Month: July 2023

Monday, July 31, 2023

This morning we left our campground home for the past four nights and resumed our road-tripping.  Leaving from Kentsville, we are driving counterclockwise around Nova Scotia island and as in the US, we are avoiding interstate type roads whenever possible and driving the more scenic, rural, routes.  First stop was at Margaretsville Lighthouse.  It was built in 1859.  The lighthouse was automated in 1963 and the Coast Guard still maintains the light to help fishing vessels and recreational boaters.  Just a short distance down the road at Port George is another lighthouse that we just sort of stumbled upon.  It was built in 1888 and was only 21 feet high.  The lighthouse is no longer in use and is maintained for historical purposes by a local group.  Next was the Hampton Lighthouse which was actually the one we set out to find today.  It is a white wooden pepper-shaker style tower, topped with a red roof.  This lighthouse is also maintained for historical purposes.

You never know what you will find when you are looking for lighthouses.  At the Hampton light, just down below the light, in the harbor, we found some lobstermen emptying their boat of many heavy lobster traps and various ropes and supplies.  There was some heavy duty work going on and they seemed in a hurry.  We learned that today was the end of lobster season so all traps had to be off the water by 6:00pm.  In the case of this boat, on the Bay of Fundy, there was less time to do the work because they had to get the boat emptied and repositioned to its slip before the tide was out so far their boat would be resting on the floor of the bay waiting for the tide to come back in. (after the 6pm deadline).  The men’s wives and children were there helping and all seemed to be in somewhat of a celebratory mood because the men would be back home rather than out on the boats.  It was fun to watch.

As we continued to loop around Nova Scotia, we headed out on a little spit from Digby called the Digby Neck.  The first ferry took us from Digby to Long Island.  Long Island is home to Balancing Rock.  We hiked out to the rock, read the sign boards, took some pictures and then drove on to another ferry for a longer ride from Long Island to Brier Island.  We were later than we planned arriving, so we haven’t explored the island yet but in the morning we will be boarding a boat for a whale watching trip.  Hopefully the whales will be active and we will get some great photos.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Another pretty morning, a little cooler at 62 degrees when we woke up. Just about perfect.  We went to Melody’s church this morning, and everyone was very welcoming.  The sanctuary is full of rich wood and beautiful stain glass windows.  They had a newcomers and visitor luncheon after the service and we were invited.  We met so many people.  There were at least seven different nationalities present.  We had some great conversation.  After lunch we had to say our goodbyes to Melody, but it has been such a treat to be able to visit her here in Nova Scotia.  We will head on down the road tomorrow and she will leave for England later this week.  We did our walking in downtown again today.  This time we went back out to the sometimes waterfront harbor (sometimes the tide is way out and there is a mud flat.) and continued walking enjoying the views of the agriculture and dikes. The rest of the day was time for planning/resting/relaxing back at the RV park and catching up on paperwork.  It was another good day.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

What do Farmer’s Market, Laundry and Hike have in common?  That’s what we did today.  The Farmer’s Market in Wolfville opened at 8:30 this morning.  We were there early to assure we could find a place to park Beyond Blessed.  What a great market.  There were vendors with products of every kind.  The food options were amazing.  At least 3 bakeries with all kinds of fresh bread, pastries, breakfast items, sandwiches etc.  There were food and items from for sale from several nationalities. There was local farm produce of all kinds, as well as wine, liquor, beer, jewelry, lotions, potions, clothing, and even an author selling his books.  This was probably the best Saturday Market we have visited.  After seeing all the wonderful fresh baked bread we were very sorry we bought a loaf of bread at Walmart before we came to Wolfville.  We were told that these markets are standard for most communities across the maritime provinces.  We will be looking for another of these wherever we happen to be next Saturday. After leaving the market, we walked a few blocks to the quaint downtown area of Wolfville and around the harbor.  Nice morning walk-about.

Since we couldn’t stall any longer, we headed to the Maytag Coin Laundry in Kentville – the closest laundromat with decent ratings.  It wasn’t that great of a laundry but we got our clothes clean and that chore was done for another two weeks.  Cost $15.00 Canadian for 3 loads, wash and dry. While waiting on the clothes to finish, we studied the map for things we might do for the rest of the day.

We decided to visit Blomidon Provincial Park in Canning, NS, about 30 minutes from our campground.  It is known for it’s hiking and for views over the world’s highest tides. (Bay of Fundy)  Blomidon has 600ft high cliffs overlooking the huge mud flats at low tide as well as about 9 miles of hiking trails.  We hiked about 5 miles of the trails today in about 2.5 hours but we stopped and talked to people along the way.  It was a nice hike and a nice park.  It was another very nice day with perfect temperatures and sunshine in Nova Scotia.

Friday, July 28, 2023

We started this day with a hardy breakfast because Melody had a busy day planned for us.  We went to our dear friend Melody’s house and after a quick hello there, we headed out on our planned itinerary for the day.  First, we visited Evangeline Beach, one of the several beaches in the Wolfville, NS area.  The shore birds are returning and we went to take a look.  Tide was in but we didn’t see very many birds, but the scenery was wonderful.  Never tire of ocean views – actually in this situation, bay views. From there we went to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site.  The site is a monument to Acadian culture of the 17^th and 18^th Century and the deportation or “great upheaval.”  The Acadian people came to the New France from France.  When the British gained control of the area and the Acadians would not sign an oath of loyalty to the King, things got nasty in a hurry. We were totally unaware that today, July 28, is the Day Of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval recognizing the expulsion of the Acadians from what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I.  The Acadians were put into ships and deported to English colonies along the eastern seaboard as far south as Georgia.  Some eventually found their way to Louisiana and helped found “Cajun culture”.  This is an example of another time in history that we need to remember so that we don’t repeat the same atrocities.  While this was a horrible event, the National Historic Site is very well done with beautiful grounds, a beautiful chapel, and excellent presentation inside the museum.

Next we drove back into Wolfville to visit Acadia University where Melody works as a professor with Acadia Divinity College.  It’s a really nice campus and we are so happy Melody is enjoying her time here.  From there we drove to a great look out over the Annapolis valley. Again, such a beautiful site.  When Melody came to visit Acadia University, they took her to some of the places she showed us today.  Now we understand why she couldn’t say no to moving here even though it gets very cold and snows a lot.  Beautiful countryside and Wolfville is such a cute little town.

Melody also knew how to feed us well.  For lunch we went to Hall’s Harbor Lobster Pound.  Great setting right on the shore and great food.  After eating all that food, we needed to get some exercise.  Melody had that covered too.  We went to Aylesford Lake.  It is a popular county lake for swimming, kayaking, paddle boarding and boating.  It was great.  We opted for kayaking today and enjoyed our time out on the lake.  Then we opted to spend some time IN the lake.  Yep, after taking a dip it was obvious we were not in Alabama.  The posted temperature of the water was 23 degrees.  It was a little chilly.  After getting some warm, dry clothes back on, we opted out of dinner because we had such a big lunch with ice cream for dessert, of course.  We had a great day of fun and time of visiting with our dear friend.  So good to see her again! What a wonderful day.

Since some of you are asking about our Kit Kat comment earlier…  The difference in the Canadian and the US Kit Kats is that the Canadian Kit Kats are made by Nestle Chocolate while the US is made by Hershey.  We found we actually prefer the Canadian Kit Kat.  It is a more creamy chocolate with a less waxy taste.  We plan to bring some back with us.