Nova Scotia

We had a beautiful day to travel to Nova Scotia. As always, we were sad to leave the area but excited to see new territory. We arrived at Scotia Pines Campground early afternoon, unloaded the car and went to Peggy's Cove. It was about an hour and a half drive but worth it. First we stopped at the Swissair 111 Memorial. A beautiful spot just before Peggy's Cove. It's hard to imagine that so many people perished in that crash. The coastline there reminded us of the coast of Maine. We then drove over to Peggy's Cove. There are 28 full time residents there. The roads are narrow and it's hard to imagine that huge buses drive up there. We walked from the Visitor's Center to the lighthouse and out about on the rocks. We had a great dinner at the restaurant overlooking the lighthouse. For the first time, we had sweet potato fries that were served with curry mayo instead of ketchup. It was a great first day in Nova Scotia. Today we went for a motorcycle ride on Glooscap Trail. It is a scenic drive along the Minas Basin-a part of the Bay of Fundy. It was an unbelievable ride! The views were just breathtaking and the riding hilly and twisty with very little traffic. The Bay is known as the "chocolate river". It actually looks like melted chocolate! We read about the tidal bore that can be viewed from a place called "Tidal View Farm". So off we went looking for this place. We couldn't believe it but it was actually someone's backyard that allows people to park and watch it from their hillside. We were the only two people there. It was a sight that we won't forget. We arrived just in time to see the low tide and within 20-30 minutes the whole area filled in with water. If the weather is nice tomorrow, we will go for another motorcycle ride. We head to the Cabot Trail on Friday for a few more days of riding up there.

Hopewell Rocks, Hopewell Cape

We found a wonderful campground five minutes away from Hopewell Rocks-Ponderosa Pines. Sunday afternoon we went to Hopewell Rocks to see it at high tide. It was beautiful. We hiked all the beaches and outlooks that day. We then drove back to Alma which is the beginning of Fundy National Park. We walked around the tiny little town and had dinner outside by the water at a little fish and chips place. Monday we were at Hopewell Rocks for 9 AM to see the low tide. It really is amazing! We were able to walk on the ocean floor and all the way around to a beach where we had walked to from above the day before. Rich had found a really distinctive skipping rock and threw it in on Sunday. When we went back there on Monday at low tide we actually found it! We left Hopewell Rocks and headed to Cape Enrage. It was a cloudy day with rain predicted but so far it held off. The drive was unbelievable to get there. It was all back windy roads and we kept wishing we were on the motorcycles but we did have the top down on the Smart car so we really can't complain. Cape Enrage is a beautiful lighthouse that is supported by a non-profit group-no funds from the government. We had a great time looking around and learning about the history. They even had a staircase that went down to the beach. I wasn't thrilled with that part-it was metal and you could see through the stairs but I figured if I went ziplining, I can do this too. We had a fantastic hamburger there overlooking the lighthouse and water. Since it was early afternoon and the weather was still holding out for us, we drove back to Fundy National Park and hiked Dickson Falls. It was a beautiful hike down into a gorge with a beautiful waterfall. It was very wet and mossy and you felt like you were in some movie set. We are headed off to Nova Scotia this morning-don't know what the internet service will be so stay tuned.

Canada - Nova Scotia Trip 2016

We are crossing off another bucket list item: Nova Scotia. We spent the first night at LLBean in Freeport. Who knew LL stands for Leon Leonwood? We ended up at the bike store at 11 PM buying new comfy seats for our bikes. We went through Customs with no problem and landed at our destination-Granite Town Blueberry Farm in St. George, New Brunswick late in the afternoon-beautiful ride but real hilly. We stopped at our first Canadian Visitor Center. They are unbelievable-so helpful there. They even gave us a bag of "chicken bones" which is a Canadian candy that has chocolate in the middle and a cinnamon hard shell coating. They also gave us a bag of edible seaweed. Rich put our new seats on the bikes and right from where we stayed there was a beautiful bike path. It's been awhile since either of us had ridden and it felt great except for the hornet's nest we disturbed on a lookout and one decided to sting me! Since we had a late lunch, neither of us was real hungry so we had a very grown up dinner. We shared a piece of blueberry pie and root beer floats! Tomorrow we head to the Bay of Fundy.