Winter, such as it is, has arrived in southeast GA. We are expecting lows this coming week of mid to lower 20s, which is about as cold as it gets here. I was wearing my Halifax, NS souvenir sweatshirt today and a friend commented on it that she liked it. I told her when I bought it I thought it was a good idea. When we got back home last August, the weather was near 100* and I thought it was the worst idea. Now that’s cooler it, I am enjoying it immensely.

I was given a sizable Airbnb gift card for my 50th birthday from the company I work for. I was thinking of something special to do with it and going somewhere cool in the summer felt like a lovely idea.

I love the Main coastline but since I’ve been there already (as you can tell, we’re not much repeat vacationers), I moved my brainstorming a bit further north to Nova Scotia. Initially, I really wanted to get a house on the coast for a week and just enjoy nature and quiet and the water and whatever else was nearby. But, of course, there are too many things nearby to not go see them when we are so close, like Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton Island. But, although they are relatively close, they are not day trips from the area of Nova Scotia I wanted to cabin up in. So, I gave up the idea of just staying put in 1 place and commenced to find the best itinerary to see it all. Maybe when I retire I will have time  to spend a week 1 place and then move on to another place for a week. Or when I get married and go on a honeymoon. 🙂

When planning a splendid vacation, choose stellar people to travel with! And we did so quite successfully once more! I have traveled with some excellent travel partners. Our travel team was made up of Wendy, Lois, Jenny and I.

 

Our 1st stay was 2 nights in Truro, at a bed and breakfast. This was the first time in a long time that I stayed at an official B&B. We had interesting hosts and the by breakfast #2, we could hardly get away because there was still so much to discuss! 🙂 We had lovely chats at breakfast with the other guests as well. One morning a British lady visiting nearby friends, and the next day a father/daughter from Germany touring the area. The teen daughter wanted them to rent a pickup truck for their trip so they did. 🙂

We chose Truro because of it’s close proximity to see the Bay of Fundy, but still not a long drive to Prince Edward Island. The first evening we found a restaurant called Murphy’s Fish & Chips and it did not disappoint! We found the locals to be super friendly. Even in the restroom, as we washed our hands, an older lady chatted on about her granddaughter and her accomplishments in the local league she was playing in. The gentlemen at the table next to us received his 3-piece fish dinner just as we were getting situated. We couldn’t help but oohing over the fish and he started chatting with us too. He’s a regular at the place and then knew him by name. He offered us a piece of his fish. 🙂 I decided to make sure I tasted as much of Canada as possible and got poutine to go with my piece of fish. Goodness. It was just lovely!

Burntcoat Head Park was the nearest good place to see the extreme tides. The tide was at a good time to enjoy both high tide and low tide without having to miss breakfast at the B&B. It should’ve been about a 35 minute drive but because of roads washed out due to torrential rains a few weeks earlier,

You’re best option to see the seabed is to go about 1.5 hours before the tide changes as the bed is the driest then (it was still quite slippery in spots). The water can come on you fairly rapidly so you want to get off in plenty of time. There is a tidal bore, like a wave coming in on the tide that can be seen in Truro but we decided to not go see it at 10PM.

Several high/low tide comparisons:

In some ways it is hard to fully grasp the difference in tide. When we were there, the tidal difference as about 46 feet. I think my high tide pictures are just a bit past high tide.

 

 

We did a bit of driving further south while we waited for the tide to go out. We found one of the many lighthouses dotting the coast.

Even found a stand of birch trees nearby and had to get some pictures. I couldn’t get over how much Nova Scotia reminded me of Northwestern Ontario. We had barely left the airport in Halifax (heading away from the city) before we realized we were surrounded by trees and and not many visible houses. Granted the aiport is basically out in the “bush,” as the Canadians say. We say “woods” here.

 

On our way back the B&B that night, we saw a beautiful rain storm.

Of course, the Queen Anne’s Lace was right up there in beauty! I enjoyed it everywhere we went!!!