Home is beckoning…

 Well my friends the time has come to trim our sails, adjust our course and prepare for returning to our home port.  We fly out tomorrow morning with suitcases stuffed to the brim (they certainly aren’t any lighter), somewhat weary legs (from exploring museums, historical sites, trails and beaches) and heads filled with the sights, sounds, stories, friends new and old… and memories of a wonderful exploration of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (at least as much as we could see in 28 days and 3000 kilometres). Our photos abound and we have been openly accepted and welcomed at every stop and points in between. We feel blessed to be Canadian (recognizing that even we Canadians haven’t set the most honourable standards at times in our history).

J

Gastronomically we have outdone ourselves. From lobster dinners fit for royalty to seafood chowders - the likes of which we had only dreamed of, we could not have asked for more. In fact (sadly) our newly expanded waistlines stand testament to our gluttony. We have some serious adjustments to make once we get home :-)

We will be returning to the west coast with a more educated respect for the people who first carved out a new life in the wild wilderness of the east coast and their descendants who continue to work with and protect the natural gifts (and challenges) delivered by Mother Nature. 

We’ll also be fighting the temptation to install miniature light houses at the bottom of our driveway, hanging colourful wooden lobster trap floats in our trees and painting our house yellow, or blue, or aquamarine with white trim. And, we’ll likely spend the rest of our life trying to create trim lawns that match the beautiful lush green of almost every where in Cape Breton. Oh, and we’re determined to dust off our bodhran and learn how to play it.

This has been an adventure we shall not easily forget. Thank you for joining us as we explored our Maritime provinces.  We hope you enjoyed the journey. We wish all of you the best and hope your own adventures unfold smoothly and with delight.

CJ and Kathy

Bread & Roses, Annapolis Royal

Our journey through the Maritimes is winding down. We arrived back in Halifax yesterday (Wed) and are staying in Trish's mom's building's guest suite until we leave on the 30th. We have driven over 3000 kms and over-nighted in 13 locations; almost all were quite acceptable. Some were exquisite and the Bread & Roses was pretty much the best. Built in the 1880's, it is a beautifully kept heritage property. Jodie and Mark have called it home for just over 9 months and are doing a great job with it. The photos below will speak for themselves. We were there for two nights and enjoyed lounging in the peaceful quiet, complete with all period furnishings. It was like stepping back into the 1800's with the only thing missing, the sound of 'horse and buggy' on the street out front.

As usual with the older Inns, there was no elevator but the stairs in this inn were easier than most having been designed for comfortable climbing with shorter treads. Breakfast was a treat too; eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, English muffins, OJ, coffee or tea. It was lovely and all served with a smile and easy conversation.

We've stayed in several inns of this era, all quite beautiful and well appointed. The Bread and Roses takes the blue ribbon. They even sent us off with a "please write and let us know you get home safely" and a hug.
>
> We were greeted by Liam, the dog of the manor. What a beautiful historic place this is!

Bread & Roses… the place

Music for the Soul

As it happened, we arrived at our Inn located in historic downtown Chatlottetown, just in time.  After checking in and parking our car, we were able to pop down to  The Old Triangle Irish Alehouse, for a bit of lunch, a pint of Irish ale and a couple hours of delightful celtic music. 

The pub's tagline is 

'FOOD FOR THE BODY, 

    DRINK FOR THE SPIRIT and 

          MUSIC FOR THE SOUL' 

and we enjoyed all three. 

One of the regular customers gave us his table as he was leaving and it turned out to be the best in the house.  It was an informal jam session and the musicians came and went as it suited them. The atmosphere was casual and friendly and I had a chance to chat with one of the bodhran players who, at one point, offered me his drum to play.  (I wisely declined. While I actually own one of these, I have barely more than a clue how to play it!). 

Here's a short clip, to give you a taste.  Enjoy the toe-tapping tune,

Kathy

The amazing east coast… and a tragedy in Coquitlam.

Yes; the natural beauty, the tidy and colourful homes and the people of these Maritime provinces… well, it's all quite wonderful. We have been very impressed by what we have, and are, seeing and experiencing. There's so much to tell I'm not sure where to begin so, instead, I will tell you we are well and continuing to enjoy our trip. We're just starting our last week before heading home. These past few days in Souris and North Lake have been filled with research and meet-ups with members of the Beaton family (all related to Kathy's mom) and we've enjoyed miles of driving tours through beautiful countryside and starkly rugged red cliffs and beaches. Tomorrow we head to Charlottetown (hopefully via a walk on Cavendish Beach) where we will spend the afternoon on a self-guided tour. Then we will head south; driving across the Confederation Bridge and heading to Wolfville for a couple days before moving over to Halifax.

As for yesterdays tragedy… I ask that you take a moment to consider the lives and families of those folks who put their life on the line, every day they go to work, so that you and I can live our own lives in relative safety. Please say a prayer, in what ever form you choose, for the family of Constable Rick O'Brien. Rick lost his life yesterday serving the citizens of Coquitlam BC. May he rest In peace and may his fellow officers, also injured, make a full recovery. Thank you to all first line responders who serve on our behalf.

Rain? What rain? I can’t see a thing.

So there you are, hurtling through space (except you're on a highway in a strange to you country (Nova Scotia) in your, new to you, little red rental 'sports car'. It's not really a sports car (it's a Hyundai) but it has a roaring six cylinder in it and you've had occasion to prove it can go from 0 to 80 in a matter of seconds (desperate times call for desperate measures).

But today is different. The highway lanes are narrow and the traffic is moderate. The speed limit is 100 kmh and most of the drivers think that's what they're supposed to be doing, even though it's bucketing down with the heaviest rain I've seen. So, back to where I (not you this time) was hurtling along the highway. I was only doing 80 or 90 (trying to stay out of the way of the lunatics) which was plenty fast enough for the conditions. We were doing Ok until a couple things happened at once. First, I realized there was a structural problem with the highway. Ruts had formed where the car tires tracked; ruts deep enough to collect a lot of water - enough water to cause cars to lose steerage and deep enough to set off waterfalls of water that flew up and over, landing on the windshield of the following vehicle. THAT's when control of the car became a problem. But the last straw was when the rain was coming down so hard the windshield wipers, on their fastest speed, couldn't clear the window. I couldn't even see my own hood. And THAT's when I slowed down even more and bailed off the highway onto a back road before something worse happened. Time, lives, whatever… are not worth the pace.

The last hour of todays drive was along a beautiful country road, decorated on both sides by colourful Nova Scotian homes sitting pretty on rolling, lush, green, freshly mowed lawns that went on for acres. That’s when the rain backed off and the sun began to peek out … and we crept into Antigonish, our destination for the day. We arrived in one piece with a shiny clean car, exhausted. Tomorrow's a new day and a much shorter (hopefully drier) drive to Pictou. Hope all is well with each of you and your highways don't have ruts. CJ

A quick note

Just a quick note to remind those of you who are receiving the blog posts by email… don't forget to click on the 'read more' button and move yourself to the actual blog where the photos and colours are much better. Thanks. This is the third of three posts sent out this morning. Enjoy.
PS: the ‘best’ view of the blog post is on your computer or iPad :-)