To Cape Breton Island

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While in Cavendish we visited the Ann of Green Gables Site. It is the house that L.M. Montgomery used in the book. It was her cousin's house.

The next morning we drove to Charlottetown. We walked thru the Victorian Park and saw the Lieutenant Governor's house and gardens. You can walk thru the gardens but can't go in the house. We then toured the Beaconsfield House. It was the grandest house in Charlottetown in the 1870's until it went into bankruptcy. The owner and builder was a ship builder and refused to use modern ideas. He was still building sailing ships when steamships were becoming popular.

We left Charlottetown the next morning and had a long drive to Auld's Cove. It is at the western edge of the bridge that crosses onto Cape Breton Island. Cape Breton Island is part of Nova Scotia. It rained almost the entire way. It rained so hard at one point that I had to pull over and wait. Our SUV, a Mitsubishi, was hydroplaning a few times. Scary!

The next morning we left and crossed the bridge to Cape Breton Island. We stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell museum. It had tons of stuff about him that we never knew. Besides inventing the telephone, he also worked with tetra dihedral kites, designed airplanes and hydrofoil boats. He also worked with the deaf, using a system his father invented. It was a kind of alphabet, called the visual speech system, where students would learn how to pronounce different sounds by moving their lips and tongues in a certain way. We continued onto the Cabot Trail, the most scenic drive in all of Canada. We went thru the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We spent the night in Pleasant Bay under heavy clouds and fog.

The next morning we left under cloudy skies and went thru more of the park. The farther east we drove the better the weather got. Finally some sun and warmer temps. We stopped at 2 waterfalls and numerous lookouts with wonderful views. Higher up the trees were alive with colors. We stopped at the Gaelic College. They teach classes in Gaelic during the summer. They also teach violin, drums, harps and of course bagpipes. There were no demos on the day we were there. We drove on to Sydney. It is the largest city on Cape Breton Island. Its population is about 31,000. We stay here for 3 nights. We get to rest and not run around all day looking at sites.

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