Nova Scotia Day 8

Day 8

Arrived at the Chocolate Lake Best Western in Halifax last night. We just thought that the Mississippi River was muddy, they have a Chocolate River that flows into the Chocolate Lake and they really look like melted chocolate. No pictures because I never have time to get the camera booted up before we are out of range of the shot. 
 

Headed downtown to the wharf for dinner.  When we arrived we found the Buskers Festival in full swing.  What is a busker you ask?  Well I didn't know either, a busker is a street performer.  They have a 3 day festival in Halifax every year.

\This is Canada's version of Thomas the Train.  He had his own children's show explaining about the different types of boats and how a harbor works.

Friday was museum day.  First stop the Natural History museum.  Can you say high blood pressure??

We are hoping to see a moose or two on the Cabot Trail but this is as up close and personal as we want to get.

What are you looking at? 

Next stop the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

This is the lens from one of the lighthouses in the area.

And you thought you were having a bad day???

This is a Spanish coin called pieces of eight.  All of the coins on display came from sunken ships.  The companies who find the  wrecks are required to give 10% of the treasure to the country in which the wreck was found. 

This is Merlin, the museum mascot.  He can really screech!!!.  The sign says to talk to him but he isn't friendly at all.

Museums finished and it is time to get out of Halifax.  Our intention was to go just a little way out of town and find a place to stay. Needless to say, that was a mistake!!!  We rode and rode only to find nothing!.  We turned to Sally for help but all she said was go back to Halifax.  We over ruled her and kept on going. We finally found a motel only to be told there was a ball tournament in town and they had no rooms.  Next stop a B&B, again no rooms.  This was run by a German family and the lady was so sorry that she called every place down the road until she found us a room an hour away. It was a good thing she called because everyone rolls up the sidewalks and gas pumps at 8:00.

Nova Scotia Day 7

Started the day with temperature at a chilly and damp 61 degrees. Headed for Mickey D's for breakfast and COFFEE!. Got to love the hotels in the states with their coffee pots in the room and free breakfast.

Looks like everyone up here serves lobster.

Didn't take long to realize we were on the coast along the North Atlantic.  The wind picked up and the temp felt much colder than 61.  It also didn't take long for the rain to return.  No hard showers but a constant mist.

Nova Scotia is filled with churches.  They are all either solid white or white with black trim.  They are really beautiful.  The steeples are so tall, I haven't been able to take pictures while we are moving.

We stopped for lunch and it didn't take long for Jim to find some buddies.  With all of the dampness, the Chips Ahoy were really stale so guess what we did with them??

Headed to Halifax!  See you tomorrow as long as we have wi-fi.

Nova Scotia Day 6

Day 6

We got up this morning and had freshly made croissants and blueberry muffins at the Falcourt Inn.  No rain yet so we headed for Fort Anne.  Had to get in a little military history of the area.

Fort Anne was built in 1708 by the French.  There were 18 battles and then the British flag flew with pride.  It was used during the American Revolution.

The shape and contour of the fort was really amazing.  The banks were so steep, the enemy wasn't able to climb to the top. The wooden ladders weren't provided during battle.

Powder Magazine the only original building left

This was also a powder magazine that was sometimes called the Black Hole when it was used as a prison.

Annapolis river from the fort. Control the fort control the commerce, control the province.

Left the fort and headed for Digby to see the scallop festival. Unfortunately, the festival didn't get started  until the next day. So we ate scallops and did a little window shopping instead.

Digby: Scallop capital of the world!! and YES they were fresh and

good. Even in the rain.

The whole town is fishing and scallops

High tide in the Bay of Fundy you would never know the difference from anywhere else.

40 lbs of lobster estimated at 163 years old and 3 foot long. At the restaurant prices of + or minus 20.00 lb that would be a 2800 dollar dinner. Plus beverage(s).

Time to leave the scallops behind and head for Yarmouth, and yes we were still the traveling margaritas.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for the rain to let up.  By the time we got to Yarmouth we were soaked again.  They had a guest laundry but no wi-fi or AC!!! Turns out we didn't need the AC because the temp dropped to the mid 50's.

Nova Scotia Day 5

Not much to report today. We left the Sunshine Inn in anything but sunshine.  By the time we were packed up, it had begun to sprinkle so we put on our lime green Frog Togs and were on our way to the town of Truoro.  Jim thought we looked like two margarita's without the salt. After about 15 minutes we were able to get out of the margarita suits. 

We are still taking pictures of the low tides, it is just so amazing that the water level can change that much in a day. This was taken at about 9:30 in the morning.  

We stopped at one of the lighthouses to have a picnic lunch.  This lighthouse was at the second busiest harbor in Nova Scotia during the 50's.  They shipped gypsum and a couple of other minerals from this area.  They had big wooden blocks that the ships would dock on top of at high tide.  They would wait for low tide to load the ship and then have to wait again until high tide to float out of the harbor. 

We were at the lighthouse for about an hour.  These are before and after pictures of the same spot.  We couldn't believe how fast the tide covered the rocks.

 

Last picture of the day where we were dry.  After leaving the lighthouse we headed toward Digby.  We were an hour out when the sky turned black and we could see the rain coming.  We pulled over and once again became the traveling margaritas.   The rain came down in sheets and forced us to pull off at the first exit we could find.  There was a Best Western at the exit but no rooms.  The two ladies working the desk were so nice.  They gave us a hot cup of coffee and called around and found us a room about 10 km down the road.  While waiting for the rain to slack up enough to travel, they brought us a couple of scallops from their restaurant. YUM!!!

Nova Scotia Day 4

Left Calais, Maine headed for the Canadian border around 9:00 this morning. The AC was working great! a cool 63 degrees.  No trouble getting through customs so the vacation officially began.  The first thing Jim looked for was the speed limit sign.  To his delight it was 110!!!!  He set the cruise control and off we went.  Okay Mother-in-Law, start breathing again, it was 110 kilometers (68 mph).  Just had to have a little fun.  The first stop was St. John, New Brunswick

Here we are at the Visitor's Center. 

This is a view of the Bay of Fundy, home of the highest tide in the world. The St. John river is actually reverses during the high tide.

Next stop Nova Scotia!. The first trail we decided to take is called the Glooscap Trail.  It is named for the native people of this area. By this  time we were running on empty and stopped to fill up Old Red with more go juice.  Gas in Canada is between $1.21 and $1.35 per litre. Good thing we have smart phones on board because we wanted to know what that was per gallon.  Ok, I won't keep you guessing, it is $4.69 per gallon and we complain about $3.60???

Here is Jim and the Bay of Fundy Wing

These pictures show how low the tide gets.  Can't vouch for the movie above, the button turned on me without my knowledge or consent.  It just looked like a picture on the camera.  The boats can only come and go during high tide. Guess they have to be on time or they will be stranded.

Took what was listed as the coastal road to our hotel, only saw the water a few times but that was okay because it was a pretty curvie road.

Nova Scotia Day 2 & 3

Day 2

After yesterday's heat be got up at 5:30 and was on the road by 7:00.  The cool air didn't last long, it was short sleeves and suncreen by 9:30.  We rode for 12 hours and around 750 miles.  We ended the day north of Boston in the town of Haverhill, MA.  We had a good dinner and went straight to bed.

Day 3

Yesterday about wore us out so we slept until 6:00 this morning and had a leisure breakfast. Got on the road around 9:00 and was on the lookout for a Wal-Mart. ( I left the cable for the camara hooked up to the computer at home) Found a Target and Best Buy, no cable so a card reader will have to do. We left the interstate in Bangor, Maine and rode through the mountains. Absolutely perfect weather with a temp of 81 all day, no clouds that I could see and black tail deer everywhere.  Stopped early in Calais, ME to rest up for the remainder of the trip.  We will post pics tomorrow if we have internet.

Nova Scotia

Day One

Goldwing filled with gas---check.

Trailer loaded with everything except the kitchen sink---check

Ipod with 6000 + tunes---check

Cup holders loaded with ice water---check

AC set to 70--- Not until we reach Canada!!!

We pulled out of Red Bank at 1:00 Friday afternoon with the AC setting in the mid 90's. It is funny how the AC on a motorcycle uses the same thermostat as the air. We made really good time until about 30 miles outside of Roanoke, VA. We hit road construction for about 10 miles. We started looking for a place to stop when we hit he 400 mile mark. Lexington looked promising for hotels and restaurants so we took the exit only to find out we had to go 3 miles from the freeway to the town. After unexpectedly riding through the campus of VMI (Virginia Military Institute) we finally found a place to call home for the night. Tired, hot, and hungry, we walked next door to Applebees looking forward to a nice dinner in a cool restaurant but as luck would have it, the AC was broken!! Oh well, at least we had a nice dinner.  Planning on getting out early tomorrow to beat some of the heat.  Hopefully we will have pictures in a day or so.  Check back often.

Day 3 The White House

Liz made arrangements to get tickets to the White House for the 10:30 tour. We were given a list of do's and don'ts. We were to be there about 30 minutes early with nothing but our ID and a cell phone that was turned off.  No cameras, purses backpacks' NOTHING!!!!  Because there was no place to leave our belongings, Liz insisted that Tanner and I go in while she held the backpacks.  It is a self guided tour so they allowed us to go in early.  We had barely gotten inside when two Secret Service Agents walked by with none other than the First Dog, Bo.  Tanner was so thrilled!!!!!!!  During the tour, we overheard the security guards talking about something going on but we didn't think too much about it until we got outside .  There we were met with barracades' police cars, and a multitude of other agencies.  We were to meet Liz in the park across from the White House but it had been evacuted.  Luckily we had cell phones and met in the gift shop up the street.  While there we found out that a suspicious package had been left at the Embassy across the street from the White House.  Later that morning, Liz received a call from the congressman's office saying they were sorry our tour had been cancelled and that it had been rescheduled for the next morning at 7:30 a.m. 

   

Day 2 continues

Next stop the Capitol. Liz made the arrangements through the Texas Congressman Ralph Hall. We had our picture made with him and two members of his staff took us on a tour.


 

The human bridge, Tanner.

Just had to take a picture of my favorite food, Chocolate, in it's raw form of course.

Next stop, the National Botanic Garden! All I can say is Beautiful!!! i will show you a few examples if the interent cooperates.

While at the museum, we went to the resturant to sample food from the different regions. I of course has a fry bread taco with buffalo chili. To our great surprise, a group of young adults came in and there was Travis!!. He is attending a leadership conference at the American College. I just had to have my picture taken with him.

I was a little disapponted about the amount of information on the Cherokees. The exhibit contained information about Sequoyah and had a few artifacts but not much on the Trail of Tear

Gold! Gold! So this is what the white man white man saw and decided they had to have it. The Indians were just using what they had to create their accesories.

Okay, here's the scoop. We didn't get back to the hotel last night until around 9:30 and my battery in the camera was completely dead. I had to charge it a little in order to download the pics. Then the internet wasn't being kind so I decided to wait until this morning to finish the post. Well as you can see it didn't like being put on hold so it wouldn't let me add anything to it so here we are, day 2 continued. Here is my little Indian nephew Tanner in front of a whaling boat used by the Northwest Coast Indians.