Exploring my own province (pt. 2)

Completed: August 21, 2020 

This is a continuation to last week's blog as the 2017 trip made for a long post. Here I'll share about the other two. 

2018

High-tide at Burntcoat

Our next trip was for just as long and just as busy. We had our vacation booked for August 9 to August 19 in 2018. Mom and I visited some places we already had but we also travelled to some new areas of Nova Scotia. In 2017, we went to Burntcoat Head at low tide so for this trip we wanted to go back but at high tide. The difference is crazy. Since we were up that way, we visited the Walton lighthouse and Lawrence House Museum. The museum was really interesting, I've always been interested in seeing how people lived before I was born. There was a long enclosed walkway attached to the house that led to the outhouse the Lawrence family used for a bathroom. On our way home, we stopped at the Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park and spent the afternoon looking at animals. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be but still cool to see all the different wildlife. I was expecting peacocks to be walking around on the paths so that freaked me out a bit but they are so majestic. 

A cave at Ovens

The next day we went back to Lunenburg so I could have the peanut butter pie again. To make it worthwhile, we booked a whale watching tour. I enjoyed the tour but the water was really rough so I actually ended up feeling seasick for most of it. We didn't see any whales but we did see some dolphins and seals. We checked out Ovens Natural Park and the Fort Point Lighthosue as well than I wanted to see the sunset at Peggys Cove which was so pretty. 

We drove up to the valley on the Sunday because we were picking up my grandfather's car for our next bit of travelling. In Windsor, there is a museum dedicated to the history of hockey in NS as the town is dubbed the birthplace of hockey. I had never been before which is surprising since I had been a huge hockey fan for about 10 years. It was cool to see all the old gear and everything else in there. 

We then spent 3 days in Cape Breton. We made a stop just outside Truro at the Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre on our way up. Once we got to CB, we drove straight to the Miners' Museum to check out the history of mining in the province and we had dinner at their restaurant which was quite good. The next day, we went to the Fortress of Louisbourg. Mom had been there back when she was in high school and mentioned that they had workers who showed you how people lived in the time period the Fortress was used so I was expecting that and there were only a few. That evening we drove along the cabot trail to the CB Highlands National Park so we could spend the night at one of the campgrounds. I forget what the kind of camping we did but all we had to bring was food and our clothes. The tent was set up on a platform when we got there and they provided us with all the tools for a fire and mats to sleep on. Neither of us had actually made a fire before and it was dark by the time we got everything sorted out so we were about to eat 'raw' hot dogs when a nice man from the site beside us came over to help. We cooked all the hot dogs because we didn't want to struggle again the next morning, it wasn't a very healthy breakfast but it was fine. We went on a hike at the famous Skyline Trail and I can see why it is so popular. The whole of the cabot trail that we were able to drive is beautiful. 

Fortress of Louisbourg

End of the Skyline Trail

To finish our vacation, we went to Joggin's Fossil Cliffs and did a bit of exploring in Pictou. 

2020

There were still some parts of the province we hadn't seen by this summer; the north shore and the Yarmouth shore so we checked off them during two different trips. Mom and I love the south shore so on our way to Yarmouth, we made another stop in Lunenburg but this time I didn't have the pie because I wanted to try a new restaurant. We did a walking tour of the town and it was really nice. With COVID, you had to make a reservation for the tour and the guide said that we were the first customers of the season even though it was the end of July by this time. The tour was very informative and our guide was really nice. I really wanted to do the Lighthouse Route so we drove most of the whole way to Yarmouth on the old Highway 3 which led us to some small towns like LaHave where we took a ferry across the harbour. We stopped at almost every lighthouse on our way which were all cool to see. We stopped in Shelburne for the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre and explored the Acadian Village in Pubnico. While we were in Yarmouth, we visited the Cape Forchu Lighthouse which had a nice walk on the grounds and checked out the Firefighters Museum.

Old fire 'engine' at the Firefighters Museum

In late August, we went to the north shore. I found a cool little place for us to stay while we were in that area called the Train Station Inn. We made our base for the few days in Tatamagouche and spent two nights in a remodelled train caboose. Not all my plans for this trip worked out so it was more relaxing than our other ones. We checked out the Museum of Industry in Stellerton, drove around New Glasgow, Pictou and Trenton, had some good food, watched the sunset at Blue Sea Provincial Park and a couple of other things. I would recommend getting the seafood chowder at Chowder House in Tatamagouche, it was delicious. 

Sunset at Blue Sea

All and all, a few really great summers. It was a little strange to travel around during 2020 because of COVID and all the restrictions put in place but I'm glad we were still able to explore. If you live in Nova Scotia, I would really recommend that you go out and explore, there are many interesting things to learn about especially the history of the province and beautiful scenery. Really, I would recommend anybody explore their own province or state or city region.