Halifax, Nova Scotia

On Saturday we got up early and headed south to the Nova Scotia Province for the weekend.  I had booked us a room in Halifax at the Westin Hotel thinking that we could explore one side of the island on Saturday and the other side on Sunday.  You know, middle of the road kind of thing.  Boy!  Was I wrong!

By the time we crossed over the bridge onto the island it was already 11am.  A tad longer drive than we thought.  This, by the way, would be the theme for the whole weekend... underestimating the distance!! 

First thing on our list was to visit Joggins Fossil Cliffs which is on the USESCO world Heritage list and is located on the Cumberland Basin, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy.  The area was established due to coal mining.  Its coal seams, which are exposed along the shore, were exploited as early as 1686 by local Acadian settlers and by the British in 1715.  They claim some of the fossils are from a rainforest ecosystem and are approximately 310 million years old.  Sure!  But it was definitely worth the stop.

Leaving Joggins, we continued along the shoreline on a narrow winding dirt road that took us forever to get to the next town.  By then it was past 2pm and we were both starving.  We came across this old church that had been turned into a restaurant and decided to give it a try.  It is run by two old men that were very friendly and were willing to make me a grilled cheese sandwich even though it wasn't on the menu.  Dennis, of course, struck up conversations with the other patrons and when we told them we were planning on driving the Cabot Trail in one day that all laughed.  Later we would understand. 

Advocate United Church, built circa 1857

Advocate Harbour Restaurant, Nova Scotia

After lunch, we put the hotel address into the GPS and discovered it was going to be 6pm before we arrived.  There went our plans on visiting the town of Lunenburg and Peggy's Cove.

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge built 1955

When we finally arrived in Halifax, we went to cross over on the Angus L. Macdonald suspension bridge only to be turned away due to our truck being way over the weight limit.  They had to stop oncoming traffic so that we could turn around.  Just a wee bit embarrassing but at least they were very nice about it.  It seems your vehicle has to be under 3200 kg (7055 lb) and our dually weighs over 13,000 lbs.  Oops!

A.Murray MacKay Bridge built 1970

We were directed to go a few miles down the road and cross over on the "new bridge" called Murray Mackay which turned out to be closer to the hotel anyway.  

Westin, Halifax

Our hotel was located in the heart of the Halifax Seaport District.  We had an awesome view of the harbor and just a short walk to the boardwalk where there were tons of restaurants to chose from for dinner.  It is also right across the street from Halifax's farmers market which was closed by the time we arrive but the place was huge.  The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 was also just a short walk.  We were told it compares to the US's Ellis Island. 
 

On Sunday we were out the door by 8am since the beginning of Cabot Trail was 3 1/2 hours away from where we were and the drive itself was 8 hours once we got there.  We had been warned we had a long drive ahead of us if we were crazy enough to do the Cabot Trail in a day and now we understood.  But crazy us took off anyway.

Our day started out great.  The weather was warm and sunny, the drive pleasant enough, and then the rain came.  By the time we reached the town of Cheticamp - which is at the entrance to Cape Breton National Park - the fog had rolled in and made the views from the cliffs impossible to see.  So after much debate (sure, we'll call it that) and heartbreak, we decided to cut our losses and head back.  At this point, we had been on the road for 9 hours and had a 5-hour drive back to our RV.  Definitely one of the longest days we have had. 

Don't get me wrong, the day was not a total loss. We drove threw some very cute towns and saw some beautiful mountain views.

Oh, but what we missed...

Just around this bend in the road is where we turned around. :-(

Even though our trip to Nova Scotia was a whirlwind, I have to admit it was worth it.  We both agree that we like Nova Scotia more than all of the places we have visited in Canada so far.  We will return to Nova Scotia one day and this time we will stay for a while.