Okay, sorry for the drop-off there. We got home, got wrapped up in real life, and the blog got added to the procrastination list. But it’s been weighing on our shoulders, and we’ve been unable to blog about other little trips… So time to finish this up!!! One big post for our last few days on the East Coast:
The day after Lunenburg, we spent a quiet day in Mahone Bay. Did some laundry, wandered around town — and spent a few hours at the beach with Tegan, Sarah, Misty & Marlin:
In the evening, we packed up, said our goodbyes and drove up to Halifax for our last stop.
After arriving back in Halifax and getting a hotel room, we met up with Julia & Steve, and Nick & Helen. We went to an Irish pub called The Olde Triangle. From left to right: Me, Julia, Steve, Nick.
One cool thing about halifax, they have so many used bookstores! We would have gotten lost in here for hours, if only it was open when we walked by:
Our last full day of vacation, was just that: A very full day. We started out with breakfast at a cafe called The Elephant’s Eye. While we were there, 3 separate people walked in to enquire about jobs and submit resumes.
We wandered around town, and took lots of pictures (of course), and then went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. We learned all about Canada’s Navy, shipwrecks and sunken treasure, plus they had a coupe dedicated exhibits for The Titanic, and for the Halifax explosion. A very well done and interesting museum, overall.
After that, it was time for lunch. We went to The Wooden Monkey. This was a great restaurant — we really wish there were something like it in Calgary. I had some kind of yummy salad, and Brian had a yummy sandwich. And beer.
For dessert, we shared an ice cream sandwich… Homemade Ginger snaps, and local maple walnut icecream… Drooool.…
After lunch we walked over to the historic Alexander Keith’s brewery, and took a tour. The tour was very well done. The tour guides are actors in period costumes, and all play characters in a little story…
After our tour (and some samples) we wandered back to our hotel, so I could get ready for my massage. We were both feeling sore from so much car travel and so many hotel beds, so we specifically chose a hotel in Halifax with spa services. Apparently Brian doesn’t like professional massages. Personally, I think he’s crazy. My massage was wonderful and SO relaxing.
After that, we went out for our last dinner out. Again, we followed the advice of Sarah and Aaron, and went to a restaurant called The Economy Shoe Shop. This restaurant was truly unlike any restaurant we’ve seen. The story goes that waaaaay back in the day, the owner needed a sign, and found one for an old Economy Shoe Shop, and thought he’d save money on a new sign, and made that the name of his restaurant. Over the years, it has expanded into the spaces beside it, and now it is the space of a few restaurants/bars, but all connected. There are all these different little nooks and crannies, and a different feeling to each little section. We chose a cozy little table in a section that made us feel like we were having dinner in a park.
The following day, we sadly packed up and got on the plane and went home… We loved this vacation, and we really can’t wait to get back again. We have to admit we even discussed moving there. Every time we walked past a real estate office with house listings posted in the windows, we stopped and drooled over all the beautiful, ocean-view mansions we could so easily afford… There’s just that one tiny detail of — oh yeah, we’d need to find work…
Now we’ve returned to the real world. We’ve been home for almost a month now, and have already been on a camping trip with Ziggy, and have a few more road trips planned in the near future… Be sure to check back for updates!
After breakfast on Tuesday morning, Sarah, Aaron, and Marlin took us into Lunenburg. We walked around town, and spent some time on the docks, looking at all the awesome boats and traps and other docky things…
Marlin’s nose again…
And I had to include this horse… Marlin barks at horses. And it’s not an excited, happy bark. They call it his alarm bark… He is saying “Something is seriously wrong! This creature is un-natural! Alert! Alert!!!”
We had a yummy (and very East Coast) lunch of mussels and beer…
As we were thinking of heading back out of town, Sarah wanted to make a visit to her friend Misty. Misty was headed out to a barbecue on the tall ship Caledonia, and invited us along! Of course we thought this sounded like great fun! And yes, it was…
This is the Caledonia… But I’ll admit, this photo does not do it justice.
This is Misty:
And this is her son Tegan:
From the bow of the ship, we could see lots and lots of jellyfish. Tegan was rather fascinated by them… Okay, so were we. Apparently there is actually an unusual number of jellyfish on the east coast right now, and researchers are investigating why this is…
Tegan was also interested in our cameras, and wanted to take some pictures. This is one of Tegan’s shots, which actually turned out pretty well — and yes, that IS Brian holding onto the strap… Just incase…
This is me, chillaxin’…
And this is Sarah, lookin’ pretty:
And Marlin… Drinking beer… Odd dog. But oh so loveable!
We made it into Mahone Bay by about 9pm on Monday night.
On our way into town, we were sure to photograph the 3 churches along the water, which Mahone Bay is known for.
We were fortunate to have some friends (Sarah and Aaron, and their dog Marlin) to stay with while in Mahone Bay. We stayed up late Monday night chit-chatting and drinking yummy local beer.
On Tuesday morning we wandered down a couple blocks to main street for breakfast, and took some pictures of the pretty little town.
Looking a little tired around our coffees, perhaps still waking up: Me, Aaron, Sarah.
Mahone Bay really is such a cute little town. Peaceful and colorful and laid-back and sweet. I fell in love with lupines while in Nova Scotia — they are so beautiful, and they are EVERYWHERE over there. I have to admit I came home and planted some in my garden.
And this is Marlin’s nose. We’ll post other shots of him, but Brian is particularly fond of this one… Hooray for macro lenses!!!
From Cape Breton, we headed south, for Mahone Bay. But on the way, like any good little tourists, we stopped at Peggy’s Cove.
It was a little grey and rainy, but it made for some great photo skies!
At first our thoughts were, “Oh, another lighthouse.…..” but then we got to the ‘ocean’ side of it, and were awe-struck. Something about that spot just takes your breath away. Perhaps the stormy skies added to it, but the power of the ocean, those big, crashing waves were completely humbling. We could have sat and watched the waves crashing on these rocks forever. They were at once frightening and mesmerizing.
We spent quite a while watching the ocean slowly swallow these rocks, but it eventually got cold and late, so we had to carry on down the road…
Not far out of town, we saw some pinkish light peaking through some clouds on the horizon, and had to stop for some more photos.
Brian got some great shots:
My shots mostly had this guy in the middle of them:
Happily, things felt more positive as we continued on South on Sunday morning. We carried on down the coast, aiming for Mabou. Along the way, we found the
Glenora Distillery:
This is the only distillery in North America that produces single-malt whiskey. This is Scotch, but they are not allowed to call it that, because it is not made in Scotland. They actually got taken to court over the use of “Glen” in their name, but won that fight. We took the tour, which was almost comedically short — but still interesting.
We also bought some to bring home with us, as well as a Scottish-made bracelet for myself. It is made of cleaned, dried, dyed, bundled, compressed, sliced, polished Heather twigs. Did you follow that? It looks like this:
Personally, I think it looks like Van Gogh’s Starry Night.
From there, we carried on down the coast, and got lost up a one-way gravel-then dirt-then mud road. We thought it might take us somewhere fun, but eventually it just petered out, and we had to turn around and go back the way we came. Ha!
But we did find one beautiful scenic spot before turning around. It was a little marshy, but soooo big and blue and green!
Eventually, we made it to Mabou. We were fortunate enough to happen across it during their once-a-week farmer’s market. We bought a soy candle, a wooden spoon, some waffles, croissants, and coffee. Now, perhaps one of those items stood out to you…? Who randomly buys a wooden spoon on vacation at a farmer’s market? Apparently we do. Actually, it is a beautiful, full-of-character, one-of-a-kind wooden spoon. The guy who made it says he doesn’t carve wood into spoons, he simply reveals the spoon that was always hidden inside. No two are alike, and they all have their own little character. The one we chose has a bit of a curved handle, and is carved from apple wood. I can’t wait to make cookies with it!
Also in Mabou, we stopped by the Red Shoe Pub for lunch. It is owned by the Rankin Family sisters (who grew up in Mabou, and apparently are still very involved in the community). We had soup and salad and beer. It was pretty good, and if we’re out this way again, we’d definitely eat here again.
All in all, this was a pretty cool little area. We met some very interesting people (mostly at the farmer’s market), and had fun all around. Probably a smaller community than we’d want to live in, but a good little town to visit.
