Colourful Cabot Trail

October 15, 2016October 15, 2016 / edebock / 7 Comments

Nova Scotia’s Cabot Trail is a scenic roadway measuring 298 km in length that forms a loop around the northern part of Cape Breton Island and passes through Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Prior to this trip, we had driven the Cabot Trail twice before, both times doing the entire loop in one day.

The first time was in 1991. We were traveling with our young children and had the privilege of doing the drive with a colleague who is a native Cape Breton Islander. He was home on summer vacation and acted as our guide for the day. It was bright and sunny and we were awed by the beauty that surrounded us. Stops along the way to enjoy the views, eat a picnic lunch and take a swim made it a long, but very memorable day.

Our second trip around the trail seven years ago was somewhat disappointing. It poured rain much of the way and we crossed the northern highlands in dense fog barely able to see the road let alone anything else! We made very few stops.

This time we spent three days on the trail! We stopped at many viewpoints, or lookoffs as they’re known in Nova Scotia, to soak in the beauty and take a multitude of photos.

That’s the little Hyundai Accent rental that’s been our wheels for this entire trip.

We enjoyed a traditional community breakfast with the locals at the Southwest Margaree Parish Hall and spent a couple of evening hours listening to local musicians in a Cheticamp pub.

We walked rocky beaches

and sandy ones.

We hiked the Skyline Trail and explored out of the way places like this one near Cheticamp where we stopped to find a geocache.

We took side roads to places like Mary Ann Falls

and everywhere we went, we marvelled at the amazing colours.

Yes, the Cabot Trail is beautiful anytime of year, but in autumn it’s absolutely spectacular!

Hiking the Highlands

October 14, 2016October 15, 2016 / edebock / 1 Comment

Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands National Park boasts more than 20 trails ranging from short easy walks to spectacular hiking expeditions. We chose one of the most popular, the dramatic Skyline Trail on the western side of the Cabot Trail, for Wednesday’s hike.

As we approached the trailhead, we could see the tiny silhouettes of hikers against the skyline on the ridge high above us. Soon we would join them!

The Skyline Trail offers two options. Many choose to stay on the well groomed path that takes them directly out to the headland cliff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This out and back route is 7.5 km long. We chose the longer 9.2 km loop.

The back side of the loop, the road less traveled, crosses a high plateau. The trail is rougher and some sections were muddy as a result of the horrendous storm that swept across Cape Breton two days earlier.

Once we reached the far side of the plateau, the views were gorgeous.

Sometimes we just had to sit and soak them in.

Nothing prepared us for the spectacular views from the headland, however! There, a wooden boardwalk and a series of steps took us down the middle of the cliff. The open ocean was far below to our right and a deep ravine to our left. We watched eagles soar below us and vehicles winding their way along the Cabot Trail looked minuscule.

Strategically placed by Parks Canada so that it isn’t visible from the highway below, the boardwalk protects the fragile headland plants from trampling and also gave me a sense of security as I crossed the ridge.

Once we tore ourselves away from the the amazing vistas spread out before us, the most used and best maintained portion of the trail took us back to the parking lot. There was a small change in elevation along this portion, but it was very gradual.

Is it any wonder that I’m overwhelmed by the beauty of Nova Scotia?

Mahone Bay… a little piece of paradise

October 8, 2016October 9, 2016 / edebock / 6 Comments

Though I love to travel, life is really about people, not places. If the weather had been horrible and the view boring, our time with the Hs would still have been wonderful! The relationship between our two families goes back 77 years and we felt so welcome. Add to that the indescribable beauty of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia and the most amazing fall weather imaginable and I think we’ve been in paradise for the past few days!

The Hs live at Indian Point, a tiny community on the shore of Mahone Bay about 7 km from the town itself which is best known for the three churches located along the edge of the bay.

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Every morning, we woke up to views like this one.

Words aren’t adequate to describe the beauty that surrounded us, so I’m simply going to share a few photos. Several of them were taken from the water while we were out on Lindy H’s boat.

This is Ronnie and Myrna H’s house where we spent lots of time visiting.

Peggy’s Cove

October 6, 2016October 6, 2016 / edebock / 2 Comments

Peggy’s Cove, a quaint fishing village on the eastern shore of St Margaret’s Bay, about 45 km from Halifax, Nova Scotia, is probably one of the best known and most visited locations in Canada. Though we’d been there twice before, we couldn’t resist stopping at this picturesque spot again as we made our way from Halifax to our next destination at Mahone Bay.

The iconic lighthouse dominates the rocky point overlooking the crashing waves below.

Though it’s the lighthouse that attracts the most tourist attention, I love walking around the village photographing the colourful boats and the houses that cling to the rocks around the cove.

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Also of interest is the Fisherman’s Monument carved into a 30 metre granite outcropping by artist, William Edward deGarthe, who emigrated to Canada from Finland in 1926 and settled in Peggy’s Cove in 1955. The sculpture depicts 32 fishermen, their wives and children, a guardian angel with wings outspread, and the legendary Peggy of Peggy’s Cove.

Halifax Seaport

October 6, 2016 / edebock / Leave a comment

We spent most of our weekend in Halifax exploring the harbour area. Our first stop was the newly renovated Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Canada’s last standing ocean immigration terminal. It was here that a great many of the immigrants who arrived in our country between 1928 and 1971 first stepped onto Canadian soil. As well as offering a fascinating step into the past to experience what it was like to immigrate through Pier 21, the museum showcases the vast contributions that newcomers have made to Canada’s culture, economy and way of life. I was particularly touched by the wall of testimonies written by previous visitors to the museum. Here are just a few of them.

As we explored the Halifax Seaport, a vibrant waterfront area and a popular destination for both locals and tourists, we passed “The Emigrant”, a beautiful bronze and marble monument depicting an emigrant leaving his home country to start a new life in Canada. The piece was designed, sculpted and donated by artist, Armando Barbon, himself an immigrant who wanted to say thank you to his adopted country.

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In addition to being the place where many new Canadians first stepped onto our shore, the Halifax harbour was also the location where thousands of First World War soldiers last stood on Canadian soil. A trail of footprints burned into the wooden boardwalk traces the path of the long-gone fighters to a memorial arch bearing the words “The Last Steps”.

The Seaport is also home to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. There, I found the exhibit devoted to the 1917 Halifax Explosion most interesting. On that darkest day in Halifax’s history, at 9:06 a.m. on December 6, a dreadful miscommunication between two ships in the harbour resulted in an explosion of cataclysmic proportions. 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 more injured. It was the largest man-made explosion in history prior to the first nuclear blast.

In addition to exploring local history, I loved just walking the boardwalk and enjoying the harbour sights.

Hello Nova Scotia!

October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 / edebock / 7 Comments

As I write this post, I’m sitting in the sunshine on the beautiful south shore of Nova Scotia! These are the views out the window beside me.

With this trip, we’re killing four birds with one stone. First of all, we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on Sunday and we wanted to do that somewhere other than home. We spent the weekend in Halifax where we stayed in a lovely Victorian bed and breakfast that is older than the town we live in! Ascendence Harbourside Mansion was built in 1891 for the Auditor General of Nova Scotia. We stayed in the luxurious Auditor’s Suite. Our hosts went above and beyond, placing chocolates and fresh flowers in our room when they learned that it was our anniversary. The breakfasts were wonderful and we had a great time visiting with the other guests around the table each morning.

Our main reason for choosing Nova Scotia as the destination for our anniversary trip was the fact that we’ve been wanting to return to Mahone Bay for another visit with the pen pal that I inherited when Richard’s mother passed away. The two little girls began writing to one another when they were 11 years old. When Mother passed away in 1993, the family asked me to write her pen pal to let her know. In return, I received a beautiful letter from Myrna telling me that she didn’t want to lose touch with the family that she’d known only through letters for so many years. I began writing to her and the relationship between our two families has now been going on for 77 years! As I write this, I’m sitting in her son’s living room three doors down the road from her house at Indian Point, just outside the beautiful little town of Mahone Bay. You can read about our first visit in 2009 here.

The third reason for this trip was our longtime desire to see the spectacular colours of eastern Canada in the fall. So far, everyone here has been apologizing for the fact that the trees aren’t in full autumn colour yet due to the extreme lack of rain in this area this year, but we are still seeing colour we would never see at home! Hopefully we’ll see more before we return to Alberta over a week from now.

Lastly, we had lots of Air Miles to use up before they begin expiring on Dec. 31. We’ve been collecting them for years and had enough saved to pay for our flights and our little rental car and still have enough left over for a mid winter vacation!

Stay tuned for future posts and pictures as we continue our travels. Right now, the sun is shining and the locale is too beautiful to spend any more time sitting at my keyboard!

Dressing up

September 16, 2016September 13, 2016 / edebock / 13 Comments

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One evening while we were in Vancouver this week, we went out for an elegant dinner with my father. We ate at Hart House Restaurant in Burnaby’s Deer Lake Park, just a few minutes from the assisted living facility where my 93-year-old father resides. The restaurant opened in 1988 in the beautiful century old Tudor-style house that was originally home to New Westminster businessman Frederick Hart. We dined in the sunroom overlooking nearby Deer Lake. The food was outstanding and the service warm and friendly.

I seldom wear dresses, but this was an occasion and setting that seemed to warrant dressing up a bit more than usual.

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This simple dress, consisting of navy lace over a nude underlay, is a couple of years old, but still a favourite and very much on-trend. It’s also a perfect traveler. How well a garment packs in a suitcase is an important consideration for me and this dress is a winner in that department. It takes up very little space, weighs almost nothing and doesn’t wrinkle.

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The colourful totem pole stands outside the building where my father lives.

Bringing the Beatrice home

September 11, 2016 / edebock / 8 Comments

In 1984, shortly after my father retired, my parents ordered a Volkswagen Westfalia camper van from the factory in Germany. They traveled from their home in Vancouver, BC to Germany via Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, through China, across the USSR on the Trans Siberian railway, and into Europe! After picking up their brand new van in Germany and outfitting it with dishes, bedding and other basic necessities, they lived in it for a year and a half as they traveled around Europe and the Middle East.

Clearly, I came by my wanderlust honestly!

When Mom and Dad finally decided that it was time to return to Canada, they had the van shipped home to Vancouver. Because they’d owned it for over a year, they were able to bring it into the country duty free.

For almost two decades, the blue camper van traveled through the mountains almost every year bringing Grandma and Grandpa to Alberta to visit their grandchildren. It continued to be their only vehicle until Dad, now 93, finally gave up driving a few years ago. At that point, he passed it on to our niece who was a college student at the time. She drove it until she graduated from college, but once she got a job she bought a little car and the van sat under a tarp in my sister’s backyard in Vegreville for the past two years.

This summer, our son, who also lives in Vancouver, acquired the van from his cousin. Matt plans to use it as a camping vehicle for his young family. Prior to their visit to Alberta last month, we rented a U-Haul auto hauler and moved it to Sedgewick.

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Matt knew that after sitting unused for so long, the vehicle would need some work to make it roadworthy and he came prepared.

When he knew that the van was going to be his, he joined TheSamba.com, an online site for Volkswagen owners and checked out other informational sites. In addition to learning important information including the common quirks of the vehicle and where to access parts, he discovered that owners of these vintage vans often give them names in the same manner that boat owners name their crafts. I was touched when he chose to name his Beatrice after my late mother!

Sadly, though he had hoped to drive her home to Vancouver, the Beatrice needed more work than Matt was able to accomplish in the few short days that he was at our place. That’s when Plan B came into being and here we are in Vancouver! We loaded the van onto another auto hauler and pulled her through the mountains. Now she’s tucked into a corner of Matt’s backyard where he can work on her as he has time. This has also afforded us another opportunity to visit Dad before winter sets in as well as a few unexpected days with our grandsons!

In addition to bringing the Beatrice home to the coast, we brought our 17 foot Coleman canoe for Matt, Robin and the boys to enjoy. It’s an extremely durable, very stable family canoe, but bigger and heavier than Richard and I want to haul around anymore. As I paddled it through some fairly rough ocean waves at Porteau Cove on the Sea to Sky highway yesterday afternoon, I knew my paddling days weren’t over though. A couple of waves crashed over the bow and left me soaking wet, but it was a blast and a lightweight kayak is definitely on my wish list!

Hiking Johnson Canyon

August 26, 2016August 26, 2016 / edebock / 4 Comments

I first hiked Johnson Canyon, one of the most popular day hikes in Banff National Park, as a university student in 1974 and I’ve been wanting to do it again ever since. On Sunday, I finally did!

The parking lot was already full by mid morning when we arrived and the trail was packed with tourists. Catwalks affixed to the limestone cliffs make the canyon easily accessible to everyone and the 1.1 km trail to the lower falls involves very little change in elevation.

At the lower falls, a bridge crosses the creek allowing both an excellent spot from which to view the falls and access to a water-formed tunnel through the rock to a closer viewing platform.

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The crowd thinned out a little as we moved on toward the upper falls, another 1.5 km up the trail. Spectacular views continued to surround us as we followed the crystal clear creek.

There is significantly more change in elevation on the way to the upper falls and by the time we arrived at the bottom our two little grandsons decided that their legs had hiked far enough. Our son and daughter-in-law took them back to camp while Richard and I pushed on. It was a short climb to the top of the falls where we enjoyed great views of the falls themselves and the deep pool at the bottom.

Beyond the upper falls, the trail leaves Johnson Canyon behind and climbs another 3.1 km to the Ink Pots, seven cold mineral springs that bubble to the surface forming small pools in an open meadow. These springs are unique in that they have a constant year round temperature of 4ºC and their basins are composed of quicksand.

I had not hiked beyond the upper falls in the past and wasn’t expecting the steep climb that was involved. Once we’d set out, however, I was determined to finish! The trail seemed to go on forever, climbing higher and higher. Younger legs passed us by, but we pushed onward and eventually reached our goal!

My old knees were a bit achy the next morning, but a soak in Banff’s Upper Hot Springs was all they needed to recuperate!

Robin’s ride

August 25, 2016 / edebock / 5 Comments

After our day of dinosaur fun at Drumheller, we moved on to Banff where we camped at the beautiful Two Jack Lakeside campground. The main reason for choosing that destination was our daughter-in-law’s participation in the Banff Gran Fondo, a 150 km bike race/ride on Saturday morning.

Our grandson’s, Sam and Nate, slept in the trailer with us on Friday night so that Mom could get a good night’s sleep before her big ride. Before any of us were out of bed in the morning, she was already on her bike! At 7:15 am, we headed over to the campground entrance to watch and cheer her on. As the first wave of riders rounded the curve and came into view, excitement built and it was an emotional moment for all of us when Robin rode by. We are so proud of her!

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It takes a lot of determination for any young mom to prepare for something like this and even more so when she suffers from rheumatoid arthritis! She is definitely one of my heroes!

In addition to offering us a front row view of Robin’s ride, Two Jack Lakeside campground, just minutes away from Banff itself, was a perfect spot for us to explore the area from and just down the path from our campsite were the most stunning views imaginable.