Day 9 : We drive to Halifax & Hatchet Lake, I see my granddaughter!

Got up at 6am after being kept awake by a crying baby several times during the night. We packed up the camp early and drove to Halifax in pouring rain. We got to Halifax by 10:30 am.

It was raining most of the way to Halifax

 We drove around to the citadel in pissing rain, and were at Sam's house in Hatchet lake in mid afternoon, so I got to spend a few hours with Mado.

Mado half awake

I'm with MY mama!

I let grandma hold me but I'm not sure I'm happy about it :)

We decided to stay at the Seasons Motor Inn in Halifax, which we lucked out. When we called they had exactly ONE ROOM available. They were telling us it's been booked for weeks, and the day before an internet site accidentally overbooked them and they could not find one room for the person in Halifax, person had to go all the way to Truro to get a room!

In the evening we went to the Harbour to walk around, it was the last night of the Buskers festival. We parked at Spring Garden and Queen and walked all the way to the Casino before we made our way back.

This made me giggle.

Halifax

Halifax

The thing that surprised me the most was how HIP Halifax is. Moreso than Montreal. I'm used to Montreal's fair liberalness. I've seen all sorts of gay men in Montreal holding hands, but I'd never seen 2 women.  It shouldn't surprise me that they hold hands in Halifax. One of my female acquaintances  who lives in Halifax is in a same sex relationship.  However I was stunned. We spent 2 days in Halifax, and I must have seen 6-8 female couples holding hands.  So much so that I asked Sam about this and she's like, Halifax is Hip, I don't notice.  I didn't notice because I was offended, I noticed because I'd never seen so many women holding hands :)  We even saw 2 couples on the Cabot trail!

Seen from boardwalk

Boardwalk

Boardwalk

Seen from boardwalk

I saw Halifax police near our Motel and we followed an RCMP car for about 20 km on the 104.

Day 8 - Inverness and Mabou and Whycocomagh

Inverness is a well known town for it's beautiful beach and golf resort

After we woke up and had breakfast we drove to Inverness beach and I looked for seaglass for hours. I do believe I actually went into the water for a few minutes. It was cold. I'm too old for the cold waters of the Atlantic, even in the Northumberland straight.

Mural at gift shop in Inverness

We drove around Inverness then to West Mabou. We stopped at the red shoe but he thought it was closed. In the end we went back to the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou for dinner. The food was awesome. I had the smoked salmon, he had the meatloaf.

Old train tracks removed to make a walking/biking/4x4ing etc trail in Mabou

Red Shoe Pub in Mabou

Seen on a Jeep driven by a woman!

Breakfast and lunch place, I'd like to try one day

Life Size Cutouts of The Simpsons in Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia Front Yard

 

Life Size Cutouts of The Simpsons in Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia Front Yard

Life Size Cutouts of The Simpsons in Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia Front Yard

Mabou, West Mabou Beach, Port Hood,

Mabou

West Mabou Beach near Mabou River

Mabou River seen from West Mabou Beach

Mabou River seen from West Mabou Beach

Mabou River seen from West Mabou Beach

SandPiper walking ahead of me on West Mabou Beach

SandPiper walking ahead of me on West Mabou Beach

SandPiper walking ahead of me on West Mabou Beach

SandPiper walking ahead of me on West Mabou Beach

Campground in Port Hood

From Port Hood going to Mabou

Bras d'Or lake in front of Charlene's Bayside Restaurant.

Day 7 - Whycocomagh, Marble Mountain and West Mabou Beach

We left battery park after seeing all 4 of the tall ships in St Peters and then stopping at the gift shop to look for souvenirs. I was disappointed that the dragonfly earrings I found were the same as the pair I bought last year.

On the Bras d'Or scenic drive. Hundreds of Licence plates

Better view of the licence plates

We drove to Whycocomagh from St Peters using the Bras d"Or scenic drive, stopping at Marble Mountain, which was probably the most scenic view on that part of the drive. We hadn't been on the road long, when I asked Terry to stop.

On Lac Bras d'Or McRaes point beach

Bras d'Or lake - Dunphe's cove?

Bras d'Or lake at  Dundee

This guy had licence plates hung on trees. Hundreds of them. Reminded me of my cousins used to have plates on their wall as children. The owner saw me taking pictures and came to say hello and said he'd been doing it for like 20 odd years, and yeah people have sent him plates from all over Canada! We saw a RCMP coming out of St Peters and one in West Bay around Bras d'Or lake.

Marble Mountain visitors park. Accessible by water and land

Bras d'Or lake viewed from roadside near Marble Mountain

We stopped at the Marble Mountain lookout.  We noticed that if we'd come by boat we could dock there too, and there was a road to go to the water, and a nice beach.  I had put my camera on the bench and when other people showed up we were in the car. A German tourist kept telling me "CAMERA" and after the third time I realized he meant I left my camera on the bench!

View of coast at Marble Mountain on Bras d'Or Lake

View of Marble Mountain whalf and beach

 We had site 31 at Whycocomagh and setup in the blistering sun, oh my God was it ever hot!!! After which we went to West Mabou beach. In fact we took the 252 to Mabou! I'd never taken the 252 all the way to Mabou. We also went to Fort hood, but never stopped, but we saw the beach was nothing special and near a trailer park campsite. He was looking for something for dinner and didn't like the restaurants around Fort hood, but we never checked Mabou.

West Mabou Beach

West Mabou Beach

West Mabou beach is one of the nicest beaches in Cape Breton, and there wasn't that much people. It's like mostly only the locals know it.

For dinner we ended up at Charlene's Bayside in Whycocomagh. I had the haddock he had the fish sticks.

Tall Ships in St Peters

Battery Provincial Park Lighthouse

Can you spot the bunny at Battery Provincial Park?

Tall Ship Mist of Avalon

Tall Ship HMCS Oriole

Tall Ship St Lawrence II

Tall Ship When and If

Tall Ship St Lawrence II

Tall Ships HMCS Oriole, Mist of Avalon & St Lawrence II

Tall Ships HMCS Oriole & Mist of Avalon

Tall Ship St Lawrence II and far in back is the When and If -

Notice on the last photo, the pleasure boat is called "Yappin & Trappin". Was not expecting to see any tall ship so we were thrilled to see the 4 we did get to see. The first three were there Thursday night, the last one came in Friday morning.