Posts Tagged With: nova scotia

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

A long time friend of my parents has a home on Cape Breton Island that he only uses part time. When he heard about our RV situation and having to cancel all of our campground reservations, he graciously offered us the use of his home for a few days while we visited Cape Breton with my parents. We are so grateful for his kindness and generosity!

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The highlight of our time on Cape Breton was driving along the Cabot Trail and stopping at several of the beautiful view points.

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What a gorgeous drive! If you go there be aware that it is a very long drive around the entire Cabot Trail. It took us several hours to make the complete loop. It was stunningly beautiful and definitely worth the trip, but kids tend to get a little bored on long drives like that. Don’t ask me how I know this. 😉

The next day we went to the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site where we traveled back in time to the 1700s to tour the fort and reconstructed French town.

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The house where we stayed had no cellular signal at all which in a way was kind of nice. It gave us a chance to unplug in the evenings and play games. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from the distractions of smartphones and computers.

This wraps up my posts about our time in Nova Scotia. Next up I’ll write about our visit to Prince Edward Island.

 

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Learning Family History in Nova Scotia

My Dad is from Nova Scotia so we had a great opportunity to learn some family history on his side of the family while we were there.

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Dad has a very interesting history that makes me think about how if certain events hadn’t happened in his past, my sister and I wouldn’t exist and therefore neither would Jake and Jesse. It’s kind of mind boggling when you think about how past events determine what today looks like.

My grandfather was a coal miner in Springhill, Nova Scotia. He was one of the survivors of the 1958 Bump. My sister wrote a really good book about it if you are interested in the story: Song of Springhill. This is actually a 2-book set, one is the non-fiction historical account and the other is a fictionalized story.

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After surviving the bump, my grandfather (known as Dado to us grandkids) decided he was done with coal mining so he moved with my grandmother and father to Boston, MA. If he hadn’t moved to Boston my dad would not have met my mom and I wouldn’t exist. Isn’t it weird to think of stuff like that? We had a great time showing the kids the Springhill Miners Museum and the plaque honoring their great-grandfather.

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It’s a tradition whenever we’re in Springhill… someone has to sit on the Liars’ Bench

Going back a little further in history we visited the town of Pictou, the birthplace of New Scotland. We toured the museum of the Hector which is the ship that sailed from Scotland to what is now called Nova Scotia. One of my great great (not sure how many greats) grandfathers sailed over on that ship.

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Jake is pointing out one of the passengers whose last name was MacKay. At some point the family name was changed to McKay.

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While visiting this area we stayed with my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Gerald at their beach cottage.

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We had our own private bunk house!

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Fat Cat liked chasing the birds.

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The beach and sunsets were beautiful!

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My parents kissing in front of the sunset

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Skipping rocks at high tide

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We had a great time hanging out with Joyce & Gerald and relaxing at the beach. Chris misses his early morning coffee talks with Joyce and I’m missing our evening happy hours.

This last picture was not taken in Nova Scotia, but I just don’t know where else to include it. This is my cousin Janet and her husband Steve. While we were stranded in Calais, ME we drove up to visit them one evening in New Brunswick. They showed us such wonderful hospitality and gave us a much needed break from the stress we were dealing with in Maine with the RV. I was hoping to see them again while we were in Nova Scotia but it didn’t work out. I’m glad we were able to at least have this time with them.

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Nova Scotia: Peggy’s Cove

We visited so many places in Nova Scotia that I will have to split up my posts so they are not too long. We started in the town of Tantallon near Peggy’s Cove. While we were stranded in Maine with RV troubles I knew we needed to get to Canada before my parent’s planned arrival so I began searching for hotels to stay near Peggy’s Cove. I reserved a pet-friendly hotel online only to have the owner call me 30 minutes later to let me know we could not stay there with a cat. However, she was the most helpful and friendly hotel owner ever! She told me she thought we would be happier in a house than a hotel room and she told me she would find me a vacation rental home for us to stay in with a cat. The next morning, true to her word, she got me in touch with a property manager who had a VRBO home we could stay in. I was so amazed by this woman’s generous and helpful spirit! And the property manager was just like her, he was so nice and accommodating and was so excited for us to stay in this rental home that they had just finished renovating.

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Our VRBO home in Tantallon, Nova Scotia

This rental home was so cute and we loved our stay there! Considering we live in an RV this was way too much space for us. There was a 3rd bedroom that we did not even use. The property manager was so nice to us and called me a few times while we were on our way there, asking how our trip was going. He also wanted to let me know the house is ready and he left us a bowl of fresh fruit. The next day he came by and gave us lots of advice about local places to visit and he brought us a bag full of mussels twice during our stay! In addition, the property owner (not the same guy as the property manager) who makes his own wine brought me several bottles of wine during our stay. He was a true Italian and just loved Chris since he’s Italian as well. I could not believe the excellent hospitality we experienced while we were there.

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Our back yard!

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Next door was a church and cemetery. Chris thought that was creepy but I thought it was so interesting. I enjoyed walking around reading the gravestones and imagining the life stories of each person buried there.

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The reason I mention so much about how kind and generous people were to us is because it seemed we were experiencing the most unusual “above and beyond” customer service. Since we were going through a very difficult time with the loss of our RV home and the uncertainty of our future travels, I was in a very emotional state. I mean the littlest thing could set me off to crying. I felt like God was placing just the right people into our lives at just the right time to bless us and show us that He is still there and He is taking care of us. The kindness and generosity of strangers during this time just meant so much to me.

Peggy’s Cove was a place I really wanted to visit and it sure was beautiful! First we drove a little past Peggy’s Cove and parked by a trailhead on the side of the road. We followed this trail to a rocky coastline and enjoyed the views and climbing on the rocks.

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This hiking trail was so gorgeous and uncrowded. After that we drove to the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse where most of the crowds go. We were there in the evening so it wasn’t too bad.

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We met a super nice couple there who offered to take a family picture for us. They were so sweet and I wish we could have spent more time with them.

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Once my parents flew into Halifax, they stayed with my cousin Peter and his wife Cindy. They came out to see us the next day and we all visited the cute little town of Lunenburg.

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Afterward they all came back to our place and Chris made everyone a delicious dinner. We loved our time in that cute little rental cottage and so appreciated the excellent customer service we received there.

Next we moved onto my aunt and uncle’s place on the beach in Port Howe. I’ll write about that next.

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