We got off early because we wanted to see Peggy’s Cove
Lighthouse before the tourists all arrived.
We got there around 8:00 and had a glorious hour with only a couple
other people before the tour buses started to arrive. This is said to be
Canada’s more photographed lighthouse, and it was really a beauty. It sits on rugged rocks, with the waves
crashing up. In the early morning
light, it was so peaceful. We saw
photos of it crawling with buses and buses full of tourists. There was an enormous parking lot that could
fit so many cars, and a really big gift shops.
This is on the route of more tour buses…and we were so blessed (and self-congratulatory)
that we were able to see it and photograph it from all angles as we wanted without
dodging tourists. We did well at this!
Then we were also able to walk around this tiny fishing
village and get some amazingly classic shots from all angles of the boats, and
the old fishing sheds, all with the water reflecting up and everything looking
like it was straight out of a movie set.
What a charming place. They still
fish there, but also make a lot of their money on tourists.
Then we were off in the car for a delightful drive down the
eastern coast of Nova Scotia. At nearly
every turn there would be more pretty little towns, nice white churches, views
of foggy moving across the docks. The
whole day took us in and out of great views.
The drive wasn’t so long today, but there were so many places that we
just had to stop to take some pictures.
Breakfast was delicious at a place with patio tables and
very slow service. We sighed and agreed
it was good that we were on vacation and really didn’t have a tough schedule
today. We ended up striking up a good conversation
with a couple from Australia on vacation, too.
A nice stop. We then walked over
to a local farmer’s market. Lots of
early summer veggies, and lots of locally sourced food. We would not be cooking for a while, so
didn’t buy anything, but it all looked so good.
Another stop was a town, Lunenberg, with many colorful old buildings and
a great fishing heritage. They had a nice Maritime museum, but we did not have
enough time to linger too long. There were
many local artists at work at painting and drawing old buildings for an auction
that afternoon. We were there on a day when many artists were finishing paintings to be a part of a auction later in the day. Dick enjoyed conversations
and watching them bring these great old buildings to life on their paper.
We were very excited to be able to visit a museum about The
Black Loyalists. These were African
Americans who were both freemen and women or escaped or former slaves who were
loyal to the British because they were told if they fought for the British
against the American rebels, they would be given their freedom. Thousands of them ended up coming to Canada
as the American Revolution went to the Americans. Neither of us had heard any of this history
and so we wanted to visit this site.
It was built in the area where 1200 blacks had lived for a number of years
right after the Revolutionary War. The
British often did not keep their promises and life was very hard in this harsh
land. After several years, about 800 of
them took the opportunity to go by ship to Africa where they were able to
establish new free lives. This happened
with mixed results. There were also many
who chose to stay and be Canadians. Two
of the young people working at this museum were descendants of these
settlers. This museum was cool, but it
was quite a highlight to spend nearly an extra hour talking with the four young
people on staff about what they have learned and about their experiences
learning about this history. And
outstanding experience.
We then needed to move on because we were headed to the most
southern point in Canada: Clark’s Harbor.
This was down on an island in the far south of Nova Scotia. There we spent a fine night with a very
friendly Band B host and her little dog.
She was a wealth of information about life on the island, and we had
some great conversations. She also gave
us a good tip to go have a fine lobster dinner in town. Excellent food! And we were complimented that we ate it
well. We were pleased to not totally
embarrass ourselves in our eating.
Back to the island where we went down to the beach and
watched the waves and peeked at the Cape Sable lighthouse, tallest lighthouse in Canada, which was even father out on
another island. Our host promised if we
returned, she would arrange a boat ride out there. It was so pretty and peaceful. We were so please to be there, even if it was
just for one night. This for sure goes
on our list of places to return to see.
Time to just finish our laundry, work on some blog pictures
and toddle off to bed. Another fine
vacation day!
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