year-of-adventure

Fiddling, Red Shoes and a labyrinth

Moving on from Baddeck to small town Mabou - on the West Coast on a slow trip back toward Halifax.  I chose Mabou and Jill's B&B Inn at Glendyer because of the world famous Red Shoe Pub , and fiddling.  On this afternoon we had the talented Robbie Frazier  You TUBE of Robbie and his brother Issac.    There are many You Tube videos of Robbie, and I was fascinated by his left heel banging the floor.  A typical fiddle tune is 7-10 minutes of fast-paced fiddling.  He saw my camera and looked over with a performer's smile to a tourist.  It was a pretty lively crowd at 6 PM; imagine a lot livelier with the evening bunch.

The day was perfect, the beer was cold, and the talent was free.  The best dish of the trip was a seared scallop and a bacon sauce with peas and leeks.  The Pub has a small kitchen, but makes up for it with a limited menu they do extremely well.    Jill is an adventurous woman as many of the B&B owners are.  A former tax attny in California, she chucked it all to come north  to Mabou, developed a massage business, painting and felting, and built a labyrinth.  Labyrinths are walking paths for meditation and problem solving in addition to the great fantasy film by Jim Henson The film.  Jill decided to build hers as a slightly smaller version of the famous labyrinth in Chartres Cathedral.  Walking it is a soothing experience.  The lore is that you enter with a question or problem that becomes clearer as you reach the center, and possible solutions come to you as you re-walk the labyrinth to exit - worked for me and I felt much better.   

Starting the trip back to Halifax and our nicest B&B at Terry and Wanda's Kenora B.  Local knowledge is so valuable and they directed us to a great tavern for a famous steak and lobster feast at reasonable prices (on average, lobster dinners were upwards of $28). This one was $19.99, and the lobster was precut so all you had to do was grab the meat, dip in butter and enjoy.   A benign flight home, and preparing to go back to work for a few final days.

Let me know if you have questions about Nova Scotia and I'll try to answer them - a GREAT trip in a wonderful place.  Next time we'll focus on one area and do some in depth exploring and hiking 

Nova Scotia - the Cabot Trail

The Cabot Trail is a visual extravaganza.  Named by Lonely Planet as one of the best road trips in the world and by National Geographic as one of the essential drives of a lifetime National Geographic, it stretches 300 or so miles along the northern coast of Nova Scotia.  It is named after the explorer John Cabot who landed in Atlantic Canada in 1497, although most historians agree his landfall likely took place in Newfoundland and not Cape Breton Island. Construction of the initial route was completed in 1932.  The tour we took is run by the only group doing car/van tours Bannockburn tours  Bannockburn Tours and takes the counterclockwise route (a point of disagreement among locals who feel that one or the other is the best way to see the trail).  Going counterclockwise gives the view on the outside of the road rather than the more restrictive clockwise which goes along the inside lanes.  We showed up on the morning of the tour to find we were the only 2 on the tour and it was given by the son-in-law of the owner who had just died a few weeks before.  To their credit they did not cancel, but took us and a training driver in a small van.  The tour was fantastic, the day excellent (bright blue sky, no clouds, 70 degrees, all perfect weather).  I post some of the photos here, but realize they are a poor substitute for the actual experience.  The first is Kathryn coming up close and personal with a fresh lobster (a 5 pounder) - we stopped at the lobster docks to watch the unloading of a crop.   A look across the tops of the hills and a developing fog that never bothered us.  The rocky coast and lobster buoys right top the sandy shore.       This next photo was similar to one I saw on the Nat. Geo. site, but this one is mine.  Pleasant Bay, lobster and fishing village had a lot of activity when we were there.    The training driver, Shane, stopped at a buddie's lobster place and bought 30# of packaged frozen lobster meat (aside - takes 4 lobsters to get 1 # of meat for about $11/pound). In the 20's lobster was so plentiful that it was the "poor man's" food and kids who came to school with lobster sandwiches were mocked for being poor fishermen's kids.   

Two bald eagles in a tree - where is that telephoto lens?   

Halibut with mango salsa and fresh vegs.  

Tomorrow - red shoes, fiddler and the labyrinth. 

Nova Scotia - clams and seafood chowder

Karen had a wonderful breakfast - hers on this morning was a great salmon benedict with all the usual breakfast fruits and juices .  Spent the morning wandering the rocky beach just down Karen's path.  The rocky toughness and nice cool morning made us think of the heat in NC.   

 She recommended 2 local places for dinner - one with the "world' best clams" and the other with a deck on the ocean and wonderful chowder.  We chose both.  The clam place was local, populated by well-fed people, and did a swinging door business.    30 min of wait for the clams, but they were worth it!  No chips (after all, the fat grams in this basket were enough for 2 days). Then off to the quarterdeck for what was the best seafood chowder of the trip (I tried 6 of them at various spots). This had thick cream sauce, good spice, very few potatoes, and a tasty chunk of seafood in every spoonful.   

The cheese jalapeno biscuits were perfect with the chowder.  Of course we shared both.  One of Karen's works - thread placed on a drawn picture to highlight and give depth/color.      Off on the next phase - a long drive north to Baddeck in the northern portion of Nova Scotia and the entry point for the famous scenery of the Cabot Trail.  Along that route, we had to stop at McDonalds for their famous Mclobster sandwich  ($3.79), only "in season".  It was enough to say we had it - no plans to repeat should it come to NC.  Continued spectacular scenery along the road to Baddeck.  

Settled in for another cool sleeping night and plans for the Cabot Trail experience in the morning.  I splurged and booked a tour with a local company - an 8 hr tour along the trail so that I could see the scenery and not have to focus on the driving.  More on that experience in the next post

 

Nova Scotia - UNESCO

We went to Lunenburg because it was listed as a UNESCO world heritage site - of course I needed to know what that meant and it has to do with sites that are unique examples of a culture or heritage.  Of course Lunenberg with it's fishing, buildings, Blue Nose restoration and position along the Nova Scotia South Shore is an active site.  IN case you want to check out the other sites across the world and their significance, check out the UNESCO website link UNESCO SITE CRITERIA.  Linda Roe is a self-taught artist with a passion for teaching art, felting, reinventing children's clothes and jackets. One technique I found fascinating to allow students to adapt their own style was her wall of the same scene she's painted with different techniques and views   

After those oysters, beer and lime margaritas, we slept soundly and left after a wonderful breakfast to head down the shore to Liverpool and the best way to get there is via a cable ferry pulled across  short stretch of water by a thick cable that needs to be replaced yearly - $5/vehicle and 8 minutes of travel - walk-ons are free.  

More fishing scenes and the smell of salt air and 60's temps - all great fun. 

We headed into quiet Liverpool and discovered the clothing chain of "frenchy's" with many variations, but basically american clothing that has had a previous life (used clothes) with good quality labels, washed, ironed and sold of $2-4/piece.  Of course items were purchased (after all, we brought sweatshirts and needed some shorts for the 75 degree days).  A car made a statement outside a frenchy's - grammar a bit off, but we all get the sentiment...  Also, a commentary about road kill animals  - in the south it's usually some unfortunate opossum; here it's porcupine.  I'd never seen a live one, and this one was pretty fresh with no blood. (CAUTION - AVERT YOUR EYES IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED BY GROSS THINGS!) - not quite sure which end is toward the camera, but have a general idea.

Food photos will be back in another post after that display of tastelessness.  Got to Karen's place in the countryside with a beautiful isolated rocky beach just down her path.  Her husband is a craftsman and collector and has the largest collection of Rover cycles in the world.  Rover eventually got into the motorcycle and automobile business but developed the first chain-driven bicycles 

Rover website

 This is a photo of Rover's first (and only) chain-driven tricycle that Ron has meticulously restored - the only one made!  He makes the seats and machined a number of the chain and drive mechanisms that have worn out.   Being in a room with 40 or so restored, museum-quality Rover's is a pretty impressive experience.

Next post:  breakfast and the "World's Best Clams"

Nova Scotia Adventure

Day one of Nova Scotia.  We came because it's been a place I've always wanted to visit and never done it (until now).  Maybe that's as good a reason as any to visit a place.

Flight and travel things are the usual that any of you experience, but we'd heard of friendly Canadians and that reputation has continued.  My Momma always said that you should never set out on an adventure without a good, detailed map.  That holds true as the Halifax airport is well north of the city of Halifax (who knew) and the road system is a bit confusing from the map that comes with the tourist package causing an hour or so delay winding through busy downtown Halifax on a sunny friday afternoon.

We chose Lunenburg as the first stop because many people had recommended it. It is a grand tourist town, which along with Mahone Bay can provide whatever shops and nick-knacks a person may want.  The economy is not slow here as tourists of all ages wander through town, spending.  But today we were able to get off the beaten path a bit and into the countryside. Peter and Linda of the Seville-Roe B&B in Lunenburg are charming hosts.  Nothing quite like local knowledge and they were able to give us detailed directions for the day Seville-Roe guest house is a project they've done for the past 2 years and like many in Lunenburg, an old captain's house built of sturdy wood with thick walls, great comfy beds, and nice 50's temps at night.  The day focused on 2 things: food and nautical themes.  We did a bit of tourist stuff, here the dark portion along the tops of the rocks are the high tide, about 6 feet in Lunenburg; much higher in the Bay of Fundy.  We had a back road experience to the end of a pier in a place called Blue Rocks to a fishing pier that exudes the spirit of working fishermen. In Washington, NC we have excellent fishermen, but they do not brave the brutal North Atlantic - calm for us today, there is that pleasing order with efficient and difficult work, but I'll let the photos speak for themselves. 

      
Of course there was good food, starting with beer, oysters and a wonderful lime margarita and moving to a bountiful seafood linguine with large chunks of perfect seafood in a lobster sauce

Lunenburg is beautiful in the warm weather,

I suspect brutal in the winter.  Tomorrow off to Liverpool, just a bit further down the South Shore