Not the 51st State

Thus far, Nova Scotia is more driving and less seeing. We may have been a bit over-scheduled. We left Moncton and headed to Shediac for the sole purpose of seeing the world's largest lobster. As you might expect, I had to have a photo taken with it.    From there, we drove to Truro for a strange natural occurrence, a tidal bore. From the bowels of the computer:  "A tidal bore is a natural phenomenon where the high tide forms a wave that travels up a river or narrow bay, reversing the river's current . It's caused by the large volume of water from a strong incoming tide colliding with the river's flow, resulting in a single, distinct wave." It wasn't a wave you could surf on, but it was interesting, both as something that occurs regularly, and because it draws a regular audience.   Click here to take a look.    Moving on from Truro, our next stop was a distillery, then on to Cape Breton. We visited the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Badd...

Okay, I’m just gonna say it: Nova Scotia is covered in evergreens (although there is a hardwood here and there, peeping out with early fall colors), and the road from, say, the border of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to Ingonish Beach (which is not a beach), where we spent the night, is not a scenic highway. We saw lots and lots of trees. There was one overlook onto the Gulf that was scenic, and the rest was, well, boring. I knitted while Dan drove (which was his job after he criticized my driving). (And I have never had a crash that was my fault.) (Nor have I had a moving violation since the 20th century.) Dan had a photo of the overlook, which I’m sure he will post.  We did stop at a distillery, where they had this sign on the bathroom: I had fun looking into the sideview mirror: Doesn’t the look like a pyramid in the distance? It’s actually the “there’s a vehicle next to your car, so move your ass back over” thing, but I kept seeing the pyramid lurking over all of the evergreens...

The Ganong Chocolate Museum and Store is in St. Stephen, not far from Oak Bay. The original plan was to hit it on our way to Oak Bay, but that day was Labor Day, so they were closed. We checked to see if it would be open on Tuesday, and they were. But when we got there for a tour, there was a big busload of students unloading. We were informed that the morning tour was full. We bought a few items in the store and headed back to the Nobles' house.  At that point, Vicki, Rick, and I headed to Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick, about an hour and a half from Oak Bay. Fredericton was a delightful town of about 70,000. We walked the converted railway bridge over the St. John river to a lunch spot called Picaroons.  After lunch, we meandered back through town, stopping at a bakery, and headed back to Oak Bay.  Often before dinner, we catch the local news. Tuesday led with back to school day - not murder and mayhem, nor Trump - although he came up soon thereafter. Our eve...

Dan has all of the best photos, but he's really too nice to tell you all of the dirt of the trip. That's my job.  Flights were fine, and we had a lovely time, as we hauled ass through the Charlotte airport, reliving our lovely spend-the-night opportunity that we had there in February. When we landed in Boston, other than going the wrong way out of the airport, navigating the roads went smoothly. We got to Freeport, checked in under the shadow of the very large Native American than Dan posted earlier, and drove up to meet Susan and Dennis for dinner. On the way, back we passed - for the second time - some BBQ place, and Dan decided that he wanted a t-shirt. OF COURSE, HE GOT THIS ONE: The next day (Labor Day), we headed to Oak Bay to invade the home of Lynne and Rick Noble, who stupidly invited us to visit. Their home is great, and Canada is amazing. People are SO nice here... They move to the right lane of the highway without you riding their tail, and they are just so friendly...