Recommendations Taken

On my second full day on Cape Breton Island, I decided to take some recommendations from the people with whom I dined with for breakfast, and from Jane, the owner of the B&B. It was fun but there was a lot of driving. When you look at a map, it doesn't look like things should be so far away, but this is a larger island than it looks! And there is water EVERYWHERE! To the right, to the left, in front of, and behind . . . the Atlantic ocean, Bras d'Or Lake, bays, rivers, and other lakes. The trees are so green and the water is so blue.

One of the other guests here at the B&B picked up some beach glass at a beach that I'm not even sure had a name. It was definitely out of the way. I actually encountered a large pothole full of water (water everywhere!) and made the decision to zoom through the side of it. It worked! I got through.

I did not find one piece of beach glass, except some recently broken beer bottles, but I did find lots of shells and some of nature's most beautiful beach art.

These were fascinating - very thin rocks kind of sandwiched in-between a couple of boulders.

Most of the beach was rocks, large and small, and a ton of squishy seaweed. I sunk down to my ankles more than once. Eeeewww!

I walked out on these rocks as far as I could. Ran out of rock!

Beautiful view.

The co-owner / chef at The Lobster Pound learned that I liked lighthouses so he told me how to get to one that was not on my list. "Drive to the Seal Island bridge, but don't cross it. Pull off to the side of the road, run across the highway quickly, find the unmarked dirt path, follow it and you will come to McNeil Beach Lighthouse." I was up for the challenge. I only thought about backing out one or two or three times, as I was basically walking through the woods by myself.

I came to the end of the trail, which was directly under the Seal Island bridge, but I saw NO lighthouse! Darn. Climb back up the path, and as soon as I started crossing the bridge I looked over to my left and there it was, and it was pretty. I couldn't pull off onto the side of the bridge, and since it was a major highway, everyone was driving super fast. I had to get to the other side until I could get any kind of view of the lighthouse.

It is to the right of the bridge. Pretty bridge, huh? More water!

Here's a picture I found on the Internet. Pretty little lighthouse. 

Later I found out that it's on an island (go figure) - Boularderie Island.

I thought I was on the mainland!

On the recommendation of Jane (B&B), I drove to the Gaelic College, which was real close to the Seal Island bridge. The Gaelic College is in St. Ann's. Colaisde na Gàidhlig is first and foremost an educational non-profit institution, offering year-round programming in the culture, music, language, crafts, customs, and traditions of the immigrants from the Highlands of Scotland. Currently, students are able to choose to study from over ten traditional arts, including Cape Breton fiddle, piano, guitar, step-dancing, and piping, highland dancing, weaving, and of course Gaelic language. The only institution of its kind in North America, students of all ages and skill levels visit the College every year to study under some of the finest instructors in Nova Scotia Gaelic culture. 

I love all things Scottish, so it was worth the visit. AND, I got there in time to witness my first ceilidh. How do you pronounce it and what is it? Pronunciation: Kay-lee. Not at all how it looks like it should be pronounced. What an incredibly difficult language to learn. What is it? It's a "visit," a party, gathering, or the like, at which dancing, singing, and storytelling are the usual forms of   entertainment. We got to hear a bagpiper, piano, fiddle as well as watch some dancing and listen to some singing. I'm thinking that if more people would do this kind of "visit" with their friends and neighbors worldwide, we'd have more people find peace and happiness.

This hall is an exhibit on the Scottish people and their culture - music, language, weaving, etc.

All of the halls serve at least two purposes, one of those purposes being dorm rooms.

Love these "washroom" signs.

My first ceilidh! Toe-tapping fun!

Onward down the road, well, quite a ways (thank goodness for GPS and Google Maps), I ended up in Baddeck. This is a fun little village, totally designed for tourists. Lots of quaint hotels and bed & breakfast establishments, some fun shops, a marina, a yacht club (so unpretentious), and restaurants. AND, a lighthouse.

Kidston Light from land.

The village of Baddeck from the end of the wharf.

Kidston Light from the water.

Jane (B&B) recommended that I try and take a sail on the Ameoba so I went to the end of the wharf where they dock. I had just missed the 2:30 sailing, so I waited around - had a lobster lunch - and went back down to catch the 4:30 sail. Well, the 4:30 sail was a private sail, for a tour company, so I was super disappointed. But, one passenger did not show up, so I made it on to the boat! $25 to take a 90 minute sail around Kidston Island and to view Alexander Graham Bell's property and the house in which he lived.

Our pirate captain taking on another pirate captain!

Watching a bald eagle come scoop up some food we threw out into the water,

On Bell's property - a reading room with a westerly view for a great sunset.

Alexander Graham Bell's home. He was born in Scotland, moved to Boston, did not like the heat of Boston, and moved to Cape Breton / Nova Scotia. This house is still in the family and a granddaughter was recently living there. The owner of National Geographic also lives on the property.

Having a good time with a group of very elderly tourists.

I have been having a odd feeling not being able to see the sunset into the water. It feels backwards. Oh, and I just learned on this day that I'm not in the Eastern time zone but in the Atlantic time zone, which is four hours difference from home. Been here three days and did not know that!

Anyway, I went in search of a sunset and found it, where else, at a lighthouse! It took me a little over an hour to get from Baddeck to New Waterford, but it was worth it.

Low Point Lighthouse - one that actually had a working light!

Aaaah! A sunset into the ocean.

Gastrocation!!

I knew I was going to love the food on this trip because I'm on the coast and I love seafood. And the food has been delicious. BUT, I will say, I am missing my dungeness crab and my lighter fare of seafood. Eating out is SO rich and decadent!

My first true lobster was at Bells Buoy at the Baddeck marina. It was really yummy, but I have decided that you don't get as much meat for the money as you do with dungeness crab. Lobster meat is good, especially dipped in melted butter, but dungeness crab is better, sweeter. And a really good crab can be eaten without butter! It's that good. At this restaurant I had an almost view of Kidston Lighthouse. A tree was in my way.

This next trio of delights was eaten at The Lobster Pound and Moore, which is right down the street from my B&B in North Sydney. I went there on Saturday night and they were booked solid until closing. So I called before ever even leaving the parking lot and made reservations for Sunday dinner. It was more than dinner - it was an experience! 

If it weren't for the restaurant sign out on the road, you would not know the restaurant was even there. As it is, it has only about 8 tables, maybe 10?? No wonder they book up and you have to make a reservation. The food looks quite fancy, but it is an incredibly unpretentious kind of place. I ordered the fried lobster wontons for an appetizer and they were so good. I had the blackened halibut with a shrimp pistachio compound butter with veggies and basmati rice. Come to find out, one of the co-owners, Leslie, was my server, and her husband, Richard Moore, was the chef. He actually came out and talked to me and brought me a couple of free surprises - a very yummy casear salad and the world's smallest bowl of lobster chowder. He just kept bringing me stuff and asking me how everything was tasting. He asked where I was from and how long I was staying, and then told me about a little lighthouse that was NOT on my list and how to find it. I forgot to take a picture of the creme brulee I had for dessert because I ate it so fast. Richard delivered it to me and torched it at my table. Oh, and the vegetables were picked from their friend's farm that morning. They are closed Monday and Tuesday, so I barely made it in! I learned that Richard is not a culinary-trained chef . . . he just has the talent. And the presentation is beautiful!

I've only had breakfast here at the B&B once so far. The first morning I was still dealing with the time difference, so I didn't get up in time. The second morning I did and we had a lovely breakfast of fruit, yogurt, button scallops seared in butter, an omelet and Canadian bacon. Wonder what's up for tomorrow? Jane, the proprietor, told me to help myself to the fridge whenever I needed to eat if I wasn't going to make breakfast. I've had yogurt in the car once. I also had cold fried chicken from a small grocery store on the way home last night because I just wanted to get home and couldn't find a place to eat.

I've eaten at the Black Spoon Bistro twice, my first night in town and tonight (Tuesday), my last night in town. I must have been so involved in eating my yummy food that I forgot to take any pictures.

Again, it's a small restaurant, but they do take walk-ins. I only had to wait about 10 minutes the first night, and I got right in tonight, just before it got busy. The first night I had scallop carbonara, which was to die for, and extremely rich and filling. I ate myself to a stomach ache. But who wouldn't eat a whole plate of pasta in the richest creme sauce, full of scallops and bacon, topped with bacon wrapped scallops?! So good! I was so full! Tonight I had the special which was linguine with shrimp and scallops in a sundried tomato sauce. I asked for a substitute of alfredo sauce, and it was the same sauce from the other dinner, which was just fine with me. For dessert I had a caramel crunch cake with whipped cream. As absolutely as good as it was, I could not eat the last two or three bites. So GOOD!

When out on the Cabot Trail, there are a lot of little diners, drive-ins and dives, and the guide I was with had a favorite in Pleasant Bay called Mountain View Restaurant. It was a diner and the guide liked it because they named their fish sandwich after him - The Harry Burger. This is where I experienced my first lobster roll!

As I finish this post, I'm on the ferry to Prince Edward Island and it's quite a nice ferry. I'm having a "cold plate" which consists of deli meats, potato salad, coleslaw, cheese, cucumbers and tomatoes. Fresh!  More good food to come, I'm sure!

Cape Breton - Fortress of Louisbourg

I should know better than to try and blog each day of my vacation. I go, go, go all day long and come home so tired. I barely have the energy to look through all my pictures, edit and delete, and maybe get some posted on Facebook. But it requires too much energy to actually write about the day. Besides, I want to crawl in this nice comfy bed and read my book, like one should when one is on vacation.

I'll try putting some thoughts together in some kind of chronological order.

Here is a picture of the B&B - "A Boat to Sea" from the water looking up at it. It really is wonderful. The front porch is so inviting, and it leads to a wrap-around-to-the-the back deck that is off the dining room area. I would stay here again.

Off to find a lighthouse. This is the Louisbourg Lighthouse and it was the first lighthouse built in Canada, and the second one built in North America. Loved the winding, pot-holed, narrow road to get up to it!

Across the bay is the Fortress of Louisbourg. Imagine English and French

warships in this bay!

I don't know if you can see them or not, but there are two bright red

Adirondack chairs just sitting up there, empty, enjoying the view.

I learned a lot about Nova Scotia / Cape Breton history while visiting the Fortress of Louisbourg. The fortress is a National Historic Site of Canada and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton. Its two sieges, especially that of 1758, were turning points in the Anglo-French struggle for what today is Canada. It was hard keeping track of who owned it - the French, the English, the French, the English. I did learn that a fortress is different from a fort because a fortress encompasses the whole town, people's homes and shops, etc. A fort is just the military.

New things I learned: 

• the Mi'kmaw were/are the people that were indigenous to Canada's Atlantic Provinces. Basically, the native North Americans who lived in this area first.
• then there were the Acadians, the first European (French) settlers to arrive in this area. The Acadians are proud of their heritage as two Acadians that I met on this trip told me, proudly, the they are of Acadian ancestry. 
• In 1775, the Acadians were deported. Tension and mistrust arising from the war between New France and 13 English colonies led to their expulsion from this area. The British thought the Acadians were a threat to appropriation of land. The Acadians who ended up down in the southern part of the US are today known as "cajuns." Did not know that!
• There were wars between France and England for ownership of the area - everybody wanted the land. England was the last to call it theirs, and when they left, they blew up the fortress.
• Over 700,000 documents were found in France and that is how they have been able to recreate the Fortress of Louisbourg.

A woman demonstrating how to make bobbin lace. Very intricate.

On February 24, 2015, Nova Scotia's Authentic Seacoast Distilling Company Ltd., together with Parks Canada and Fortress Louisbourg Association, unveiled its new brand for the rum that has been patiently maturing in oak barrels in the Magazin du Roi at Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site since its arrival last September. Fortress Rum, the first rum to be matured onsite in almost 300 years, is sold in traditional bottles and sealed in wax, capturing the authentic spirit of New France’s historic rum trade.

In the 18th century, Louisbourg was one of North America's busiest seaports and France's centre of trade and military strength in the New World. Caribbean rum was a major trading good of the times. It was brought ashore in large oak casks through the Frédéric Gate and rolled into storehouses.

It was definitely fun to see the people working at the Fortress dressed up in period clothing, doing things that would have been done in the time of the French Fortress, including having a tourist dress up as a prisoner and walk the walk of shame to the stocks. Great place to visit. Plan on spending several hours there to learn and watch demonstrations. My GPS took me to the unauthorized road, so the directions should be to go to the Visitor's Centre first and then take a bus down to the fortress.

Here are some other pictures from this day. The clouds were sometimes ominous and sometimes just white and fluffy, but always interesting to watch against the blue sky.

This is the village of Louisbourg as seen from the road leading

up to the lighthouse. Just below, Village of Louisbourg.

I don't know what it is about me and cemetery's, but I find them fascinating - 

the older the better. I liked this one because of its proximity to the 

water. This was one of many I saw within a 3-day period.

Difference between a cemetery and a graveyard?

Graveyards are always right next to a church; cemetery's are not.

The little leaning cross on the far right says "Infant Leo Burke."  So sad.

Turkeys, geese, chickens and sheep were just some of the animals

on display in the fortress, as they would have been back in the 18th century.

East Coast Canadian Adventure - Day One

The most common question I've been asked: "Why eastern Canada?" I guess I could answer, "Because it's there." Back in college someone mentioned an island called Prince Edward Island and I'd have to say that I had never heard of it before that time. I looked it up on a map and found it to be a small island in eastern Canada and thought, that would be kind of interesting to visit. And, so I'm on that adventure.

Yesterday was a travel day, on the plane. Long flight across the country. I arrived in Halifax last night and stay at a horrible hotel - Quality Inn Halifax Airport. It was right next to a race car track and a sewage plant. I ordered a chicken caesar salad from the restaurant (they didn't do room service), and it cost me about $20 Canadian for what I considered to be a small salad. The chicken was like chicken jerkey - gross. I ate for sustenance and then slept.

This morning I got in my little rental car and drove from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to North Sydney, Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton Island. Long day of driving, but very beautiful scenery. It's very green here and if you are not looking at some tributary or inlet, there's always a beautiful blue lake. I drove along Bras d'Or Lake for quite awhile today. Huge lake, very pretty. 

Nova Scotia means 'New Scotland' in Latin and you wouldn't believe all the signs! The name of the community or area of a community would be on the top of the sign and the same name, but in Gaelic, would be underneath it. Lots of words I couldn't pronounce, but one street name I really liked - Jimmy Gillis Street. So Scottish! Lots of Scottish names - MacIntyre Mountain Road, Glennora, MacMaster Street, etc. 

I'm staying in a lovely bed & breakfast called 'A Boat to Sea.' I'm sitting on the couch by my open bedroom window which looks out over the north arm of an Atlantic sea inlet. Across the arm is Sydney, where the cruise ships dock. But just about one mile north of where I'm at is the Newfoundland Ferry terminal. Cape Breton Island is very close to Newfoundland, but the town where the huge ferry docks is about a seven hour ferry ride. Oh well, next time.

Part of the reason it was such a long driving day, is I did a two-hour, round trip, in the opposite direction drive to see Canada's most photographed lighthouse. Peggy's Cove Lighthouse. One of the coolest things about this lighthouse is the rocky landscape. It seems to go one forever, with signs posted every so often to be very diligent about staying off the black rocks and to always be aware of the possibility of rogue waves.  It's hard to get a picture of the lighthouse without people in the picture, but one time I turned around and . . . 

I didn't get much of the rocky landscape in this one, but I couldn't believe there were no people standing around it. I really do like the rocky coastline. My pictures don't do it justice.

  

I loved the little community of Peggy's Cove. There were cute little artisan shops and a bakery and cute little houses, surrounded by lobster traps. I learned today that lobstering season is officially over, so that's probably why all the traps were stacked on land. Makes for a quaint little fishing town.

Peggy's Cove. The lighthouse is behind me.

After spending a few minutes here, I had to get back on the road. I was anxious to get to Cape Breton and it ended up taking longer than I thought. By the time I arrived, my empty-gas-tank light was flashing at my quite angrily. I was praying for about the last 30 miles that I would make it and not run out of gas!

There is a causeway - Canso Causeway - that allows you to drive from the mainland of Nova Scotia to Cape Breton Island. The only time I ran into more than one or two cars at a time while driving was on the causeway. We were at a standstill for a few minutes. Not sure what that was about.

This is the picture I took from the ground, heading over the causeway,

and below is a picture I found on the internet.

Mainland Nova Scotia is at top of picture; Cape Breton Island at bottom.

I made it to North Sydney on fumes and a prayer, and thank goodness didn't get lost trying to find the B&B. I met the proprietor, she showed me to my room, I went out for dinner and now I'm ready for bed. Who knew driving was so exhausting?!

A Boat to Sea Bed & Breakfast

The view from my bedroom window. Very calming. 

Can't wait to check out the gardens tomorrow!