July 12

Today we visited a college where they teach Irish dancing, singing, violin and speech.  It is only open in the summer, and they have a lot of children Dylan's age attending!  We took a class on how to make a blanket - the way they would do it back then.  Here we are rubbing  the cloth on a table to get the threads packed close together.

Adults:

This morning the group had a tour of the Gaelic College, located in Saint Ann’s, about 20 miles from Baddeck. This is not a college in the usual since, this is a school, open only during the summer months where people of all ages come from all over the world to take classes in everything Gaelic. There are several sessions during the summer, usually lasting about two weeks, some people use the dorms while there, and some are just day students. Everything from learning to make kilts, to weaving, to dance, fiddle and piano to speaking the old Gaelic language. If I had to opportunity, I would love to take some of the classes! We had lunch at the college, the same menu the students got, and were entertained during lunch by fiddle and piano music. It was a very interesting day and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

When we left the college we took a mini tour around the area. Baddeck is located on the north end of the Bras d’Or Lake, the same lake the St Peter’s Canal is on. This is a huge lake that covers a lot of area in the middle of Cape Breton Island. Our tour took us on a small loop that is the home of many artisans and their shops and studios are found around every bend in the road. This tour of the area took us to the Englishtown ferry, which crosses the northern edge of the Bras d’Or Lake. This ferry is much like the ferry’s we took in lower Nova Scotia. Englishtown is one of the oldest settlements in North America, having been established as a French fishing port in 1597, later in 1629, the first French fortification in the New World was built in Englishtown. Now it is just a small coastal town that you would miss if you blinked just a second or two longer than normal.

We ended the day back in Baddeck at the Bras d’Or Lakes Interpretive Centre which gives an overview of the areas efforts to preserve the lake and the watershed, and the animals it supports. They also had a display of arts and crafts of some of the local artists.

July 10th  -

We visited the museum for Alexander Graham Bell.  He invented the telephone.  He also taught deaf people how to sign letters of the alphabet so they could "talk".

Adults:

 Spent the day in Baddeck.  On the top of the list was the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Turns out that the Bell’s had a home here on the Bras d’Or Lake and spent a great deal of time here. They owned an island in fact, and still today, the property can only be built on by the descendants of Mr. Bell. The museum was very interesting as it covered all of the things that Mr. Bell had done in his life. Mostly, I just remembered him as the inventor of the telephone, but in fact, he is responsible for many inventions, or improvements on previous inventions. Mrs. Bell was deaf, and they met when he was working with a school for the deaf and teaching the signs for the letters of the alphabet. He continued to work on ways to make the world an easier place to the deaf the rest of his life, along with his other accomplishments.

July 9th 

  Today we saw a pod of Minke whales feeding in the ocean.  It was way cool.  There were about 15 of them.  

Next we took a drive up the coast.  We stopped to look at a lighthouse and found a heart shaped patch of clover.

  -  back at the campground, we visited a fish store.  They had a huge lobster in the tank.  The man let us pick it up..  Here he is:

Here is a picture of a normal size one for comparison!

July 8th

We watched a video of a guy catching one of these giant fish, they weight upwards of 800 pounds. The guy is strapped in a boat chair that is bolted to the deck of the boat, with a huge fishing pole between his legs that is attached to the chair.

Adults:

We decided on the shore line of Cape George Bay, north of the town of Antigonish (Anti-gon-ish), on Hwy 337. Antigonish is at sea level, and as we headed north toward the Cape, the elevation rose to cliffs overlooking St George’s Bay and the Strait of Northumberland. At Ballentynes Cove we stopped at the Tuna Interpretive Center and learned a bit about the Tuna fishing around the area. We watched a video of a guy catching one of these giant fish, they weight upwards of 800 pounds. The guy is strapped in a boat chair that is bolted to the deck of the boat, with a huge fishing pole between his legs that is attached to the chair. The chair looks like some sort of torture chamber furniture!

 Then, on to Cape George where we found another white lighthouse with a red top. At this point, we head down the west side of the cape to Arisaig where there is a replica of an old lighthouse and where we had ice cream cones for lunch. We then retraced our path back up to Malignant Cove, and headed down Hwy 245 back to Antigonish, and then back to the campground.

July 1 - Today is "Canada" Day.  It is just like our 4th of July.  We went to a parade in the morning:

This group is from Scotland and are wearing Kilts - which is a skirt the  men wear.

Then we visited a big fort - here is a picture of Grandpop standing at "attention" with the guard:

In the afternoon we saw a big show called the "Tattoo" in the evening.  The show has a lot of military members marching and playing music.  It  also had acrobats and comedians.  It was three hours long.

We headed back to the campground for a nap before a group dinner.  At the restaurant they had a skull from a whale - here is Grandmom standing next to it.  After that is a picture of us with our friends Nita and Phil at dinner:

  After dinner we played "card" bingo.  We all chipped in $2 for prizes,  Grandmom won the second game and won $14!

June 29th.  Today we took a walk along the wharf by the Bay of Fundy.  Here is a cute little ferry they had there.

His name is Theodore TOO.  There is a cartoon show up here about him.  Here is a picture of Grandmom and Grandpop

We went into one of the shops on the wharf.  Look what we found sleeping on a pile of "T" - Shirts!

Thursday, June 28th

We are in Halifax Nova Scotia.  We took a bus tour of the city and visited a beautiful park.  Grandpop took a picture of a little bird that decided to sit next to Grandmom.

Here is a picture Grandpop took of us on the bus.

 I have shown you the bait they put in lobster traps.  Here is a picture of the traps.

We took a ride to an area called "Peggy's Cove"  There were a lot of rocks there that you would have loved to climb on

Then it was dinner with our friends.

Oh boy, another lobster sandwich for Grandpop!

Adult followers:

Today we took a bus tour of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Our tour guide was fantastic and we learned a lot about the city and events.  We visited the cemetery where 150 of the victims of the Titanic are buried.  The head stones are laid out in the shape of a hull of a ship.  All the stones had a number on them representing the order the victim was recovered from the sea.  Most were unidentified. 

We also learned about a terrible explosion that happened in Halifax.  It seem two ships collided in the river.  One of which was carrying a lot of ammunitions.  The ship blew up near the shore which then blew up most of the town.  Over 2000 people died and 900 homes were destroyed.  They found pieces of the ship miles away.   We also learned that Nova Scotia has wonderful weather.  They do not get much snow and it does not get very cold here.  Their summers are also mild and stay in the 70 degree range.  This is all due to being surrounded by the water.

When we got back to the motor home we had the chip in the window fixed.  It only took 30 minutes and then we were back on the road.  We then visited a memorial for flight 111 that wend down in the bay due to a fire on board.

Next we visited a lovely little cove called "Peggy's Cove".  The story is that a young woman was saved from a sinking ship off shore.  She then fell in love with one of the locals and spent her life there.  She became known as "Peggy of the Cove" and that is how it got its name.  We had a free guided tour and learned some fun facts -  like the village store that was blown off its  foundation and into the bay.  They towns people then built a support system under it to keep it about the waves and it is still that way today. 

The guide also told us about a famous painter/sculptor, or lived at the cover.  Here is a picture of a mural he carved into the rock to commemorate the town people.  It shows their cycle of life from (right to left) work, bounty, to grace.