Our Excellent Eastern Canada Adventure – Part 2

Emergencies Really Do Happen

Day 2 of our Eastern Canada Excellent Adventure started out like any other but by the time it was over would stand out as one that we would be talking about for some time to come. The good news is that due to me following my own travel planning advice, things could have turned out a lot worse.
We had started off our first full day in Halifax like most other days that we had in a new city – we had planned to explore parts of the city and see first what it had to offer. The weather continued to be sunny and warm and all in all we really couldn’t have asked for any better weather so far. Good weather can really be stretched a bit thin if good weather turns into hot weather then all of a sudden walking around a city in the sun becomes a real labour.

So here we were walking around the Halifax and we had just spent a bit of time walking around this really great park called the Halifax Public Gardens in the middle of Halifax when we decided to go and get some lunch.

Before I forget I had to say that all four of us couldn’t help but remember that the Public Gardens park in Halifax reminded us all of walking through a very similar looking park in Rome called the Bourghesi Gardens. There was a similar looking lake in the middle of both parks and if there had been row-boats for rent in the one in Halifax (like we did in Rome) it would have been a dead ringer.

Anyway, back to my story about the big emergency. So we had this really great lunch at this restaurant called the Economy Shoe Shop in Halifax (where I should note that Peter and I both had a fantastic bouillabaisse lunch) and we were on our way back to the harbour area to visit the Maritime Museum when I happened to notice that my glasses were missing.

I happened to be wearing my (prescription) sunglasses at the time and raced back to the restaurant to try and find my regular glasses but in the end it was never to be found.

So let me lay it all out so that the situation is clear to everyone. It’s about 2PM on a Saturday and we’re going to be leaving Halifax the next morning to continue our driving trip. Most stores are probably going to be closed in a few hours. Oh, and by the way, I was planning on doing the majority of the driving on this trip.

Let me fast forward a few hours and say that due to the fact that we always carry our lens prescriptions with us on our trips, I was able to find a optical store open (with the help of the people at our hotel), find a new set of frames that I liked at that store and get them made in less than 2½ hours.

Emergency averted. Excellent Adventure status: normal.

It’s now day 3 and we’re making an early departure out of Halifax after our two day stay. For the first time we’re experiencing cloudy weather and slightly cooler (about 16 degrees) but of course it’s only 9AM when we reach our 2nd destination at which we will only stay a few hours: Peggy’s Cove.

Peggy’s Cove is one of those postcard perfect towns that you will see a dozen tour buses in the parking lot. It’s probably one of the biggest must-see destinations in Eastern Canada – at least that’s what we have been told and have read in virtually every travel source that we got our hands on. Of course the main attraction is the lighthouse on the rocks and the brightly coloured houses in this tiny village, you’ll need to bring your thesaurus to Peggy’s Cove because you’ll need several ways to say charming to describe the place.

Personally I thought that Peggy’s Cove was a bit overrated and it was pretty nice to see the lighthouse and everything but if you’re in the area and Peggy’s Cover isn’t on the way to your next destination and you decide to skip it you probably won’t regret it. I realize that the Nova Scotia Tourism Board is probably gasping in horror right now but I’ve got to speak my mind here.

Just wait until we get to Prince Edward Island and I tell you about Anne of Green Gables.

After we had spent a few hours in Peggy’s Cove, we started to drive west around St. Margarets Bay (where Peggy’s Cove is at the south east corner) and headed to our next destination of Hubbards.

The only reason that Hubbards was on our itinerary was that a friend of Peter and Liz’s lived there and we had planned to go visit her. Lynn had arranged for us to go for a boat ride around St. Margarets Bay as a friend of hers happened to have this fishing boat that he used for such excursions.

I should point out that by this time in the day the clouds had all but disappeared and the sun was coming out just as we were pulling away from the dock into St. Margarets Bay. It turned out to be a spectacular day and it really couldn’t have been better that to be out on the water during for those few hours.

Barb and I recalled a few weeks back when Peter and Liz first brought up the suggestion of going on the boat ride with Lynn and Barb and I had looked at each other and thought the very same thing. We though about how badly things turned out the last time we were dumb enough to go on a boat in Hawaii about 7 years ago.

How that excursion started out was that we had booked a boat trip to “swim with the dolphins” when we were on the island of Kawaii. It all sounded so idyllic but the 10 foot waves put a small dent in those plans and Barb and I swore never to ever get on a boat again.

Somehow the memory of that boat trip in Hawaii seemed to be quickly forgotten as we were motoring over the gentle waves in St. Margarets Bay in the warm sunshine.

After leaving Hubbards and continuing to head west, we made our way to the next stop on our trip which is the small town of Lunenburg.

Lunenburg is famous as a shipbuilding town and in particular the place where the famous sailing ship the Bluenose was built. For Canadians, the Bluenose is mostly known as the ship that is on our 10 cent coin. In the harbour at Lunenburg there is a replica of the Bluenose called the Bluenose II which happens to be a real working ship.

We arrived in Lunenburg at around 5:00 and wanted to explore as much of the town as possible while there was still sunlight available. It being late afternoon on a Sunday, many of the stores in Lunenburg were closed which is too bad as most of them were sailing related and seemed to be offering an interesting array of product from which to browse. We’re all anxious to resume our exploration of the town tomorrow morning when everything is open up again.

To me, a place like Lunenburg is far more worthy of my time being spent than a place like Peggy’s Cove. The history of what Lunenburg is all about is and it’s importance to our maritime past to me is far more fascinating and I look forward to spending another day in Lunenburg tomorrow.

One of my favourite references to the original Bluenose is the CBC Heritage Minutes about the Bluenose which has been on TV for several years.

Hitting the Cabot Trail

It’s day 5 now and we have travelled over 500 km since leaving Lunenburg yesterday morning. After leaving Lunenburg we headed north and east and after a few hours of driving stayed the night in a small town called Stellarton. The small motel that we stayed at in Stellarton was the kind of place that you have a view of the highway from your window in your room. The view from the back of the motel kind of reminded me of an open strip mine but without all of the cool big trucks with tires that are 10 feet high. Nonetheless, the rooms were clean and we had a decent dinner and breakfast there.

We were heading up to Cape Breton Island and it was our intent to take the Cabot Trail around part of the Island before heading south again on our way to Prince Edward Island tomorrow.

During much of the drive in the last two days we have seen a lot of the province of Nova Scotia and driven a lot of miles. So far the weather has been fairly agreeable and it was only today around 5PM that we started to get a bit of rain but we have also seen a lot of sun today as well. The temperatures have dropped to about 10-12 degrees since we have reached Cape Breton Island and the winds have noticeably picked up.

The drive through most of Cape Breton through the Cabot Trail has been very picturesque and between Peter and I we have easily taken about 75-100 pictures today alone.

The current part of our trip with a lot of driving is quite different from the first 2-3 days where there was very little driving and much more staying in one spot for a few days. However, until we reach PEI tomorrow (where we will stay for 3 days), driving for at least 6-7 hours a day will be more the norm for us with only 2 more stops of more than one night before we reach Montreal in about 2 1/2 weeks.

No matter how you describe it, the road trip has really started!

Baden