Nova Scotia Trip, Sept, 2009

We thought a trip to Nova Scotia would be a great way to celebrate Bill's 70th birthday and we had been wanting to go to for years anyway but never seemed to be able to fit it in to our schedule. This year Wayne and Mary Catherine liked the idea of joining us and we left Bar Harbor on the CAT Ferry to Yarmouth, NS at 8 a.m. Sept. 15. It was a beautiful morning, partly cloudy with a bit of rain around, just enough to give the pictures atmosphere. Here we are on the CAT just about to leave the pier and looking over toward the town of Bar Harbor.

You can still see Mt. Desert Island as we head out into the open water.

There wasn't much to see, no land, birds or other boats, just water and a cloudy sky coming down to meet it.

I loved the look of the sky way out there in the middle of the ocean.

Here Cape Forchu is to the right as we enter Yarmouth Harbor.

We decided to drive up the eastern side of the Island, the Annapolis Valley, and for those who know NS we stayed primarily on Rt. 1. There were many bucolic farms and lovely parks like our first stop at Parc de Mavilette, a beautiful beach side park with the afternoon sun shining on the beach...............

................and nearby the Cape St. Mary Lighthouse, which wasn't all that pretty but the view was.

I believe this is the little town of Gilbert's Cove........

........where the harbor completely drains out with the huge Bay of Fundy tides. You can see the little boat resting on the harbor bottom as the tide begins to come in.

We stayed our first night in Digby where they are famous for their oysters. Our little motel was right on the bay and we found a restaurant near by to taste oysters and other wonderful seafood.

First things first, however; there's nothing like a Manhattan after a long day of travel.

Our view of some of the Digby fleet as we ate dinner.

We decided to head for Cape Breton instead of lingering in this area, beautiful as it was, and spent the next night in the town of Pictou on our way north. Pictou is on the Northumberland Shore of NS. We stayed in a B & B, The Custom House Inn, a charmingly renovated building with high ceilings, old stairways and a pleasant mix of a past place of business and a now very comfortable and upscale inn. Sorry, this is the back of the building but you'll get the idea anyway.

Before arriving at Cape Breton we decided to spend a night at the only single malt scotch distillery in North America, Glenore Distillery. They have first class accommodations yet not over the top, just very comfortable, nice surrounding countryside and an excellent dining room. Those of us who had salmon thought it was the best we'd ever had; marinated in Glenore's scotch and maple syrup. Yum.

They offer a really interesting tour of the distillery where you learn anything you ever wanted to know about scotch. It was actually a very interesting tour and I thought the equipment was very cool looking. This one was at the end of the scatch-making process before the scotch is put in barrels.

This is the harbor of Inverness which we briefly stopped at after leaving the distillery. I was interested in the boat design you see all over Nova Scotia, just a bit different from the ones on the Maine coast.

Inverness is on Cape Breton Island and this picture is now in Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada, along the northeast coast of the island. This highway looks out onto the Gulf of St. Lawrence which is apparently a less salty body of water than the Atlantic due to the amount fresh water entering the gulf.

We took a walk at the rather marshy area in the park where we found Pitcher Plants and the last of this season's blooms. I had never seen the bloom before.

This is still on the northeast coast of the park near Pleasant Bay where...................

we stopped at the Rusty Anchor for a fine seafood lunch.

From the shore behind the restaurant we spotted this (what I think is a) 2nd yr. juvenile Eagle who just posed for ages for the photographers that gathered to make the most of the opportunity.

This is Neil's Harbor on the northeast coast of Cape B. H. Nat. Park.

We spent that night in Ingonish, still on the east coast, and the next morning we left early to arrive at Fortress Louisbourg by nightfall. This is an early morning shot of the Atlantic just south of Ingonish.

As we approached St. Ann's Bay we were all chatting away, and as we found out not paying enough attention, when we found ourselves very suddenly at the end of the road. Fortunately Wayne was paying just enough attention to stop the car before we ran into the bay and we realized a bit late that we had missed the road that would have taken us around the bay ...but instead.....in line for the smallest ferry crossing I've ever seen. You could throw a stone to the other side; the ferry is actually pulled back and forth by a cable, only takes a few minutes and turned out to be well worth the detour and something to laugh about since Wayne found the brakes and we didn't have to get wet.

The road then takes you high above the finger of land where we crossed over the bay.

Fortress Louisbourg was one of my favorite parts of the trip since I really like forts and this one is so well done. I could have spent a lot more time there than we were able to but very much enjoyed the time we did have. This is a National Historic Park of Canada and people are dressed in period costumes and act the part; the buildings as they would have been when the fort was active...colonial times...it's right on the Atlantic. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the very cold afternoon we had there.

This was outside of the actual fort with soldiers on duty.

Every day these geese are shepherded from one paddock to another for the night and they know the way as they honk along the road. The man moving them along (you can just see his stick on the left) had to run to keep up with them.

These sheep are also put in a different pen for the night and they too need little guidance. Bill opened the gate for them.

Inside the fort looking out to sea.

Out next destination was some place to view the Bay of Fundy tide at work and we picked Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick. We made it over there in one day from Fortress Lousbourg, spent the night in Moncton and arrived at the park before it opened the next day. It was an hour after low tide but the water was still very low and the big deal there is to go down to the beach and walk on the ocean bottom.

The ocean etches out wonderful shapes in the rocks and often trees grow on the tops....

....and everyone gets their pictures taken near some wonderful structure.

MC and I walked around a point to another part of the beach where it was all beautiful reddish mud flats which later are totally covered by water.

Now you can see that the tide has come in quite a bit and still has more to go. Where we had walked is now under water. It was a very nice park and fun to experience such a huge tide. The tide height varies during any given month and on that day they said the tide was 43 ft. I believe.

The last night of the trip we spent in St. John, NB and liked the town. It seemed very cosmopolitan and pleasant. We had a lovely dinner down town where the below night scene was taken but Bill seemed a bit over excited I'm afraid and

felt the need to tackle a moose. The only moose we saw in NS, by the way. The moose seemed nonchalant we thought, considering, but

Bill appeared a bit over heated. The moose won, of course.

Back in Maine on Mt. Desert Island the next day we all drove around the scenic Ocean Drive in Acadia National Park to show Wayne and MC the neighborhood. This is Thunderhole where the ocean sometimes crashes into an area it has been etched out of the rocks over time and makes a good thundering sound.

This is the top of Cadillac Mt. looking down into Bar Harbor and quite a different day than when we were there with Helene but still stunning.

An Island sea gull just resting on the mountain.

Cheers for now!