Doug and I have heard from a lot of people that if you go to Nova Scotia make sure you take the time to go to Cape Breton Island. We dropped Lori and Ben off at the Halifax airport and headed to Cape Breton, not sure what to expect. The weather turned hot, so no more rain.
On our way to Cape Breton we rounded a curve in the fog and came across this wreck that was cabled to the shore....kind of creepy if you ask me!
These ships were in the harbour where the wreck was.
We decided and advised by Lori to make our home base at Baddeck.
Baddeck is located on Bras d' Or lake, which is the largest salt water lake in Canada, and was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell.
The first day we did the drive on the Capet Trail, which takes between 6 - 8 hours depending how often you stop and what you do. The scenery was amazing at at times I was braking (but not driving) and leaning over away from the car. It gets really high up, and glad we did not pull the trailer thru there.
It was hard taking pictures because they did not do the view justice. We enjoyed this drive a lot, but were tired when we got back to the trailer.
We did stop and have a picnic lunch and went into a Whale Interpetive Centre, which was very interesting.
This is a jaw bone of a Hump Back Whale
This is a true replica of a Pilot whale that frequent that area and they named him "hook"
because of the hook like shape of his dorsal fin
We also went to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. The town of Baddeck is known for Alexander Bell having a summer home here, and the town hopes by building this Museum that tourist will come and visit.
We learned a lot, how many projects this man had his hands in besides the telephone.
He was very much involved in helping the deaf to communicate and also involved in the invention of the first Airplanes & Phonographs. He enjoyed running around his huge estate in his bathing suit when a large thunder storm was on, which made his children laugh. Everyday he would write in a small note book either a idea, or a thought or something he saw and wanted to do, and then during the evening meal he would bring out his note book and discuss what he had written with his family.
Alexander Graham Bell, always had a full beard and mustache
He was married and had 2 daughters
One of the first designs of flight
A monument along the harbour dedicating to him and his wife
He bought 800 acres for $3000.00 back in the day. Today his huge house stands vacant but some of his descendants have summer houses on the property, there are about 10 houses that we could see. It will cost over a million dollars to restore this huge house, and as you can see work has started. Alexander Graham Bell and his wife are buried on top of this hill. He had a huge slab of stone dragged across the bay in winter and put on top of the hill for a gravestone for himself and his wife. This property is not open to the public, as it is kept private from his descendants. The family did loan articles to the museum for the public to see.
His huge mansion, pity that it sits vacant. But because it is a private home the government will not give money to have it restored. The dinning room sits 21 for dinner.
Doug and I also took in our first Ceilidh!
Ceilidh stands for friendly gathering. It usually consists of fiddle player and a piano player. As kitchen parties are people who play instruments and also sing.
The fiddle player takes the lead, and the piano player follows. It was amazing and very toe tapping.
They answered a lot of questions from the crowd of about 60 people. They explained the difference between a jig and a reel. The also talked about the history of their fiddles, and where they learned to play. Ceilidhs are held somewhere every night all over Cape Breton, and they are great fun. We met people from all over, and a nice couple from New Jersey that later that week they were going to go on the same giant clam dig that we went on, small world.
We got in a game of golf one afternoon, it was very hot about + 28.
Doug and I have never been on a sail boat, so check another thing off the bucket list. We went on this big sail boat for a couple of hours. It was very rough and a lot of white caps, but Doug did not get sick. But when the captained turned the ship around, huge waves came over and totally soaked both of us, could not get any more wet if we had a shower with our cloths on. It was great fun and met a nice family that lives in Baddeck, that take this sail every time someone from out of town comes to visit. The captain takes tourist sailing here all summer and then takes the sail boat down south for the winter. Not a bad living if you ask me.
The Baddeck lighthouse.
Every once in while we come across some strange "ART"? on peoples lawns that just make you laugh!
We now have decided to come back under the great lakes in the states. So we had to get travel insurance and some USA money today. We have travelled over 13,000 km and have seen very little construction and only one minor accident. We did discover that our tires are wearing out, so we had to purchase new tires "ouch". But we have been safe, nothing major has happened, and we are still getting along even though it is a small space we are in. Love retirement so far!
We now are going to leave the Maritimes ( a little sad), and slowly make our way home, so heading for Maine on Monday. I have eaten a lot of seafood here, and looking forward to comparing Maines lobster with the lobsters of the Maritimes.
Keep well
Judy & Doug
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