Blogs from Nova Scotia, Canada, North America - page 7

Today we (my wife Sheryl and I) left home in Hillsboro, Oregon, to start our next big journey, an 8-week road trip across Canada to the Maritime Provinces, then returning through the U.S. via New England and then along the southern shores of the Great Lakes. We've been to Canada a number of times, but mostly in British Columbia and Alberta, and never further east than Toronto. We're looking forward to traveling across Canada on the Trans-Canada highway and spending time in the cities of Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec before arriving in the Maritimes.... read more

Drove to Kejimkujik. Keji is also flat. Keji is not on the ocean like our other parks, but has a huge lake. It is also a newer park – about 50 years old – but there wasn’t much built on the land. We stopped for lunch on our drive at a picnic area and were welcomed to Nova Scotia by a colorful woman who was on a driving tour with friends for her birthday week and another man. Very friendly province! Today we hiked to the Mills Falls on the Mersey River. The river is brown. We were able to climb on rocks near the falls and the kids had a lot of fun with the floating bridge over the river. Maggie and Rick made Lu’sknikn – a Mi’kmaw bread – over the campfire. It has ... read more

Mary and Fred, You really went the distance! Thanks for putting up with our quirky ways and making us feel like family. It was not just the Maritime experience; that was something we could have had for ourselves at any hotel. It was all about keeping company with you guys, and we were wowed by that. I'll be honest: I was glad we spent only a couple of days in Halifax. Had I not come by air, I could have floated in on the tide, so strong are my memories of the downtown and the harbour. Even after living there for 22 years, I never did find out where that earthy smell comes from. Roasting spices, right? Otherwise, I knew the whole town by heart, the wispy clouds fraying the edges of the Historic Properties, the ... read more

Thank goodness Dad is an early bird. He woke us up at 4a so we were in the car by 5a. Thank goodness as we forgot about the one hour timezone difference in Atlantic Canada. We paid for 2p ferry crossing and cars are supposed to arrive by 1p. Dad’s early wakeup allowed us to not miss ferry because we missed timezone adjustment! Arrived in Saint John, NB at 1p AT. Refuelled car and joined on of 5 lanes of cars waiting to board the ferry. We weren’t sure which of the 5 lanes to join so we opted for the shortest one beside the lane at the very left reserved for large trucks. Well it seems they board the ferry from lane one … and we were in lane five! It took about 20 minutes ... read more

Sydney, Nova-Scotia, 2 juillet Une visite à Louisbourg est un formidable voyage dans le temps et approcher cette ville fortifiée dans les brumes du petit matin rend la chose encore plus singulière. L'histoire du lieu témoigne de la dure et sanglante relation entre Français et Britanniques en Amérique au dix-huitième siècle, car nous sommes ici au cœur des luttes territoriales qui marquèrent cette partie du pays. Revenons en arrière; depuis l'installation de Champlain à Québec en 1608, les Français contrôlent ce vaste territoire qu'est la Nouvelle-France et qui inclut les actuelles provinces canadiennes de l'Atlantique. En 1713, à la fin de la Guerre de succession d'Espagne, le traité d'Utrecht fait passer l'Acadie et Terre-Neuve aux mains des Britanniques, ne laissant aux Français que l'île Royale (aujourd'hui île du Cap-Breton) et l'île Saint-Jean (aujourd'hui île du Prince-Édouard) ... read more