Nova Scotia Day 3

The morning after post-tropical storm Arthur was spectacular! But, still no power....but out wonderful hosts made us a yummy breakfast anyway. Rhubarb sauce and yogurt was very good and a combination I'd never thought of.   Fresh blueberries abound in the area - and we were served them several times. 

The view from the room - the churned-up muddy water in the bay, but the sky was gorgeous! 

We had planned visiting several parks and hiking trails....but almost everything was locked up!   Hiked down to the coast line in Advocate Harbor anyway.

We did find one park open - sortof....at Joggins.   The park still had no power, so the exhibits inside weren't very visible.  They only charged 1/2 price for the entry fee, so I guess there was a little silver lining!
This are is where fossils abound along the rocky shore.  Darwin investigated here. 

And Duane actually found a fossil lying among all the rocks!   This was probably an ancient tree.

Nova Scotia Day 2

 We woke up to a little damage from the front edge of what was Hurricane Arthur.  There were lots of branches missing and several trees down...but the road crews were on the job and it only held us up for a few minutes.

The first stop along the way was to be to see a lighthouse on the Bay of Fundy - the Walton Lighthouse.  Unfortunately, the storm had a lot of the parks closed.....

Not to be deterred, we wandered on a path outside the gate....

And came around to the lighthouse from below instead!!  Keep in mind that we were at low tide - the bank you can see in this photo will be completely under water at high tide in about 6 hours!!!

 We spied a sign on the road for another lighthouse - so took a short detour.....

Even though it was closed too, this nice caretaker stopped cutting down a broken tree branch and opened up for us!

She gave us an interesting tour.

The lighthouse had some antique furnishings - and I thought my sis might like this one!

Outside there was a path along a cliff looking out over the Bay still at mostly low tide -  gotta love those signs!  It really is a steep cliff - and you can see places that they cave-in....so probably best to heed the sign's instructions!

Gotta live a little too, though!!  OK, but I didn't go ALL the way to the edge!

Next up was Burntcoat Head - strange name - but that is where the highest/lowest tides would be on the Bay of Fundy -  a 32 foot change from high to low tide on the day we were there.   In about a week it's a full moon and will actually be about 40 feet!!  Every 6 hours!

Obviously, we were there around low tide.

Convinced Duane to stand still for a "selfie".  (It's cold and windy - we're actually in the "eye" of the storm right now, so it's almost clear).

Amazing - this will all be underwater in 6 hours!!

And then we were hungry!!  At a local farmer's market, this establishment caught my eye.  (Not a real lighthouse - it's a fish market!)

Complete with a restaurant.....they had nice fish n' chips.

And finally to our lodging - the Gemstow B&B -  cozy place and the folks that ran it were really nice.

We had only been there about 20 minutes - the storm was back with crazy winds and rain.  This is looking thru their sunroom window with the rain pelting the glass and almost "moving" it.  Luckily, she had made a pot of tea (and it was in a knitted tea cozy!)   Then the power went out.  And never came back!   Since power was out to about 1/2 of Nova Scotia, there were no restaurants either.  They made us tomato sandwiches for dinner (not part of a usual B&B!)   Then we spent about 3 hours playing dominoes with them by candlelight - a good time, really!

Nova Scotia vacation Day 1

The vacation got off to a perilous start....at 10:30PM we got the dreaded "auto call" from US Scareways (US Airways, that is)   that our 6:30AM flight the next day had been cancelled due to Hurricane Arthur. They automatically  rescheduled us for a flight the following evening. This would be unacceptable since we'd lose two entire days of the trip! So, I immediately called to see if we could re-route....and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited!  4 hours and 11 minutes!  Amazing!!   I memorized the repeating message that they would be with me momentarily. If I calculate that correctly, I finally hung up (successful!) at close to 3AM! When they finally answered, I got a really helpful representative.

Our original flights were out of RDU....but the new flights were departing Greensboro.  It's only about 20 more minutes to get there, so no big deal.

All went perfect - we had access to the Admiral's club in both Greensboro and Philadelphia, so it seemed luxurious once we finally got settled and on our way.

The hurricane was still well to the south, so the day was beautiful in Nova Scotia!

We arrived in Halifax at 1pm - so I'd planned just an hour or so drive to our first night's lodging.   Some beautiful scenery.  Once we left the airport, we were surprised how sparsely populated the countryside was.

Water, water everywhere.   Clearly it's close to low tide since boats were about sitting on the ground. 

The first of many bed and breakfasts - this one in Wolfville.  It was very nice!

Lovely room!  Fabulous king sized bed.

Cabinet with fluffy robes and most anything you might need.

And a dry sauna.  And a big hot tub outside.....this would have been nice in a much colder season!

Breakfast the following morning was yummy.  There was one other couple there - they were very pleasant and it "didn't kill" Duane to chat with them a bit! 

This was the first of 8 B&B's I have scheduled for the 10 nights!!!

Visit to Asheville

My sweet sis and her family were visiting "home" from West Virginia this week, so Duane and I flew up to see them. It was a murky but pleasant flight.

Duane took the rental car and visited his folks while I had some "quality time" with my sister!

We had lunch with her family, then just the two of us went to a couple of health food stores to stock up on some vegan food items.

This is just a photo I snapped why we were at a red light in Biltmore....what a pretty part of the the city!

We had a great visit with the rest of the family - this is Connor, my first grand-nephew getting his shoes on for a "walk-about".

We walked all the way down to the river, to one of our old swimming holes.  He's quite the ham!

 Then, of course, there was a cook-out.  There's always a cookout at Mom's house!  Very yummy!

And before you knew it, the visit was over!

Leaving the Asheville Airport, these Marine trainer jets were parked beside our Mooney. Never know what you'll find at the airport!




And we had another murky but pleasant flight home.

Lazy Susan's

I threw a bunch of year-old wildflower seeds out under the oak tree early this spring. Didn't really think much would sprout...but was surprised to see these!

Cute kitties

Since Robert is staying with us for a few weeks while he decides what to do about moving into a new apartment, we're enjoying the silly kitties he brought with him to the guest room!


They're named using characters from Alice in Wonderland ---- Ches (Cheshire cat) is a boy.

And Alice herself!!

They are sweet little kitties !

NC HB 1161

I was driving to the Asheboro airport the other day and saw these guys at an intersection.....funny to see someone carrying a fake pot plant!!

If you're in favor of legalization - call your congressman!

Cool Helicopter

I got to pump some jet fuel into this cool Bell helicopter!

Father's Day

Not a lot happening around here, just nice, warm (HOT!) weather!

We had the kids for a fun evening on Father's day....very relaxing!