Road Tripping I

Judy. You know we prefer staying in one place for a few days to a lot of road tripping, but for the past two weeks we’ve broken that rule and road tripped around Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It’s been eye-opening.

Fredericton

Gary and Sally, friends from home, arrived shortly after we moved out of our Airbnb in Halifax, and we set off in search of Sally’s ancestry. Her son has done extensive family research, but Sally wanted to see where her grandmother, a Home Child from England, landed in Nova Scotia with her sisters, and where she was married, so after a brief but wonderful visit with Mary Lou and Walt and a visit to Port-Royal, we took the ferry across the Bay of Fundy to New Brunswick. In St. John we found the grave of a great-uncle, and in Fredericton (a town we all fell in love with), she toured the cathedral where her grandparents were married. This really gave our trip a personal touch. At the Art Gallery, we saw more Emily Carr paintings, an exhibit of the Group of Seven, and learned about Lord Beaverton, who donated the museum and tons of other stuff in the town.

Sally and friend

All the while, we did our best to put lobster on the endangered species list…

Flowerpots, Bay of Fundy

After Fredericton, we headed to Moncton to walk on the ocean floor at the Bay of Fundy and marvel at the “flowerpots”, the islands that become towers when the tide’s out. That evening I watched my first tidal bore, as the tide from the Bay of Fundy reversed the current of the Petitcodiac River (also known as the Chocolate River). We finished up at Magnetic Hill, one of those optical illusion places where you put the car in neutral and back up the hill!

We visited Le Pays de la Sagouine, a cultural center based on the stories of Antonine Maillet, where we experienced Acadian culture in a living museum.

Le Pays de la Sagouine

Actors portrayed characters from her books and interacted with us. And we heard some really fine Acadian music—which, not surprisingly, sounds like Cajun music.

Unfortunately, it was time for Gary and Sally to head home, so after a wonderful week, we sent them off and started off on our own adventure through Cape Breton Island.

Cape Breton sunset

Cape Breton is not like anyplace I’ve ever been. We learned that when the Acadians returned, they were allowed to establish villages, but only those that were separated by “English” villages. Meanwhile, the English set up the “Highland Clearances”, in order to get rid of the small farms in Scotland and let their sheep graze. So in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, huge numbers of Scottish farmers settled on

At Forteresse Louisbourg

Cape Breton as well. As we drove around the island, we followed the Fleur de Lis trail to Sydney and to Louisbourg, where we visited the restoration of the Fortresse built here in the seventeenth century. Think Williamsburg.

Party in Port Hood

We followed the Cabot Trail through fishing villages and mountains to the Ceilidh Trail and stopped at the Glenora Distillery. In Chéticamp, an Acadian village with a Mi’kmaw (First Nations Tribe) name, we heard Celtic music. In Ingonish we saw a killer sunset and heard Canadian folk music. In Port Hood we went to the Murphy Pond Music Festival and drank beer with lobster fisherman, descendants of the coal miners who lost their job and almost lost their town when the mine flooded, and listened to an afternoon of country music. Their strong faces said it all.

We’ve stayed in upscale hotels; been “upgraded “ to a room with a doorbell outside and a spa tub in the bedroom; spent the night in a hotel right out of 1930; slept in bare-bones motel rooms where the sound of the surf sent us into deep slumber; and settled into historic B&B’s

Room at the Royal Hotel, Sydney

Hillcrest House, Port Hood

Along the way, we’ve met kind people, eaten fabulous food, seen incredible scenery, and learned about a way of life we couldn’t have imagined. We’ve seen pride in ancestry and acceptance of others. One night, we saw the Acadian flag tattooed on our waitress’s ankle.

Canadian and Acacian flags

She told us that she had it done when she went to Alberta for work. She felt the need to identify who she is, especially when she was far away. And now she’s home.