Cabot Trail - survived by BANG

I Breakfast at the hotel in Sydney before heading on our adventure for the day.  All 4 of us packed into the van and off to Cabot Trail, one of the top 10 drives in the world.  

Before arriving on the actual road, we stopped in Baddeck where is the site of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, a national historic site.  This was pretty neat place, we learnt all about the family he and his wife lead in the most peaceful place.  We learnt that he invented more than the telephone, but also the tetrahedral, solar still, HD-4 (fast boat), airplane while never forgetting his passion to teach the deaf to speak.

I was most impressed by the photographs that they have of him and his family.  It is amazing the photography they had of him through his life.  Here was my favorite.

After the museum we had a bite to eat,  I had lobster and Adam had his first bowl of seafood chowder.  There was a lot of seafood in it.  The food was excellent and so was the view of the harbour.  We strolled in the rain to see all the little sail boats.  Also in the distance across the way was Alexander Graham Bells home, that is still owned by his decentdents.  It is pretty cool, that just yesterday the home became a historic site, and we made sure to go purchase a paper that had this documented.

Made sure to get Tim Hortons and gas before heading on the Cabot trail.  I didn't know how it was going to be, but it exceeded my expectations.  We stopped at many scenic views on the way, enjoying the landscape and making sure to have a few laughs along the way.

Trail head

In the highlands, farms in the valleys

The cliffs.

Entering the national park in the mid point of the trail.

Awesome topography.

Look out.  Finally got them in a photo together, we had an incident earlier in the day that made Blair a little pouty.  But he got over it pretty quick (thankfully).

Time to go back up the mountain.

Pleasant bay harbour was a neat place.  I loved the lobster traps.  We also dipped our toes in water at the beach.

Then the navigator, found a quick trail to go on to see a Scottish maple shack, and a brook.  It was a nice break from the van, but Nadine and Lola got excited when in the trail it looked like a washroom (even though it didn't show up on the map), but turns out it was closed.

Looking at the 350 year old sugar maple trees

The building.

The trail, woman at the front, men at the back.

Drive through the coulds. 

Wonderful red cliffs

Love the coastline.

Colourful fishing boats!

Relaxing in my second red chair of the day! The first one was at the museum...

Turned around after reading the sign on this restaurant, that is was in the food networks "you gotta eat here."  The food was great, and now we can say we have eaten here!

The famous burger "the ringer" and waffle fries for Adam!

After supper it was Lola's time to drive.  She was a little nervous of the twisting and turning roads, but I think she did pretty good.  She drove mostly 70 in the 80 zone and only had 1 scary moment when Nadine thought a car was going to turn into us, about 2 blocks to our hotel.  We also saw our first wildlife, a fox in the road!

Sun setting on St Ann harbour.

It was a great day we left at 8:45 am and got back at about 9:30 pm. 

Once back we had one more thing to check out in Sydney, the giant fiddle.  It is 8 tons and made from steel,  the strings are actually built to scale with aircraft cable. 3 of us walked while Blair stayed back at the hotel,

Our shadows on the board walk to the fiddle,

The giant fiddle.  It is super realistic.

Lobster in the boardwalk.

The view on the water is the last photo I took of the day.  

Tomorrow we are heading to the Fort Louisbourg to check it out, then off to new Glasgow to hopefully see Blairs friend James.

Well everyone is sleeping, and I am still up blogging.  I should try and get some sleep.  Till tomorrow,

Lola 

BANG in Halifax

The title of this blog is quite fitting.

We started the day with a visit to the Halifax Citadel - an old fortification built in the mid 1800's to defend the Halifax harbour. There was lots to see and do at the citadel, ranging from self guided tours where you can check out many open doors and areas inside and outside the citadel walls. Gwen really liked the small doors near the canons that housed munitions. 

Climbing up to the citadel that overlooks the Halifax harbour

Lola and her doors

Other highlights from the citadel:

Seeing a shooting demonstation

Seeing the various types of trenches used by the army (wooden trenches like in WWI and WWII and the "trenches" between the inner and outer walls of the citadel)

Seeing the many sizes of canons used and the types of ammunition used by each one

Trying on some authentic military dress

We were unable to get a late checkout from the hotel (they were sold out for tonight) so we had to make our way back before the 12 o'clock gun demonstration where they would shoot off one of the canons. 

With the van loaded, we made our way to Pier 21 which is where the Canadian Museum of Immigration is located, on the original grounds of the Halifax Immigration port. We quickly went through some of the gift shops at one of the nearby piers and then grabbed a bite to eat (lobster rolls had all round except for Gwen who had lobster salad). 

After lunch, it was time to check out the museum. 

The museum was pretty neat, showcasing the many points in Canadian history that shaped how immigration was viewed and regulated. We took an immigration test, unfortunately A scored the lowest out of B and G but only by one. 

Entering our heritage onto the display wall

After the museum, we made our way to have a drink at the Alexander Keith's brewery. Traffic was a nightmare as there was a festival going on and everything was backed up. Luckily we found a parking spot about two blocks away. Adam squeezed the van into an available spot on the street which was free parking for two hours. Immediately forward of our spot was one that could not be used after 4pm. We arrived at 3:40 and the van tires were right on the cutoff for the parking spot. "We will be fine", said Adam. 

And we were.  Sort of...

After quickly having our drinks (two amber ales for the boys, some rum and fruity concoction for N and G with her water), we made our way back to the van, at 4:15. Immediately upon leaving the brewery, we could see the flashing lights of a tow truck.  "No that's not us" said Adam. And he was right, but not after he and Blair made a block-long sprint only to see that yes, we were fine but it was the car two spots up from us that was getting towed, under the watchful supervision of parking police. 

Blair had already turned the charm on, to ensure that we were not getting a ticket too, we we politely finished our conversation with the officer regarding the cutoff for the "no parking" spot forward of our van (which according to this guy, is the mid point of the vehicle).

The parking police

 It took about 15 mins for the adrenaline to leave the bloodstream which was about the time that we got through the toll bridge in Dartmouth. 

We then made the long drive to Sydney, stopping in Truro for supper at Frank and Gino's restaurant which was surprisingly good. 

We are now comfortably lying with our feet up in our hotel on Cape Breton Island, trying to decide what time we are starting the day tomorrow. Hopefully not too soon - I could use a sleep in...

Somewhere enroute to Cape Breton