Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Canada We had been planning to head to the Maritime Provinces of Canada for a few years now. In a busy year, we are squeezing a short 10 day “fly/drive” to visit our neighbor to the north. We have always enjoyed and felt welcome in Canada plus we have many Canadian customers so it seemed like a good year to vacation with our neighbors to the north. We are making a short cross border visit to the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island as well as Halifax for some cooler weather the first week of September. Canada is a particular bargain for Americans as most costs are paid 75 cents on a dollar and scenery is purported to be spectacular in this part of the world. Tickets were fairly cheap as we traded the equivalent of about $850 in points for two tickets to Halifax Stansfield Airport. We are flying nonstop from Tampa to LaGuardia and then it is a short 1 hour and twenty-minute hop to Halifax. Canadian customs was easy on the way in and we were out of the airport in an hour. Day one we will be driving about an hour and 15 minutes to Pictou which was the landing point for the Scottish in North America. Pictou is also only 10 minutes from Caribou where the Prince Edward Island ferry departs. There is also a bridge to PEI, but we choose the ferry as the cost is low with us only paying fees on the return run in September which is off-season. We will spend two nights in Prince Edward including a day exploring Charlottetown. Then we head to Cape Breton to drive and stay a few nights along the Cabot Trail. We will spend two nights in a cabin in Cheticamp, take a whale watching expedition departing from the northern tip of Cape Breton, stay a night in Ingonish on the other side of the trail and then a 4th night on the trail in Baddeck which happens to be the hotel used by Globus Tours on this similar itinerary. After that, we’ll be heading down to Halifax to finish the trip with two nights in Halifax over the weekend. We have also scheduled an ocean kayaking trip in Blue Rocks near Lunenberg, which looks very nice. DAY 1 HALIFAX AIRPORT TO PICTOU (85 miles) We were on-time into Halifax Stansfield and picked up our rental car at Budget. We have reserved the car through Auto Europe our wholesale car supplier as they have begun doing North American rentals. We get good pricing and clearly marked inclusions and most importantly exclusions so we get a total rental price on the contract. We will be driving about an hour and 15 minutes the first day which is good since the alarm clock went off at 3:15A in Tampa. Pictou looks nice and we have a room reserved at Braeside Inn which is a bed and breakfast. Braeside inn was built in 1938 and it is ok for one night with a nice view of the bay and a continental breakfast. This plan has worked well as all our planes were on time and we were into Pictou by 5P even with a stop at the wine store and a slice of pizza on the way. We take a walk into town as it is good to walk after sitting all day. The hotel has recommended Harbor House for dinner, it was a nice warm evening by Canadian standards; so we are seated on the porch. Haddock is the fish on most menus so Gina has the Parmesan crusted Haddock which is served with fresh Canadian carrots and French fries. I choose the seafood casserole which is an amalgamation of lobster, scallops, shrimp and haddock in a real light cream sauce with cheese on top. With a decent bottle of Italian Primitivo, we are happy sitting on the porch on a warm Canadian evening. The next day, we are catching the PEI Ferry at 11:45 for a weekend in Prince Edward Island. We walk into Pictou for a morning walk and accidentally meet Rebecca who is Manager for the Ship Hector Society when she is sweeping her front walk to open. The sign says busses only and I joke that Globus will be here soon and she jokes we are working on Globus, but not yet. With the ice broken, we introduce ourselves and she spontaneously tells us the story of Pictou. In 1763, the UK Government recruited 34 Scottish families (189) people to board a little tiny Ship Hector from the Scottish Highlands to the new world. UK was actively recruiting subjects to colonize so Pictou became the first landing place of the Scottish in North America. Next door is New Glasgow where we stopped at the government wine store (which also sells cannabis by the way). Last July they finished refurbishment of the Ship Hector and relaunched the ship https://shiphector.ca They are currently working on the original masts which were removed but saved and in good shape so they are currently being refurbished. They were removed as the ship is too heavy to refloat with the masts attached. If you are heading for the PEI Ferry, Pictou was a great stop as it was only about an hour and twenty minutes from Halifax airport and only 10 minutes to Caribou where you pick up the ferry to Woods Island PEI. DAY 2 CHARLOTTETOWN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (75 miles) We arrive Prince Edward at 1P. Since our BnB Cliffside Inn is only 10 minutes from the ferry landing, we stop by to see if our room is ready early. It is so we meet Jay who is one of the hosts and we are able to dump our luggage and head out to Charlottetown. It is about an hour from Cliffside Inn to Charlottetown which is a port of call for many of our cruise ships so it is good to see it and walk around. Charlottetown is compact for tourists with everything in about an 8 or 10 block square. Street parking is free on weekends so we are taking a walk pretty quickly with a mix of crafts and restaurants as PEI is known as the food island. After a walk, we head to the riverwalk past the Delta where busses are parked from Gate 1 and Tauck. All of our escorted tours make this stop in Charlottetown along with Anne of Green Gables history and both were on the ferry as a ferry ride is always an attraction. It is a really warm afternoon for the fall by Canadian standards and we are menu shopping as Peaks Restaurant, by the marina was one of the choices mentioned by our host because of the weather. It is oyster happy hour at Peaks so we are soon eating fresh PEI oysters with craft beer in the sun. We do some menu shopping at a couple of the other restaurants Jay mentioned but end up at Claddaus Oyster bar which specialized in PEI seafood and dry aged Prince Edward Island beef. As this day was on the move, we don’t have a reservation at this popular restaurant so we end up at the bar for a ribeye steak and some fried clams with a couple bowls of local greens. We are back at our hotel by 8P so we catch most of the fading light for the drive back down to Woods Island. DAY 3 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (90 miles) Cliffside Inn has a great breakfast with hot items like bacon, eggs and a lot of choices. Jay is up early cooking and he has told us he is doing buffet instead of cooked to order and it would be best if we get in around 8:15 when things are fresh. As we are up early, we drive down to see the lighthouse, take an hour hike on the Confederation Trail and stop to see the Provincial Park beach. It is Sunday so we cool out at Cliffside Inn for a few hours as it is right on the coast facing towards Nova Scotia. We are waiting for a front so the wind has died down and it is lovely on the sea as our back porch faces the ocean. About 2P, we head out to drive and hour or so North to Souris to see a lighthouse. There is not much on this coast except for agriculture but it is a pretty fall drive as we take 17 out to the coast to see what is there. It is a pretty drive and we end up at a nice beach area to see the Panmure Lighthouse. This one actually has the gift shop in the base and we buy the obligatory lighthouse Christmas tree ornament and head on. When we arrive in Souris, we go up to the lighthouse. Gina declines to climb the lighthouse as she is coming off a sprained ankle. I climb to level two to see a mini sea glass museum little tiny jars of sand from beaches around the world. All types and shapes of sea glass are displayed. After that I climb to level three where they have the working motor and gears to turn the light. They invite you to take a spin and she spins up with the gnashing of metal gears spinning the light. After that you can climb up to level four where you can go through a metal hatch outside on a mini balcony with a railing. When I get back to the ground Gina asks what was that loud sound when I was spinning the gears at the top. We stop into the gift shop and the operator of the facility is a young lady named Chelsea who tells us the story of the sea glass that was collected for her whole life by her grandmother. The family had operated the lighthouse for years and rebuilt a replica light keeper’s house that now had the gift shop. It was an interesting story as she studied some of these subjects in college, they went through a process with Canada to get grants to rebuild the light keepers house and was very versed in sea glass. She talked about other finds including in-tact bottles from the 1700 that got sent to the museum on Ottawa that they had made in the tidal mud over the years. She said any time it was a low tide when she was a kid, she remembered her grandmother poking around in the mud so it sounded like the lighthouse, career and college had all intertwined with this love of her grandmother’s hobby. Jay at our bnb suggested the Wheelhouse restaurant half way home. It is early in the trip but we are already realizing that menus in Atlantic Canada can be nontraditional but always good. We order a lobster paella which did not disappoint and an order of mussels in garlic broth. With a locally brewed IPA that is dark and rich unlike an IPA, this was a good stop in Prince Edward Island. PEI TO CHETICAMP STARTING THE CABOT TRAIL IN CAPE BRETON NOVA SCOTIA (170 miles) One more breakfast buffet with Jay and Amber and we are off for the 10:00 ferry to Caribou. I love car ferries. It seems to be a miracle of engineering and organization that you can load a boat with cars, busses and even trucks. Everybody is eating breakfast, so we wait on coffee as we have another 1 hour and 15 minute run to Caribou. The truck driver’s eating breakfast when we arrive and then play a few hands of cards. Looks like they take this ride everyday. As this is an article about a fly/drive trip, I would like to mention early that Google Maps way underestimated our driving times as we rarely got up to the posted speed limit once we exited the larger divided highways. My suggestion is to add at least 20% to whatever time Google gives you as well as all those cool stops along the way. Past Antigonish, you cross the Canso Causeway and then you are in Cape Breton at Port Hastings. We look around Port Hastings, but don’t see anything interesting for lunch so we take the coastal road 19 which is only a couple of minutes longer but supposed to be more scenic to enter into Cape Breton. One of the first local restaurants that day was in Harbourview named Sandeannie’s Bakery and Restaurant. This was very local and we enjoyed our grilled fish sandwiches topped with local lettuce and tomato. We started with a shared seafood chowder which was also good before hitting the bakery counter for the Airbnb house we had rented near Cheticamp. We ordered a couple of cinnamon rolls without icing and a slab of chocolate heavenly hash. These were the first Acadians we were encountering who are resident of this side of Cape Breton as I hear accents that could have been from Lafayette or New Iberia. We decided to take our homemade biscuit that came with the soup so the waitress brought butter without asking as “you can’t have biscuits without butter”. We are totaling up the bill and the soup was cheaper than in the menu as I bought a sandwich and the bottled water was free which was a pleasant surprise. Just a nice bunch of people and great food for the first stop on the Cabot Trail. We finally get to Sunrise Cottage in Petit Etang which is just north and connected to Cheticamp. We are staying two nights at this paradise with the prettiest view we have seen in a long time. The Cheticamp river flows behind this house and the hills at the entrance to Cape Breton Highlands National Park are framing the river. It is about 5P already so we walk the dirt road from the house as it has a beach at the end of the road where the river dumps into the sea. We get back to the house at 6:30 and we are realizing most restaurants close early on the Cabot Trail. We head back out to the Harbor House about 7:30 as it says they are only open until 8:30. As it was 2P by the time we found the first restaurant we do some apps including the crab dip and a Casaer with lobster meat. We also have an order of mussels which are fresh and steamed in natural broth only with onions and celery which harkens back to New Orleans Cajun’s who are cousins of the Acadian in Cape Breton. In the morning, we have a wonderful view for our breakfast. As we put the cinnamon buns in the oven we joked that we had to melt the congealed butter in the breakfast breads. We head out to buy our park pass and head up the Cabot Trail to see the sights. Skyline Trail is the one trail everybody wants to hike because it goes to overlooks but it gets full each day to capacity with hikers. We are ok as hiking with a few hundred friends is not as interesting. We head back down the trail a way and pull off at Corney Brook which is listed as an easy trail along the river. As I have mentioned in blogs before, hats off to Parks Canada as the facilities are clean and the trails are always well maintained. We are lucky as the Nova Scotia parks are now open after being closed because of fire danger in August. We make a stop at the Aucoin Boulangerie and bakery in Petit Etang. After the hike we head back into town for a lobster roll and fries at LeGabriel. It is to be our first lobster roll of the trip. This time of year, lobster is not in season but the restaurants keep frozen lobster which is very good for the sandwiches and a nice locally brewed craft beer. We take a drive down the coast and stop on the way back at Floras for some artisanat (French for “craftsmanship”) ice cream at 3pm in the afternoon because, yes, we are on vacation! We make a stop at the coop for some breakfast goods including a sweet quart of local strawberries that we washed and took in the car each day for a few days. We are able to get a late (8:30 pm) reservation at a restaurant called L’abri. With all the rich food, we are glad for a simple seafood pasta (that of, course includes some lobster) and an order of broccolini with garlic aioli, chili chips and sesame seeds. Later at the house, the lemon tarts we got at the boulangerie are pretty good about midnight. CHETICAMP TO INGONISH CAPE BRETON ON THE CABOT TRAIL (96 miles) Today we have a 1:30PM reservation to go whale watching at the tip of Cape Breton at Oshan Whale Watching in Bay St. Lawrence. We drove the northwestern section of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and stopped for a day hike at the Macintosh Brook trail which was a nice 1 mile walk into the woods to see a waterfall. Oshan whale watching, did not disappoint as we loaded about 24 people (and 3 dogs) onto the boat. We headed west and put on a pod of cavorting whales about 20 minutes later. These were pilot whales that inhabit this particular area most of the summer. The pod looked comfortable with us all watching them so we stayed in this area for a half an hour before heading on. About a half an hour later we saw another large pod and headed out to see them. They did not seem to be very social with us and they moved on quickly every time we got close. The captain was a soft-spoken man and his daughter was their whale specialist, so they agreed it would be best not to chase them around when they are not in a social mood but we saw whales twice and then went on to check out the grey seals that inhabit the cliffs on the east side of the bay. It is about an hour to Ingonish which was the last hotel I booked but when we got there it looked fairly touristy with the outside of the buildings looking a little like a jail complex. Inside the rooms at Knotty Pine Cottages was a pleasant surprise with a large clean room and a porch with a good view of Ingonish beach through the trees. We had not eaten since breakfast so we started checking restaurants but most closed around 7PM or at latest 7:30PM and it was already about 6:30 by the time we got there and checked in. We decided not to head out on the dark highway as our hotel was about 5 miles south of town and they had a restaurant called The Fisherman that seemed to be Chinese as this hotel seemed to be run mostly by Chinese people. It said his dumplings were his best dish so we had an order of those and other than that, some really mediocre Chinese food including a veggie fried rice that tasted mostly like the spice cumin that was really weird. It said the restaurant served until 9P but when we got there at 8P they told us only take out after 8. Our room had a kitchen table so we took it to go as we were traveling with wine from our day 1 stop, since we were staying mostly away from cities. These overnight stops along the way allowed us to spend 4 days thoroughly exploring the Cabot Trail. It can be driven in one day but the area is so neat I would encourage you to spend multiple days up there and stay in a few different places. INGONISH TO BADDECK – CAPE BRETON ON THE CABOT TRAIL (57 miles) The weather forecast is for rain to start some- time in the day. We are up and out this morning without breakfast, so we stop at a general store for some coffee, yogurt and a French toast muffin which seemed weird but actually tasted really good. Even the smaller towns do not have full services as we did not see a coffee shop or bakery in Ingonish. We have some day hikes selected but we are not sure we will get them in. Unlike yesterday when we had a beautiful day on the water, the wind is blowing about 25 knots from the east and a light rain begins to fall as we stop at a few of the overlooks as the day gets grayer by the hour but we do see seals at the Lakies Head overlook. The whale watch guys said to go eat at the Seagull Restaurant, so our plan today was to stop for lunch to kill an hour or so of a rainy day. We haven’t done fried seafood for a while so we have the platter with fries. First, enough fries for 4 or 5 people show up at the table, then huge platters are brought to the table with shrimp, scallops, haddock, clams and even fried mussels which we had never had. We commented we probably could have shared one of these. On the way to Baddeck, we stop at the Gaelic College (initially because of the large public bathroom sign) but as a tour bus pulled up behind us, we soon realized this is a stop everybody should make as they had collected arts and crafts from the fifty miles we just drove through. They also had high-end woolen goods and clothing in a separate store. Gina got a neat craft leather purse for $25 Canadian and we purchased some live Celtic music by fiddler Richard Wood of PEI before heading down the highway. After lunch, we worked our way south to Baddeck which is considered to be the beginning and end of the Cabot Trail. Many of our escorted tour companies use Baddeck as a base to send busses on the full Cabot Trail loop in one day when they tour the Maritimes and we see why. Restaurants are open at normal hours so it was nice to go eat late after the huge seafood lunch. We hesitantly ask about a 9P dinner reservation which is gladly confirmed at a restaurant called the Freight Shed. It was a great meal as we shared a cup of seafood chowder followed by a Caesar topped with Lobster and 2 crab cakes. All was very good. Hotels are more 60s style resorts near town and there is a nice culture in town plus it is the location of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum which we had heard was done nicely by the Parks Canada. BADDECK TO HALIFAX WITH LUNCH IN ANTIGONISH AND A STOP AT BAY OF FUNDY (217 miles) We have skipped breakfast at the hotel so we stop at the Highwheeler Café and Bakery for an outdoor bagel and coffee. After that we drive up to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Bell was the inventor of the telephone and my grandfather was in the Telephone Pioneers of America Union in NY so this seemed like a required stop. Bell’s life was more interesting than the telephone as he had worked with sound because of a deaf family member and later in life as an inventor doing aircraft design. First on the telephone thing, it’s amusing that we used dial phones and kids don’t know how they work today but phones are just part of this museum as Bell won the Volta award from the French Government and established a think tank to invent more stuff with the award proceeds. Alexander Graham Bell's key flight contributions include his development of the tetrahedral cell design for kites and aircraft, which provided increased lift and stability. He also helped found the Areial Experiment Association and achieved Canadas first powered flight with the Silver Dart in 1909 and invented the aileron that is still used in aircraft design today. Just so you can absorb the history of flight, the Wright Brothers made the first flight in 1903 and Tony Jannus here in Tampa made the first commercial flight from Tampa to St. Pete in 1914. Overall, this was a really interesting museum and you should leave at least 90 minutes to tour it. After a later start than we wished, we are off to Halifax. Cape Breton is pretty far from the rest of Nova Scotia so we stop in Antigonish at the Brownstone Café for lunch. A couple of pastas and craft beers make the trip easier. Again, we make a bathroom stop at the Bay of Fundy visitors center, but by chance, we are there 15 minutes before the tidal bore. The tidal bore is a wave that comes up the rivers as the tide changes so drastically in the Bay of Fundy. I must say it was a little underwhelming as the tide was not real high on the day we visited so the wave was less than 12” coming up the river. We arrive our hotel, The Barrington about 4P after navigating the Friday afternoon traffic across Halifax as we are staying in the city center near the waterfront. HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA WITH A SIDETRIP (138 miles) TO PEGGY’S COVE, LUNENBERG AND BLUE ROCKS. Friday night, we check in and head to the Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk which is the city’s major tourist attraction. This two mile waterfront area has hotels, shopping and restaurants plus a really nice area with food stands with take away food that can be consumed in chairs along the seafront. We do some menu shopping and head back to the hotel. As it is Friday night, we call to ask about tables and settle on the Matadoras Tapas Bar for another late-night dinner. We share our tapas selections of salad, croquettes and mussels in tomato sauce Then we walk to digest back up the boardwalk, that is mostly closed at 10P. We end up at the other end near the Marriott where it seems a corporate party is happening but we can catch the music from comfortable chairs up the hill from the stage, so we stay for a set before retiring. Saturday is our last day of vacation so our plan is to visit Lunenberg, Kayak the Blue Rocks and then visit Peggy’s Cove on the way home. We get lost coming out of Halifax so we end up going to Peggy’s Cove first. This is the definition of “overtourism” as there were thousands of cruise ship passengers brought in by bus with the maximum capacity around 11A when we arrive. After a 15 minute stop to see the town, lighthouse and snap a few pictures, we are out of there trying to find our way to the highway towards Lunenberg. Peggy’s Cove and the surrounding bays are very pretty so that attraction should be taken from your cruise ship, to see the sights on the way as well as the tourist town of Peggy’s Cove. Lunenberg is less crowded but still has quite a few visitors. With our morning detour, we are running late so we only take a quick look in Lunenberg and get a sandwich to eat at the kayak drop. We arrive at Blue Rocks with enough time to check in and eat our first meal of the day at 1:30P. As we sit in the car, we are talking about how beautiful this area is and how flat the water is today. We have been lucky with weather as we are on the water again and the 25 knot wind from Friday has died to less than 5 knots so we’ll be almost 80f today for the paddle. Pleasant Paddling in Blue Rocks has quality equipment and great guides. We are able to get a tandem and it is my first experience with powering a rudder. This was one of the best paddles I have done in my lifetime and I have paddled some pretty spectacular places. We went in and out of rock formations that were emerging from a four-foot tide. The guide explained that rocks up and down the coast were different as we had noticed grey granite. These are metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, specifically metasiltstone and slate from the Meguma terrane, which are characterized by their layered appearance and dark, blue-grey color. They are different in three places in Nova Scotia but cousins to slate in Morocco and near the South Pole as scientists theorize when the world broke apart in the formation stages. The guide is pretty informative as we paddle out to an offshore island for a break of ginger sugar cookies and local Nova Scotia apples. Pleasant paddling orders the cookies from a local French bakery. On the way back to the drop, we catch a group of grey harbor seals who seem to be popping out to watch the kayaks as entertainment as we paddle by looking back at them. The guide explains as the shark population increases due to climate change the seals have moved further into the harbors to hang out away from the sharks in the shallower water. As we drive through Blue Rocks Island, we stop to see deer wandering in a yard. Gina remarks, we started the trip with deer and ended the trip with a deer sighting. We are glad we have reversed our daytrip, even with the crowds at Peggy’s Cove; as it is a pretty long ninety minute ride up the interstate back to Halifax but we find our way back to the hotel with the help of Googlemaps. The Barrington is an older hotel that has seen a grander day but it was a good value for the money. We did a prepaid in Bedsonline our independent tour operator. They have an arrangement with a city parking garage so you can do in and out with self-parking for $25 or $30 Canadian depending on midweek or weekend and you follow an obstacle course through a shopping/office complex to access the hotel from inside. Back at the hotel we do some restaurant shopping online and end up at The Press Gang restaurant and oyster bar. The server is working to get empty tables but the bartender says it’s not happening on a Saturday so we check to see if Gina is comfortable. Bar dining at 5’4” depends on how comfortable the stools are and I get a thumbs up from Gina as they are very comfortable stools. In front of us is 4 sacks of oysters displayed with signs saying they are from two different points in Nova Scotia, one sack from Prince Edward Island and another from Newfoundland. As Gina said we started and ended with deer, I suggested we start and end the trip with oysters. Now we’re in the big city so no happy hour, oysters are priced at 3.75C each. We opt for a “tasting” (two from each sack) which are quickly shucked and served with fresh ground horseradish and their own version of mignonette (the vinegar shallot condiment) we experienced in PEI. Of course, we disagree on the “best” as we are slurping and sipping but it is a fun evening to finish. We both settle on the Coquilles Saint-Jacques as the scallops have seemed to be one of Canada’s best seafood dishes we have eaten at various points in Nova Scotia and we are not disappointed. The tab is about 240 Canadian including a good bottle of wine, plus a cash tip but hey it’s 75 cents on a dollar and you only live once. The last morning, we get an extra hour to check out at noon so we head to the waterfront and around town for another walk before a shower and a check out. As the plane is 4P, we stop for another Lobster Roll at the Blue Nose 2 next to our hotel. This is an old school Halifax restaurant that serves seafood and breakfast all day with a 60s diner motif. Nice presentation with a local sub roll heated with brushed butter. Gina has fries but I opt for a cup of clam chowder. Halifax Stanfield International Airport is really easy for access to Nova Scotia with US Customs pre-clearance on the exit. Rental car drop is convenient as it is a small airport with easy security and limited gates. Overall, we will go back to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, as the food was excellent and Canadian people were all very friendly and hospitable. The Maritime areas of Canada are much less crowded than places like Banff or Vancouver with the exception of Peggy’s Cove on cruise ship day or the Cape Breton Skyline trail. Prince Edward is flat but Cape Breton had more interesting topography with hills and the drive along the Cabot Trail is nothing less than spectacular. Our favorite of this trip was Cheticamp with the Acadian culture. I am sure it was the view of Cape Breton Highlands National Park from Sunrise Cottage, listening to Acadian music on CKJM and eating French pastries with hot coffee in the morning that I will never forget. With the short 4 hour flight from Tampa, we remarked this may be a summer escape from the heat that gets repeated.

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Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island - Canada We had been planning to head to the Maritime Provinces of Canada for a few years now. In a busy year, we are squeezing a short 10 day “fly/drive” to visit our neighbor to the north. We have always enjoyed and felt welcome in Canada plus we have many Canadian customers so it seemed like a good year to vacation with our neighbors to the north. We are making a short cross border visit to the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island as well as Halifax for some cooler weather the first week of September. Canada is a particular bargain for Americans as most costs are paid 75 cents on a dollar and scenery is purported to be spectacular in this part of the world. Tickets were fairly cheap as we traded the equivalent of about $850 in points for two tickets to Halifax Stansfield Airport. We are flying nonstop from Tampa to LaGuardia and then it is a short 1 hour and twenty-minute hop to Halifax. Canadian customs was easy on the way in and we were out of the airport in an hour. Day one we will be driving about an hour and 15 minutes to Pictou which was the landing point for the Scottish in North America. Pictou is also only 10 minutes from Caribou where the Prince Edward Island ferry departs. There is also a bridge to PEI, but we choose the ferry as the cost is low with us only paying fees on the return run in September which is off-season. We will spend two nights in Prince Edward including a day exploring Charlottetown. Then we head to Cape Breton to drive and stay a few nights along the Cabot Trail. We will spend two nights in a cabin in Cheticamp, take a whale watching expedition departing from the northern tip of Cape Breton, stay a night in Ingonish on the other side of the trail and then a 4th night on the trail in Baddeck which happens to be the hotel used by Globus Tours on this similar itinerary. After that, we’ll be heading down to Halifax to finish the trip with two nights in Halifax over the weekend. We have also scheduled an ocean kayaking trip in Blue Rocks near Lunenberg, which looks very nice. DAY 1 HALIFAX AIRPORT TO PICTOU (85 miles) We were on-time into Halifax Stansfield and picked up our rental car at Budget. We have reserved the car through Auto Europe our wholesale car supplier as they have begun doing North American rentals. We get good pricing and clearly marked inclusions and most importantly exclusions so we get a total rental price on the contract. We will be driving about an hour and 15 minutes the first day which is good since the alarm clock went off at 3:15A in Tampa. Pictou looks nice and we have a room reserved at Braeside Inn which is a bed and breakfast. Braeside inn was built in 1938 and it is ok for one night with a nice view of the bay and a continental breakfast. This plan has worked well as all our planes were on time and we were into Pictou by 5P even with a stop at the wine store and a slice of pizza on the way. We take a walk into town as it is good to walk after sitting all day. The hotel has recommended Harbor House for dinner, it was a nice warm evening by Canadian standards; so we are seated on the porch. Haddock is the fish on most menus so Gina has the Parmesan crusted Haddock which is served with fresh Canadian carrots and French fries. I choose the seafood casserole which is an amalgamation of lobster, scallops, shrimp and haddock in a real light cream sauce with cheese on top. With a decent bottle of Italian Primitivo, we are happy sitting on the porch on a warm Canadian evening. The next day, we are catching the PEI Ferry at 11:45 for a weekend in Prince Edward Island. We walk into Pictou for a morning walk and accidentally meet Rebecca who is Manager for the Ship Hector Society when she is sweeping her front walk to open. The sign says busses only and I joke that Globus will be here soon and she jokes we are working on Globus, but not yet. With the ice broken, we introduce ourselves and she spontaneously tells us the story of Pictou. In 1763, the UK Government recruited 34 Scottish families (189) people to board a little tiny Ship Hector from the Scottish Highlands to the new world. UK was actively recruiting subjects to colonize so Pictou became the first landing place of the Scottish in North America. Next door is New Glasgow where we stopped at the government wine store (which also sells cannabis by the way). Last July they finished refurbishment of the Ship Hector and relaunched the ship https://shiphector.ca They are currently working on the original masts which were removed but saved and in good shape so they are currently being refurbished. They were removed as the ship is too heavy to refloat with the masts attached. If you are heading for the PEI Ferry, Pictou was a great stop as it was only about an hour and twenty minutes from Halifax airport and only 10 minutes to Caribou where you pick up the ferry to Woods Island PEI. DAY 2 CHARLOTTETOWN PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (75 miles) We arrive Prince Edward at 1P. Since our BnB Cliffside Inn is only 10 minutes from the ferry landing, we stop by to see if our room is ready early. It is so we meet Jay who is one of the hosts and we are able to dump our luggage and head out to Charlottetown. It is about an hour from Cliffside Inn to Charlottetown which is a port of call for many of our cruise ships so it is good to see it and walk around. Charlottetown is compact for tourists with everything in about an 8 or 10 block square. Street parking is free on weekends so we are taking a walk pretty quickly with a mix of crafts and restaurants as PEI is known as the food island. After a walk, we head to the riverwalk past the Delta where busses are parked from Gate 1 and Tauck. All of our escorted tours make this stop in Charlottetown along with Anne of Green Gables history and both were on the ferry as a ferry ride is always an attraction. It is a really warm afternoon for the fall by Canadian standards and we are menu shopping as Peaks Restaurant, by the marina was one of the choices mentioned by our host because of the weather. It is oyster happy hour at Peaks so we are soon eating fresh PEI oysters with craft beer in the sun. We do some menu shopping at a couple of the other restaurants Jay mentioned but end up at Claddaus Oyster bar which specialized in PEI seafood and dry aged Prince Edward Island beef. As this day was on the move, we don’t have a reservation at this popular restaurant so we end up at the bar for a ribeye steak and some fried clams with a couple bowls of local greens. We are back at our hotel by 8P so we catch most of the fading light for the drive back down to Woods Island. DAY 3 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND (90 miles) Cliffside Inn has a great breakfast with hot items like bacon, eggs and a lot of choices. Jay is up early cooking and he has told us he is doing buffet instead of cooked to order and it would be best if we get in around 8:15 when things are fresh. As we are up early, we drive down to see the lighthouse, take an hour hike on the Confederation Trail and stop to see the Provincial Park beach. It is Sunday so we cool out at Cliffside Inn for a few hours as it is right on the coast facing towards Nova Scotia. We are waiting for a front so the wind has died down and it is lovely on the sea as our back porch faces the ocean. About 2P, we head out to drive and hour or so North to Souris to see a lighthouse. There is not much on this coast except for agriculture but it is a pretty fall drive as we take 17 out to the coast to see what is there. It is a pretty drive and we end up at a nice beach area to see the Panmure Lighthouse. This one actually has the gift shop in the base and we buy the obligatory lighthouse Christmas tree ornament and head on. When we arrive in Souris, we go up to the lighthouse. Gina declines to climb the lighthouse as she is coming off a sprained ankle. I climb to level two to see a mini sea glass museum little tiny jars of sand from beaches around the world. All types and shapes of sea glass are displayed. After that I climb to level three where they have the working motor and gears to turn the light. They invite you to take a spin and she spins up with the gnashing of metal gears spinning the light. After that you can climb up to level four where you can go through a metal hatch outside on a mini balcony with a railing. When I get back to the ground Gina asks what was that loud sound when I was spinning the gears at the top. We stop into the gift shop and the operator of the facility is a young lady named Chelsea who tells us the story of the sea glass that was collected for her whole life by her grandmother. The family had operated the lighthouse for years and rebuilt a replica light keeper’s house that now had the gift shop. It was an interesting story as she studied some of these subjects in college, they went through a process with Canada to get grants to rebuild the light keepers house and was very versed in sea glass. She talked about other finds including in-tact bottles from the 1700 that got sent to the museum on Ottawa that they had made in the tidal mud over the years. She said any time it was a low tide when she was a kid, she remembered her grandmother poking around in the mud so it sounded like the lighthouse, career and college had all intertwined with this love of her grandmother’s hobby. Jay at our bnb suggested the Wheelhouse restaurant half way home. It is early in the trip but we are already realizing that menus in Atlantic Canada can be nontraditional but always good. We order a lobster paella which did not disappoint and an order of mussels in garlic broth. With a locally brewed IPA that is dark and rich unlike an IPA, this was a good stop in Prince Edward Island. PEI TO CHETICAMP STARTING THE CABOT TRAIL IN CAPE BRETON NOVA SCOTIA (170 miles) One more breakfast buffet with Jay and Amber and we are off for the 10:00 ferry to Caribou. I love car ferries. It seems to be a miracle of engineering and organization that you can load a boat with cars, busses and even trucks. Everybody is eating breakfast, so we wait on coffee as we have another 1 hour and 15 minute run to Caribou. The truck driver’s eating breakfast when we arrive and then play a few hands of cards. Looks like they take this ride everyday. As this is an article about a fly/drive trip, I would like to mention early that Google Maps way underestimated our driving times as we rarely got up to the posted speed limit once we exited the larger divided highways. My suggestion is to add at least 20% to whatever time Google gives you as well as all those cool stops along the way. Past Antigonish, you cross the Canso Causeway and then you are in Cape Breton at Port Hastings. We look around Port Hastings, but don’t see anything interesting for lunch so we take the coastal road 19 which is only a couple of minutes longer but supposed to be more scenic to enter into Cape Breton. One of the first local restaurants that day was in Harbourview named Sandeannie’s Bakery and Restaurant. This was very local and we enjoyed our grilled fish sandwiches topped with local lettuce and tomato. We started with a shared seafood chowder which was also good before hitting the bakery counter for the Airbnb house we had rented near Cheticamp. We ordered a couple of cinnamon rolls without icing and a slab of chocolate heavenly hash. These were the first Acadians we were encountering who are resident of this side of Cape Breton as I hear accents that could have been from Lafayette or New Iberia. We decided to take our homemade biscuit that came with the soup so the waitress brought butter without asking as “you can’t have biscuits without butter”. We are totaling up the bill and the soup was cheaper than in the menu as I bought a sandwich and the bottled water was free which was a pleasant surprise. Just a nice bunch of people and great food for the first stop on the Cabot Trail. We finally get to Sunrise Cottage in Petit Etang which is just north and connected to Cheticamp. We are staying two nights at this paradise with the prettiest view we have seen in a long time. The Cheticamp river flows behind this house and the hills at the entrance to Cape Breton Highlands National Park are framing the river. It is about 5P already so we walk the dirt road from the house as it has a beach at the end of the road where the river dumps into the sea. We get back to the house at 6:30 and we are realizing most restaurants close early on the Cabot Trail. We head back out to the Harbor House about 7:30 as it says they are only open until 8:30. As it was 2P by the time we found the first restaurant we do some apps including the crab dip and a Casaer with lobster meat. We also have an order of mussels which are fresh and steamed in natural broth only with onions and celery which harkens back to New Orleans Cajun’s who are cousins of the Acadian in Cape Breton. In the morning, we have a wonderful view for our breakfast. As we put the cinnamon buns in the oven we joked that we had to melt the congealed butter in the breakfast breads. We head out to buy our park pass and head up the Cabot Trail to see the sights. Skyline Trail is the one trail everybody wants to hike because it goes to overlooks but it gets full each day to capacity with hikers. We are ok as hiking with a few hundred friends is not as interesting. We head back down the trail a way and pull off at Corney Brook which is listed as an easy trail along the river. As I have mentioned in blogs before, hats off to Parks Canada as the facilities are clean and the trails are always well maintained. We are lucky as the Nova Scotia parks are now open after being closed because of fire danger in August. We make a stop at the Aucoin Boulangerie and bakery in Petit Etang. After the hike we head back into town for a lobster roll and fries at LeGabriel. It is to be our first lobster roll of the trip. This time of year, lobster is not in season but the restaurants keep frozen lobster which is very good for the sandwiches and a nice locally brewed craft beer. We take a drive down the coast and stop on the way back at Floras for some artisanat (French for “craftsmanship”) ice cream at 3pm in the afternoon because, yes, we are on vacation! We make a stop at the coop for some breakfast goods including a sweet quart of local strawberries that we washed and took in the car each day for a few days. We are able to get a late (8:30 pm) reservation at a restaurant called L’abri. With all the rich food, we are glad for a simple seafood pasta (that of, course includes some lobster) and an order of broccolini with garlic aioli, chili chips and sesame seeds. Later at the house, the lemon tarts we got at the boulangerie are pretty good about midnight. CHETICAMP TO INGONISH CAPE BRETON ON THE CABOT TRAIL (96 miles) Today we have a 1:30PM reservation to go whale watching at the tip of Cape Breton at Oshan Whale Watching in Bay St. Lawrence. We drove the northwestern section of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and stopped for a day hike at the Macintosh Brook trail which was a nice 1 mile walk into the woods to see a waterfall. Oshan whale watching, did not disappoint as we loaded about 24 people (and 3 dogs) onto the boat. We headed west and put on a pod of cavorting whales about 20 minutes later. These were pilot whales that inhabit this particular area most of the summer. The pod looked comfortable with us all watching them so we stayed in this area for a half an hour before heading on. About a half an hour later we saw another large pod and headed out to see them. They did not seem to be very social with us and they moved on quickly every time we got close. The captain was a soft-spoken man and his daughter was their whale specialist, so they agreed it would be best not to chase them around when they are not in a social mood but we saw whales twice and then went on to check out the grey seals that inhabit the cliffs on the east side of the bay. It is about an hour to Ingonish which was the last hotel I booked but when we got there it looked fairly touristy with the outside of the buildings looking a little like a jail complex. Inside the rooms at Knotty Pine Cottages was a pleasant surprise with a large clean room and a porch with a good view of Ingonish beach through the trees. We had not eaten since breakfast so we started checking restaurants but most closed around 7PM or at latest 7:30PM and it was already about 6:30 by the time we got there and checked in. We decided not to head out on the dark highway as our hotel was about 5 miles south of town and they had a restaurant called The Fisherman that seemed to be Chinese as this hotel seemed to be run mostly by Chinese people. It said his dumplings were his best dish so we had an order of those and other than that, some really mediocre Chinese food including a veggie fried rice that tasted mostly like the spice cumin that was really weird. It said the restaurant served until 9P but when we got there at 8P they told us only take out after 8. Our room had a kitchen table so we took it to go as we were traveling with wine from our day 1 stop, since we were staying mostly away from cities. These overnight stops along the way allowed us to spend 4 days thoroughly exploring the Cabot Trail. It can be driven in one day but the area is so neat I would encourage you to spend multiple days up there and stay in a few different places. INGONISH TO BADDECK – CAPE BRETON ON THE CABOT TRAIL (57 miles) The weather forecast is for rain to start some-time in the day. We are up and out this morning without breakfast, so we stop at a general store for some coffee, yogurt and a French toast muffin which seemed weird but actually tasted really good. Even the smaller towns do not have full services as we did not see a coffee shop or bakery in Ingonish. We have some day hikes selected but we are not sure we will get them in. Unlike yesterday when we had a beautiful day on the water, the wind is blowing about 25 knots from the east and a light rain begins to fall as we stop at a few of the overlooks as the day gets grayer by the hour but we do see seals at the Lakies Head overlook. The whale watch guys said to go eat at the Seagull Restaurant, so our plan today was to stop for lunch to kill an hour or so of a rainy day. We haven’t done fried seafood for a while so we have the platter with fries. First, enough fries for 4 or 5 people show up at the table, then huge platters are brought to the table with shrimp, scallops, haddock, clams and even fried mussels which we had never had. We commented we probably could have shared one of these. On the way to Baddeck, we stop at the Gaelic College (initially because of the large public bathroom sign) but as a tour bus pulled up behind us, we soon realized this is a stop everybody should make as they had collected arts and crafts from the fifty miles we just drove through. They also had high-end woolen goods and clothing in a separate store. Gina got a neat craft leather purse for $25 Canadian and we purchased some live Celtic music by fiddler Richard Wood of PEI before heading down the highway. After lunch, we worked our way south to Baddeck which is considered to be the beginning and end of the Cabot Trail. Many of our escorted tour companies use Baddeck as a base to send busses on the full Cabot Trail loop in one day when they tour the Maritimes and we see why. Restaurants are open at normal hours so it was nice to go eat late after the huge seafood lunch. We hesitantly ask about a 9P dinner reservation which is gladly confirmed at a restaurant called the Freight Shed. It was a great meal as we shared a cup of seafood chowder followed by a Caesar topped with Lobster and 2 crab cakes. All was very good. Hotels are more 60s style resorts near town and there is a nice culture in town plus it is the location of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum which we had heard was done nicely by the Parks Canada. BADDECK TO HALIFAX WITH LUNCH IN ANTIGONISH AND A STOP AT BAY OF FUNDY (217 miles) We have skipped breakfast at the hotel so we stop at the Highwheeler Café and Bakery for an outdoor bagel and coffee. After that we drive up to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Bell was the inventor of the telephone and my grandfather was in the Telephone Pioneers of America Union in NY so this seemed like a required stop. Bell’s life was more interesting than the telephone as he had worked with sound because of a deaf family member and later in life as an inventor doing aircraft design. First on the telephone thing, it’s amusing that we used dial phones and kids don’t know how they work today but phones are just part of this museum as Bell won the Volta award from the French Government and established a think tank to invent more stuff with the award proceeds. Alexander Graham Bell's key flight contributions include his development of the tetrahedral cell design for kites and aircraft, which provided increased lift and stability. He also helped found the Areial Experiment Association and achieved Canadas first powered flight with the Silver Dart in 1909 and invented the aileron that is still used in aircraft design today. Just so you can absorb the history of flight, the Wright Brothers made the first flight in 1903 and Tony Jannus here in Tampa made the first commercial flight from Tampa to St. Pete in 1914. Overall, this was a really interesting museum and you should leave at least 90 minutes to tour it. After a later start than we wished, we are off to Halifax. Cape Breton is pretty far from the rest of Nova Scotia so we stop in Antigonish at the Brownstone Café for lunch. A couple of pastas and craft beers make the trip easier. Again, we make a bathroom stop at the Bay of Fundy visitors center, but by chance, we are there 15 minutes before the tidal bore. The tidal bore is a wave that comes up the rivers as the tide changes so drastically in the Bay of Fundy. I must say it was a little underwhelming as the tide was not real high on the day we visited so the wave was less than 12” coming up the river. We arrive our hotel, The Barrington about 4P after navigating the Friday afternoon traffic across Halifax as we are staying in the city center near the waterfront. HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA WITH A SIDETRIP (138 miles) TO PEGGY’S COVE, LUNENBERG AND BLUE ROCKS. Friday night, we check in and head to the Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk which is the city’s major tourist attraction. This two mile waterfront area has hotels, shopping and restaurants plus a really nice area with food stands with take away food that can be consumed in chairs along the seafront. We do some menu shopping and head back to the hotel. As it is Friday night, we call to ask about tables and settle on the Matadoras Tapas Bar for another late-night dinner. We share our tapas selections of salad, croquettes and mussels in tomato sauce Then we walk to digest back up the boardwalk, that is mostly closed at 10P. We end up at the other end near the Marriott where it seems a corporate party is happening but we can catch the music from comfortable chairs up the hill from the stage, so we stay for a set before retiring. Saturday is our last day of vacation so our plan is to visit Lunenberg, Kayak the Blue Rocks and then visit Peggy’s Cove on the way home. We get lost coming out of Halifax so we end up going to Peggy’s Cove first. This is the definition of “overtourism” as there were thousands of cruise ship passengers brought in by bus with the maximum capacity around 11A when we arrive. After a 15 minute stop to see the town, lighthouse and snap a few pictures, we are out of there trying to find our way to the highway towards Lunenberg. Peggy’s Cove and the surrounding bays are very pretty so that attraction should be taken from your cruise ship, to see the sights on the way as well as the tourist town of Peggy’s Cove. Lunenberg is less crowded but still has quite a few visitors. With our morning detour, we are running late so we only take a quick look in Lunenberg and get a sandwich to eat at the kayak drop. We arrive at Blue Rocks with enough time to check in and eat our first meal of the day at 1:30P. As we sit in the car, we are talking about how beautiful this area is and how flat the water is today. We have been lucky with weather as we are on the water again and the 25 knot wind from Friday has died to less than 5 knots so we’ll be almost 80f today for the paddle. Pleasant Paddling in Blue Rocks has quality equipment and great guides. We are able to get a tandem and it is my first experience with powering a rudder. This was one of the best paddles I have done in my lifetime and I have paddled some pretty spectacular places. We went in and out of rock formations that were emerging from a four-foot tide. The guide explained that rocks up and down the coast were different as we had noticed grey granite. These are metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, specifically metasiltstone and slate from the Meguma terrane, which are characterized by their layered appearance and dark, blue-grey color. They are different in three places in Nova Scotia but cousins to slate in Morocco and near the South Pole as scientists theorize when the world broke apart in the formation stages. The guide is pretty informative as we paddle out to an offshore island for a break of ginger sugar cookies and local Nova Scotia apples. Pleasant paddling orders the cookies from a local French bakery. On the way back to the drop, we catch a group of grey harbor seals who seem to be popping out to watch the kayaks as entertainment as we paddle by looking back at them. The guide explains as the shark population increases due to climate change the seals have moved further into the harbors to hang out away from the sharks in the shallower water. As we drive through Blue Rocks Island, we stop to see deer wandering in a yard. Gina remarks, we started the trip with deer and ended the trip with a deer sighting. We are glad we have reversed our daytrip, even with the crowds at Peggy’s Cove; as it is a pretty long ninety minute ride up the interstate back to Halifax but we find our way back to the hotel with the help of Googlemaps. The Barrington is an older hotel that has seen a grander day but it was a good value for the money. We did a prepaid in Bedsonline our independent tour operator. They have an arrangement with a city parking garage so you can do in and out with self-parking for $25 or $30 Canadian depending on midweek or weekend and you follow an obstacle course through a shopping/office complex to access the hotel from inside. Back at the hotel we do some restaurant shopping online and end up at The Press Gang restaurant and oyster bar. The server is working to get empty tables but the bartender says it’s not happening on a Saturday so we check to see if Gina is comfortable. Bar dining at 5’4” depends on how comfortable the stools are and I get a thumbs up from Gina as they are very comfortable stools. In front of us is 4 sacks of oysters displayed with signs saying they are from two different points in Nova Scotia, one sack from Prince Edward Island and another from Newfoundland. As Gina said we started and ended with deer, I suggested we start and end the trip with oysters. Now we’re in the big city so no happy hour, oysters are priced at 3.75C each. We opt for a “tasting” (two from each sack) which are quickly shucked and served with fresh ground horseradish and their own version of mignonette (the vinegar shallot condiment) we experienced in PEI. Of course, we disagree on the “best” as we are slurping and sipping but it is a fun evening to finish. We both settle on the Coquilles Saint-Jacques as the scallops have seemed to be one of Canada’s best seafood dishes we have eaten at various points in Nova Scotia and we are not disappointed. The tab is about 240 Canadian including a good bottle of wine, plus a cash tip but hey it’s 75 cents on a dollar and you only live once. The last morning, we get an extra hour to check out at noon so we head to the waterfront and around town for another walk before a shower and a check out. As the plane is 4P, we stop for another Lobster Roll at the Blue Nose 2 next to our hotel. This is an old school Halifax restaurant that serves seafood and breakfast all day with a 60s diner motif. Nice presentation with a local sub roll heated with brushed butter. Gina has fries but I opt for a cup of clam chowder. Halifax Stanfield International Airport is really easy for access to Nova Scotia with US Customs pre-clearance on the exit. Rental car drop is convenient as it is a small airport with easy security and limited gates. Overall, we will go back to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, as the food was excellent and Canadian people were all very friendly and hospitable. The Maritime areas of Canada are much less crowded than places like Banff or Vancouver with the exception of Peggy’s Cove on cruise ship day or the Cape Breton Skyline trail. Prince Edward is flat but Cape Breton had more interesting topography with hills and the drive along the Cabot Trail is nothing less than spectacular. Our favorite of this trip was Cheticamp with the Acadian culture. I am sure it was the view of Cape Breton Highlands National Park from Sunrise Cottage, listening to Acadian music on CKJM and eating French pastries with hot coffee in the morning that I will never forget. With the short 4 hour flight from Tampa, we remarked this may be a summer escape from the heat that gets repeated.

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