September 2008
Nova Scotia
We started this adventure driving to Portland, Maine to catch the fast CAT high-speed ferry which departs several mornings each week at 8am. The night before sailing, the tail end of hurricane Ike blew threw dumping amazing amounts of water and lots of wind. That next morning we found our crossing cancelled due to continuing high waves - so a driving we will go a driving we will go.. and headed up the coast to US 1 which goes all the way along the coast of Maine to Canada. FYI - we thought this was going to be a really beautiful drive - it wasn't - we do not recommend this as it is not that scenic, not a great road and it seeminly goes forever. We finally did cross into Canada and found a new place to stay that night in St. John's, New Brunswick.
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| The Princess of Arcadia sailing across the Bay of Fundy from St. John's New Brunswick and now approaching the western shore of Nova Scotia to dock at Digby. |
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| Here in the town of Annapolis Royal is Fort Anne, the 1797 British officers' quarters. Needless to say, I doubt the British officers even saw this site looking so beautifully pristine. |
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| By far our favorite spot in the southern portion of Nova Scotia island was a town on the east coast - Lunenberg. |
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| We stayed at the LUNENBERG ARMS HOTEL (not pictured here - these are buildings of the old wharf area) and enjoyed everything about this town. Great restaurants. And lovely sailing! |
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| Here is the Bluenose II racing by... we enjoyed strong winds this day and was perfect for a sailing adventure. |
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| Here we were aboard the Eastern Star. |
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| Here our private deck at Cub Cottage, part of the Trout Point Lodge complex. This was on our arrival day - sadly the weather turned to drizzle and cold and somehow being in the woods wasn't so great for the next three-days. The complex is nestled in a very remote (hours aways from anything) in the Tobeatic Wilderness Area of southern Nova Scotia. The lodge has now become a Relais&Chateaux property - but when we were there it seemed it had a long way to go to meet those standards. But things can change - and the place did have good bones so to speak. But we'd caution recommending to friends. |
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END NOTE: Of all our many trips that we have enjoyed, somehow Nova Scotia for us, didn't measure up. It is a long way away. Once on the island, there are long distances to drive without finding much else to explore inbetween destinations. An while, we might try it again sometime - we won't be racing back anytime soon. Birch actually had it in his head, in advance of going, that this could be the perfect spot to retire to - NOT! But the pictures don't lie - we had some great moments for sure.
On departure from the island, we very much enjoyed the CAT high-speed ferry from Yarmouth back to Portland.
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