We found ourselves with quite a drive to get to our third bed & breakfast after my lobster lunch in Cheticamp, but made time for a walking detour of an island park in Guysborough (left).

The Rare Bird Pub restaurant we had planned on for dinner was hosting the local prom-goers. Initially, they weren’t going to serve us at all and for the reception we got, we probably should have tried our luck elsewhere. We just got a salad and a beer each and could hear the guy in the kitchen complain about us when we wanted more dressing. Mind you, Eric’s Caesar salad didn’t have a.) Caesar dressing nor b.) nearly enough of their own bizarre interpretation quite unlike the original, but they managed to scrape up an extra spoonful for us. Gee, thanks. Definitely to be avoided.

After dinner, we took the more scenic route through some coves and several small towns… looking forward to arriving at our next B&B before 8pm or so.

Ha!

Here is a map of our planned route…

We ran into a slight problem in Country Harbor. Every map we had showed the road continuing right along the coast. But! If you look veeeeery closely…

What the? And there was no ferry service. Of course.

So… here’s a shot of our actual route.

Thank goodness our hosts were wonderful and provided us with tasty home brewed beer to make us forget about all the time we spent in the car.

We had a much shorter drive into Halifax the next day and stopped briefly at a series of rapids (with salmon fishermen!) by the McPhee House in Sheets Harbor.

We arrived in Halifax around 2:30pm and fully unloaded our car for the first time in four days… then we went searching for some more beer!

Instead of talking about the complete insanity that was our trip home… stranded by American Airlines for 21 hours in NYC, and delayed flights from NYC and DC this afternoon, I’d like to write about something more, um, appetizing.

I would have to be completely out of my mind (or a total cheapskate) to not get lobster while in Nova Scotia, especially considering it’s during the two month fishing season. Since I am neither of the aforementioned things, I throughly enjoyed a fresh steamed local lobster at Le Gabriel in Cheticamp during our visit.

(like my bib?)

I put my biology degree to the test and managed to retrieve every last bit of meat from this delicious 1.5 lb creature. Yum. I should also mention that this followed a heaping bowl of freshly steamed mussels. Double yum (and completely stuffed).

An important footnote to this post is the fact that Eric actually ordered something fishy in a restaurant for the first time ever. His entree of choice was two mashed potato and haddock fish cakes, which he seemed to enjoy very much.

Well, we are halfway home. American Airlines canceled our flight from La Guardia to Raleigh, and couldn’t get us on another flight until Friday afternoon. Thankfully my parents were able to come out and pick us up. Right now we’re having an Italian dinner in Manhattan so we can’t complain too much! Hopefully Riesling can take another day without us…

(part 1 is here)

Our third day touring Nova Scotia started out like this…

However, once we finished our two waterfall hikes of the day, the mist lifted and we were able to see the much advertised views, like this one of the MacKenzie River Valley.

After Wreck Cove Point, the Cabot Trail went inland again for a while and we took a short hike through a beautiful bog garden that was covered in tufted rush with the occasional pitcher plant thrown in for color.

Near French Mountain we rounded the bend and were greeted by this view… (finally, back to the coast!)

(click on the photo above to get the large view, it’s worth it)

We spotted a few whales off in the distance near the Trout Brook picnic area, but the highlights were the coastal views in general and we were happy that the mist burned off and the rain stayed away long enough for us to enjoy them.

As many of you who read this website regularly know, we love waterfalls. Springtime in Nova Scotia (while not great for the trail in general) is a wonderful time to see some beautiful falls.

The 6km road to Mary Anne Falls was open, so we were able to drive to the trailhead on a gravel road and make the short hike to the base of the falls fairly easily. We saw our only moose of the trip on this trail, but sadly there is no photographic proof since it was insanely misty.

Mary Anne Falls was beautiful, with a good amount of water volume and stunning red rocks. Unfortunately (from our perspective anyway), this is a popular swimming area in the summer and some of the rocks around the falls are covered in graffiti.

After spending the evening at the top of Cape Breton in Dingwall, our first waterfall of the day was Beulach Ban Falls. This hike wasn’t very long either, but it was raining. Eric was able to keep the lens clear enough for the above photo.

A 1.5km roundtrip hike in a light rain through the woods led us to MacIntosh Falls next. There is a small path over some rocks that probably would have afforded a better view of this waterfall, but in the wet conditions, it would have been too dangerous.

Shortly after the bog trail, north of Cheticamp, we stopped at some pullouts along the roadway to get some photos of these seasonal waterfalls.

To see other waterfall shots from our trip, visit our Nova Scotia Flickr set (more photos will be added over the next few days).

Our overall opinion of the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton was one of disappointment. When you look at a map, it’s very easy to assume that this road hugs the coast. Not so. Most of the time, the view of the coast is completely obstructed, leaving us with only trees to look at for well over 200 kilometers of driving. I imagine this drive is lovely in the Fall, but in June? Not so much.

There were a few nice moments, however, like our lunch in Baddeck at the Herring Choker Deli, our beer and pub dinner at The Thirsty Hiker in Ingonish and brief glimpses of views like this of Lakies Head when the fog cleared…

We decided to take the alternate scenic route through White Point in upper Cape Breton because at least that way we had a chance of seeing some of the ocean. While most of the drive was shrouded in fog, we really enjoyed the look of these boats moored in a small harbor with lobster traps all around.

More to come about the more scenic (west) side of Cape Breton… and tomorrow (our personal highlight)… waterfalls of the Cabot Trail!

Our hosts at the Sea Kindly B&B in Merigomish were a wealth of knowledge about the area and gave us what turned out to be two great suggestions to start our drive up to Cape Breton.

They knew of a waterfall near them that was on private property and while the owners wouldn’t mind us hiking to it, they didn’t advertise its location. We won’t either, but here’s what it looks like…

The water flow was enormous and you can walk right down to a small beach below the falls. (You’ll have to ask Pete and Debbie where it is.) :)

After this short hike, we started up the Sunrise Trail toward Cape George for a promised view of both Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island. Our first stop on the trail was a fossil beach in Arisaig with a surprise waterfall.

This beautiful falls emptied right out into the Northumberland Strait. We looked through quite a bit of shale stone on the nearby beach, but only found a few small fossilized imprints. (I am the small speck of white at the base of the dark cliff in the photo below.)

Remember how I said yesterday that the rental car would come up again… well! Our reservation was for an ‘intermediate’ car, what we got was a 4-door Toyota Yaris. The Enterprise website lists the 2-door Yaris as a ‘compact’ and that’s seriously understating how incredibly tiny these cars are, regardless of the number of doors.

Here’s a shot of our rental car by the picturesque Cape George lighthouse…

See? Tiny!

We saw a few hitchhikers along our drive and just laughed as there was barely enough room for ourselves and our luggage in this car! I do like the sporty red color but “we base the intermediate rating on features”? Ridiculous.

We arrived in Halifax on Thursday afternoon, and the first thing we did after picking up our rental car (more on that later), was drive about an hour north to Truro in search of some waterfalls at Victoria Park. We found several falls besides the two advertised ones because it’s spring here and there’s been significant rainfall.

Getting through the town was a bit tricky, but (once we found it) the park was very nice.

Afterwards we headed to a popular spot to watch the tidal bore come in on the Salmon River off the Bay of Fundy. It wasn’t very dramatic, but it was certainly unique to witness a river completely change its directional flow.

So far the weather has been very changeable, from warm and sunny to cold and rainy in a matter of minutes. I’ll be posting more to catch everyone up on the rest of our trip now that we have reliable internet access.

One night while Eric was in San Diego, I stenciled a quote onto the wall in our living room. We have been meaning to put something above the futon for a while now and I thought this would be a creative (and cheap!) solution.

Here’s a close-up view of the quote by St. Augustine… “the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

I think it fits us perfectly!

My quest for the perfect pair of shorts came up a little, well, short this weekend. On Saturday, I braved the mall crowds to try on (what turned out to be) a bunch of ill-fitting jean shorts.

On Sunday after church I found myself with time to waste while Eric was finishing up the podcasts from the last two weeks, so I dropped by Kohls and Old Navy, hoping my luck would change.

After much digging, I found these incredibly cute Docker “skimmer” pants at Kohls.

Now, I am very short. 5 foot 1.5 inches to be exact. And I cannot believe these things actually hit my knee in the proper place.

I also found a pair of black linen shorts at Old Navy—combined price of these two pairs equals the same as one pair of just-okay Tommy Hilfiger jean shorts at Macy’s. (Which I now have to return.)