Hector and Mayflower

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The Hector is the little ship that brought 189 Scots to Nova Scotia in 1773, forming the first Scottish settlement in "New Scotland". The Mayflower, most of you will know, was the slightly larger ship that brought 102 people to Massachusetts from England (actually 2 were from the Isle of Man - Myles Standish and his wife). Just as the replica of the Mayflower can be seen and boarded in Plymouth, the replica of the Hector can be seen and boarded in Pictou, Nova Scotia. For those of us who are Canadians of Scottish descent, our own pilgrimage to Pictou can be just as moving as the journey to see where the Pilgrims landed is for Americans. Many Americans are very proud that they can trace their family tree back to the Mayflower. The ironic twist for this Canadian family with the Scottish name is that we are not remotely related to anybody from the Hector, but Bill is in fact descended from the Mayflower Pilgrim Degory Priest!

More about Plymouth later - we'll try to tell the story more or less chronologically. Shortly after we arrived in Nova Scotia there was a thunderstorm and one of the masts of the Hector was split by lightning. We had seen and boarded the Hector on a previous journey so we were not too disappointed. We saw the Halifax International Tattoo instead. This sense of the word 'tattoo' is derived from a Gaelic word meaning a musical gathering and is not to be confused with so-called body art. There were an amazing variety of acts - from European marching bands and acrobats to the Canadian Opera Star Measha Brueggergosman. Of course for Keith, the family bagpiper, the main attraction was all the pipe corps.

We spent a day on Prince Edward Island. The ferry leaves from Caribou, Nova Scotia, near Pictou and near where we were staying, so although the 14 km long Confederation Bridge is a marvel, we chose the old-fashioned way to get to and fro The Island. Charlottetown, the capital of Canada's smallest province, was the location of the 1864 meeting that led to Canada being formed in 1867. This is where we spent the morning, at the Founder's Hall and watching some outdoor theatre while eating lunch. Spent the afternoon at Woodleigh Replicas and Green Gables House on the north shore. Ate the freshest seafood you can have right on the wharf just before jumping back on the last ferry of the evening.

The day before we left Nova Scotia we went to a typical Lobster Dinner. Often run by volunteers and for charity, these are usually held in a church basement or community hall. The one we chose was at River John and was run by the local volunteer fire fighters. We got a lobster with potato salad, cole slaw, dessert and beverage for 15 smacks. We highly recommend them.

We re-entered New Brunswick last Sunday and headed down to the Bay of Fundy at St Martin's. One thing that New Brunswick is famous for are covered bridges. These old wooden bridges were all built in the 1800s. There are in fact two within sight of each other in St Martin's, which may not be true anywhere else. We could not remember ever seeing a photo of two covered bridges, so we thought we would come back and give it a try. But the first stages of senility must be starting as neither of us remembered until we were on our way to Maine the next day. We should have asked the kids to remind us...

Now we entered Maine at Calais. This name is not to be pronounced in the French way (ie properly). It's amazing the number of French place names in the US have had their pronunciations bastardized - oops, sorry, Americanized. It is pronounced by the locals "cal-us" as in, "I've been living here so long I've become callous", or "If you don't leave now we will make you march up and down our one street of significance until you develop a callus". We did not stop. We took Highway #1, the original American Highway which stretched from Calais to Florida in the 1920s and still does for all we know, if anybody would want to drive on a road that now has 3456 traffic lights at last count. Probably more because who knows when the last count was?

OK so we are driving on this highway which is shown to be right along the coast on the map and is reputed to be very scenic. And it may very well be scenic if you are enthralled by trees. But to us, the four times in two hours that we caught 10-second glimpses of ocean does not a scenic road make. Maybe we were spoiled by the incredibly scenic "tour de la Gaspesie" where we did not STOP seeing the ocean for 5 days. Even the Sunrise Trail on the north Shore of Nova Scotia is much more scenic.

Our destination was Acadia National Park and the views there were in fact all they were cracked up to be. So we first hiked for two hours up Gorham Mountain and back along the coast. Then we drove the scenic loop and it was in fact very scenic with not only ocean vistas but mountains, lakes and views of the interior of Maine. The tallest mountain is Cadillac which, at over 1500 feet (500 m) is the tallest on the east coast of the US. We were not ambitious enough to climb this one. There is a road to the summit so we let the car do the work.

Other highlights of our stay in Acadia included taking the ferry to the Cranberry Islands and exploring Little Cranberry, learning about lobsters and seeing baby lobsters smaller than your baby finger at the Lobster Hatchery, and then eating, you guessed it - lobster - at various Bar Harbor restaurants. Bill and Sue especially liked lobster omelettes for breakfast.

The next day as we were driving further south along the Maine coast in the fog, we stopped to have lunch at the picnic tables on the side of the road near Bucksport and found a woman's wallet on the picnic table. It started to play a song. Turned out there was a mobile phone inside. We answered and discovered that this woman had had her wallet stolen from nearby Fort Knox the previous day. Everything seemed to be there except $60 in cash. So she said she would drive from Bangor immediately to come and retrieve it but we decided we did not want to wait around so we told her it would be at the police station in Bucksport, where we promptly took it.

We arrived in New Hampshire that evening and other than the lowest gas prices (at about $2.70 an American gallon or just over 70 cents a litre) this side of Saudi Arabia, we did not see much to remark on. Hampton Beach was a tiny (postage stamp tiny) state park absolutely surrounded by buildings. So we moved on down the coast to Salem, Massachusetts and saw the touristy Salem Witch Trials museum and the excellent Peabody Essex museum. Went into Boston the next day and toured around the historic downtown core. Found Cheers quite accidentally and had lunch there. Massachusetts really does feel like England in some ways - like cars stopping for pedestrians, and roundabouts (which they call rotaries). Maybe New England is not just a name. The next day we drove to Plymouth and we will tell you more about that soon...

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Photos

Mayflower II
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

The other type of Tattoo
Halifax International Tattoo '07

A piece of England on PEI
No Bill and Renee were not teleported to the UK...

Supper on the wharf
Had to try the Rock Crab sandwich...

Cranberry Islands et al
The view from atop Cadilllac Mountain in Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor, Maine.