, and a bigger yard to boot. However, I’m not sure that would fly with them as I don’t know what the job market is here. So maybe we’ll just buy a multi-unit heritage house. We’ll live on the main and rent out the other units. Sounds like a great retirement plan, except for the winters, and the many flights home to see everyone, but one can dream. I love old houses!

The city market wasn’t as busy as we expected but it is fairly early in the season. We looked into some city tours but none of them were operating yet. We did walk down Prince William Street to check out the ornate carvings on the old stone buildings. We talked to two workers who were involved in turning the old city hall building into high end condos. We also took in the Loyalist cemetery. Some of the markers were too weathered to read, but some told heartbreaking stories of loss. We didn’t take any photos there.

One afternoon we drove to St. Stephen to the Ganong chocolate museum. We arrived at 3:30 and they closed at 4:00 but we still had time to make our way through the displays. The best part was there were chocolates to sample throughout the museum. They were on trays and you could have as many was you wanted! HEAVEN! As we were so late in the day we didn’t get to see them making chocolates. However, the chocolate store was open until 5:00 so we had plenty of time to browse and make our choices. I may have eaten too much chocolate that day, wait, what? Too much chocolate, never! Silly me.

On our way to Prince Edward Island we took a detour to see some covered bridges. We saw only six of the about sixty in the province. Covered bridge decks last about 100 years, uncovered about ten. I wonder why they never took hold in the west. The transport ministry maintains most of the bridges but they don’t paint the covers. Sounds like a summer job for students to me! We were able to drive through all but one of the bridges, the one in the first photo. The new road is beside it.

I’m glad we took the detour to see the bridges because there wasn’t much else to see on the way to the Confederation Bridge. We saw signs to be aware of moose but no moose. There were many large nests on the utility towers. It was interesting to see how spaced out they were, so that the parent birds would have enough territory in which to hunt. Most of the routes in NB were very well marked. However, there was only one sign for the Confederation Bridge, listing the exit to take. We didn’t catch that exit and ended up in Nova Scotia before we doubled back and got on the right route. The bridge was neat. It’s two lanes with high concrete sides. No one will ever drive off it. We were a little concerned that we had missed the toll booths when we drove off as we took a quick turnoff and we could see the booths but no cars came after us with sirens blasting and lights flashing. A quick check of the google on the interweb reassured us, you only pay when you leave PEI, the same with the ferries.

While St. John was interesting, New Brunswick didn’t really capture us. I don’t think we’ll need to come back to visit again.

I’ve been writing about the places and sights, but today I’m going to focus on some people. Most of the people we’ve met here have been friendly, kind and informative. Well, that changed today.

We were heading up the inland highway in the fog just outside of Yarmouth. The road ahead was straight, going up a hill. We could see for quite a distance, although some of it was blurry. I asked Dale if there was a cyclist up ahead. He laughed and said either a cyclist or a Sasquatch. As we approached, at highway speed, the figure started to cross the road and then stopped partway. Dale slowed. We could see it was an old woman, with a hat, a coat and several bags. She waved at us, gesturing for us to stop. We did. There was basically no traffic and if she needed assistance it could be a long time before another vehicle passed.

Dale rolled down his window (actually he pushed a button and the window went down) and the lady leaned in. She said she had been walking for at least an hour and a half and she had only her juice and her Bible with her, could we please take her as far as we were going? Well what could we say? Dale pulled up, to get more off the road in case another car did come by and she got in. She immediately introduced herself and asked our names, shaking our hands and thanking us. She had been visiting a male friend in the hospital in Yarmouth but had to get home to feed her cat. She was from Middleton, a two hour drive away. She asked us a lot of questions, what’s your middle name? Do you have kids? Grandkids? What do you both do for a living? and so on. She was making conversation, trying to be polite but it came across as creepy. She told us inappropriate things, like the medical state of her friend, he had blood coming out of his peepie, prostate cancer is a bitch. She asked us to turn up the air conditioning and she announced she was going to stop drinking her juice because she didn’t want to have to “use the batroom again”, ie, pee on the side of the road. She didn’t smell bad but she did smell (and not of perfume) and she had some issues, whether to do with mental illness or with capacity, we couldn’t tell. We drove her to Digby, as that was as far as we were going. She directed us to the parking lot of the Superstore, the transit bus stopped there and could take her further towards home. She asked us to keep her and her friend in our prayers, thanked us and got out. We drove away and we both let out a deep breath. Dale said we had no other choice but to pick her up but he was prepared to break her arm if she had pointed a gun. I had started to give her false information in case she was using her little old lady act to mine us for personal information. Whart a couple of dopes we are! She was just a helpless little old lady, right? Right?

We found our B&B in Digby easily. We pulled up in front. There was an older couple looking at the garden on the side of the house. They looked at us and then continued to discuss the state of the lilac bushes, I’m assuming that because they were touching the lilac branches. Dale went to the front door and rang the bell, as directed by the sign. I got out of the car and the woman looked directly at me, then turned away. I started to walk towards the house and she looked again. She frowned and walked towards me. It was windy so she raised her voice, “Can I help you?” She was close when I responded so I didn’t have to shout back. I said we had a reservation. She looked at Dale and told him he should have parked in the back. We went in and filled out the paperwork. She was efficient and curt. However, her almost pleasant attitude changed when she asked what our plans were. We told her we were catching the ferry to St. John in the morning. She laughed humourlessly and said there was plenty to do in the area besides take the ferry and an afternoon was not nearly enough time. She opened several pamphlets and pointed out all the things to do in the area then she hearded us out the door. Dale went to move the car to the back and she walked me to the “rental rooms” building. I went to unlock the door and she pulled my hand away, “It’s unlocked.” I went in, declared it lovely and she left after telling me to make sure “he” parked properly, the B&B was full tonight. When we got the luggage into the room, I asked Dale if he thought our host was a little annoyed with us. He did. So we  decided to go to one if the attractions she had pointed out. It was okay, but not as great as she had made out. Oh well, maybe she was annoyed because the house was for sale and she didn’t want to be doing the whole B&B thing anymore. Who knows, but tomorrow we will avoid contact with little old ladies.

Sorry, I just have one comment about places. Today we had lunch in Liverpool and then crossed the Mersey. Cool huh?

It was raining when we got up and it rained most of the day. At times it was torrential. But we are hardy stock from the West Coast, well, not originally, but we’ve been there long enough to claim citizenship. The drive to Peggy’s Cove was done in thick fog and heavy rain. However, we were still able to get the sense of the area. We seemed to be the only ones on the road but when we got to Peggy’s Cove there were people already at the lighthouse and in the restaurant. We walked down to the lighthouse and took some pictures but the rain, and the lack of dinner the night before and no breakfast before we left, forced us into the restaurant. Our orders came quickly, which was good as three tour buses rolled in after us. We lingered over our tea until the rain and fog let up a little and then we were back on the road.

We were driving the old highway, the Lighthouse route. There wasn’t much traffic and soon we were following the signs to Oak Island. Now, I don’t know about you, but we have been watching the treasure hunters on the TV show. We though we would at least see some evidence of the goings on, but we were wrong. We saw nothing. The causeway is a private road and nothing marks anything about the story. As we pulled up another couple was getting into their car. We chatted for a bit about how disappointed we were. We took a couple of pictures of the island in the mist with the causeway in the foreground and continued on.

On the way to Lunenburg we passed though Mahone Bay. It is an amazing settlement with a lot of shops and B&Bs but we didn’t stop. There were tour buses parked as we got into town so we wanted to stay ahead of them. We had to take a detour and it took us along a very narrow, “primitive” (that’s the word they used on the sign) paved road. I can’t imagine how the tour buses fared on it! Dale was cracking jokes about banjos and serial killers as it felt we were well off the beaten path. We finally got back onto the right road and our pretend anxiety was relieved. We got into Lunenburg a little ahead of schedule but we were still able to check in, in fact, as the tourist season hasn’t really started, we were upgraded to a view room. If you’re ever in Lunenburg, check out The Smuggler’s Cove  Inn.

Although it was still raining when we finished putting the luggage in our room we still explored the town. We walked a bit, checking out the colourful houses and then we decided to do some retail therapy. We didn’t buy much and we felt rather guilty walking into stores, looking around and then leaving. The rain and the season meant we were often the only ones in the store. We made our way down to the harbour and into the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. It was interesting but we skipped the outside exhibits, it was pouring and I’m not that bothered about checking out old boats.

We had hoped the rain would let up while we toured the second and third levels but it didn’t so we trudged back to the inn. We had a cup of tea, rather I had a cup of tea and Dale had a beer, in the restaurant next door and then we dried off in our room. We googled places to eat dinner because the restaurant recommended to us was closed. We decided on The Grand Banker, even though the last reviews were terrible. Well, those people must have been drunk or working for the competition because our meals were fabulous. Dale was primed for a lobster dinner but it wasn’t on the menu, so he settled for the mussels and Acadian fish stew. I had the house salad and mushroom risotto. We shared apple bread pudding and a glass of scotch for dessert. It goes to show you can’t believe everything you read online, although you can always believe me.

As we ate the rain stopped so after dinner we explored the town a little more. I took pictures of several beautiful doors. They really appeal to me. I have some great photos of doors from South Carolina too. Old houses often have wonderful doors with great personalities. The only problem was the city is built on an incline, and what goes up must come down. My knee works adequately going uphill but not coming down, so we went very slowly and I leaned heavily on Dale. Now we’re snug and warm in our room. Dale’s watching the Blue Jays game waiting for the hockey game to start. I’m going to finish this, get out of my somewhat still damp clothes and cuddle up in the bed and read. Tomorrow, we will drive around the southern tip of the island and up to Digby. Dale has already found a restaurant where he can finally get his lobster dinner!

Here are few highlights of our day.

• We were planning to crash, I mean attend, a pancake breakfast today but we couldn’t find the firehall. We did find a community hall that could have been a likely venue but we were too chicken to go in. What if it was a church service or something? So we stopped looking and went to a Timmy’s, where many motorcycle riders had also decided to go. A lot of people ride motorcycles in Nova Scotia, either that or they have more than their fair share of motorcycle gangs.
• We were intrigued with a place called Cow Bay. We drove there but did not see any cows in the bay, disappointing. If we move to NS, I will buy a house in Cow Bay and make it my life’s work to restore Cow Bay’s heritage by putting cows back into the bay.
• We went to two provincial parks today. The first one, Rainbow Haven Beach, had a beautiful sandy beach. It was very windy and a young father got his child’s ladybug kite up into the air very easily. Then they sat down in chairs, tied the kite string to one arm and did whatever they were planning to do. A little ways away a young mom was trying to set up a tent but it was far too windy. A little guy and his dad walked past us onto the beach. The little boy was barefoot and his pant legs were wet and sandy. He smiled at us as they went down the stairs onto the beach. He was having a good day. The second park was Lawrencetown Beach. It did not have any sand. The beach was covered in rounded rocks. The sound the tide made as it pulled out through the rocks was magical.  All of the beaches have boardwalks to them. They go up and over the berms and across the vegetation, just like the ones in South Carolina do.

• 
• We didn’t have a destination in mind today so we wandered a bit. We found an interesting little collection of shops called Fisherman’s Cove in Eastern Passage. There were quaint little buildings all along the boardwalk. Many were closed as it is still quite early in the season.
• We went to Dartmouth later and had our first lobster rolls at Evan’s Fresh Seafood at Alderney Landing in the harbour. Well, let me just say, lobster rolls are delicious and now every one we have after today will be measured against these. With loads of lobster, wonderfully seasoned on a fresh homemade roll, they will be hard to beat!
• We finished our adventures back in Halifax at Pier 21. it was fascinating to see and hear the immigration stories there. We are certainly a nation of immigrants and I hope we never lose sight of that. The lighthouse above is across the water from the pier, so evocative of the Maritimes I just had to include it.
• The variety of house styles here is amazing. I love seeing all the old Victorians. Halifax has done it right as the newer in-fill houses match the neighbourhoods they’re in. And many people here enjoy a whimsical painted door. We’ve seen red, yellow, green, blue, orange and pink ones. Most of the houses don’t have much landscaping. However maybe it’s too early in the season for much. The lilacs are just starting to bloom here.
• Finally, every single server and clerk has said “You”re welcome” when we have said “Thank you”. In Vancouver the response we usually get is “No worries” or “No problem”. I much prefer the correct response. Consequently the servers here have been tipped accordingly. Which reminds me, Nova Scotia has a harmonized tax of 15%. That was a bit of a shock, but the toll bridge we took to Halifax was only $1 so that was better.

It was another great vacation day. Tomorrow we head west to Peggy’s Cove, Oak Island and Lunenburg.

Oh yeah, Dale also wanted everyone to know we went through Cole Harbour. Sidney Crosby’s hometown. We didn’t see Sidney as he is getting ready for game one of the Stanley Cup final. 🙂

I had a very late and slow start to my day today. Dale got up to go and fetch the rental car. Although they did pick him up they drove him quite a way to get the car, and then he had to find his way back. I wasn’t with him so he had a hard time following the map app on his phone and driving. But I digress, back to me and my morning. After Dale left I went back to sleep for a while and then I watched a little TV. Just before noon I decided to get up and get ready. It was still rather foggy and overcast outside so I put on jeans and a sweatshirt. However, that didn’t feel right, so I went through several changes until I finally decided. Then I sat down and waited for Dale.

I didn’t have to wait long. When he got back we had lunch and Dale entertained me with the tale of having the guys from the Enterprise office in Lower Sackville driving him to Halifax to get a car. One of them had only been in Canada since 2011 but he had already toured all of the Maritimes and had visited Alberta, BC and the Yukon. Dale rather sheepishly admitted to him that this was our first trip back east. Lunch was wonderful. We headed out to the car and I got the route to the Halifax Farmers Market on my phone. It was as easy drive, although we did make a full right when the GPS lady told us to take a slight right. However, she recovered and still got us there. The market is a smaller version of Granville Island. It has a lot of food vendors and artisans. We strolled around, didn’t buy anything as it was just the first day of our trip. Then we got in the car and drove a couple of blocks to the harbour area.

We parked and walked to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. It was fascinating, with displays that included local shipwrecks, the Halifax explosion, the Cunard Line and the Titanic. I learned a lot. I didn’t know that Samuel Cunard was from Nova Scotia. And I am embarrassed to say although I knew of the explosion in the Halifax harbour I didn’t know a lot of the details. It was the largest manmade explosion until the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. Two square miles were flattened and what little was left standing soon burned down. A piece of the rudder of the ship that exploded, the Mont Blanc, was found 5 kilometres away. I also didn’t know that the British Army attacked and captured an American ship during the war of 1812. Yup, the HMS Shannon took on the USS Chesapeake and prevailed. If you like ships and history, the museum is worth a trip.

When we got out of the museum we headed down the boardwalk to the harbour. I needed a bottle of water so I could take some pills, my knee was aching from all the walking we had done, even though I had rested it a lot by sitting in planes the day before. I convinced Dale to share a beavertail with me. We took it and the bottle of water and sat at a table. There were a couple of starlings hanging around. They are small enough that they don’t bother me just sitting there. But a couple of pigeons and a seagull soon arrived and that was our cue to leave. I never hang around long enough for them to attack me and peck my eyes out. So far, my quick exits have worked.

We decided to drive up to the Citadel as we were in the neighbourhood. One good thing about taking holidays in late May – early June is that none of the tourist spots are busy. We walked all over the Citadel and then headed home. We thought it would be nice to have dinner in one of the little towns between Halifax and our inn. However, most of those towns have only fast food joints and so we just kept driving. We drove through Bedford then went past Lower Sackville to Middle Sackville. My map app showed there wasn’t much that way so we drove through Middle Sackville back to Lower Sackville and headed home. We decided to drive past our inn and see what Waverley had to offer, as it turned out, nothing, so we kept driving. We ended up in Dartmouth, just across the water from the Halifax harbour. We got our bearings and headed home. But before we gave up totally we tried going north. We didn’t find dinner but we did learn that the Lake Fletcher fire department is having a pancake breakfast tomorrow so we’re going to crash it. Woohoo, pancakes tomorrow! We had dinner at the restaurant in our inn.

Our holiday trip started quite early this morning. Dale was up at 5:00. That was way too early for me so I tried to sleep a little longer, but I was up by 6:00. I washed, dressed and made the bed. I put the last minute things into my suitcase and manhandled it down the stairs. I asked Dale why he was up so early. He said he didn’t want to be late. I’m so paranoid about being late, and Dale knows that it stresses me, so he really took it to heart. We were out the door and on our way by 6:30. The traffic was heavy on the TransCanada, it was a Friday rush hour after all. But once we got off it, the traffic was fine. We got to the airport, parked and hopped on a shuttle. The sun was peeking out, it looked like it was going to be a nice day.

Once inside YVR we made our way to a self-serve kiosk to print out our luggage tags. We had already checked in online so we had our boarding passes on our phones. We don’t typically have much luck at the kiosks, and Dale doesn’t typically have patience when they don’t work. However, there was a patient young woman there who helped us out. She even put the luggage tags on our bags. Minutes later we were through security and on our way to our gate.

Dale treated us to a stay in the Plaza Lounge where we had a small breakfast and he checked his work emails. At 8:30 I started to get antsy. Our passes said boarding would start at 8:40 and we would be in the first group to board as we were sitting in the emergency exits seats. Of course that’s when Dale decided to go to the restroom. I sat as patiently as I could, watching him wander around the lounge looking for the signs. By the time he returned I had packed up his bag and was standing, holding it out for him. He got the message and we were off.

We arrived at our gate just as they announced they were ready to start boarding. I wagged my finger at Dale, we were almost late! Dale returned the wag, we were still early. Of course he was right as we stood there for at least another ten minutes. However, if we had done it my way, we would have been sitting, as we would have gone to the gate as soon as we got through security and stayed there.

Now, as I was standing there somehow I put some of my mail into another folder on my phone. When I went to the desk to board, I pulled up the wrong boarding pass. I fumbled with my phone trying to find the right one but couldn’t. The attendant found me on the computer, checked my ID and let me head down to the plane. As I was walking I found it. We got into our seats and settled in for the flight. We got our iPads out and opened the Westjet app. As soon as the safety talk was over we were able to access the onboard wifi. I watched an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” and then two early episodes of “Gilmore Girls”. Dale watched a movie. We both played some games and had started a game of two player Scrabble when the voice of the pilot came over the speakers. We were taking longer with our descent as the airport in Toronto was experiencing some bad weather and only one runway was open. We would be getting in about half an hour late.

Well, my anxiety went through the roof. We had to make a connecting flight to Halifax and we had only about 45 minutes. Thankfully we had only a short walk from our arrival gate to our departure gate, and the flight was delayed about 40 minutes. So we had time to make a quick bathroom stop and get our IDs and boarding passes in order. We didn’t have time to eat, so we ordered a snack on the plane.

The lady sitting in our row with us was from Toronto. She told us a huge storm had come through the area, with heavy rain and hail but it hadn’t lasted long. She was on her way to her aunt’s 94th birthday. Her mom had lived to 104 and another aunt had made it to 108! We got into Halifax about 8:40 pm local time. Our luggage came quickly and we headed out to the taxi line. It was about 8 C, there was a tangible nip in the air. The taxi took us on the short trip to our hotel, The Inn on the Lake. We asked about the restaurant hours as we checked in. The kitchen closed at 10:00 so we had 20 minutes to get our orders in. We took our bags up to the room and hotfooted it to the lounge. The server was very accommodating. She got our order in before the kitchen closed. The lounge closed at 11:00 so we had time to eat, we even had dessert. Now, normally we would never eat at 10:00 at night but it was 6:00 our time. I had  the seafood casserole and Dale had the seafood crepe.

We got back to our room at 11:00. Dale is insisting that we stay up until at least 2:00 local time, which would be 10:00 our time. I guess after I complete this post we’ll finish our Scrabble game. Tomorrow we’ll get our rental car and start our maritime sightseeing. Dale is reading the brochures now.