Aug. 24-26 Exploring the North Shore of NS

"Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking in the moment and making the best of it." -Gilda Radner

We decided not to find another place in Halifax, so we drove towards the north coast. We spent the night in Truro. It's at the head of Cobequid Bay where you can see the tidal bore several times a day. This phenomena is produced by the huge tidal change in the Bay of Fundy. Unfortunately our timing didn't allow us to see this again. We experienced it on our New Brunswick trip in 2019. 

After breakfast on Wednesday we hiked a few trails in Victoria Park. It's a piece of wilderness right in Truro. Like Ithaca it has a gorge and provides a beautiful place to get away from the hectic world. 

From Truro we headed west. Our next stop was a little town of Wolfville. This area of Nova Scotia looks a lot like the Finger Lake region of New York. With rolling hills, farms and fields full of apple and plum trees, raspberries, blueberries, corn and grapes. We wandered around town and had lunch at the Church Brewing Co. It's located in a beautiful old Presbyterian Church. It's also at the epicenter of Nova Scotia's burgeoning wine scene, with eight wineries located within 10 km of the town's center. All the cute inns were full so we found a hotel outside the small town of New Minas. 

Stan had the Heart of Gold, which was a Amber lager - dried fruit, nutty, crisp. I had the Silver Lining, which was a Belgian white - orange zest, coriander, bright.

The following morning we head back to the coast to check out a couple of small harbors, beaches and waterfalls. We've really enjoyed visiting with locals. They are so friendly and share so much wonderful info about the area. We could have spent all day in Hall's Harbour just visiting with people. The harbour is an authentic fishing village dating back to 1779, when Captain Hall and his privateers used this natural harbour as a base. The people in Hall's Harbour told us about a waterfall just up the coast, so we also checked it out. 

This little store at Hall's Harbour was full of local art.

Hall's Harbour and beach.

Baxter's Harbour Falls. We were there about an hour before high tide.

At low tide we would have been able to walk to this little cave and beach.

From there we headed to Annapolis Royal. It's a beautiful waterfront community nestled in the Annapolis Valley. Originally inhabited by the Mi’kmaq community. It became home to some of North America’s earliest European settlers in 1605 and is home to Canada's oldest National Historic Site, Fort Anne. It was the capital of Nova Scotia until 1749.

Fort Anne was one of the most fought over forts in Canada. A key battleground in the power struggle between the British and French in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fort Anne became Canada's first National Historic Site in 1917. 

We stayed at the Garrison Inn that was in the middle of town. The inn was nice and our room was comfortable although small.

We enjoyed a good meal at the Garrison Inn's Restaurant. Stan had the seafood pasta - linguine with sun-dried tomato, pesto, cream sauce, roasted red peppers, trout, scallops and shrimp. I had the Coquille Saint Jacques - Digby scallops oven-baked in a leek & Pernod cream sauce, topped with a 3-cheese blend and served with rice and fresh vegetables.

Digby is home to a large scallop and lobster fishing fleet and known worldwide for their famous Digby scallops. There wasn't a lot going on in Digby the morning we were there, but we did walk through a small farmers market, looked at boats and had fun visiting with the shop owner of Marshalls Gifts & Souvenirs. 

Aug. 23 - Almost Halifax

"To be fully alive, fully human and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest." -Pema Chödrön 

From Peggy's Cove we drove up to Halifax. We spent the afternoon walking the boardwalk along the waterfront. There were no cruise ships in the harbor so it wasn't too crowded, but it seemed like a lot of businesses were closed. We were not  impressed. 

When we were cruising our planes seemed to change frequently. Weather dictated a lot of those changes, but sometimes they would change just because we didn't like the feel of a place or we wanted to take advantage of good cruising conditions and move on. That can happen when you're on a road trip too. The only part of this trip we had planned was our stay in Halifax. Well that changed because we really didn't like the feeling of the city and the accommodations we booked didn't measure up to our expectations. Luckily we were able to get a complete refund from Airbnb and we moved on to explore somewhere else. 

Hali-Facts:

• The first European settlers to arrive in the Halifax region were French, in the early 1600s, they established the colony of Acadia.
• The British settled Halifax in 1749, which led to the colonial capital being transferred from Annapolis Royal.  
• First public school in Canada
• Canada’s first law school and art college
• First printed book (1752) and first newspaper in Canada (Halifax Gazette)
• First place of free speech and freedom of the press in the British Commonwealth
• First all-electric city lights in North America
• Oldest intact executive mansion in North America (Government House circa. 1800)
• First seat of democratic government in Canada (1758)
• Location of the first official rules for ice hockey

Part of the waterfront near the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

The Wave

George Island Lighthouse

Aug. 22 - Peggy's Cove, NS

“It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.” –Jim Rohn

Although Peggy's Cove is a very very small place and just one cute community we visited on this day, I decided it deserved its own post, because I have so many wonderful photos to share. It's famed for its picturesque and typically East-Coast profile, with houses perched along a narrow inlet and on wave-washed boulders facing the Atlantic. This unique environment has been designated a preservation area, but yet it's still an active fishing community.

It was incredibly beautiful, but unbelievably overrun with visitors. You can't tell it from the photos I have, but there must have been over a 1000 people in this small area while we were there. After exploring in the area we found a small motel along the coast just a few miles away and bus loads of visitors were still arriving well after 6:00.

The small little fishing community of Peggy's Cove sits on the eastern shore of St. Margaret’s Bay...there is nothing between them and the tip of Spain except the Atlantic Ocean.

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse, also known as Peggy's Point Lighthouse, is one of Nova Scotia’s most well-known lighthouses and may be the most photographed in Canada. It was built in 1915.

We stayed at a little motel called Clifty Cove. It's located in the quaint fishing village of Indian Harbour, Nova Scotia on a granite cliff overlooking St. Margaret's Bay and just only 2 minutes from Peggy's Cove lighthouse. It wasn't fancy, but the location was amazing. We sat outside overlooking the bay visiting with other guests and enjoyed the sunset.

We enjoyed the best dinner of the trip so far at Shaw's Landing in West Dover. I had the lobster roll with hot butter and Stan had the pan-seared haddock. We shared a cup of their famous chowder full of haddock, shrimp, clams, scallops and lobster. We sat overlooking the harbor and the boats that delivered this fresh catch. Life just doesn't get any better.

The area around Peggy's Cove and West Dover has large rocks scattered around like a child's toy blocks.

Aug. 21-22 Exploring the Southern Shore of NS

"If love was water, I'd give you the sea." –Unknown 

We really had no set agenda on this little adventure. We just wanted to see what Nova Scotia had to offer. So we left Yarmouth and headed east trying to stay as close to the coast as we could. We decided to visit a little spot on Cape Sable Island called Clark's Harbour because many of the Monk trawlers were built there. We explored the boatyard a little and then spent a little time at the beach before heading east to Lunenburg. 

Lunenburg is a port town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Founded in 1753, the town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia. Today Lunenburg is the site of Canada's largest secondary fish-processing plant.

 

Old Town Lunenburg is one of only two urban communities in North America designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Seventy percent of the original colonial buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries continue to greet visitors with their colorful facades. It's considered to be the best surviving planned British colonial town in North America.

The Lunenburg waterfront.

We spent the night in a beautiful room overlooking the main street and harbor. We enjoyed having our coffee on the town dock watching the tide come in. 

The view from our balcony. The restaurant we went to was just down the street on the left.

We had a nice dinner at the Salt Shaker Deli and Inn. Stan had the Salmon Risotto - pan seared salmon with sweet pea risotto, pea shoots and lemon. I had the Scallop Linguini - seared local scallops, smoked bacon, arugula, roasted garlic, olive oil and parmesan.

From Lunenburg we headed further north to Mahone Bay. This little town boasts a simple yet extraordinary way of life. It was quite a beautiful town with a few unique shops. It was recently named as one of Canada’s top ten most beautiful towns. It's famous for its picture perfect three churches that sit at the top of the harbor.   

Amos Pewter has been hand-crafting original designs of jewelry, ornaments, home décor and tableware in Mahone Bay since 1974. The entire process from hand-drawn design to wax carving, mold-making to casting and finally to finishing continues to be done in this former boat-building shop (circa 1888). Their items were beautiful and it was interesting to see their process. 

The next little town we came to was Chester. The nearby waters of Mahone Bay and its numerous islands are well known for yachting and have made it into a cruising destination. We had lunch at the Rope Loft overlooking the harbor. 

This was a sandy beach near Hubbards Cove. The water was so clear and blue...but a little too cold for me to get in.