Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island - Part 1

We were fortunate to have time to take a longer trip this year, so we headed to the Atlantic Maritime Provinces with a bus tour for thirteen days.  It was a wonderful trip, and 4000 miles later, we were still gushing on how much we enjoyed it.
I won't bore you with a lot of trip photos, but maybe just a few!

 By Day 3, we were in New Brunswick where
we had a very enjoyable trip on a lobster boat with a captain who told us everything we ever wanted to know about a lobster.  After instructions on how to properly eat a lobster, it was time for a lobster lunch on board.  Wow...messy!
This girl had grilled chicken.  Sorry.
I just can't eat anything with eyes staring back at me.  And its innards were still in there. 
And, well...not for me.  
The lobster was served cold, Acadian style.  Most agreed they would prefer it hot.

Another highlight was a stop at Cavendish, the home of Anne of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island. I had read the book years and years ago, but we watched the movie on the bus before arriving, and that was a nice refresher of the story.
What a perfectly beautiful, serene place to live.

Did you realize that Alexander Graham Bell was a Canadian?
I didn't.  We visited the Bell Museum, but his home was only visible from a boat.  It's a 37 bedroom mansion located on an island across from the museum and it's still used by the descendants of Bell.  Quite a little country home, hey?

We spent a day on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, following the 186 mile Cabot Trail.  Here you can see the road we travelled and the views of ocean or on the other side, the St. Lawrence.
Pink sandy beaches, rugged and rocky terrain, small Gaelic villages, thickly forested, and what seems like a removal from civilization, although I know folks live there. 

Halifax, Nova Scotia gave us a number of interesting stops.  The first was the old fort known as the Citadel.  This fellow was NOT going to smile.  One can see the Scotch influence in his dress.  The fort looks out on the harbor and once protected the citizens from any invaders.

The glorious Victorian gardens in Halifax were stunning.  Photos aren't enough.  All curves and circles - nothing in a straight line or square - it was very pleasing 
 to the eye.

One of our last stops was a cemetery in Halifax where many unknown and known survivors of the Titanic were buried.  The folks from Halifax were the first to come to the rescue when the Titanic went down.  Rows and rows of unknown persons are then flanked by some stones like this one.




To be continued...



(This post originally appeared on my other, now deleted, blog on August 27, 2014.)