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.