Saturday, August 23, 2008

Designated as another day to just lie around we did just that for most of the morning. But today was also the day that Mark was leaving to go back to Regina.

Helene and Mark went off for one of their long walks, Jane and Pat went to the Hubbard Farmer’s market and I read - I was compelled to finish my book!!

We said our goodbye and Jane took Mark to the airport. It has been a comfortable fun time for us. Together the four of us have the right mix of adventure, laziness, energy and conversation. Pat will be finishing her summer and going home in the middle of September.

The Swiss Air memorial is made up of two parts forming a triangle with the crash site. We had seen the memorial on the Peggy’s Cove side of St. Margaret’s Bay (at Whale Back) and we wanted to see the other site, The site on this side of the Bay is the actual burial site.

It wasn’t a long drive to Bayswater. A small sign pointed the way to a rough little parking lot just below the memorial. We parked and walked up the path to a wall with the names of all of the victims of the crash and a small enclosed grass area. As the sign indicated the area was in keeping with the typical shoreline topography.

We explored further along the coast and marveled at the beauty of the coastline and the ocean. It has been a very wet summer here (although it has hardly rained since we have been here) and the trees, bushes and grass are still green.

We made our way home, had dinner - left over steak and scallops - and finished the evening with a game of scrabble (which Pat won!)

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

This was the first day of two that we are devoting to exploring the St. Margaret’s bay area. We headed off late in the morning - we can’t miss our leisurely wake up and coffee on the deck - and headed to Chester.

Chester is a beautiful little town about 45 minutes by car from Mill Cove. We wandered the shops, looked at the boats in the harbour and finally settled on a restaurant for lunch. We have heard here that frequently you have to make a choice - good food or a good view. Today at lunch we had a great view - although I thought my meal was quite good - clams and chips - not on my diet but then I am on a holiday!

After lunch we made our way to Mahone Bay. As we turned the corner on the highway this beautiful sight came into view - the Bay laid out before us with gingerbread houses and five church steeples on the far side.

We spent time wandering around the shops there with a bit of time in the Glass Lass shop. Pat has brought us a number of the beautiful glass pieces made by Sharon McNamara. Today Helene ordered a large serving platter. They will make it and ship it direct to Regina. I had visions of carrying a delicate glass piece around England and Italy for the next month.

The last stop was Lunenburg - a world heritage site - home of the Bluenose. Pat was pleased and surprised to see that the Bluenose was in port. Helene and I spent quite a bit of time onboard and talking to the kids that work the Bluenose for the summer.

It was interesting that all three spots are so similar and yet so different. All three have harbours and are clearly sea oriented. Yet Chester and Mahone Bay are clearly tourist destinations while Lunenburg is oriented to history and seems to be a working seaside town.

Much better Internet Access

We have been in Nova Scotia for a week now but we have been at our friend's cabin on St. Margaret's bay - with virtually no internet access except at the occasional visitor centre or friend's house. But I have been keeping up with my blog using Word.

We are now in Wolfville with Nancy Hicks and her friend Dave. Nancy was a colleague at the University of Regina in Business Education. She retired 10 years ago and eventjually moved back home to the Annapolis Valley. She has internet at her home.

I will post last week's blog entries over the next day or two and hopefully get caught up.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Finally we were on our way to Nova Scotia. We had time with Jay and Dori in the morning and then it was time to pack the car. They both took us to the airport and we boarded our plane to Halifax via Montreal.

We learned that the Air Canada section of the Boston Airport is very tiny with virtually no services - just a little kiosk selling bad coffee and packaged stuff. So after we went through security we left security and found a typical airport bar and had some lunch.

Montreal was a quick turnaround - customs, packing the two bottles of duty free Jameson and finding the correct gate.

We picked up our Budget rent-a-car and programmed Dolores (our GPS device) to take us to cabin on Mill Cove Shore Road.

I’m not sure what I was expecting of the scenery in Nova Scotia but I was impressed with the heavily treed terrain. The highways rolled and twisted their way around Halifax until we got close to the St. Margaret’s Bay area - water, summer cottages, year round homes - all beautiful with spectacular views looking over bodies of water.

This is fantastically beautiful part of the world.

Pat and Mark have rented this house for two months. Until now Pat has hosted her family and some other guests. We made our arrangements to be here for the last week of Mark’s stay. We have traveled with them before and our time together is always relaxed and fun.

This is not really a cottage. It is a 4 bedroom house complete with dining room, large kitchen, den and two full bathrooms along with a laundry room - we are hardly roughing it.