We left Annapolis Royale at 9:30am but didn’t make it very far before we saw a sign for the visitor’s centre at the tidal power generation station. We watched a short video on the construction of this facility and then Henry, who was involved in the consulting and preparation process during the construction, shared lots of information on how the plant works and its environmental impact or lack thereof.
For lunch we cashed in our Subway coupons from yesterday and enjoyed a free meal.
We drove on for quite a while until Wolfville where there are a number of vineyards. We visited the Lightfoot and Wolfville Vinery and were impressed by the elegant building and terrace and the view in the distance. We sampled four white wines and settled for the one we liked best.
Both of us were kind of tired and not particularly motivated to see another winery, museum, wharf, or heritage site so we decided to say goodbye to Nova Scotia and head back to New Brunswick.
We made to it Moncton where we will be spending the night before continuing on to Fredericton tomorrow.
After a nice sunny breakfast outside at our campground we left for Digby. The information centre gave us lots of suggestions on what to do in the area and where the most beautiful beaches are, but we only went for a walk through the town and read about scallops and the Loyalists who came after the American Revolution. Among the Loyalists were black people who did not get treated as well as the white people and ended up with land that was of low quality. Many left to go to Sierra Leone.
Scallop fishing is a very successful industry in Digby and the method for raking the sea floor to collect the scallops into a pouch was invented here.
As we were returning to our van, the local Y95.5 radio station was handing out coupons for a 6” Subway sandwich, pop and a bag of chips. We did not say no and left with a big smile.
We continued on highway 1 and arrived in Annapolis Royale where we parked directly in front of a Germany bakery and cafe. Curious we went inside, looked at the menu and needed to try the schnitzel served with potato salad and a large German Erdinger and Austrian Stiegel beer. The waitress and daughter of the owner spoke fluent German and told us that they had immigrated from Germany in the early 2000s. On the walls where the Gesellen-und-Meisterbriefe from former East Germany. The food was excellent and we took and extra portion of potato salad with us for an upcoming lunch.
Directly across the street is Fort Anne, a historic fort that, like the fort at Louisbourg, changed hands from French to English several times.
Exhausted, we had to have an afternoon nap in the parking lot by the market square. We liked this spot so much that we decided to stay there for the night as well. We had two choices for the evening program – a grave yard tour at the fort, or a dance performance at the theatre in connection with a four day dance festival. We chose the dance performance which was mostly contemporary, with three sections. The first recalled the collapse of the Quebec-Levis bridge in 1907 where more than 75 iron workers died, the second and third dealt with relationships. It turns out that the first theatre production in Canada took place in what is now Annapolis-Royale.
We really liked this small town and will definitely return sometime.
After a late night, we deserved to sleep in and then started the morning with an apple pancake breakfast.
The weather was a bit iffy and we were looking forward to exploring Yarmouth and Digby, taking highway 3 and 1 to explore the coastline. We walked through the heritage district of Yarmouth but it was anticlimactic as it started to rain. The downtown business district seems to be suffering with the CAT ferry to Bar Harbour not running this year. We saw it docked in port.
We left Yarmouth and saw the strong presence of Acadians in this area – flags, restaurants, museums, churches and other historical points of interest.
At Port Maitland, we stopped for another Living Wharves program and this time a real retired fisherman and his wife were present to inform and teach us the ropes of fishing. As in, literally, how to splice ropes together. All four of us huddled under the small tent as it started raining heavily. We spent about an hour with Gary and Rrene and heard many tall tales of fishing boats loaded to the maximum with herring that was sold to the Russians.
A beautiful sandy beach right next to the wharf went unused by us because it was wet and only 18 degrees. We spent some time at the beach park and Martin BBQ’d pork burgers between the rain showers.
A short distance further on highway 1 we saw a number of boats sitting on the ground waiting for high tide to lift them back into the water.
Digby was to be our destination but we stopped just south of there at the Ridge Valley campground in Hillsgrove.
We woke up to a beautiful morning with amazing light and a boat with a fisherman that wasn’t fishing. Curious as we are, we looked closely and saw that he was “cleaning” the bay of seaweed. He worked for at least two and a half hours and had his boat packed with seaweed and pumped excess water out of his boat before heading into the distance.
Of course we had to stop at the next harbour with red fishing boats, but they became the sideshow when we saw boats and fisherman unloading seaweed by crane into containers. Now we were curious and asked one of the fisherman what the seaweed is used for. He explained that the seaweed or Irish moss is processed to extract a substance called carrageenan which is used in all sorts of foods (like ice cream), cosmetics, and lubricants.
One of the travel brochures mentioned a Living Wharves program where visitors can discover the tools and skills used by real fishermen who are available to answer questions. On Monday this program takes place at the Dennis Point Wharf. Dennis Point Wharf is one of the largest commercial fishing ports in Canada and we were amazed by the number of ships and were eager to find out more.
The program didn’t start until 1:30PM, so we had lunch at the Dennis Point Cafe across the street. Ruth had a cup of seafood chowder and her first lobster roll. She was in seafood heaven!
The fisherman didn’t come for the information session, but two young people did a good job filling in and explaining the different lobster fishing regions and seasons in the Maritimes.
Further down the Pubnico peninsula there is a wind farm and hiking trails. We heard the woop-woop of the wind mills and were mesmerized by the huge moving shadows cast by the blades. We went for a short hike along the beach were we saw rocks with shimmering colours.
The Yarmouth – Maine ferry isn’t running this season which is affecting some of the tourism businesses in the area because of reduction in US visitors. We stopped at the YesterYear’s Bed and Breakfast which advertised a photography gallery and spoke to the owner who was from France.
The Yarmouth and Acadian Shores area is home to North America’s first “Starlight Destination” and Martin was eager to do a star trails photograph. We chose the Lower Wedgeport area which is one of the suggested star gazing spots and the brochure advertised that loaner telescopes were available at the nearby Tuna Museum. We visited the Tuna Museum to enquire and Cody, the museum guide, and his supervisor were very surprised and said they knew nothing of that program. The museum was well worth visiting and Cody was very knowledgeable about the whole fishing industry and willing to share his knowledge. One of the tuna fishing chairs on display was worth $4000.
We drove the short distance to the end of the peninsula where a newly constructed star gazing area was set up with tables and benches. A great parking spot for the van was also there. We hiked along the shore for close to an hour and found some sea glass.
Back at the van Martin waited for dark and took a 2 hour exposure from 10:20pm to 12:20am. It was cold and windy night, but what had to be done, had to be done.
Sunday morning was Gospel music time on the main stage and we enjoyed the music while we were packing up to leave. We decided to take to the scenic highways 332 and 331 and drove through many small towns and villages. One of these towns is LaHave and the bakery and bistro caught our eye. We parked right by Westcote Bell Artworks, the most amazing pottery store we’ve ever visited. The gallery displays the work of artists Jacqueline M. Cohen and Vaughan L. Smith who came from the UK and worked in the US before settling in Nova Scotia in 2011. Across the street from the gallery is their studio and shop for smaller, more affordable gifts.
Next door was another treasure. We met Monica O’Halloran-Schut, a metalsmith working with silver, bronze and copper to create sculptures and jewelry. She showed us the process by which she turns objects such as leaves, sand dollars and seaweed into silver ornaments using a process of painting a clay of reclaimed silver onto the item. After many coats, the item is fired in a kiln and the silver turns into its shiny metallic form. It was a true pleasure to meet this very fascinating artist.
We walked to the bakery which was packed with people buying breads, sweets and lunches. We bought a cheese and herb bread and a poppy seed and onion bread, both still slightly warm which we savoured with a bit of butter when we got back to the van. Yummy!
We continued our slow scenic route and made it to West Berlin. Not quite the city we know in Germany.
Cosby’s Garden Center in Liverpool was our next stop. We didn’t buy any plants for the van, although Ruth was tempted, but we did see the owner’s concrete sculptures. They are huge and sometimes mysteriously dark and frightening.
It was getting late and we still wanted to visit a museum complex in Shelburne so we took the faster but not as scenic highway 103. We arrived at the Dory museum with 45 minutes left to visit the three nearby museums. We spent most of the time at the dory boat building museum where we learned how these boats are constructed and about Sidney Mahaney, who built over 10,000 of them.
With only about 15 minutes left before closing, we headed across the street to the Shelburne County Museum where we saw Canada’s first fire pumper engine.
The third museum had already closed, so we walked through this historic section of Shelburne and then drove on to find a place to stay.
Blanche it was. We have a great spot by the water near a boat launch. Five kilometres further down is a sandy beach which looked beautiful but we decided to skip the swim because it was getting dark and cool.
We enjoyed our sleep in our overnight spot and had a mostly peaceful night except for the 5am visit by someone doing donuts in the parking lot. The view out of our van window showed the beautiful morning light.
At the information center, a somewhat inexperienced agent suggested a beach with a nearby lake where we could have an ocean swim followed by a lake swim to wash out the salt. The ocean part turned out to be really great, especially in the fog, although the water temperature was only about 16 degs C. The lake part, turned out to be a duck pond and the maintenance staff cutting the grass suggested it might not be a good idea to swim in that water.
Mahone Bay is a picturesque little town with lots of tourists on this beautiful sunny day. We visited a couple of stores and liked a store that had objects made of reclaimed wood. The Amos pewter factory and store is here and offered a more detailed demonstration of the pewter manufacturing process than the waterfront location in Halifax did.
We were extremely lucky to get the last spot at the Lunenburg city campground, right next to the main stage of the Folk Harbour Festival which took place from Friday to Sunday. We only had a 5 minute walk to the Lunenburg downtown area and visited a number of stores and art galleries.
There are a number of shipbuilding shops at the waterfront and we met a Lunenburg store owner who, in his spare time for the last two years, has been working on rebuilding his boat. He is optimistic that he will be done this year. He and his wife bought a property in Paros, Greece where they spend their winters. So jealous!
In the evening, after dinner, we attended the music festival with about 800 people and enjoyed some amazing performances by musicians from Canada and the US. We especially liked Keith Mullins, Dala, and the Amanda Jackson Trio.
What a luxury having breakfast at Starbucks on gift cards. We made good use of their free WIFI as well.
We returned to the Halifax waterfront and visited Pier 21, the museum of immigration. A special exhibition on family and what creates and binds family captivated us. Families that immigrated often brought objects and memorabilia from their old countries that connected them to their heritage. The term family was also used in a broad way to connect sports team members, military, friends, pets and anyone you love dearly.
The main Pier 21 exhibits cover the stories and history of families that arrived via ship in Halifax to begin a new life in a new country. It talked about the ships, the journey and the hardships experienced during the journey, the landing and processing by Canadian officials and the help of many volunteers and church organizations who assisted newcomers.
A particularly sad story was that of the 900 Jewish passengers who fled Nazi Germany and were turned away first by Cuba (although they had initially approved their immigration), then by the USA and finally by Canada. They were forced to return to Europe where more than a quarter perished in the Holocaust.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic wasn’t much more uplifting as it covered the sinking of the Titanic and the devastating explosion in the Halifax harbour.
It was now time to leave and head to Peggy’s Cove for a late afternoon and evening photographic shoot. We had a lot of fun and took a great number of images to add to the collection of one of the world’s most photographed locations. Ruth just loved the wild waves and Martin tried to tame them with long exposures.
The garbage truck came by at around 5am to empty the dumpster right next to our van at the studio. We fell asleep again and woke up to a pretty grey day which was perfect for having breakfast with Brent and Sarah and exploring the Halifax waterfront. Pepsi joined us for most of it and was the star with many children and adults wanting to pet her.
We visited the Amos Pewter shop where we got a demonstration of how pewter is cast. Pewter is melted in a pot at 500 degrees F and then poured into molds made of rubber that are spun in a centrifuge to ensure that the molten metal makes it all the way to the nooks of the mold.
A short way down the boardwalk was the NovaScotian Crystal company and here we saw how crystal is blown and then carved. They had a series of beautiful intense blue bowls and vases but they were pretty expensive.
We spent a lot more time on the boardwalk enjoying the music, eating scones, testing the hammocks and enjoying the sailboats on the water.
The Halifax water utility had an information booth where we learned about how the water quality in the harbour has improved dramatically over the last 10 years through better waste water treatment.
Pepsi was getting a bit tired so we dropped her off in the van and walked a little further to see some more shops. Of course we found a chocolate/ice cream shop and had to test the quality. Martin’s raspberry gelato was made with a hint of bear which gave it a unique flavour.
A nearby craft museum featured Lorraine Roy, a Dundas textile artist we know. While there, we met another artist who had an opening at a nearby gallery which we were invited to.
After a thorough cleaning and filling our tanks, our van was ready for the next couple of days of adventure.
We weren’t sure whether we would make it to Halifax today or whether we would be staying near one of the beaches to the northeast of Halifax. The roads were pretty good most of the time and we did not stop very often. One stop we did make came as a surprise. We found a ship breaking facility with several old rusting and rotting ships and boats. We spent quite some time photographing the ships and details of the cracking paint and rust, something Ruth loves to do.
We had a quick lunch break by a small park and chose to visit the Martinique Beach, one of several beaches in the area. When we got there the waves were huge and we knew we had to try them out. Swimming was not really possible in the area where the waves broke but it was a lot of fun to experience the power of the water and try and keep standing. Pretty exhausted we returned to our van with sand everywhere.
We were now fairly close to Halifax and decided to make that our destination for the day. We met our friend Steve for a Greek dinner, had great conversation, a lot about photography and ended up getting a tour of his studio and seeing some of the beautiful images for his next book. Tired, we parked the van on the studio parking lot where we will be staying.
We slept well on our “private” campground and decided to start the morning with a refreshing swim in the ocean on our “private” beach since we’d had so much fun last night.
Eventually we had to say goodbye after combing the beach for sea glass (our new hobby). We made it about 30km until we stopped at the Goldboro Interpretive Centre. This region is known for gold mines, natural gas and a huge project to reintroduce gold mining in the area is underway.
The cafe offered ice cream and had a flavour called Gold Mine which we had to try. At $1 a huge scoop it was the cheapest ice cream we’ve had.
Next came the 300 meter ferry trip which cost $7.
Finally we made it to Sherbrooke Village, well in time for the 2:30pm ice cream making demonstration. Sherbrooke Village is a heritage site adjacent to the St. Mary’s River consisting of buildings from the real town as it was in the 1860s. We got an extensive overview of the site from Dana who also told us that the ice cream making that Stephanie had promised us yesterday at the beach had been changed to butter churning.
We’ve been to a number of heritage sites and this one stands out for its authenticity, super nice interpreters and interactivity. We visited the blacksmith who made items far beyond the typical nails most blacksmith demonstrations do.
The print shop was next and the design graduate showed her skill in letterpress work with materials and machines of the period. She produced a wide variety of printed materials, including recipe books, invitations, signs and advertisements.
It was now 2:30pm so we rushed over to the building that Stephanie was doing the butter churning demonstration at. Everyone was welcome to turn the handle to make butter and butter milk from the rich cream. We got to try this super fresh butter on crackers.
The tailor shop didn’t just produce clothing but also sold hats. There was a large selection of buttons to be seen. The cloth was imported from Europe and the US.
The pottery shop produced all sorts of cups, bowls and jugs and had a super friendly dog that Pepsi barked at.
The General Store was restored as a typical store of the 1870s when it was operated by John and Samuel Cumminger.
The second floor was of far greater interest to us as it housed an Ambrotype photography studio where we learned about 19th century photography techniques and had our portrait taken, in costume of the period, on a glass plate hand coated with sensitizer.
Our portrait exposure was 33 seconds and we had to sit absolutely still during that time. Today’s digital photography, like the image posted below is much easier.
One of the nice things about Sherbrooke Village is that dogs were welcome to visit the grounds and buildings, except for the restaurant. Pepsi had a very busy day greeting all children and Stephanie even prepared Pepsi her own ice cream cone. After a few hours, Pepsi was beat and needed a nap at the photo studio.
While waiting for our glass plate to be developed we moved on to the woodturner’s shop. Here the trained cabinet maker turned spoons, rolling pins, baseball bats and various other objects.
It was now 5pm and closing time and although we still had a number of buildings to see, we said goodbye to a number of the people we got to know, received our image and drove to the Riverview Campground nearby. We have a beautiful spot right by the river and are looking forward to a quiet night. Pepsi is already asleep by the driver’s seat.
