minas basin, nova scotia

When we got back from Cape Chignecto, we drove back to Fundy Tides Campground for a quick shower before checking into the Cape D’Or Lighthouse. (I needed one especially badly – at one point during the trip, I pushed my sunglasses up onto my head and then, when I brought them back down onto my eyes, the whole world was blurry…. you know, with hair grease.) At the Lighthouse Keeper’s Kitchen we had big bowls of seafood chowder and a pot of tea for lunch; halfway through Dan nearly fell asleep at the table. Luckily our room at the Guest House was ready early and we checked in immediately. While Dan napped, I finished up my third book of the trip (thanks for stocking me up, Mom!). That night, we had a FANTASTIC dinner at the Kitchen featuring local beer and Advocate Harbour scallops and fish, watched the sunset*, and then fell soundly asleep.

The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and then headed east toward the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, stopping at little towns along the way: Spencer’s Island, Parrsboro, Five Islands. At Parrsboro, we stopped at a little local restaurant for lunch and had the local seafood works – Advocate Harbour scallops, Five Islands clams (delicious!!), and local lobster and haddock. At Five Islands, we walked dangerously in the red mud flats and learned the Micmac Indian myth about the islands – their god Glooscap battled the giant Beaver and won and then threw five rocks at Beaver in retreat, which are now the five islands. (Seriously, back in those days, there were apparently like 9 ft tall Beavers in Nova Scotia… worthy of a capital “B,” no joke.)

At the mouth of the Bay of Fundy is the town of Truro, the “Tree Sculpture Capital of the World.” (On the way there, we passed the Sunshine Inn, motto “the only motel in the area.” SOLD!) In Truro, we stayed at the Udder Place, a bed & breakfast on a working family farm. The B&B was great – we had a really nice room with a huge spa-like bathroom, and for breakfast, we had eggs from their hen house with amazing bacon from a local pig farm and homemade bread and jams. We were invited to attend the 5 PM milking, which was cool to see, and were looking forward to feeding the baby goats, but as it turned out, the previous week one of the two baby goats had died and the remaining goat was so distraught that it cried constantly, wouldn’t eat, and had to be given a stuffed animal to cuddle with in its pen (so sad!). As we left for dinner at a local brewery, the younger cows (those that weren’t milking yet) came galloping over to the fence to say goodbye to us. I eased closer to the fence and they started licking me with their huge tongues…

* While we were watching the sunset, a photographer arrived to shoot the beautiful setting, and we kept feeling like he was taking pictures of us. He was, as it turned out, because at breakfast the next morning the lighthouse keeper handed us a note from him saying that we were in some of his shots and he’d be happy to email them to us if we sent him our email addresses. We’re looking forward to seeing the results of our professional photo shoot! We actually ran into him again at Parrsboro harbor, where we unknowingly wandered into some of his photos again… sightseeing in Nova Scotia is a VERY small world.

(Cape Breton up next on the vacation tour…)