PEI - from history lessons to storybooks

Cabot Beach Provincial Park, PEI

This morning was the warmest day we've had yet in Canada. It felt glorious.
After dropping off Winnie for a shoe repair (okay, new tire), we went for a bike ride on The ConfederationTrail. Prince Edward Island (PEI) has 221 miles of dedicated biking paths. This is truly a bikers heaven. We picked up a trail closest to the tire place and rode into the harbor town of Montague, a very low key quaint little village. What cracked us up was the outdoor elliptical trainer on the biking path, right next to an ice cream stand sign. Ned gave it a go, the exercise equipment that is and not the ice cream. We rode for a couple of hours (14 miles) stopping along the way to take photos and appreciate the scenery. We really enjoyed having the path to ourselves and crossing over trestles and rivers and riding through the woods. It was incredibly peaceful.

Once we picked up Winnie, we headed into Charlottetown to check out the largest city on the island. This year marks the 150th anniversary of The Confederation and most of the festivities begin this weekend. My history lesson today was learning about the birth of Canada, as a country. The Charlottetown Conference was the first time that representatives from PEI, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Canada had ever met together to discuss common interests. The representatives that met were called The Fathers of Confederation and were a diverse group of English and French, lawyers and journalists, shipbuilders and soldiers, poets and businessmen. Apparently this was quite the conference that lasted for 7 days and included business meetings, balls and parties. It took many years for something formal to be arranged, but this is where the question, "Shall We Unite?" made an important breakthrough.

We thought the best way to explore the city was on bike. We rode along the waterfront and up and down all the historic streets really soaking in the history and culture. By this time we had worked up quite an appetite and decided to finally try one of the "chip wagons" that seem to be scattered all over Canada. First I have to admit that I hate potatoes. I don't care how they're fixed - baked, fried, mashed, or boiled - I hate potatoes. So, it was with a great deal of trepidation that I decided to jump in. Ned ordered fish and chips and I ordered the pulled pork poutine, having no idea whatsoever what a poutine was. (Ned originally wanted to try the lobster mac n' cheese, a local favorite, but the fisherman hadn't arrived with today's lobster as of yet). Upon getting our food I discovered that a poutine is a huge pile of french fries smothered in gravy & cheese, and this one had a bunch of pulled pork piled on top. Let's just say that Ned was a real gentleman and just automatically handed me the fish and chips. Yeah, he knows me. For the record, the fish was delish.

The big tourist attraction on the island is all about Anne of Green Gables. The author who wrote the book, Lucy Maude Montgomery, was born on PEI. Families now come to enjoy The Green Gables House, the site of L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish Home, The Anne of Green Gables Museum, Avonlea Village and even take in "Anne & Gilbert", the musical. Did you know you can even buy Ann of Green Gable raspberry cordial?! Other tourist attractions such as mini-golf, amusement park and a water slide are all nearby. We had to check it out, especially since I loved the book as a child. In all fairness to PEI, they've done a marvelous job of offering something quite touristy in a very low-key fashion. The 45 minute drive to the north side of the island took us through lots of agricultural farmland, through a seaside national park and some fishing villages. Once you hit the town of Cavendish the Anne theme does get a little overplayed, but it's nothing as glaringly cheesy as Dollywood, Gatlinburg, or many of the seaside boardwalks we've seen. The official tourist season doesn't start until this weekend, so I'm sure my opinion would change during peak season. For now, Ned and I are enjoying the off-season and cooler weather so that we can explore the island, sans lots of people.

Tonight we are camped at Cabot Beach Provincial Park at the very tip of Green Gables Shore. It's an odd little campground and one that would feel more like a tailgate party rather than camping if it was full. As luck would have it, there are only 2 or 3 others that we are sharing with this 150 site campground. It's basically one big mowed grassy area with a few trees scattered here and there. Ned and I are out on the point overlooking Darnley Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It's pretty awesome. A big storm is supposed to come in tonight, could make for some dramatic views of the clouds and waves.

Prince Edward Island - Eastern Shore

Brudenell River Provincial Park, Georgetown PEI

Driving down the Atlantic side of Cape Breton early this morning was just as spectacular as the western side of the Cape. Clear blue skies, shimmering water and sandy beaches made for a great journey on our way to Baddeck. I encouraged Ned to take one particular road, even though it really didn't make too much sense to me. It looked on the map like it was a bridge jutting across a small harbor, but the two lines for the roads didn't quite line up. I was hopeful that it would work out. Turns out it was a very small car ferry that took all of 5 minutes for us to board and ferry across. It was hooked up by a cable and held maybe 10 cars. I love when short-cuts work out:)

Our big adventure of the day was visiting the Alexander Graham Bell museum in Baddeck. Alexander Bell's summer home was here and he worked on many of his experiments while here too. The home still exists, is privately owned by family and not opened to the public. Alexander was very fond of his beloved "Beinn Bhreagh" (beautiful mountain) and said it reminded him of his home back in Scotland. He especially enjoyed the cool weather. Ned was looking forward to Bell's inventions and in particular his foray into powered flight. I was looking forward to learning more about his work with the deaf community. Earlier in the trip we stopped at Helen Keller's birthplace and I picked up her autobiography. It was really interesting to get her perspective on the huge impact Alexander Bell had on her life and I was looking forward to learning about his point of view on their relationship.

Everyone knows about Alexander Bell and the telephone ("Watson, come here I want you"), but learning about Bell, the man, and all the other inventions and things he dabbled in was truly remarkable. For example, sheep husbandry. "Bell's desire to help the local economy prompted him to experiment with sheep breeding. He attempted to develop a flock of sheep which would consistently bear twins. He believed that a relationship existed between the number of nipples a sheep had and the number of lambs to which it could give birth. Over 30 years of research led Bell to conclude that no such relationship existed. He was successful, however, in breeding a flock of multi-nippled sheep." After reading that it was quite fun to see all the photos of Alexander and his children flying kites and enjoying the outdoors, with sheep often milling around in the background.

His other accomplishments were building the world's fastest boat, a hydro-foil that was used in WW1; helping launch the first successful powered flight in Canada, named the "Silver Dart"; was a founding member of National Geographic; pioneered the use of the tetrahedron, as a structural element; created a telephone without wires, called a photophone; and multiple inventions to help deaf people with their speech. The list goes on and on. Unlike Thomas Edison who was a professional inventor, Alexander Bell loved the process of learning new stuff and considered himself an amateur inventor. In Helen's book she talked very fondly of kite flying with Alexander Bell. It was really special to see photos of the two, hand in hand, flying kites together.

What I admired most about Alexander was his love of children. He made a point of listening to all their questions because he loved how children have no preconceived ideas. He said this gave him true inspiration to think outside the box. Truly a genius and an inspirational man.

Our second ferry of the day transported us from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island. This ferry was a big one! It had elevators that put passenger cars on the lower deck. We were placed with all the big boys - logging trucks, fuel tankers and 20 wheelers! It was a little intimidating to say the least. The 75 minute ride across Northumberland Strait was glorious. Lots of sunshine, blue skies and I even got internet! While waiting in line for the ferry a gentleman informed us that one of our tires had a big bulge. Uh-oh. We just bought 4 new tires in Maine and had less than 2,000 miles on them. Once we were on the island, we located a Michelin dealer just a few minutes before he closed. Fortunately, he was able to get us a replacement that should be in by noon tomorrow - fingers crossed. Since our plans for tomorrow include biking the Confederation Trail, this shouldn't put too much of a crimp in our style. I'm kinda digging this "bike while car work gets done" routine - haha.

Tonight we splurged for a seafood dinner, dining al fresco overlooking the Cardigan Bay. For a change we took a break from lobster. I had salmon, Ned had halibut. It was our favorite meal of the trip so far. Delish!

Cape Breton, Victoria Side

Broad Cove Campround, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Knowing that we had several days to spend in Cape Breton we definitely took it easy this morning. Reading in the sun, moving kinda slow and figuring out what activities we wanted to do before driving the Cabot Trail was the big activity this morning. My two big goals of the day were to take in a hike and see a moose. I knew we had control over the one, and were hoping for the best with the second. The Skyline Trail hike is supposed to be one of the best in the park so the Skyline it was.

We hiked the Skyline loop which took us about 2 hours. When we started we were the only folks on the trail, but by the time we headed back the trail was well populated.
The trail takes you through the scrubby pines, open wooded forests, wildflower meadows all the while giving you glimpses of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. When we at last reached the coast, we were on a bluff about 1200 feet, and had an incredible view of the Cabot Trail, the Gulf, the village of Chetticamp, and in the distance Prince Edward Island. It took our breath away. It was an incredible place to meditate, relax from the hike and enjoy the 180 degree vista. Definitely one of the best places of our trip so far. (Bubble Pond in Acadia still gets first place).

We decided to take the long way back and do a loop hike. It was rockier and more wide open then the hike to the water. The day was quite warm, for Cape Breton, and we really felt the sun beating down on us. By the time we got back to Winnie we were ready for a picnic.

The next big delight was spotting a moose while driving through the park. We pulled over on the side of the road and watched her eat voraciously, tearing into one tree after another. It was definitely a female (cow). The park literature says "cow moose are most dangerous during calving season - mid-May to the end of June" - so give them a wide berth. No problem there. We did get out and watch her for quite awhile. They are such funny looking odd creatures.

We continued our journey on the Cabot Trail, getting one great vista view after the next until finally reaching North Cape. This "town" or more realistically a restaurant, ice cream place and a few gift shops was note worthy because it officially marks the half way point of our road trip. From this point on we will be looking for all signs South or West and no longer following those North and East. We curved around the Cape and drove along the Atlantic Ocean. This side of the Cape has more beaches and is at sea level.

Tonight we're camped at Broad Cove Campground. It's a huge campground, at least 200 campsites. We opted not to stay with all the RV's on the electrical loop and are rewarded by having this entire remote loop to ourselves. We're in a nicely wooded campground, it's completely quiet and the only sound is nature and the popping of a cork.

Cape Breton, Inverness Side

Cheticamp, Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Blue skies and warmer weather, looks like a good day for a drive. We crossed over Canso Causeway, leaving Northumberland Shore behind us and ready to explore Cape Breton. We decided to go round the cape via the Northumberland Straight side first (clockwise) and ending up on the Atlantic side tomorrow. Our reasoning was we eventually want to see the Alexander Bell Museum and it's not open til Wednesday.

Cape Breton is split down the middle by two sides - Inverness County on the west and Victoria County on the east. As one travels up the western side, the first section is called the Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee) Trail, named after the Celtic Music and dancing of the Scottish Highlands. The scenery is breathtaking varying between groves of fir trees, wide vistas of the Straight and lots of rolling hills. This area has very proudly retained their Scottish culture and language. The town names and signs are in both English and Gaelic. There are many pubs and music halls along this stretch that feature lots of Celtic fiddlers, pipers, guitarists and singers. We had wanted to spend some time at the Celtic Interpretive Music Centre, but unfortunately it doesn't open til next week, in time for the high season. We decided to take in a distillery instead.

The Glenora Distillery specializes in single malt whisky, and in fact are the only single malt whisky makers made in North America that makes aged (at least 10 year old) whisky. Apparently there are a couple of upstarts in British Columbia. Ned, continuing his research for constructing his own still, was looking forward to the tour. In reality they weren't brewing right now. They don't brew during the summer months, they claim, for safety reasons. Ned suspects it has to do more with keeping the production low and driving up demand. Our tour guide was friendly, but a little jaded. I think he had done a couple of tours too many. My favorite part, of course, was the tasting. Damn good whisky! Afterwards we had a picnic with the smoked salmon and pumpernickel bread we had purchased yesterday in the sun. The best part was that it was in the sun. Not taking that for granted!

We continued our drive up the Cape and when we crossed over the Margaree Harbor we had left the Ceilidh Trail behind and begun the Cabot Trail. This part of the coast is even more wide open with luscious green rolling hills and incredible views of the water. It reminded us very much of Highway 1, particularly around Jenner and Mendocino. This is the Acadian Region and the signs are now in French and English. When the English had forced many of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, some of them had hid out in the highlands of Cape Breton (rather than swear allegiance to the British Crown) surviving some pretty harsh winters. Finally, years later when they were allowed to return they settled back in this area and til this day very proudly retain their French language and culture.

This afternoon we are camped at the beginning of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in the Cheticamp Campground. We discussed doing a bike trail (this place is famous for some of the best biking on the planet) but honestly have decided to just take it easy soaking up the sun. We decided it was a good opportunity to break out our bottle of Nova Scotia wine. (Don't worry California, you have nothing to worry about). Reading and napping won out.

Tonight we rallied and went into town for a lobster dinner. Dang they grow them big up here! Ned got a 2.5 pounder. After dinner we took a drive along the Cabot Trail and were the only people on it. Amazing. We were in search of wildlife - whales, moose, bear or coyotes. Didn't catch any of those, but we did stop on a bluff to catch a beautiful sunset over the calm waters. Okay peeps back home, we are 4 hours ahead of you. I've just said good-bye to the sun and am passing it along your way to put it to bed. See you all tomorrow.

The Eastern and Northumberland Shores, Nova Scotia

Hyclass Ocean Campground, Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia

We woke to blue, blue skies and much appreciated relief from the overcast and drizzly days we've been having. It was still a bit cold, but I will take the sunshine anyway I can get it.

Our route this morning took us to the Eastern Shores of Nova Scotia. I believe it's the most remote and least populated of the Nova Scotia shores, at least it seemed that way to us. We got a kick out of all the strange sounding "towns" (just houses) that we drove through such as Head of Chezzetcook, Mushaboom, and Ecum Secum. This area is heavily wooded and has few services of any kind on the main road. The houses we did glimpse were rather modest or trailer homes, no longer "salt box" design or period pieces. Given the lobster traps we saw in front of the houses we did glimpse, we assumed the main industry in this end of the island was fishing. It's currently lobster season, so we weren't surprised by all the lobster traps. We stopped by a small smoked fish operation to pick up some smoked salmon. Yes, it was nice to take a break from lobster and the ubiquitous potatoes that accompany everything. Unlike the Lighthouse Route, there really aren't many fishing villages, coves or inlets. The two big "cities" are Sheet Harbor and our destination, Sherbrooke.

In my opinion, Sherbrooke is a real national treasure. It was an actual town first established in 1840 and was thriving until 1916. The majority of the residences were Scottish. The courthouse in town was functional until the year 2000! Sherbrooke Village is a period living re-enactment place, one that cost an admission, but what makes this so different from others is that almost everything is original and still functional. We spent over 3 hours here visiting all the shops such as the blacksmith, pottery, boat making, tailors, and private residences. My favorite was visiting the "gaol". The original jail was in someone's home!! There were two iron gate doors placed on bedrooms and the family was compensated for taking care of the prisoners. It was so interesting to see the parlour, kitchen, bedrooms and 4 jail rooms. I can't imagine raising a family as I housed prisoners. Each place we visited had a person, in period costume, explaining the customs or trade of their situation. The woman who housed the prisoners was making rhubarb tarts in the wood burning oven and offered us some. Yes, every home is still functional and most had fireplaces and ovens going and the water pumps in the houses still worked. The tailors shop and pharmacy still had all the original equipment or tinctures and ointments in them! Amazing.

By far, what I loved the most was the telephone exchange! Alexander Bell was a resident of Nova Scotia (Cape Breton) and invented the phone in 1875. This town installed the phone soon after, in 1877. Because there were several mines in the area it was important to the owners to have a quick system of communication. At the turn of the century a telephone exchange was installed in this town and is still working today - yes the original exchange. You can call 9 people in town. A gentlemen was sitting at the switchboard and showed us how the electric current generated from cranking the phone flipped a little metal flap on his switchboard. He could then see who was calling and connect them to another person in town. He demonstrated the receiving and outgoing wires and how they worked. I asked him if I could give it a try and he said "Go for it!" I initiated a call to Joann, the woman who was baking the rhubarb tarts in the jail home. When she picked up the phone I thanked her for them, much to her surprise. Glen, the phone operator, could hear the whole transaction. What a riot. How many towns in this world still have the original phone exchange between the houses?!

This town is situated right on the St. Mary's river, so one could see how the local provisioners or grocery store received a shipment from the dock off the river right into their store. I LOVED seeing a real butter churn with a treadmill attached. A dog would run on the treadmill to churn the butter. Too funny.

Ned enjoyed the working water sawmill. We got to see how a water wheel ran a series of pulleys that in turn ran an up-and-down saw that cut through logs. We took a nature trail through the woods and were able to see the logging camp, how the loggers lived and floated the logs down river to the mill. There was also a gold mine and stamp mill. That we know enough about, so we weren't so blown away by that.

From Sherbrooke we headed due north for the Northumberland Shore. As we drove through very fertile farmland it came as no surprise that this was the area inhabited by the English and Scots. One of the largest towns in Northumberland is Antigonish, a charming town that hosts St. Francis Xavier University and is known for it's Scottish culture. It's very modern and upscale and could pass for any tourist town except for all the Scottish Gaelic on the signs. We thought about camping here, but just weren't into the whole shopping, golf scene experience so we continued to the tip of Northumberland just across the way from the Island of Cape Breton. We're looking forward to exploring the Cape tomorrow and hope the weather holds.

The Lighthouse Route

Porter's Lake Provincial Park, Nova Scotia

We left the Western shore of Acadian Coast behind us and crossed over onto the Southern area known as the Lighthouse Route early this morning. Unlike the Acadian coast which was sparse and sprinkled with saltbox houses here and there overlooking wide vistas of Fundy Bay, this stretch of Nova Scotia was heavily wooded and had many more villages, coves and peninsulas. Our goal over the next week is to drive the circumference of Nova Scotia. Considering that its coastline is 4625 miles, we definitely have to pick and chose which peninsulas to explore. No easy feat considering each cove, bay and tiny fishing town seems to have an interesting story. We even saw a boat that had run aground attesting to the difficulty of trying to navigate these treacherous waters, especially with their crazy tides.

After pouring over guidebooks and talking with locals we finally decided which nooks and crannies to see. The first little town we explored was Birchtown. After the American Revolution over 3500 free African-Americans, loyal to the Crown, moved to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Birchtown was the largest of the settlements. Their population eventually declined due to how poorly they were treated and in 1792 many of them emigrated to Sierra Leone, West Africa. The land they were given by the British was really poor rocky soil, much like the inferior land the Acadians were given.

Continuing to hug the coastline, we moved onto Shelburne. During the American Revolution many pro-British refugees gathered in New York. The wealthier class went to England, but most of the less affluent sought refuge in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Their population mushroomed from 400 to 10,000 in one year! By the year 1800 only 300 families were left, many families resettling elsewhere. Okay, what struck me the most about this was I never thought about the Americans who remained loyal to the British. I just assumed that everyone wanted to be free of British rule or at least wanted to stay a part of the colonies. Guess I missed that one in school. We were really looking forward to seeing this town, partly because its waterfront had some of the original structures and partly because it was the Lobster Festival this weekend. The architecture and waterfront did not disappoint! I loved the old dory building and other colorful buildings. However, the Lobster Festival was a disappointment. The huge town-wide flea market seemed to get a bigger draw. Just as well, how much lobster can one really eat anyway?

True to its name, the Lighthouse Route, this stretch of Nova Scotia had a plethora of lighthouses. We visited many other fishing villages and coves, but of course had to visit the most famous of them all, Peggy's Cove, which is touted as being the most photographed lighthouse in Canada. It's a very tiny village, only 35 residents live here year round, but thousands come to take pictures of the lighthouse. It really is breathtaking to see this lighthouse atop the rocks, with the waves crashing below. The village is very quaint and frankly, it's just hard to take a bad picture here. As if on cue, our overcast skies cleared up, the sun broke out and we were treated to a spectacularly beautiful day. This part of the coast definitely reminded us of Mendocino.

We finally made it into the big city, Halifax. Our plan was to unload the bikes and tour the waterfront, but it was really windy and cold. Instead we decided to tour the oldest brewery in North America, Alexander Keith Brewery. (Pretty good backup plan, I'd say.) It wasn't so much a tour as a show. We really did think we were going to see and learn about their brewery process. Instead we got period actors, dressed up in costume, doing a song and dance show. It was very entertaining and we got to drink a bunch of beer so I'm not complaining. Ned said it reminded him of the Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. Everyone thinks they are watching chocolate being made, but in reality it's just a show.

Halifax is a very fun city. I love the mix of really old buildings right next to high rises situated on the waterfront. It reminds me a little of Boston with the hills of San Francisco. What's so interesting about Halifax is that there really doesn't seem to be any suburbia or sprawl. Twenty kilometers away and you are once again in the depths of a heavily wooded, very sparsely populated area. We are camped at Porter's Lake Provincial Park, only 22 kilometers from Halifax and it feels like I'm in upper Minnesota with the lakes and trees. Of course, our camping neighbors, a country Nova Scotian group are blasting out their favorite old timey country songs so there is that. Yes, country music seems to be big around these here parts.