Adventures in Nova Scotia!

It had been eight years since I last traveled out of the country, so the opportunity to visit Nova Scotia for four days during the month of October was a refreshing experience.  My uncle has a friend who lives in Port Maitland, just a few miles north of the city of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, who invited him, his partner, and me to stay at her home.  She and her husband were wonderful hosts, and I'm so grateful for their hospitality.  They provided us with great food, a comfortable and relaxing place to sleep, and a pleasing atmosphere. The weather was gorgeous the entire visit, too - warm and sunny throughout!

Our journey started at 6am on a Wednesday morning with a short two-hour drive north from my uncle's house in Maine to the Canadian border.  The border agent asked us lots of questions, but parted ways with us with a sense of humor: "Will you get into trouble if I let you boys in?"  Of course, we wouldn't.  And truly, we didn't!

After a brief detour by my mistaken GPS which brought us to the wrong ferry in Blacks Harbour, we ventured another hour to Saint John, New Brunswick and took a three-hour ferry ride on the Princess of Acadia from Saint John to Digby, Nova Scotia.  The ferry staff directed us to the lower level where I parked my Prius cozily in company with other vehicles.  We had free roam of the ship with plenty of amenities: a cafeteria, a couple lounges, a movie (The Great Gatsby was playing), free high-speed wireless internet, and beautiful views of the Bay of Fundy.  The ferry shows its age, but it met all of our needs.  It's nice to just relax, walk around, and take in the fresh sea air.  While I originally wanted to drive around the Bay of Fundy, the ferry ended up cutting a couple of hours of travel time.  It also saved three hours of driving.

When we deboarded at Digby, it was just a short one-hour drive to Port Maitland to meet up with my uncle's friend.  They gave us a tour of their home, a former bed-and-breakfast originally built in the 1860s.  It's a beautiful home which they clearly took care in renovating and making it their own (which means it's very classy).  They had a vegetable garden with a small barn in the back yard and colorful flowers in the front yard.  Their house was not even a mile from the beach, too! It was a short first day in Nova Scotia since we hadn't arrived until at 4pm, but we had a delicious home-cooked pasta dinner and great conversation.

On Thursday, we checked out the city of Yarmouth starting with breakfast at a cute little place called the Old World Bakery.  We also visited the Cape Forchu Lighthouse which was a fifteen-minute drive south of Yarmouth.  Cape Forchu features some really unique rock formations, the likes of which I've never seen before.  And it was a place I needed to visit again, as a half-hour wasn't enough time to really appreciate it.  From there, we had lunch with my uncle's friend as well as the owners of the impressive MacKinnon-Cann Inn.  The couple that own the inn and cafe there were entertaining (very outgoing and boisterous personalities), and we also got a quick tour of the inn as well as the house they live in down the street.  The inn featured rooms that each span a particular decade in time in North America.  Really cool!

We took a gander at the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives that had an eclectic historical collection native to the city and region.  I saw some walking sticks for sale there, so I had to purchase one since I make a habit of collecting them on my journeys.  Though the woman working at the front desk didn't know who made them at the time, she made some phone calls and ultimately took down a message for me (and I received a response from the assistant director of the museum the next day).  Sadly, the creator of the walking sticks, a Yarmouth local named George A. Nickerson, passed away, but his creations had been donated to the museum so I was glad all of the proceeds from the purchase went to the museum at least.  And I'm the proud owner of a unique new walking stick!

Through the day, we had learned a great deal about the history of Yarmouth.  It's a sea port that used to have a frequent ferry service from the States, but when the ferry stopped running, it hurt business.  Fortunately, there's a plan for a ferry to run again between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth starting in May 2014, so it should invigorate the city once again.  Every one in the area was talking excitedly about the prospects of the ferry returning.

We walked the beach in Port Maitland and collected some cool rocks smoothed out over time by the ocean waves and other elements.  The tidal changes are dramatic, and since it was low tide, we were able to walking along the sand bar.  For dinner, we had another home-cooked meal.  I learned about my uncle's friend's interest in family history, and I'm hoping to help her with her research in the near future. 

Friday started with breakfast at a little diner near Beaver River just a couple miles north of Port Maitland.  I don't remember the name of the diner but it was good food!  For the rest of the day, we put my Prius into action by taking a long drive on Route 3 along the coastline to Barrington Passage and back.  It was a chance to see a lot of the local rural communities including those on Cape Sable Island.  We got back in time for dinner at a local Port Maitland restaurant, Hidden Treasures Family Restaurant.  My uncle got to see another old friend there.  I enjoyed a cold lobster sandwich - so tasty. That night, I pulled out my brand new camera lens and tried it out on some night stars photography at the beach.  That form of photography is still a work-in-progress for me, but I think the lens showed promise for further practice!

Saturday began at 6am to see the sun rise near the Beaver River cemeteries.  It seems to be a popular place for local photographers interested in the views provided for a sun rise.  I took a nap, and after waking up and getting a warm shower, we visited a cool little antique store in a barn a short drive away in Brenton, called Yaciuk's Antiques.  The owners seemed really nice.  The main attraction there were their beautiful clocks (cuckoo clocks, mantle clocks, and other wall clocks).  Afterwards, we drove by a few houses for sale that my uncle wanted to see.  Real estate is extremely inexpensive compared to the U.S., at least where we visited in Nova Scotia.  If I had money to spend on a vacation home, the southern Nova Scotia coast would be a great spot!

Thereafter, we returned to Yarmouth for lunch at the Old World Bakery, and we saw one of our hosts play some folksy music on his guitar at Sip, a local cafe.  He's got a good sound!  Also on an aside, I noticed that Sip had almond milk for their mochas (or any espresso beverage) but I thought that was terrific - why don't more coffee places offer almond milk?!  Such a better option than soy milk.  But I digress.

Cape Forchu landscape

We returned to Port Maitland for more nap time.  I don't know why but my energy levels were super low during the day.  But I got my passion going for a second visit to Cape Forchu at sun set.  I took a lot of photos there, and I could have continued for more than an hour but alas, my companions were chilly and hungry.  So we headed out and had one last dinner together at Rudder's Seafood Restaurant in Yarmouth.  It was kind of sad, because we knew it was our last night in Nova Scotia so we just enjoyed ourselves with some good conversation!

The next morning we took off at 6am to drive back to Digby to catch the ferry back to Saint John.  But before the ferry journey began, Nova Scotia gave us a parting gift of one of the most stunning sunrises I've ever seen.  Low-lying clouds and fog along the water contributed to some beautiful colors.  It was like the horizon of the sky was on fire, and with some patches of blue sky higher up, the contrasting colors were captivating.  I burned through my camera's battery that morning!

The drive back after the ferry ride was uneventful.  We pooled together all of our Canadian bills and coins and bought some gas since we knew we wouldn't be able to use them back in the U.S.  When we reached the American border, U.S. customs agent was actually really nice and didn't give us a difficult time at all; we expected a lot more questions coming back into the states but it was quick and easy.

I definitely plan on returning to Nova Scotia again, especially considering there will likely be a ferry coming out of Portland. I'd like to see Cape Breton which is further north in Nova Scotia and offers a different sort of landscape, something more like Scotland from what I've heard.  I also want to visit the city of Halifax.  Nova Scotia is a beautiful country, perfect for landscape photography!  And ideal for anyone who wants to relax and appreciate nature, old buildings, and wonderful, friendly people.

Want to see more images from this adventure?  I've made about 70 photographs available that I took from the trip in this album on my Google+ page.