Travelling around NS with Yvonne - part 2

Here it is, the much awaited (yeah right) 2nd part of our travels in Nova Scotia.
After a day at home, we hit the open road again and headed back over to the south shore.

The open road

Back to Lunenburg we went, so Yvonne could get some good shots of the heritage houses and waterfront in this UNESCO world heritage site. Then we went in search of the highly endangered piping plovers. There are about 60 pairs nesting all over NS in any given year, and we were on a mission to find at least one pair in their preferred nesting beaches. Well, we had no luck with finding these rare birds (perhaps not surprising), but we also couldn't find some of the beaches themselves!! Pretty amazing accomplishment, given that there is only one road and it runs along the shoreline.

Nevermind the birds, where the hell is the beach?

On the way back we decided to a shortcut to get back in time to see my brother and his family. We ended up on one dead end, and then found a slightly better road - only in that it wasn't a dead end. Have to say though, we really saw the middle-of-frickin'-nowhere-Nova-Scotia that day and the forest track (that doubles as a 'main' road) was quite pretty.

After another day of relaxation, we headed off for a weekend in and around the city. We spent the afternoon in Peggy's Cove, then headed to Porter's Lake (on the eastern shore, the other side of Dartmouth/Halifax) for a summer solstice party at the goddess Lexie's house.

Peggy's Cove from down the road - if you look closely you can see the famous lighthouse on the point

Up close and personal with the Peggy's Cove lighthouse - also a Post Office (apparently the world's only post office in a lighthouse)

The lighthouse in situ

And several more pictures of the fishing village and harbour at Peggy's Cove:

Yvonne checking out harbour life

The smiley face mug in the cabin of this fishing boat made me smile :)

The cove from the lighthouse

Looking south, along the cove

Looking east, out to sea

The two pix were taken about the same time - somehow it was beautiful out on the rocks and in the village, but was raining all around!

After a morning of recovery, we headed into Halifax for walking tour and a visit to the Dalhousie University campus. Of course we ran into a labmate (Gustavo) and another U of T friend (Francesco) there - they were attending a conference on campus. Then it was off to the eastern shore again for one last attempt at finding some piping plovers, and we found a pair!! Yay, and only kms from Lexie's house! Of course it was breeding season, so we couldn't get close enough for pix, but did get some good views through binoculars.

At the edge of Historic Properties, Halifax

Finally we spent the evening with Lexie & her boys, before sneaking out of her house at 4 in the morning. After leaving Yvonne at the airport, I made it home before 7am (we're about 2 hours from the airport!).

That concludes our adventures in NS. Next up, the great train ride.

Travelling around NS with Yvonne - part 1

It's been over a month now since I've been back home in Nova Scotia, so I thought it was probably about time that I post some of the pix from Yvonne's and my day tripping activity in mid-June.

We arrived by train in Halifax on Thursday, June 14th from Toronto, were picked up by my parents and somehow managed to jamb ourselves into the car with all my luggage (and Yvonne's one little bag...that one almost put us over the top ;) We spent the next three days taking day trips with my parents, down the valley to Annapolis Royal, over to the south shore to Lunenburg & Mahone Bay, over the 'mountain' to Margaretsville (on the Bay of Fundy) for ice cream on Father's Day, and stopped off at many other small communities along the way. We also made several trips to Frenchy's to complete Yvonne's summer wardrobe. (Frenchy's is a Maritime institution and probably warrants its own blog! Maybe there's already one out there...oh look, there's a post on one here.)

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures on these trips, so you'll have to ask to see Yvonne's, if you know her (she posted some of them on Facebook).

Mahone Bay

We picked up our rental car on Monday and headed off for trips on our own. We explored the area of the valley where I grew up (New Minas and area), hit the university town of Wolfville (Acadia University) and waited by the river to watch the tidal bore near Windsor. There was much discussion about what the tidal bore looked like, was it just the salt water running under the fresh water...kind of cool, but somewhat disappointing. The tourist info people said that sometimes it can be quite small and disappointing in that area. Then came the wall of water up the river and we KNEW what a tidal bore looked like. I think this was the same day that we stopped in Baxter's and Hall's Harbours as well. My family had a cottage at Baxter's, and the area is one of my favourite places.

Baxter's Harbour, near the old wharf

Seaweed on rocks

Green seaweed on rocks

Looking over to Cape Split

Hmmm, where exactly are we??

Baxter's Harbour: view from the public beach

One beautiful day we headed down to Brier Island in the Bay of Fundy for a bit of seabird watching on a 5 hour whale watching tour. Yvonne and I were quite pleased and busy all the way out (a couple of hours), as we saw tonnes of seabirds like greater shearwaters, gannets, petrels (a couple species) and a murre. We did not see the elusive puffin that Yvonne was seeking, which means of course that she has to come back. The tour operators finally located a few whales, which we watched happily but they soon disappeared as the fog rolled in. Luckily Yvonne and I were prepared with much warm and waterproof clothing, but many of the other passengers were not. Between the seasickness and the cold, there were several very miserable people on the boat by the time we got back to port.

Greater Shearwaters

A little humpback whale action

The whale's had enough of the tourists

The choppy sea

And the fog rolled in - Brier Island somewhere there

On one of the ferries, returning from Brier Island

Ferry bits

We also had a couple days just hanging out at and near home, catching a few zzz's & rays, doing a bit of backyard birdwatching and some unpacking (well that was just me).

Backyard birding included a lot of blue jays at the feeders

Stay tuned for part 2 of our great adventures in NS, where we'll return to the south shore and then head into the midst of the big city via a famous fishing village...

Lobsters and burning rubber

Well, it's that time of year again in the Maritimes - McLobster sandwiches are back at McDonalds and rubber is burning at the speedway.


So it seemed like the perfect time to visit the biggest lobster in the world located in Shediac, New Brunswick...


and to hit the speedway outside Moncton for a little racing action and the big burn out competition. This is where anybody (seems mostly men) can enter the racetrack (for a small charitable donation) and try to burn the rubber off their tires. The spectators, meanwhile, cheer them on in hopes of vehicular destruction while obtaining a nice new rubber coating of their own.

Ok, so the giant lobster & speedway action were not the real reasons for spending last weekend New Brunswick. My high school friend Louise lives in Moncton, so another long time friend (i.e. we've known each other for more than 30 years!), Jackie, and I went up for a visit. It was a weekend of good food, good company, 6 cats and intriguing entertainment.

And here are a few other photos from Shediac (close to Moncton, on the Northumberland Strait side):

Shediac River

The Tait Mansion

The Green House on Main Restaurant
Any guesses as to how you'd find this restaurant?

Shediac seems to have a fascination with sea gulls; you'll find them on most businesses and they are lit up at night (I missed out on that bit)

Free internet

Well, my romantic notion of using only the free wi-fi hotspots at nearby public libraries is getting old. It seems the only time I can access these 24 hour hotspots is from inside a library. This wouldn't be so bad, except the libraries around here are open so rarely. This of course means that everytime I check my e-mail, facebook & other internet sites that I have a huge backlog with which to deal and no energy to do so. I'm thinking of taking my mother up on her offer to get internet at the house.
In the meantime, here are some random photos that I've taken since coming home and not being on the internet:

Happy Canada Day Everyone

Anyone have Canada Day plans for today?
I'm house-sitting in New Minas for the weekend (house comes with 15 year old nephew), but there don't seem to be any festivities planned in the immediate area. Guess that I will be staying home making full use of the unfettered internet access...not that I particularly mind. Usually I will have to bike (or drive if the car is not in use) to the library in Lawrencetown for internet access, about 5 miles (or is it km?) from my parents' house. Luckily the old rail bed has been converted to a great recreational trail that runs to Lawrencetown and beyond, and I have an access point near the house. I can easily do some birding by bike and hopefully grab a few more glimpses of the lynx that inhabits the area.
As for other plans today, I think I might just crawl back into bed with a novel, while later I might wander out to the patio to continue reading and/or surfing.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.