More Cape Breton Musings

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On a Sunday afternoon threatening rain, we attended the Broad Cove Scottish Concert. For 50 years, St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church has hosted this summer music festival on their church grounds. We joined several thousand concertgoers, where from mid-afternoon until dark, a succession of Scottish music was played for our enjoyment. We enjoyed bagpipe, fiddle, bass, piano, guitar, vocals, and even dance. It was a toe-tapping good time, and thankfully the rain never came.

We also visited the Margaree Salmon Museum. A salmon museum, you say? Well, the Margaree River was one of the great salmon runs in Nova Scotia. We learned that young salmon leave the river after 2 years and swim all the way to Greenland. When they return to spawn, they don’t die like Pacific salmon, but return to open water all over again. While there is no longer commercial fishing, anglers from all over still fly fish, with strict limits on the catch. The museum had lots of memorabilia, including a photo of the record 54-pound salmon taken in the 1960s.

The Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck was another interesting find. We learned that Mr. Bell was quite the creative genius, the telephone being only one of many inventions. Though born in Scotland and holding American citizenship, he loved the Cape Breton area and built a magnificent home overlooking the Bras D’Or Lakes. Many of his experiments, including an early hydrofoil, were conducted in the area.

We joined a sail aboard the Amoeba, a hand-built schooner now used for summer tours. We viewed the private Bell estate from the water, spied a bald-eagle in flight, and enjoyed sailing on a sunny, but breezy day.

After the worst overnight thunder and lightening storm we ever had in the coach in 2 ½ years, we successfully escaped from our soggy campsite (with boards placed in front of our rear tires for traction) and headed for Halifax.

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Photos

MC Ian
One of the church members who MC'd the concert -- quite dashing

Scottish Lass
Dancing the Highland Jig - caught in mid-jump

Alexander Graham Bell Home
Still occupied by Bell descendents, this lovely home sits on the edge of a peninsula overlooking one of the Bras D'Or Lakes

Baddeck Lighthouse
One of the sights on our sailing cruise

Queen of the World
This woman fancied herself as Kate Winslett on the Titanic. Where's Leonardo DiCaprio when you need him?