2013 … A Dream Year

What a year!  We traveled a total of 9,448 miles in Island Girl, from Florida to Maine to Canada, then south and west reaching Arizona by the end of the year.  We visited 18 states and 4 Canadian provinces.  In October we reached a couple of milestones:  one year of fulltiming and one year of blogging.

Whew!  Here’s a month-by-month recap of our dream year:

January – visited with friends and family in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.

February – stepped back into nature at Everglades National Park.

March – a nice long stay in Funky Key West for ocean fun and an awesome air show.

April – a busy month: first north and west to the Gulf Coast of Florida for more family time, then back east to the John F. Kennedy Space Center and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, north to St. Augustine, and north again to the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia and the low country of South Carolina, and finally to Atlanta to see old friends.

May – visited the Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Washington, D.C., then ended the month in New York City and upstate New York where we visited more family and friends.

June – a quick stop in Boston and then on to beautiful Maine.

Here was our route for the first half of the year.

July – crossed the border into Canada on the 1^st, and spent the month in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  Discovered absolutely astounding people and places.

August – visited idyllic Prince Edward Island, buggy Kouchibuguac National Park in New Brunswick, then over to Quebec to the gorgeous and oh so French Gaspé Peninsula.

September – visited the St. Lawrence River in Quebec where we saw an amazing number of whales and concluded our fantastic Canadian summer in charming Quebec City, then crossed the border back to the U.S. to enjoy the beautiful Vermont autumn.

October – continued leaf-peeping in Vermont, then began our westward journey with stops at Niagara Falls, then Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky,St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, visiting friends and family along the way.

November – a stop in Denver, where the journey began, to get annual checkups for all and check in with friends and family.  Then south to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

December – another busy month.  Traveled around New Mexico, south to Albuquerque, then further south to the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and Las Cruces, then crossed the border to Arizona and ended our most unforgettable year in Tucson.

And here was our route for the second half

Some things we learned:

We ran a little hot this year, with an average stay of 8 nights at our 45 stops, not complaining, it was fabulous, but we’d like to slow it down a bit this year and try staying longer in each place.

We set a goal of no more than four hours driving time between stops and for the most part kept to it; averaging 185 miles per trip, but a couple of the trips were still way too long.

We stayed too far north too late into the year, and plan to head south earlier next year to avoid frigid cold and snow (although the falling snow was beautiful).

Crossing from the east coast to the west coast really took a toll on us, we were tired puppies by the time we reached Denver, and plan to stay in the West next year.

Our planning paid off in some fabulous campsites, on the other hand, we discovered that it’s best to have a balance of planned and unplanned stops.

Re-connecting with family and friends, and making new friends along the way has been one of the most important parts of our journey.

And we learned to be grateful each and every day, we are so fortunate!

We wish you all a very Happy  and Healthy New Year in 2014!

~ Brenda, Hector and Angel

One Year Fulltiming!

 

It’s true, we’ve now passed the one-year mark since we began our journey.  It has been a rich and full experience and yet time has passed very quickly.

Before I forget, I’ll answer a question that was asked just before we left:  What if we don’t like it?  Well, we love it.  Even though the first time I woke up in Island Girl knowing that I’d be living here for a while, my first thought was – What have I done? – I quickly came to love it and have never looked back.

In fact, I was surprised at how easily I adjusted, particularly to the confined quarters. Hector and I decorated our new little 400 square foot home just as we had our other homes, and we really enjoy our interior space.

And we’re also really happy with our upgrades and our custom office space.   Hector is able to work on his Apple computer (the photographer gets the big computer) in our comfy chair by the desk, while I work on our laptop on our comfy couch simultaneously.

Island Girl feels downright roomy with her 39’ length, and we have plenty of storage space.

And the journey has far exceeded our expectations. We’ve spent quality time with friends and family across the country, many of whom we’d not seen in waaay too long.  And other friends have come to visit.

Along the way we’ve also met lots of different people, learned new things, and just enjoyed spending quality time together.  We’ve visited a total of 14 states, including parts of the Midwest, South and Northeast.

We’ve experienced the lovely Arkansas autumn, the fabulous gulf coast of Florida,

the wild and subtle beauty of the Everglades,

and the wilder side of Florida in general. 

We returned to the “black” waters of the Okefenokee Swamp,

and to the Great Smoky Mountains.

We visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina, 

and spent the beginning of our summer on the breathtaking coast of Maine.

We traveled to extreme opposites; in Key West, Florida, we stood at the southernmost point of the U.S.

And months later made it to the furthest northeast state of Maine.

We spent just under 12 weeks in Canada, where we visited four provinces and learned a ton about our neighbor to the north.

There we saw the amazing tides of the Fundy Coast,

the unique rock formations and the beautiful lighthouse at Peggy’s Cove,

and the rugged beauty of Cape Breton Island.We traveled to the southern tip of Nova Scotia, along the gorgeous landscapes of Prince Edward Island,

and the spectacular Gaspé Peninsula,

where we visited its Northern Gannet colony in Ile de Bonaventure.

We saw the whales of the St. Lawrence River,

and took many walks around beautiful Québec City.

And Angel visited rivers, lakes, rocky and sandy beaches, forests, went boating on various boats and ferries, and even went whale watching.

In total, Island Girl traveled 8,534 miles this first year.

And Hector and I have grown even closer during this journey.  Living together in such tight quarters can bring out the best or the worst in couples and sometimes both.  We’ve been married for a very long time and are very comfortable spending lots of of our time together while traveling.  Even after all of that we had a few grumpy patches along the road, but ultimately found our groove.

And, interestingly, some of the working aspects of RVing helped us to strengthen our partnership.  I named a previous post about leaving and arriving at our destinations “The Departure Dance”.  And I really do believe that there is a choreography that you both create and “perform” on a regular basis.  But it’s important that the choreography feels right for both of you.

That extends to the day-to-day chores and responsibilities as well.  Learning to support each other in a way that takes into account each of your likes, dislikes, talents and skills can make the journey much more enjoyable.

And, not surprising to any RVers out there, we’ve discovered that things tend to go wrong in the most inconvenient of times.

The first time was on the first week we were on the road, when our water inlet broke.  Another time, our refrigerator broke down on a Sunday, the day before we planned to cross the border into Canada.

The first Hector fixed himself, the second, we found someone who was able to fix it.  But we learned that when things go wrong (not if, but when), we should:

• Stay calm
• Ask for advice and/or help, there is a very helpful community out there
• Be flexible
• Have or make a plan B

At the same time, it’s been difficult to be away from most of our friends and family in Denver, and we really miss them.  But we can always visit and plan to soon.

And there have been other challenges along the way; minor medical issues and having to figure out which doctor to go to in unfamiliar places.  The same for finding veterinarians.

And, less critical challenges like not having access to cell phones, internet or TV (sometimes a good thing) in some places.

But right now we wouldn’t trade this lifestyle for anything else.  And we are continually learning and growing.  For me this blog has been a huge learning experience.  I’m not the most tech savvy person, and when we began this blog, we knew nothing about blogging.  But I took on the task of figuring out how to get started, and spent several frustrating weeks using the process of elimination to figure out certain aspects of the blog.

Well, we just passed the 100 post mark on the blog.  And it’s is another example of working as a team.  Hector is in charge of the photography, I write the posts.  Then we combine the two.  From organizing how to divide the subjects to creating the final product, we support each other.   Sometimes we collaborate from the beginning, other times we work independently and get together at the end. The blog is another choreography.

When I started writing this post, Hector wrote me a little note with some numbers and fun facts from the year.  He ended the note with “i love you still”.  And I feel the same way.

And the journey continues.

~ Brenda

Island Girl’s First Boat Ride

Prince Edward Island (PEI), where we are headed next, is the smallest province in Canada; 2,170 square miles in size and with a population of over 140,000.

There are two ways to get to and from PEI, one is to take a ferry which connects it to Nova Scotia, and the other is by crossing an eight mile bridge which connects it to New Brunswick.

They have an interesting model; you only pay (whether the ferry fee or the toll for the bridge) when you leave PEI.  And, since we planned to take the ferry from Nova Scotia to PEI and to drive out of PEI on the bridge to New Brunswick, our ferry ride was free.  There was one catch, we had to standby for the ferry as reservations are allowed only for those that pay (round-trip either way or one-way departing PEI).  Confused yet?

Anyway, we weren’t going to complain since we were about to take a free 1 hour 15 minute ferry ride across the Northumberland Straight.  But we did plan to leave Pictou in time to standby for the first ferry of the day, just in case we didn’t get on.

And, when we arrived, there were already quite a few RVs , cars and large trucks lined up already.  We were advised that more truckers with reservations were expected, so there definitely was a possibility that we wouldn’t get on.

While we waited for the first ferry, we started chatting with the couple from the RV that was next in line, Beth and Dave.  We were amazed at how many RV’s and trucks there were but they told us that the next ferry due was the larger one of the two.  Finally, the ferry arrived and they started loading cars, then trucks, then RV’s.  It’s quite incredible how many big rigs they loaded on board, but alas, we didn’t get on.

The GPS Ferry upper left is kinda cute!

But we were third in line for the next ferry, so it seemed that we had a pretty good chance of getting on, even though that was going to be the smaller ferry.  We continued chatting with Beth and Dave, who are from Nova Scotia and were taking a brief vacation trip to PEI.  That made the time go a lot faster and in no time the next ferry came and we made it on.  Island Girl boarded that ferry like a seasoned boater!

RV’s, trucks, and, interestingly motorcycles (which get strapped to the deck) are boarded onto the lower deck.  Cars get loaded on the upper deck.

We had the option of bringing Angel upstairs as long as she stayed outside, but she’d have to climb three really long staircases so we chose not to.  There was a nice sea breeze and we left the windows  in Island Girl open for her.

Once we reached the top deck, we ran into Beth and Dave once more and spent the ferry ride getting acquainted.  Beth has a blog – Summer Friends – in which she features her vintage trailer, a cute and well loved “Glendette”.

The crossing was calm and beautiful.  Beth and Dave gave us a few tips about PEI, and once again time went by really fast and before we knew it there was an announcement for everyone to prepare for arrival at PEI.

So we said our good-byes and headed back down to get ready to drive Island Girl off the ferry.  Angel looked comfy and relaxed and ready for the next adventure.  And off we went onto the beautiful Prince Edward Island.

~ Brenda

Hector and the Scots

On our way to Prince Edward Island we stopped overnight at Pictou, Nova Scotia, prior to taking the ferry over to the island.  Pictou is the town adjacent to the port where we the ferry is located.

Hector had found out that Pictou had a replica of the ship that brought the first Scottish immigrants to this area, the Ship Hector.  They also had a Hector Heritage Quay and a Hector Festival.  This was too much to pass up.

So we headed to Pictou, a fairly short trip, about 2 ½ hours, and spent the afternoon visiting the ship and the Quay.  And it turned out to be another very interesting history lesson about the Scots and their journey to New Scotland or Nova Scotia.

As I’d mentioned in my earlier post on Baddeck, Scots emigrated for a number of reasons.  And it turned out to be a very familiar story of immigration:  the heart wrenching decision to leave the place and the people you know and love for a place that offers better opportunities; the challenges of the journey to your new home; the obstacles and challenges when you arrive there; and, hopefully, finding a better life despite of or perhaps because of all of those hardships.

There are still people in this world living this story every day.

This first group of Scots who came here were lured by some slightly misleading advertisements promising land in Nova Scotia.  The Ship Hector, not the most well built ship and also a ship with some miles on her was to bring them.

And so about 200 people set off from Scotland.  It was a tough voyage.  When they reached the area near Newfoundland, a major storm set them back from their course about two weeks.

They were forced to spend all of that time in the hold of the ship. Looking at the size of the hold in the replica ship, this was unimaginable to us.  Disease, particularly smallpox, spread and killed several of the children, who were most vulnerable.   The children had to be buried at sea, to their mothers’ horror.

Unfortunately, their arrival resulted in further hardship, as it too late to plant crops and they had to build shelters before winter, which, since they’d been delayed due to the storm, was coming soon.  Having come from the green highlands in Scotland, they weren’t familiar with building log buildings.

Ultimately, and with the help of some trappers and other early settlers, the great majority of them survived that harsh first winter and flourished.  A very resilient group of people.

So we had great fun with all of the Hector stuff (we did miss the actual Hector Festival :-().

But we also found a connection to a group of people from long ago and far away, who journeyed here for a better life for their families as our parents also did not so long ago.

~ Brenda

Fortress Louisburg

I wasn’t sure that I was up for visiting yet another fortress, but the Fortress of Louisbourg is North America’s largest historical reconstruction, so we couldn’t pass it up.  It’s a National Historic Site, so yet another opportunity to use our Parks Canada Discovery Passes, which have already paid for themselves.

The French selected this ice-free, sheltered harbor to act as a base for France’s interests in cod fishery and to serve as an important trading post because of its location due west of the entrance to the Mediterranean and due north of the French Caribbean.  In fact, one map we saw had a perfect triangle with these three locations as its corners.

The original settlement was founded in 1713 and fortified against the threat of British invasion during the turbulent time of empire-building.  The walls were built between 1720 and 1740 and the fortifications eventually surrounded the town.

Louisbourg developed into a thriving center for fishing and trade and became an administrative capital.  It was second only to Quebec as the most important stronghold and commercial city in New France and had a commercial district, a residential district, military arenas, marketplaces, inns, taverns and suburbs.

Exporting fish was more lucrative than the fur trade for France, where the majority of Catholics were not supposed to have meat about 150 days in the year.  Some of France’s poor and impoverished left their homes behind to seek a better life in this prosperous community.

The design of the fortress was focused on sea-based assaults, and left the land facing area unprotected, the thinking was that there was no way to cross the swamps. The British took the fortress in 1745, then the French negotiated their return only to be captured by the British again in 1758.   And the British ultimately destroyed the walls of Louisbourg and burned down the city in 1760.

 

Then in 1961, after many Cape Breton Islands coal mines had been closed, the federal government funded the reconstruction as a way to generate jobs.  Archeologists, engineers and historians worked together to recreate the town as it was in the 1740’s. 

The current city has dozens of buildings open to visitors with re-enactors in period dress demonstrating how people worked, played and lived in 1744.  The re-enactors are excellent and speak to you in character and in the context of the time (sometimes with a wink).

Very educational, often funny, and always entertaining.  As extensive as the reconstruction is, two thirds of the fortified town remains as ruins.

We witnessed a public shaming, a musket and cannon firing demonstration, a blacksmith demonstration and upper class dancing by the re-enactors.  We learned about the rationing of food for the soldiers and about baking in the old fashioned ovens.  They even had the loaves of bread baked that morning available for purchase.

Look! He has all his teeth!!!!

 

We also learned that wealthy parents didn’t establish a strong bond with their children until they were about 10 years old, they had wet nurses, nannies and others caring for the children until they were considered to be relatively safe from childhood diseases.   What a different time!

The harbor is large and protected but the harbor entrance is treacherous.  There is still a lighthouse very near to where the French installed theirs.

Fortress of Louisbourg is an impressive re-creation.  If you have ever had an interest in stepping back in time, I’d recommend you visit.

~ Brenda

Mermaid’s Tears

Okay, we admit it, we’ve become addicted to sea glass hunting.  As Hector says “the ocean coughs up jewels for you to pick up on the beach”.  It’s kind of magical how the ocean takes garbage – broken glass – and carves it into beautiful “gems”.

Part of the charm is that we’re discovering some absolutely striking beaches in our hunt for sea glass.  And, since they’ve generally been too cold for me to swim in, this is a way to “connect” with the beaches without having to go into the water.

I find sea glass hunting to be incredibly relaxing.  It’s a fully “in the moment” experience.  In fact, a couple I met recently at one of the markets told me that the husband has a high stress job and that sea glass hunting is his way of relaxing.  I totally get it.

And, like with many things that we’ve “discovered”, we find that there is an entire culture around sea glass.  Also known as mermaid’s tears, a romantic thought.  Sophisticated collectors, books, websites, conferences etc are devoted to the topic.

There are various ways to rate sea glass, but basically the more rounded, pebbled and frosted pieces, known as “conditioned” and “weathered” are the true sea glass.

And there are colors that are considered much more rare than others and so forth.   Clear (white), green, and brown are the most common.  Blue, yellow, and red more rare.  After some research, we think we’ve found some pretty nice pieces considering we are “newbies”.

And part of the intrigue of sea glass is trying to figure out where it came from. There are many sources of sea glass, including, of course, shipwrecks, old dump sites, and bottles thrown overboard or thrown over cliffs from beach houses in the past.  The shape, color and thickness of the sea glass are clues, but there can be much more to it.  Wondering where each piece came from is part of the fun.

While on Cape Breton Island, we found one of the most beautiful sea glass beaches, Inverness Beach.  It’s in a lovely cove, almost deserted on some days we visited, and stretches for about three miles.  A stunningly beautiful beach by any standard, and each tide delivers a fresh batch of sea glass jewels to be found.  Magic.

Where did the sea glass come from?  In this case, a town dump site that closed fifty years ago.  Hard to think that people were dumping garbage into the ocean so recently.  But five decades of ocean processing makes this one of the best beaches for sea glass we’ve found.

There’s also an interesting story about the town of Inverness, which was formerly a coal-mining town in decline.  Inverness now boasts a golf course rated as the best new development in the world by Golf Inc. partially located above those very same coal mines.

For those that know golf (not me), the Cabot Trails course is one of 246 true “links” courses in more than 30,000 golf courses in the world.    Every hole overlooks the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  This design is partially from Scotland, where golf is said to have originated.  And the town of Inverness was originally settled by Scots.

The project was controversial for a number of reasons not the least of which was that the golf course would block some access to the beach, leaving only one road going all the way to the beach from the town.  Since it’s a three mile beach that was a big issue.

The developers finally relented and built a boardwalk from the entrance point to the end of the beach with multiple access points down to the water.  So it’s still a long walk to the opposite end of the beach, but it’s a bit more accessible.  Of course, the golf course promises new life to the town.  And I hope for the best for Inverness.

But back on the sand, I’m beginning to think about actually taking a dip in the water.  The water temperature is feeling like the warmest one so far in Canada. 

But on the last day we visited, there they were – jellyfish, lots of them.  Really?  They were actually beautiful, and there was a strong surf, so many were getting washed ashore.  Several Canadians I asked told me they don’t sting…much.  Hmmm.  Ultimately I didn’t go in.

But we continued to enjoy the beachcombing and the beautiful views of the water and the golf course.

We visited other beaches, many were quite pretty, many had sea glass, but none matched Inverness.   A gorgeous stretch of beach, with clear water, pretty sand dunes and beautiful jewels among the stones.

Now back to the hunt.

~ Brenda

The Cabot Trail

The 186 mile Cabot Trail is truly one of the most scenic drives we’ve ever taken.  The road twists and turns, and, as you round the corners, you encounter one stunning vista after another.  This is especially true once you enter the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  The Trail can be driven in six very exhausting hours, but, happily, we had the opportunity to drive on various sections of it and through the National Park several times.

One third of the Cabot Trail runs through Cape Breton Highlands National Park, which covers 367 square miles.  The ocean scenery in the highlands is some of the most eye-popping, with steep cliffs diving straight into the ocean, and also has three forest types:  canyons, plateau and headlands.

Because of these various habitats, however, the weather on the island is unpredictable. And whoever writes the daily forecast for Cape Breton Island clearly has a sense of humor, here is an example of one week’s forecast:  Monday – mostly cloudy with a shower, Tuesday – clouds and sun with a shower, Wednesday – sunny and delightful, Thursday – a couple of thunderstorms, Friday – a thunderstorm possible, Saturday – humid with variable clouds, Sunday – mostly cloudy and humid.

The funny (and wonderful) thing is on several of those days it never rained.

So even though at first we found it challenging to plan our days, we figured out that the best thing to do was check weather at our destination (likely to be different from the weather at our campground) in the morning right before we left, and then generally ignore the forecast anyway 🙂

Our drives up the eastern part of the Cabot Trail were combined with our whale watches.  There are a number of communities along this part of the trail, including Ingonish.  Ingonish has resorts, restaurants, more art galleries, and the Highland Links Golf Course, which has a combination of seaside and mountain holes.

There are also some smaller communities and lots of coves and beaches with colorful fishing boats along the way.

At the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, there’s a village called Meat Cove that has a campground for tent camping and a few cabins.  We walked along a nice little beach there after our morning whale watching tour.

There were lots of Northern Gannets feeding using their dive bomber technique.  Fun to watch.

The only other establishment we noticed in this village was a Chowder Hut.  VERY remote.

Driving over to the west side, we visited Chéticamp, in the Acadian section of Cape Breton Island.  The Acadians, as I mentioned in my post on Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, settled here in the late 1700s, as well as in some sections of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and give a distinctly French flavor to this area.

Chéticamp is another larger community with more art galleries, restaurants and one VERY large Catholic church.

A museum that interested me in Chéticamp was Centre de La Mi-carême.  I’ve always been fascinated by festivals involving masks and costumes and La Mi-carême is one I wasn’t familiar with.

It is a carnival that began in Europe sometime during the 7^th or 8^th centuries, when men and older boys dressed in disguise and traveled the countryside during Lent.  Women, children and the elderly stayed at home to be visited and entertained by the masked merrymakers.

French settlers brought the custom to North America in the late 18^th century.  At this time, Catholics ate only one meal each day during the seven weeks of Lent, and were not allowed to include meat, eggs, milk and cheese in their diet.

Lent became known as the “Thin Days’. So prior to Lent, during “Carnival” they feasted, these days were known as the “Fat Days” ending in Fat Tuesday – aka Mardi Gras.

The name Mi-carême comes from the French word for Lent – Carême – combined with the word for half – demi.  And the traveling masquerade takes place on the middle day of the seven weeks of Lent – a one day return to the Carnival festivities that preceded Lent.  The costumes for this festival are not supposed to be beautiful, but rather comical and/or hideous.  And they also served to hide the merrymakers’ identities from the local priests.

The tradition has been revived in recent years, with the host homes and establishments listing themselves as open houses so the masked groups of people will know to visit them.   The hosts prepare food, have music and entertain their visitors with the goal of guessing their identity.  The masked visitors cover their entire body to make themselves unrecognizable.  Once someone guesses the visitors’ identities, they move on to the next open house and begin the process again.

Sounds like fun.

We leave the French Acadian area to return to the Scottish/Irish area of the island.  It’s so interesting to see signage in English and French and a few miles later see signage in English and Gaelic.

We’d planned a couple of hikes in the area that is known as a moose habitat as Hector was still searching for his first Canadian moose.  As we headed for one of the trails and parked in the parking lot, a couple drove up, stopped and asked us – where are you going?  Which was a weird question, but we told them we were about to hike the trail across the street.

They said they’d spotted a moose and had been watching him for a while, when we asked where, they said it was by the moose crossing sign down the road.  So we got back into our car and there she was – it was a cow, right by the bright yellow moose sign!

Hector took some photographs until the cow ran off and then we drove back to hike the trail.  Benji’s lake was a short trail – 2 miles – to a lake known to be moose habitat. On the way back from the lake Hector spotted another cow and took some more photographs.

But, alas, when he got home, the memory card on his camera crashed so we don’t have the moose photos 😦

But we really enjoyed seeing them, they are so unique looking.

Another big day for little Angel

Another moose sighting; one late night as we headed back from the national park, Hector nearly had a heart attack when he spotted a moose right by the side of the road just in front of us.  Fortunately, the moose didn’t cross in front of us.  So we doubled back VERY slowly to where Hector had spotted the moose.

It was a juvenile bull, quite adorable.    Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) we spooked him and he ran into the forest.  Once again, no photos, since it was night.

Heading out to the west side of the park on another day, we stopped to see some folk art by Josef, the artist, at his home.  He’s actually a fisherman who’s been creating folk art for 20 years and has some pretty cool stuff.   And for the second time, we’re asked if we’re art collectors.  Must be common around here.

Then we headed to a hike that we most looked forward to, which is the famous Skyline Trail.   One of the signature hiking trails in all of Canada, which is saying a lot.  This trail takes you through a forest (also moose habitat) to a dramatic headland overlooking the rugged Gulf Coast.

It’s a wide nearly level and very well maintained trail which leads to an enormous boardwalk/stairway leading down through a cliff overlooking the Northumberland Strait.  This boardwalk not only provides an opportunity for some who may not be able to climb down rocks to access the overlooks at the end, but also protects the mountain from being stomped on by all of those people.  There are multiple levels of overlooks so those who don’t want to climb down the entire stairway can still have a beautiful view of the water.

Bald Eagle

We met a cute couple here, he was carrying a little boy on his back and she was carrying a baby in a papoose.  They were both very fit but she didn’t walk down the stairs, as they have no handholds, and I imagine she couldn’t see down because of the baby.  But she still got a nice view.  And he is the one that took the nice photo of both of us.  I love to see young couples taking their kids hiking from such an early age.

I was really impressed by the work done on this trail and that such a short trail (4.7 miles) has one of the most amazing views I’ve ever seen. 

And, did I mention that Cape Breton Island was stunning?

~ Brenda

Angel Goes Whale Watching

We found a whale watching tour that allows dogs!  Oshan Whale Watch did have a stipulation that if any of the passengers objected to having a dog on board, we would not be able to bring Angel.  But we decided to take a chance.

Bay St Lawrence

Oshan Whale Watch goes out of  Bay St. Lawrence, at the most northern coastline at the top of Cape Breton Island.  We left at 7a.m. for our 10:30 boat tour so we’d have a little time to stop and gawk and take a few photos.

This was our first drive on the Cabot Trail, and the first time we entered the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  VERY scenic.

And, yes, we were able to take Angel on board, and although a few people looked surprised, everyone seemed ok with having her there.  Angel was a little disoriented at first, but she settled right in.  Keeshonds were companion dogs on Dutch barges, so I think she still has boating in her blood.

It was a relatively clear but cool and windy day and Captain Cyril Fraser informed us that because of the strong winds, he was going to skim the coastline rather than heading straight out.    We headed out as some snow crab fishermen were returning to the dock with their catch, giant snow crab, WOW!

Shortly after the start of our tour we spotted an eagle perched on the rock face of the imposing cliffs, some gray seals and quite a few birds including beautiful Northern Gannets.  Gannets dive for their food and they put on quite a show.

The most prevalent whales here are pilot whales, humpback whales are not spotted too often in these parts this time of year, so we adjusted our expectations accordingly.  It was taking a while to spot any whales and then we found the pilot whales.

Pilot whales travel in pods so we saw quite a few.  They are known to be very friendly and curious, and, true to form, they swam right up to the boat.  Seeing their fins above the water, they almost look like giant dolphins until you see their cute bulbous heads.

Pretty cool!

The captain put out a hydrophone and we heard the whales singing, very cool.  Then they swam off and we followed them for one more look.  Angel was a little short to see over most of the side of the boat, so I don’t believe she saw them, but her little nose was going crazy, so I think she smelled them.

Off the north end of Nova Scotia … latitude 47

The whales swam off a second time and Captain Fraser said he was going to give them a break and not go after them again.   Hector and I were excited to have seen a third type of whale in the wild while on our tour of the Maritimes.

At one point Angel decided she would assist the captain and sat right behind him.  Before I could warn him, he stepped back and stepped on her.  And instead of getting upset, he was very apologetic and petted her to soothe her.   So sweet.

Pilot Whale exhibit