Friday August 19-The Seawall and lobster hatchery

This morning I got on the phone and started to call the places I will be staying on the final week of this leg of my journey. It was kind of weird to do that but it's time to get on the road again I guess.
But not so fast.

Yesterday as I was tooling around on the buses I found a couple of places I wanted to go back to today and spend some time.

The Seawall is a natural boulder and stone wall that has been created by thousands of years of wave action.
The sun was out, the tide was out and so was my chair. Sitting on one of the large flat rocks to watch boats of all kinds manoever around in the lifting fog and listen to the waves and little birds playing around in the drying kelp.

The fog lifted and the sun came out and it was an awesome visit.
Right, so nearly 2 hours later (gee time flies around here).
I packed up my stuff and headed out before the tide came back in and swamped me.
One part of the island, (which I've found out is really called Mount Desert Island but is pronounced "dessert" island and the signs around saying "MDI" have nothing to do with a meter dosed inhaler as I'm used to saying MDI in my job but about initials of the island. Got that figured out. Ha!) isn't covered by the buses so I decided to check it out.
It follows the western side of the island and weaves around small hamlets. Surprisingly it looks very similar to parts of Nova Scotia that I drove around. Man, that seems so long ago!

My next visit was to the Oceanarium which is really a lobster hatchery. Very cool.
I started my visit right in the hatchery! This place takes 2 weeks to bring the eggs to 4th stage babies which are 4-10 mm (yes, millimetres) long then released into the wilds of the ocean. The lecturer (all are students of ocean sciences which includes the biology part of things all the way to ethics) was super at explaining the process of how the eggs are hatched and nurtured. The babies live in huge cylinders of water where air is bubbled through. Interesting.
This is to keep the babies floating around, grabbing food and not their brothers and sisters. There is a fair amount of cannibalism that goes on. They are fed brine shrimp even smaller than they are. The temperature is monitored (made warmer than the ocean) and fed regularly.

The release is quite interesting too!
The baby lobsters are placed in a large cooler with a hose attached to the drainage port. The bottom of the hose is weighted so it goes right to the bottom of the ocean. The babies pour out of this hose and land where ever they land. The whole process moves along the floor so that there isn't a concentration of babies all in one place. This would attract predators (fish) and the little ones would eat all the food in one area. They are released in a similar area where the female who's eggs were ready to be naturally hatched was captured.
Very ingeneous. We saw all of this on a video! The staff were releasing the latest batch of hatchlings today.

Then there was the discovery pool where various sea creatures were in it. Sea cucumber (really gross to hold), horseshoe crabs (truly a cool thing), moon snails, star fish, sea urchins and scallops were all picked up, handled, investigated and the lecturer, again, was awesome. Here she is holding (upside down to show the underside) a huge female horseshoe crab which is more of a cousin of the spider than a crab.
This was so interesting!

The final lecture was on lobster fishing and how it all works. It was equally as interesting and I learned that soft shell lobster are actually ones that have recently molted and then they fill themselves with water to expland the hardening shell. They are cheaper to buy but they will be full of water. Hmmm Good to know.

Hungry it's time for my later lunch and it was, you guessed it. LOBSTER!

Off to another lobster pound that I had seen in Trenton up the road.

I got to pick my own crustacean and they cooked it perfectly (natch) over a boiling cauldron fueled by a wood fire. Perfect!

I was sitting in a screened in porch area having a grand time going through the beast. When I looked up after picking away at a claw who was sitting outside under an umbrella with her entourage? Martha Stewart! Holy Cow!

I overheard that she had flown her gang in and they are staying on part of the island. Guess having your own jet has it's advantages.

They were all leaving as I was so as I walked by I smiled and said "Hi" and she just smiled and one of the entourage said hi back. As we were all kind of in the same area it's only polite to acknowledge each other's presence. She seemed rather focussed on her chow dog (who was panting his fool head off in the humidity) and I gave him a pet as he sniffed me.

My brush with celebrity over I headed out to the hotel to park the vehicle and head over to the shoreline at the Regency across the road and maybe go for a swim there in the pool.

Pool was full of kids so I let that go and found a lovely spot to sit in the shade and watch the world go by. So spectactular!

So, another day gone by. Don't know where it went... Oh yes I do! I was having a great time in the out of doors enjoying beautiful weather, getting educated and enjoying a lovely lobster lunch/dinner. This is living! (Oh dear, does Martha Stewart say that??)

Plans for tomorrow is to try to stay out of the village core with my vehicle because Saturday is supposed to be just crazy around here. Aha! The bus! That's always an alternative.

As I type the clouds are starting to gather and the fog is rolling in a bit. It's been humid all day and about 85 F. I really have no idea what that is in Celcius but it was nice in the shade.

Last full day in Maine tomorrow. Then off to New Hampshire and the White mountains...more to see!





Thursday Aug 18- Bus ride day

Today I didn't really know what I was going to do! There were a few options on the table.

Rent a scooter to buzz around the area, but I needed to research that to figure out if I really want to do it.
Or
Walk into town and hang out and check things out that I didn't before.
Or
Go to the Oceanarium to see what that's all about.

Particularly didn't want to drive today as the traffic yesterday was challenging enough and it's only a mile into town and I can leave the Equinox behind to have a rest day.

The fog outside my window early in the morning was so thick I really couldn't see across the road so that makes the driving part a little hard when I really don't know where I'm going so walking sounded like a good idea! The weather report here includes a fog grading. If it's a 0 then there's nothing but fog out there. If it's1/4 then you can see a quarter mile, if it's a 10 then it's clear but patchy. I'm learning something new every day here.

I also learned, via the radio, that there are free buses that are supported by L.L. Bean to transport folks around FOR FREE! Oh, that must be the buses I saw at the Village Green yesterday. Aha! A new plan! I wonder where they go....

So after my great breakfast I alerted the office staff I was leaving my vehicle and they said it was wise and that the buses will take me where ever I want to go. There's even one going past the motel every 15 minutes in the evening and every 30 in the morning. Hmmm.

I opted for the walk and as I entered town I located the scooter rental place. Hmmm $500 deposit (refundable on return of the scooter), $90 for the day plus gas. More Hmmm
None available at 9:30 this morning and I'd have to wait until the half day rate. Which was just as well so I could think about it. I left my name for tomorrow instead.

Off to the harbour where I sat overlooking the foggy boats, most I couldn't see for the first little bit, doing some crossword puzzles and sudukos and enjoying the atmosphere.

Fog enshrouded, it was eerie to see the harbour so different than yesterday. Much less people too. No cruise ship in the bay.
There is a harbour walk that goes for a mile along the coastline from the town. I decided to take it and it was phenomenal! So pretty. Get a load of that balancing rock! Cool!

What a great walk that was...The homes shrouded in fog too but they were something to look at let me tell you.
Back into town for a look see again.
I stopped by the bus drop off area and asked a driver if their routes were round trips. Aha! they are!
Super. So I hopped on the "Sand Beach" route which would be about an hour long and take me through the Acadia National Park on the loop road which is a great way to see the park. It's a one way road that literally loops through the park. I was going to ride the scooter this way but after being on the bus I realized that this was way better. Someone else was doing the driving! We went into all the picturesque parts and it was sooo awesome! Really pictures were hard to take because I was so focussed on what I was seeing out the window and the fog made it a little difficult to get a good shot. But the drive was so amazing, up and down and around and whee! It was a ride!

I left my donation in the box (it's all free but they like donations to help out) and headed off to a sushi bar I had seen fleetingly yesterday. Found it! yum! I had a California roll with REAL crab meat in it, not the fakey stuff. Oh yeah....

I decided to take a longer bus trip this afternoon all the way down to Southwest harbour. Round trip 3 hours.
What a great way to see the lower part of the island (Bar Harbor is technically on Desert Island) and some of the sights without worrying about traffic and crazy drivers. Awesome ride.
If the weather holds tomorrow I will head to The Breakwall and play around on the shore.
I highly recommend this way of travelling in this area. Parking is nasty ($15.00 for a parking ticket, at least that was the charge on a ticket I snooped at) and chaotic. This is just what this area needed!

This bus took me back to my Days Inn Motel! Perfect!

So the weather totally held today and that was a surprise and I found things that I can investigate more tomorrow!
I still have the Oceanarium I want to visit and I need to have lobster again (I took a day off from it). Plenty of time. I have two full days here left and I think this is great timing to get what I want to done. Oh yeah, there's a very historical Anglican (sorry, Episcopal) church that I need to investigate too.
Maybe I'll take the bus back in to town tomorrow, or walk and do that.
I like staying in a town for a few days because you can figure out how things work here and what can be taken advantage of.

Day is done, feet up, a bowl of fruit beside me to watch pre season NFL football!  Tomorrow is another day of adventure!

Wednesday August 17, 2011 in Bar Harbor Maine

After the solitude and quiet (somewhat) of P's camp this day is certainly a switch let me tell you.
A great day dawned and I didn't want to waste it so off and running early this morning.

A great continental breakfast is held here and there are even little trays to take it back to the chair and table outside my room. I had breakfast in the early morning sunshine and it was just a great way to start the day.

If I remembered correctly Bar Harbor is really two streets that intersect and one ends at the main harbor. Perfect I found a parking space on one of the side streets and there is 2 hour parking so I figured I could stretch it a bit for a while.

The day was beginning for many of the shop owners so I did my tour to orient myself first then off to the harbor.
Wow! A huge cruise ship was just off shore! Neat!

I found out it is the Caribbean Princess and the passengers were starting to come on shore. It looked like it was going to be a busy day.
The harbour was something to see with huge yachts docked.

I then started to walk along the streets and check things out. So much fun shopping. There were so many fun things to buy! There were also lots of stores to check things out and compare. So, yeah, I bought canned lobster bisque, a couple of shirts and some other goofy stuff.

I had a blast! Oh dear, there is an ice cream shop and I have been walking for a while soooo a Pina colada smoothy was just the ticket! Sitting overlooking the Village Green and watching people go by it was awesome.

Since I've been having some problems with the Wi-Fi at the motel I decided to check out the internet cafe and see what it was all about if I had to write my blog from there. $2.50 for 25 minutes. Lots of computers and an espresso bar attached. Nice. There's plan B if I need it.

Needed to find a laundromat too, there's got to be one here and it's got to be cheaper than the $2.50 for a wash and the same for a dry. Aha! found one! open 24 hours too! Not that I'd do that but much cheaper and much bigger than the hotel across the way. All things are coming together.

The downtown core was getting more and more congested with folks and it was time to move the Equinox so off I went. Didn't really know where I was heading but it was following a sign to Northeast Harbor along route 3. What a fun drive! Weaving and dipping and following along to the harbor.

This is what greeted me.

Way too good to leave so I sat for a good half hour and watched the activity of the harbor. This place is where folks leave their boats to head off to the island that surround the whole Acadian peninsula. It is such a beautiful area and if you look at some of the boats there isn't a lack of cash around. Some of the yachts are HUGE!

After witnessing some of the poverty and really just plain low income this whole area is really a total flip of the coin. The homes are massive and beautifully kept. There isn't anything that isn't perfectly appointed and painted and the lovely gardens.

Another tour finished it was time for my early dinner and the Lundy's Lobster Pound was the perfect spot. A beautifully cooked little lobster with some salad while sitting in a screened in porch was the perfect conclusion to a great day. Lovely service and homemade pie to make the whole experience a lovely time.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring but there is an Ocean education centre down the road that looks really interesting!

This truly is a fantastic area to come to and I can see why so many people come here. The parking lot is full of so many different plates. So great!

I leave you with a Maritime picture!

Lobster floats at Northeast harbor, Maine.

August 16th-Bar Harbor Maine

Greetings folks!
It's been a while since I've been in civilization so I finally have a chance to blog.
I am currently just outside Bar Harbor Maine but for the past 6 days I have been at my friend P's camp in McAdam New Brunswick on Wauklahagan Lake.
This family camp is without power (except solar) and running water (except for a hand pump) and propane is the fuel of choice for the stove and fridges.
This place is truly amazing and after a few hour drive from St. John where I had arrived from the ferry from Digby Nova Scotia I was met by P and my other friends the W's who were visiting from Toronto too!
What a blast!
The camp, as they call them here, is great cottage type building with 4 sleeping areas and a large living room and huge screened in porch. Many couches and lots of space for everyone to hang out in. There is a beach area and the water is calm and clean.

We had such a great time and really the lack of technology or power really wasn't that big a heart ache. It was actually a joy at times not to worry about what was on TV or who might want to watch what. We had good old conversation!

The camp has been in P's family for over 60 years and it is on a rocky island so there is little even land for the buildings and walkways. The trees make a beautiful canopy over everything and there is moss and pine needles to walk on.

The facilities or "going up the hill" is a lovely outhouse that overlooks the trees to the lake. You don't close the door because there isn't anyone to see in anyway. It's all very private and secluded.

To get to this peaceful spot in Canada I took the Princess of Acadia ferry from Digby Nova Scotia on a very rainy wavy day to land in St. John for the night then drive from there to McAdam New Brunswick via St. George, St. Stephen and St. Andrew by the sea.

St Andrew is a very historical fishing village and the mainstreet really is it's main street and there happened to be a farmer's market going on that day. It was quaint and laid back. Like all of the maritimes and I enjoyed my stop there.

When I arrived at the dock area to meet P and the gang I had a chance just to sit and watch the world go by. Not much goes on here but this dock is the main landing departure strip for the folks that live "up lake". There is terminology that is required for this area. Camps are cottages, Up lake is literally up lake, lobster pounds are lobster restaurants or places to buy lobster and a moose shed is not a building but a place where the moose shed their antlers in the winter after their year's growth. Sometimes it can be confusing!

Once they arrived from the camp we headed to Harvey to pick up lobsters and have lunch. I had offered to provide a lobster dinner for everyone, kind of my hostess gift to the camp and all there. We had a blast trying to fit in the huge cooler of lobsters in the back of P's SUV but it fit and all was well. A trip to the grocery and liquor stores and we were set. Off to Quinsigamond Island and the Camp.

Lobsters cooked for dinner and some left to cool for the next day's lobster rolls this was a happy day! Now we just waited for the weather to get nicer.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all "beach days" and we enjoyed our time sitting on the deck chairs enjoying books puzzles or what ever we decided to do. No chores, no pressure, lots of fun and lots of sun.

This is true cottage life!
It was so nice to have familiar faces to talk to and a familiar place to be! I was last here in 1998!
I'll fill in more details later. There's much to tell and I just have to figure out where to really start but you get the idea.

All is well and tomorrow's weather here in Bar Harbor is supposed to be nice so I'll have to blog about too!

Cheers all!

Day 27-Digby to St. John New Brunswick

No real plans today. Just to pack up my bags so that I can take the minimum to P's camp in McAdam. I took my time as there was really no rush to check out. There were about 4 people left in the hotel. Seems everyone uses the Admiral Digby Inn to hang their head for the night before heading to the early (8 am) ferry to St. John. Not being in a real rush for anything I had already decided to take the later ferry then spend the night in St. John.

After breakfast and packing I decided to head along the coast away from Digby to the Fundy Coast and see what's what. I looked at the map and decided Margaretsville (or Margaretville depending on what sign you look at). It was a bit of a drive but I figured I'd take the main highway there and then the minor highway on the way back.

This part of the Fundy coast is really high cliffs and homes perched on the side of them. Again I noticed that many of them were up for sale but with the weather the way it is today I can only imagine why they are for sale.
The sun actually came out over the Annapolis Basin before I left and it was a pretty sight. But it was short lived. I drove through the Annapolis valley with just a drizzle.

At. Margaretsville there was a grand total of 8 people I counted, no stores, three churches and a beat up wharf.

I headed back to Digby as the clouds were gathering and looking a lot darker than they were about an hour earlier so I took route 1 back through the Annapolis valley.

This area is known for it's fertile land and it struck me as so strange that only a few miles away there are fishing fleets getting what they can and here there are fields of crops and dairy farms. All very different looking too. Flat with a river running through it all.

The two small towns, Bridgetown and Middleton are prosperous (appearing) small towns with all the amenities that would be nice to live in. Some are even gearing up for their upcoming fairs and I think the agricultural side of things reigns supreme in this valley.

As I reached Digby the skies really opened up and after a snack for a late lunch I checked out a couple of stores for something that would be neat. Found a nice fleece vest with a whale tail on it. I'm still determined to see a whale or something whale like before I leave the east coast!

I arrived at the ferry dock early but there were already cars and trucks there. No problem. The wind was howling and the rain pounding but I was snug in my car and I had a magazine to read.

Beside my car there were 4 full sized transports with seafood in them. Ha! That's how they get them to the west so fresh. The ferry saves 4 hours of travel time. We all were sorted out into the bottom of the ferry and I am always in awe when the ship can take so much weight on it and it stays level. That's an art.

So, 4 transports full of lobsters, clams, scallops and fish and a whole bunch of other vehicles in a hold of a ship. I cannot describe in enough detail that would make any kind of sense the odour of that cargo hold. Yikes!

Keeping the windows shut in the vehicle was the key in keeping the fishy smell out and it all tolerable.

I escaped up top. Yick.

With the crappy weather outside there wasn't a chance for any pictures as the deck was quite awash!

On the second deck there was a museum interpreter explaining more about the Bay of Fundy and how it was formed and the tides and fishy things. There was a 15 minute talk every hour and the first one was interesting but then I got really tired. I had been on the go for quite a while.

Up to the top deck where there were long benches around the outside of the room and the smell of freshly brewed coffee from the Starbucks there. I found a spot (there were lots as the ferry was probably 1/2 full) and nodded off for about an hour. It was great! The gentle rocking of the boat, protected from the elements it was really nice.

We arrived in St. John early because of a following wind and we all dove down into the vehicle hold (yikes it really stunk now) and I dove in the car as fast as I could. Phew! It didn't stink! Yippee!

The navigation system was worth the money today. I had preprogrammed the motel location when I was waiting for the ferry in Digby. This proved invaluable because it was getting dark (huh? it was just about 7 pm) and raining hard when we disembarked. Once the GPS found me (I guess it couldn't while the vehicle was in the cargo hold) I was directed perfectly to where I was staying. I know I would never have found it on my own without some back tracking and u-turns. Yay!!

The Econo-lodge is nice and will do fine for one night. Big room, fridge and microwave so I could nuke a soup that I had in my supply as I didn't want to search for somewhere to eat at this hour. Certain supplies I travel with include a spoon (or two) and my swiss army knife. I can prepare anything with those two utensils.

Dinner done I started to work on my blog but got kicked out because Blogger was reformatting itself! GRRRR.

So, as you can see, blog is done now and tomorrow I head out to meet my friend P in McAdam to stay at her camp for a few days. There are other friends from Toronto there too so it will be really nice to see some familiar folk and hang with them for a while. It's been a number of weeks since I've done any goofing off!

P's camp doesn't have power (so keeping the pilot light going on the beer fridge is a really good idea) so I won't be blogging until I get to Bar Harbour next week.

I'll have lots of pictures and stories to share then.

So, have a blast everyone and I'll see ya all later!

Cheers all....



Day 26-Digby Neck and Digby Town

Woohoo! It's not raining this morning! Right on! Plan worked out. Today was planned to be an outdoor sight seeing day. Perfect.

After the bus load of folks headed out for the ferry at 7:30 this morning I got a little bit more sleep. Surprising how much noise a bunch of golden agers could be that excited in the morning. Holy cow!

I packed for any contingency between the weather and things that I might do. I planned to drive along Digby Neck. This is a 60 kilometer spit of land that forms St. Margaret's Bay to the west from Digby. It is narrow and even has a fresh water lake in the middle of it. There are two ferrys that will take you to the farthest part of the Neck. Following the signs I headed to East Ferry which is the last point before the first ferry to Tiverton! No, not the Tiverton near the cottage but another one that hugs the side of a rocky cliff overlooking a very deep, very fast current filled break in the land.

The geography here is really dramatic with rock heading right to the water. I thought the seaweed made a neat picture.

The Tiverton ferry moved back and forth across the channel and actually went sideways just to handle the current. This shows just how strong the current is when the ferry has two transports as well as a handful of cars and it still is struggling.

I met a fellow traveller from South Carolina and she was commenting on the fact that it was so cold up here. I was wearing a sweat shirt and shorts and sandals. I think she would have had a winter jacket on if she had one. I said it was actually quite refreshing and pleasant. We laughed at what you can get used to! They headed over to the next island and I decided that what I had seen already on the trip there I didn't need to see any more so I headed back to take some of the side roads I had seen.

There is one lighthouse marking the entrance to the channel for Tiverton and East Ferry and I thought it looked really "east coast". 

One of the side roads took me to Sandy Cove Beach. With the tide out the beach was huge! There wasn't really sand but very fine gravel of all different colours. It was tough to walk on but really neat to see how much stuff gets thrown up on the beach. There were miles and miles of rope and bits of lobster and crab traps and fish nets. This cove is a catching ground for all that floats through the bay of Fundy. I'm sure, again, that there was a time that this place was filled with boats and actions. Now, not so much.







Beach combing is fun and you never know what you might find.
I did find this little fellow (gal?) and he was so well hidden at the surf line that I didn't even see him until he moved.

I thought he needed an extreme close up. But I'm not sure he was thrilled with me.

 

Other than that one encounter with wild life there really wasn't anything else on the beach. It was a good work out walking on the beach though.

Off I went to the next cove which advertised as having a little more action.
Well, at least that's what the brochure said.
Ah, alas, not so much.
Gulliver's Cove is supposedly where Captain Gulliver and his band of pirates hung out and waited for unsuspecting ships to seek safe haven then pillage them. It is legend that Captain Gulliver was killed by his own wife because he wouldn't let her go home to the West Indies.
Right, that's one tough Mamma. I guess she was part pirate herself!

The cove was incredibly quiet and only the sound of the waves and the waterfall in the distance there wasn't any human sounds what so ever. It was actually kind of eerie!
No one but me.
Oh yeah and the farm of emus down the road.
What??
Yup, emus in the middle of no where.

Strange place.

Off to Digby for lunch at the Fundy Restaurant. Nice view, fresh scallops and a lobster tank inside. I'm in.
Awesome overload of scallops in a chowder then sautee'd on top of a caesar salad. Right on! Support the local economy I always say. Lovely waitress gave me today's paper to read while I ate. Very nice! The view was great and the place was quite busy for 2 pm on a Tuesday.
Stuffed, it was time for a long walk. Off to the wharf for a look see.

Digby is a working port and the scallop industry will keep it going for a long time to come. I hope.
The boats, when I was visiting, were about 30 feet down from the level of the wharf. The tide makes doing even basic chores on your ship a challenge. I watched one scallop boat prepare to go out by loading on ice. The dock worker brings over a modified, beat up, pick up truck with a huge hopper on the back filled with ice. There is a sluice that is lowered from the back of the truck and hopefully the drop is perfect to get it into the hold. The noise you hear in the video below is the captain of the ship keeping the throttle up to hold the boat so the stream of ice goes in the right spot. Oh yeah, and there are two guys in the back of the truck shovelling the ice out. Unfortunately I did video this but I couldn't seem to download it onto the blog. Even after 3 tries... grrrrrr technology.
I'll give it a try at another time. Oh well.

I wandered back to my vehicle that I had parked at the other side of town and needed to find the fruit and veggie stand I had seen on my way back from Digby Neck. I needed BLUEBERRIES!
There is little local fruit but blueberries are quite abundant. Yum! The little stand was unmanned and a little lock box for change was there so I put in the proper amount for the best looking, biggest blueberries I have seen. I also picked up some yellow plums too. These were AWESOME. Wow. Fruit and salad all in one day. What will my body do?
As I write I have finished the plums and most of the blueberries. Oh dear. I'm hoping to get some more before I leave the area tomorrow.

Interesting things learned today:

• The 20 huge "cages" suspended in the Basin just to the left of the Admiral Digby Inn where I'm staying are salmon farm cages. So if you see farmed Atlantic Salmon on a package it might have come from here.
• The Digby Scallop Rake is a patented invention just made to harvest the scallop beds around here and was created in the 1920's.
• Populations will ebb and flow as need arises. I feel that this is a down turn for this area and in another generation it might just pick up. How? I don't know but it might just.
• Scallop and all fisherpeople have a very hard life. When it's good it's good, when it isn't it sucks.
• Native born Canadians are able to handle the "cooler" temperatures of a Canadian summer. (I hear everyone in Ontario laughing at me right now). Hey, it got up to a whopping 20 degrees Celcius today in Digby.

Tomorrow who knows where I'll spend the day but I'll be on the 4 pm ferry to St. John. I watched her on her 4 pm run today.

Gee, I hope the weather is good for the ride.
Who knows around here.
Until later!

Day 25-Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

Rain gear test day!
The weather network really does try it's best in this province but really, it doesn't have a chance. What they predict rarely is reality but for part of the day they were right.

After breakfast in the lovely dining room here, overlooking the whole Annapolis Basin, I packed up my day travelling gear and set out for Annapolis Royal. This is one of the oldest settlements in Canada and switched "ownership" 7 times between French, English and Mi'kmac.

Again, I took the scenic route to get there and went through what was a booming naval academy area in Cornwallis. This base is still used for training Cadets but only in the summer months by the look of things. Again, I can see how it made a major impact on the economy of the area. The views of the basin are equally stunning from here and I must be a picture in the fall.

Highway 1 took me through some salt flats and then pow! Right in the middle of Annapolis Royal. No warning but there was the town. Just a few streets and then the water and wharfs and the oldest National Park in Canada, Fort Anne. I set out to wander around.

As my fascination with the tides here I had the opportunity here to get up close and personal with the lowered water. These are scallop boats and by the time I left Annapolis Royal all three were completely out of the water. It takes some special type of mooring tactics to make sure the ship stays were it is when it goes dry and when the waters come back up.

The town is ancient with the first English folks arriving in the early 1600's. Then the French came along and blew them up, then the English fought back all the while there were the Mi'kmac Indians having their fair share of battling for the area. Naturally a fort was built and with the now garrisoned town it had a fighting chance but it too fell back and forth between French and English. There seemed to be so many times that a family would build a house then leave again because the other country had taken over then come back again, to the same house, when the other country won the town back. Just crazy!
One place with this history is the Sinclair Inn. I had to take the picture because of my friend L, who's last name is Sinclair!

This building is being restored by the museum society in town and boy do they have their hands full. The building is constructed of huge beams that go up to build a 3 story structure and the walls are insulated with a mud and straw combination. They have uncovered original wainscotting and some of the tin roof that was applied in the 1700's but with the building being so many different things they are challenged as to find the best thing to highlight it's history. As one of the first buildings still standing in Canada it will be a long process. The young lady who explained all of this was really great and so enthusiastic. I've found this all across the maritimes.

The town is full of interpretive plaques and are very informative. I spent 2 1/2 hours just wandering around reading the plaques and looking at stuff. Some of the plaques had lots of reading on them.

As the tide lowered I could hear, in the distance kind of a waterfall sound. This is the first tidal power generating plant. Neat! The turbines are always turning as there is a small dam that is blocking part of the Annapolis river as it flows into the basin but as the tide goes out (it drops about 30 feet here) there is more water let through the dam and the turbines go faster and faster. If you stand close enough to the plant at the lowest tide you can hear a high pitched whine of the turbines going nuts. It was raining too hard for me to hear that but I believe it.

Power in Nova Scotia is expensive because there isn't any real form of production. The tidal turbine is one way, there are a few wind turbines but they aren't consistent producers and there is more research being done on it. There are no nuclear plants and no solar fields as there isn't a whole lot of flat ground. So, the tidal turbine is really a unique option!

The major part of the town is Fort Anne. It is situated at the point of land that would best defend the rest of the basin and the river. It was at the "head" of the town and defended who ever was in possession of it at the time and their people. Some artifacts were displayed around the garrison and on the ramparts of the fort. Despite the rain I walked all along the ramparts outside of the fort. On the inside of the fort some cannons were on display. A French one caught my eye as it was so ornate!

Only the French could decorate a piece of armament like this. The date on the side was 1761. Wow!

Pretty much soaked from the knees down and hungry I headed off to Ye Olde Towne Pub. Yeah, it's really called that. Don't laugh.
Not knowing what to expect I hit the double swinging doors (love that) and found a small table near the window. (nice).
The waiter came over in about 2 minutes and offered me the menu and the specials. (nice again).
The special was a no brainier. Kind of a mash between a Reuben sandwich and a quesadilla. Now that can't be bad.
The appetizer that caught my eye was scallops "cooked" in vinegar. Huh??
I asked. What the heck? I'm from Ontario and this doesn't occur on a menu I've seen.

Hmmm.
Okay!
I'm in!
The scallops were harvested yesterday and brought to shore last night for processing (due to the tides the boats won't be able to come in during the early day) so they are as fresh as you're going to get.
Even more yummy!

There is my little pile of scallops, so fresh and tasty and my little pot of vinegar.
This was AWESOME! The acidity of the vinegar made the scallops nearly melt! It was sooo tasty.
Oh yeah the Reuben was awesome too.
Sean kept me amused with stories of different happenings and ghost stories and then with the "locals" that sat beside me I was having a blast listening to them talk about how to solve the problems of the world. I had such a great time that I bought a souvenir t-shirt. Love the hospitality here.

Despite the rain I headed to the Historical Gardens. These meticulously manicured gardens have samples of roses and flowers and pondscapes that were part of the town when it was first developed and also examples of what flowers were brought with the settlers (like Scottish heather and French tea roses). It was beautiful and everything was labeled! Any gardener (I'm thinking of my cousin M, who's garden in Southampton is incredible) would love to visit here and take in the whole experience.

Some of the roses in the garden date back to the 1500s! Awesome, just wish ]it wasn't pouring with rain. Oh well. Pretty none-the-less.

I have noticed here that the hydrangea plants are all blue. They are the big snowball looking plants that you see at Easter sometimes. Here, they can be massive and pretty much all blue in colour. I asked the girl at the garden entrance and she said it's because of the acidity of the earth. That's why they are blue.
The poor blooms in the picture below took a beating in the rain but I hope the colour shows through. They were really bright blue!

On the other side of the basin is Victoria Beach. I decided to drive over there.
The winding road took me through the base of a nice mountainy area and I got a completely different view of the basin. The road ended at the other side of Digby Gut which is the small break in the land that allows all the fishing boats, ferrys and others through to the Fundy side. Neat!

Tired now and the rain really increasing I decided to head back to the Inn and do my laundry. Nice to have the facilities here and I figured at 4 pm there wouldn't be anyone after the two washers or dryers.

Task completed (maybe the last time on the road) I settled in to watch the weather change (again!).
Rain drifting inland, clouds changing and the fog hovering at the entrance to the Basin. The scallop boats were heading home for the night and people were settling in here for the night.

Who knows what tomorrow's weather will bring. Now it's changed to being 20 degrees and sunny! Wait! Next hour it might change again!
I can tell you I can see the light on the green buoy out in the Basin and the flags are gently flapping.
I don't know what it means but that's what I see!