Peggy’s Cove and Halifax

Day 7:  Peggy’s Cove, Mahone Bay, and Lunenburg

Peggy’s Cove has been on my Bucket List for a long time, and I can now cross it off!

 

 

 

 

Peggy’s Cove is a quaint little village at the mouth of St. Margaret’s Bay.  The Lighthouse is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world.  The coastline surrounding it is very rugged.

 

 

 

 

Very near Peggy’s Cove is a memorial for the victim’s of the Swissair Flight 111 Crash in 1998.  It is a very sobering spot, on the granite rocks looking out to the ocean.

 

 

 

 

After we left Peggy’s Cove, we drove to Mahone Bay, another quaint little fishing town.  The entire town was celebrating the Scarecrow Festival.

These are not your typical scarecrows normally found watching over gardens.  Most homes and businesses had scarecrows representing anything from musical acts, storybook characters, television characters, themes representing the business, and even a tea party.

Mahone Bay also has some beautiful churches.

And did I mention that Mahone Bay just happened to have a Quilt Show the Day we were there?  I’ll save those pictures for another post after I get home. 

As you can probably tell, it was another gray day, so the pictures are all a little dull.  The next town we drove to was Lunenburg.  Oh my – it was so colorful!  And built on a hill, so you can really appreciate all the colors.

 

 

 

 

It was late afternoon when we arrived here, so we didn’t have much time to do anything other than pop into a couple of the shops.  I can honestly say that we’ve done our best to stimulate the economy of Nova Scotia!!

Day 8:  Halifax

This is the longest vacation I’ve ever taken, and I have to confess that I’m getting tired and thinking of home.  Today was another rainy windy day for us, so we tried to find indoor activities in Halifax.  We spent some time in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which was quite interesting.  They have a special exhibit about the Titanic, as Halifax is where many of the victims were brought as they were recovered from the sea. 

We also got to tour the Acadia, a ship that was used for chart making   for 56 years in the northern waters.

 

 

 

 

 

We learned that Halifax has the second largest natural harbor in the world.  It was carved out by glaciers, and because there is no sand anywhere, it does not have to be dredged like many harbors.  Do you know where the largest natural harbor is?

We then made our way down to the Farmer’s Market, where we had lunch, listened to live music, and watched the carving of a 664 pound pumpkin!

 

 

 

 

 

And remember when I mentioned the friendly people here?  One gentleman was selling peaches, and he had one cut up to encourage people to sample it.  As it was quite tasty, I asked if we could purchase only one or two, not a container full.  He said “No, but I could give you one”, and then proceeded to look for two peaches that were ripe for eating right away.  Nice!

As the rain and wind continued to worsen, we decided to call it a day, and return to the hotel.  We got a chance to read, and dh took a little snooze.  He continues to be just fine, with no ill effects of his little episode a couple of weeks ago.

On the road again tomorrow…….Sunny

More Cape Breton

Day 6:  More of the Same

Much of today was spent travelling rather than sight-seeing, but we did manage to get a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

A couple of food highlights from the day:  Bologna was one of the meat choices on the menu for breakfast this morning.  I’ve eaten bologna before, but I’ve never seen it on a menu.  It was very tasty, more meaty and flavorful than what I’ve had before.  And we had read about the Chowder Trail Passport before leaving home, and although we’ve sampled a lot of chowder in the past few days, restaurants on the Chowder Trail had eluded us.  Not so today.  We now have our passports, and our first stamps!  I highly recommend the chowder at the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou.

In closing, if you ever decide to visit Cape Breton, allow several days for your visit.  There are museums, galleries, artisans, hiking, whale watching, fabulous food, and awesome scenery.  We only sampled a tiny bit of what the area has to offer, and we’ve encountered the friendliest people!  I think I’ll try to get a job with the Chamber of Commerce.

Hope you’re enjoying your week as much as I am.  Sunny

My post was too big to post, so I had to do this separately.

Cape Breton!

Day 5:  the sun shines on us on the Cabot Trail

I took over 200 pictures today, so I’ll share just a few to entice you to come visit this very beautiful part of the world.  I’m using this as my scrapbook, so I won’t be offended if you move on without commenting for the next few days.  But come back eventually!

You knew there would be birds and lighthouses!  

Nova Scotia

If you’re here for stitchy news, come back next week.

Day 3:  Dinner with Sheila

Monday was a fun day.  We had a lot of miles kilometers to travel, so another early start was in order.  Up first on our itinerary was Fundy National Park.  But the fun started shortly before that, when we encountered a Moose!  He came charging out of the woods right in front of our car, and we had to hit the brakes hard!  He checked us out, walked a bit, checked us out again, trotted along the road for a bit, then bounded back into the woods.  What a thrill!!  Of course I had my camera handy.  And no, we did not get out of the car.

The drive through the Park was uneventful.  The next stop was Cape Enrage, and the enrage is for the wind!  there were gale force winds that day, and it was cold.

There’s a zip line there too, but it wasn’t operational that day.  Brrr…  I even had gloves on.

We also drove to another pretty little Lighthouse, and the scenery around it was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

Our final stop in New Brunswick was at Hopewell Rocks.  We are walking on the ocean floor in these pictures, and soon the tide will bring the water well over the heads of everyone down below.  The tide was coming in quickly, and I wish we could have stayed to see the rise, but we had important places to be.

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to race off to Nova Scotia, where we were meeting up with Sheila of Sheila’s Quilt World and her DH for dinner!  They met us right off the highway and led us to the restaurant, where we spent a lovely couple of hours chatting and getting to know them better.  Thank you Sheila and Bill for such a nice evening. 

I took this next picture sometime during the day, because I love Sheila’s header picture so much.  Without any sun, it’s not nearly as pretty as her picture.

Day 4:  Rain and Fog on The Cabot Trail

Today was our first day on Cape Breton, on the Cabot Trail.  The weather was rainy, drizzly, and foggy.  Getting there wasn’t a problem, but we soon decided that we were wasting our time, because we couldn’t see much other than fog.  We decided to call it a day, get rested up, and hopefully the weather would be better the next day. 

 

 

 

 

We did find a gift store nearby, so I was able to purchase a couple of books, and I was quite content.

Thanks for riding along with us . . . . .Sunny