Sackville to Moncton

We got an early start this morning and made a slight backtrack to Fort Beausejour, arriving before they opened. We toured the site for awhile until they opened the interpretive centre. We had heard of this fort at some of our previous stops. It is a much smaller and less elaborate site than many of the others we have seen. But it had an excellent collection of artifacts. Apparently, most of those on display were collected by a local historian who was the main advocate for designating the fort as a National Historic Site. These were items in excellent condition rather than old discarded items dug out of the ground. Many others were unearthed by archaeologists who finally excavated the site. There are about 3,000 more in storage.



It was a gray, but mild day. Rain held off at the fort, but we had light to moderate rain most of the rest of the day.



From the fort, we drove to Moncton. We began with a trip to the Moncton Market, which was humming on a Saturday. We had to sample some of the goodies offered for sale. From there we went for a walk along the river bank, eventually heading into the downtown for a walk down Main Street with our walking tour map. There were numerous interesting old buildings from the 1890s and earlier. This 1876 building reminded me of an old spinster tarted up to look like a hooker.

Having seen what we wanted to see, we decided to slip into an Irish pub for a beer. Their soup of the day was roasted red pepper, so we had to try that. Then we heard that there was a band coming, so we stayed through their first set ending at 5 pm. They played the typical Maritime happy times drinking music which we enjoyed very much. We got ourselves to our hotel at 6 and retired for the evening.

Speaking of Maritime music, both of us have had Barrett's Privateers buzzing around in our heads for about two weeks now. We heard it on the radio a couple of times and two or three times in souvenir shops. You can't escape it! We both like the song, but having it in our heads constantly for two weeks is getting a bit old. On rare occasions, we can squeeze it out for a short time with Farewell to Nova Scotia, but that gets old also. It would be better if we knew more than half a dozen words of each!

About Last Night

Last night we stayed at an Inn in Sackville. No big deal. Until Celeste found this glass framed signature by Queen Elizabeth, who stayed there in 1984. Nearby was a list of other notables who had stayed there, including author Pierre Berton, newspaperman Gordon Sinclair, artist Alex Colville, and journalist (and CBC president) Patrick Watson, among many others too numerous to mention. If we had known earlier, we would have taken more notice. It was built as a huge house in 1854 and converted to an inn sometime after 1895. It was a little weird though. It had these China dolls everywhere, including this three foot tall example in our room. There were many other odd decorating touches.

Cavendish to Sackville

Not much to report today. We didn't get started until 10:30 because I did the blog this morning. We have reached our free kilometre limit on our rental car and briefly thought about skipping our first stop. It is about 200 km more than going direct to the Confederation Bridge. But we decided we might as well see what we came to see.

We drove to the North Cape on the far northwest tip of PEI. There is a wind farm there that was highly recommended. They had an interpretive centre that explained the local history and nature as well as going into great detail about wind power. It was pretty interesting. I learned a few new things. Their long term goal is to use wind power to make hydrogen and then use the hydrogen in fuel cell storage devices to run vehicles and store power for when there is insufficient wind. A laudable goal, but there is a long way to go.

From there we drove to the bridge. We stopped at a little tourist village on the PEI side for a bite to eat and a couple of last minute PEI souvenirs. After crossing, we stopped and explored a bit to get a look at the bridge. We finally drove on to Sackville, because it is very close to our first stop tomorrow.

Temperature today was in the low 20s with a breeze and a mostly overcast sky. Not unpleasant, but not ideal either. It was a little cool in the wind.

Charlottetown to Cavendish

This is actually for Thursday, June 18. Today was a pretty busy day and, by the time we were settled in for the night, I was too tired to blog.



We started out at Province House, still in use as their provincial legislature. It was built in the 1840s and was the site of the original meetings in 1864 that led to confederation in 1867. In recent years, the building needed some restoration, so the federal government stepped in through Parks Canada. It is now run jointly as a National Historic Site and a functioning legislature. All of the second floor except the legislative chamber is either restored to 1860s appearance or interpretive displays. This might seem like a lot of space, but the building actually isn't that large. The legislative chamber is about the size of a city council chamber for a small city. Remember that the population of the whole province is under 150,000. Here is a picture of the chamber where the confederation meetings were held, including the original furnishings. They had an excellent interpretive film that gave the background to the confederation meetings and explained the positions of the parties entering into the discussions.



From there we went to Founders' Hall. This is a newer interpretive centre that focussed on the factors leading to confederation, but also dealt with how each province and territory entered into the deal. It was interesting to note that PEI had rejected confederation in 1867, partly because they would pay for, but didn't think they would benefit from, a railway joining Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to the rest of Canada. Ironically, they built their own railway across the province, driving them into bankruptcy, and prompting them to join Canada in 1873 in return for a bailout.



From there we toured around town a little bit. It is a very pretty town with numerous historic (meaning old) buildings. We bumped into John A. MacDonald on a park bench and I stopped to have a little chat with him about the events of the day.



Although there was lots more to see there, we had other places to go. We first went to another section of PEI National Park where we observed this erosion of the parking lot.

On our way to the next stop, we found this pretty scene. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do it justice. Because of the sun, I couldn't see it through the camera display and didn't see that it could have benefited greatly from cropping. Maybe I will do that another day.




We stopped at a place that was on the list of stops every tourist must make. PEI Preserves. It was obviously on the tour bus list, as there were a couple of them parked there when we arrived and the restaurant was full of gray hairs. (What do you mean we are gray hairs ourselves?) They make their own ice cream here, but their claim to fame is that they make home made preserves. I think they basically figured there was a need for a place for tour busses to feed their people and had to figure out an angle to attract them. While there, we ran into these two Scotts making a racket outside.

Next stop was the Anne of Green Gables House, another part of PEI National Park. It is a reconstruction of the original on the same property. Here is Celeste in front of the house.

They had a couple of pretty walking trails on the property, mimicing trails in the books. The site is surronded by a golf course, so every once in a while you pop out onto it.




From there we went down to the shore. Here is an eroded cliff near the beach.

Here are a few people on the beach. The previous cliffs are in the background. Although it was a beautiful day, we are still early in the season and there aren't too many people around yet. And the water is still pretty cold.


Here I am wading again. I got past my ankles this time. You get used to the cold after a while, but it would be pretty chilly for swimming.

Here is a picture of the mini-dunes that the wind forms on the beach.

We found a hotel around 5:30 and arrived at the Fisherman's Wharf lobster supper at 6. Carla had recommended we stop there. Good call Carla! They had a 60 foot salad bar to go with the lobster and unlimited seafood chowder and dessert. We were there until 7:30! It takes a long time to eat a lobster, you know.

Great weather today. About 25 degrees. The wind came up late in the day, making for a cooler evening.

Pictou to Charlottetown

We began today with a tour of a lobster hatchery run by the fishermen's association. When they catch a lobster bearing eggs, they give it to the hatchery. The hatchery raises the larvae until they are past their most vulnerable stages and have about a 1% chance of making it. Then they give the larvae back to the fishermen to dump in the ocean. Here is a female carrying eggs. If you look closely, you should be able to see them in her tail.

Next, we took a tour of the Hector. This was a transport ship that brought 179 Scottish settlers here in 1773. Although no trans-Atlantic trips were easy in those days, theirs was particularly difficult. They ran into a storm that blew them half way back across the ocean. It took two weeks to get back to where they were. They ran out of food. And they had an outbreak of smallpox which killed 18 people, mostly chidren. Their crossing took from July 8 to September 15. The community of Pictou had celebrated their landing for many years. In the 1980s, with the economy in recession, they won government support for an initiative to redevelop their harbourfront into a tourist area. One of the components was the building of a Hector replica. It began about 1990 and was completed about 2000. It was pretty interesting to go on board and see the primitive conditions and close quarters that the passengers and crew were forced to live in for 10 weeks.

Our ferry left at 11:45 for a 75 minute crossing to PEI. We had a bite from their cafeteria, but spent most of the trip on the upper deck. It was a great day, sunny and warm enough that the breeze was not uncomfortable in the morning and was most welcome in the afternoon. It reached a high of about 25 degrees today.

From the ferry, our first planned stop was a section of PEI National Park near the town of Greenwich. After we started on our planned route we got thinking, checked our paper map, and decided that we wanted to take a more direct route. We reconfigured Mabel, who told us to turn right on #205. You might think that would be a highway, but you would be wrong. It was comparable to a Saskatchewan secondary grid road, but with trees. Lots of trees. Anyway, it wasn't too far and there weren't any big mud holes, so we persevered and were soon back on a highway.

There wasn't much doubt about what people do here. Of course, the people near the coast are largely involved in fishing. But inland, it was very clear very quickly and it was reinforced around every corner that these people are farmers. Lots of potatoes, plus cattle and hay. The big differences are that the fields are much smaller and there are way more trees. It is a very green place.

We arrived at the park about 2:30 and took in the interpretive centre. We then went on one of their short hikes. The main feature of the park is the complex of sand dunes. Behind the dunes are freshwater ponds. One of the park highlights is a boardwalk across one of the ponds to the dunes, so we took that trail. It also went through a meadow and a stand of forest, so we passed through several eco systems in short order. I guess that's what parks are for.

From the dunes hike, we went to another spot for the beach hike. I figured I better at least get my feet wet. Boy, was it cold! Anything more than the feet would have had to be pretty quick. It grew tolerable after a while, but tolerable doesn't make for good swimming.

Another interesting observation today was the farming of mussels in the bay by the park. Someone told us the other day that 80% of the mussels (Sold in Canada? Exported from Canada? I can't remember.) come from PEI. When we drove to the park we observed thousands of buoys floating on the bay in rows. We learned in the interpretive centre that this is how they farm the mussels. They fill nylon nets about six feet long and three inches in diameter with "seed" mussels, suspend them from the buoys and grow them for one to two years. As a bonus, they grow bigger and better this way and are much easier to clean for market.

We left the park at 5:15 and found a hotel in Charlottetown about 6:30. We then went out for a bite to eat and a short walk.

Baddeck, Cabot Trail, to Pictou

All our advice was that the Cabot Trail took pretty much all day, and all our advice was right. We got on the road about 9:30 and completed the loop about 4. We stopped at several lookouts and beaches, but not all of them. We didn't take any of the hikes. To do it properly you should do at least a couple of short hikes and maybe take in a whale watching tour. But, there certainly were some pretty spots.



One interesting observation was the lobster fishing. There were thousand of floats near the shore, each one marking a lobster trap. There were dozens of boats checking their traps. You can see a couple of boats in the left foreground and, if you look carefully, there are at least four more far in the background. This scene was repeated over and over again during the day. It is amazing that there are any lobsters left!





From the Trail, we drove another 2.5 hours back to the mainland and on to Pictou, the departure point for the ferry to PEI.

From what we heard about other places, the temperature today may have been around 15 degrees, but it was probably the sunniest day we have had so far. There was hardly a cloud in the sky until late afternoon. Good thing for a scenic tour. We met an Austrian man on our coal mine tour who had done the Cabot Trail the day before and was quite disappointed that it was foggy the whole day.

Sydney to Baddeck

Yesterday's highlight actually came just before bedtime when we got a hold of Darren and Sue on Skype and got a look at our grandson, Justin. He sure is growing and maturing. Seems like forever since we saw him at Easter. We are sure looking forward to seeing him in July. Here is a picture Darren took earlier yesterday.



First stop today was the Miners' Museum in Glace Bay, just northeast of Sydney. They had a very interesting film about the labour conflict until 1925. Those miners had a tough life. The highlight, though, was a tour of a real mine. OK, it wasn't a real working mine. It was a mine that was specially dug for the museum in 1967. So it wasn't real extensive, but it was underground into a coal seam. In some places it was barely four feet high. That wasn't a problem for the school tour that came with us, but all the adults had to walk stooped over. Good thing they gave us hard hats. I knocked mine off against the ceiling twice. We had an excellent lunch there, splitting some seafood chowder and fish and chips. Then we were off to Baddeck.






In Baddeck, we took in the Alexander Graham Bell museum. Although it was very interesting, there wasn't much to take pictures of. It was a very pretty site with a park surrounding the museum. He came here once on vacation and liked it so much that he made it his summer home. It reminded him of his original home in Scotland. You can see why he liked it. It is a pretty little resort town in a pretty setting. One of the reasons Bell liked it was becasue it was cool here and he didn't like the heat. Could be warmer for me though. It was here that Bell and a group of associates engineered Canada's first powered flight in 1909. Because this is the 100th anniversary, there is an air show later this week. We were in the museum and heard the loud roar of a jet airplane flying low a couple of times. Finally, we went outside with a bunch of other patrons and observred an F18 practising his routine. That was an unexpected treat.








After the Bell museum we cruised around for quite a while half exploring and half searching for a place to stay. We finally settled on an old place right in the centre of town and checked in about 7. The attendant told us it was 150 years old and that Alexander Graham Bell had stayed there when he first came to Baddeck. (I bet they all say that!) It was very nicely updated and had a nice view of Bras d'Or lake - if you could look past the backs of the buildings in the foreground.








The desk person told us that the special in the restaurant was a lobster supper for $18.50. Although we were not very hungry, we decided after much debate that we just could not pass it up. What a great decision! Lobster, baked potato, cooked carrots, more cooked vegetables, and more than a dozen mussels (probably 18 - we didn't think to count in time). And it was all very well prepared. A great meal.







Since we weren't hungry in the first place, we really needed a walk when we were done. We explored the waterfront and found Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel down there, so I joined them for a chat.







Weather was sunny today, but not particularly warm, a few degrees shy of 20.

Louisbourg

Today was all Louisbourg, all day. Weather was overcast, cool, and windy again, with a forecast high of 15. It stayed overcast all day until we got a couple of short sunny breaks in late afternoon, but, at the same time we were surrounded by fog that had rolled in.




Here is a view of the town and the main harbour gate from a bastion near the entrance. The British blew up the fort after capturing it a second time in a second war and apparently coming to the conclusion that they didn't want to have to capture it again. The site was unused for about 200 years when the federal and provincial governments decided to rebuild it as a historical site and, admittedly, as a make work project for steel workers and coal miners losing their jobs in the nearby mill and mines. They have reconstructed about one quarter of the site. In addition to furnishing many of the buildings to demonstrate their use, there are also many exhibits explaining the history of the fort, the archaeological research into its past, and its restoration.




Many locals play the parts of soldiers and citizens, explaining the function of the building they represent and their duties and daily life experiences. Like, many of the other places we have seen, many are students and some work for a little over four months and go on employment insurance for the rest of the year.




They try to remain authentic in every way possible, including their restaurant meals. Selection was pretty limited. We had soup and a turkey pie with cooked carrots as turnips, as root vegetables were their primary crops. The meal was served on a pewter plate with only a pewter spoon to eat it with, and a giant bib to tuck in at the neck to recreate how meals were eaten during this time period.

Fishing for export was the main, and almost only, business of the town.

We were there on Corpus Christi Sunday, which is apparently one of the biggest feasts of the Acadians. They had a special Mass in the chapel in the Governor's residence followed by a procession through the town down to the harbour.


We were there shortly after the 9:30 opening and closed the place up at 5. It was about a half hour drive back to Sydney. We got a bite to eat, then cruised around exploring and returned to the hotel just before 7.