I was down in Nova Scotia for a site visit to Kejimkujik National Park. On the way back to Halifax at the end of the week, stopped in Lunenburg.
The waterfront was getting ready for their annual Christmas Parade.
The Bluenose II getting prepped for winter.
Looking out over Lunenburg Harbour.
A Nova Scotia Christmas tree made from lobster traps.
I was down in Nova Scotia this past week, had a chance to visit the Kejimkujik Seaside, it is part of the National Park that is on the coast.
It had a set of the red Adirondack chairs.
On Friday, we had some time before heading to the airport to stop at Duncan’s Cove, just outside of Halifax.
A Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus).
An old gun battery.
My colleague that I was travelling with lived in Nova Scotia for a few years before coming to work for us. This was one of the out of the way spots he used to visit.
Work had me down in Nova Scotia this past week. Our new site at Kejimkujik National Park is close to completion. At the park entrance they have two of the red muskoka chairs like they had at Gros Morne.
Came across a Maritime Garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis pallidulus).
The Mersey River.
I had good weather the first couple of days and then rain overnight on the second day, by Wednesday at noon the sun had come out.
After all the trenching was filled I found this guy, I’m surprised he didn’t get buried or crushed by the heavy machinery.
We headed into Luneburg for dinner on Tuesday night. There was an article that they had the Bluenose II out on the water the day before. Not sure if you have read anything about the boondoggle of the restoration of the ship. It is three years overdue and about $6 million over budget.
It was in port and we were able to go aboard for free.
The crew is new and the one guy I talked to had only been on board for two weeks. They are all training for the summer tourist season.
Almost everything was replaced during the restoration. The only things that the crew member knew were original were the steering wheel and the bell.
Nevertheless it was pretty cool to be aboard.
Dinner was at The Knot Pub. The food was good and tasty, a bowl of mussels was only $5.
Wednesday it was back out to the park. A view of the forest near our new site.
The drive back to Dartmouth Wednesday afternoon was sunny until I got close to Halifax and I ran into fog and rain. Here is one of the Christmas tree farms near the park. They are looking good for the upcoming season.
A boat house near the tree farm.
The view of Halifax from my hotel room balcony in Dartmouth. I stayed at the Holiday Inn Harbourview. As I was having dinner in Dartmouth the fog lifted and the sun came out.
The transit ferry that runs between Dartmouth and Halifax.
The fog was starting to roll in again and about an hour later I couldn’t see much from the balcony.
I was out to Kejimkujik for a couple of days after returning from Wood Buffalo. Flew out Monday morning , headed down to the site and then back to Bridgewater for the night.
Went down to Lunenburg for lobster dinner at The Dockside Inn & Restaurant.
Work had me down in Nova Scotia this past week. We took a detour through Lunenburg on the way to Bridgewater.
Even in the drab days of winter the brightly painted buildings make it a nice place to visit.
The only downside in winter is there is hardly anything open, including restaurants.
There was quite a bit of snow in the park.
Spent last week down at Kejimkujik National Park for the annual site audit. The weather was good for most of the week, the snow showed up Thursday night. It was my fourth trip to Kejimkujik this year.
Stayed in Liverpool this time instead of the usual Bridgewater.
I reached Air Canada Elite status with this trip. I have logged 35 flight segments and over 33,000 status miles since January 1, 2012. Next year I’ll have AC Lounge access and priority boarding. This cartoon is like the security line-ups at Pearson, upstairs lines are always packed, but the downstairs lines usually let you walk right up.
This week marked the start of Single Parent Season for Susan. I was down in Nova Scotia to kick of a busy few weeks of travel. My trip coincided with some heavy rainfalls for the Nova Scotia area. When I picked up my rental car, the girl asked which way I was headed, I said Keji and she said it wasn’t too bad down there.
Up towards Truro, there was heavy flooding due to the 100mm rainfalls and timing with high tide. Here is a picture from the internet of one of the on-ramps to the 102 highway. When we were down in August we drove on this street.
I was working down at Kejimkujik National Park, moving along on our new site within the park. I was down to do the installation of our new instrument field, working with the regional staff and some contractors. The site is located near an old farmstead from the 1920’s, so there are some areas of archeological interest. The guy in the picture with the white hard hat is an archeologist brought in to watch every bucketful of earth dug up. If something turned up all work would have to cease.
Not often you see a bobcat get stuck, but with the 85mm of rain the site received over Sunday-Monday and probably hitting a hole from the de-stumping, it did delay things awhile.
As well as digging and pouring cornet, we were trenching and running power and signal cables.
Things were moving along until the holes/sonotubes started to fill up with water.
We were back at it early Wednesday morning, you can see the dirt steaming in the early morning sun.
After replacing some of the sonotubes that had collapsed, the cement truck arrived and then things started moving. After a couple of days of standing around and watching, it was non-stop for most of the afternoon. Despite the tight schedule we completed this step and I didn’t have to reschedule my flight.
I’ll be back down in the near future to mark out our building location and finish up the instrument field.
Day 15 and we were headed to Halifax before ending the day in Moncton. We parked at the ferry terminal in Dartmouth and took the passenger ferry across the harbour. It was cloudy and overcast, but no rain. A view of the Angus MacDonald bridge.
Claudia and Gillian on the ferry. The ferry is part of the Metro Halifax Transit system.
Pulling into Halifax.
We walked the Historic Properties.
They are saving the building facades on this building, so all that is standing is the walls while they work around it.
There has been some discussion in the news about how much the federal government has spent on the War of 1812 anniversary hype. Especially in light of all the recent cuts at Parks Canada.
The skies were still a little gloomy.
Angela and a buddy.
Gillian and her friend.
We did the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. In honour of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titantic, there were extra Titanic focused exhibits. Most notably was how the Cable Ships of Halifax helped in the body recovery in the days afterwards.
A pair of shoes from one of the young victims. Most items were burned to avoid people trying to scavenge souvenirs, but the one police officer couldn’t bear to throw these in the fire, so he kept them in his desk drawer until he retired and then it got passed down through the family, eventually ending up at the museum.
There was a Swan on board the RMS Titanic who did not survive.
An interesting piece, Ideal the board game company released a game called The Sinking of the Titanic, you had to move around the board picking up survivors. After some outcry, the board game was removed from store shelves, and re-released as Abandon Ship. You can still pick up the original on eBay for $10.00 + shipping.
Angela getting attacked by an octopus.
Part of the admission fee allowed you to go on the CSS Acadia that is docked.
Thomas the tugboat out in the harbour.
The CSS Acadia bell.
The girls steering the ship.
You could climb up and down the decks.
Angela relaxing on board the Titanic.
He she is in the grand foyer.
Taking the MacDonald bridge up to the 102 and Moncton.
We headed to Shediac for dinner, not lobster dinner, but we would see the world’s largest lobster.
The girls with the lobster fisherman.
Claudia helping Angela and Gillian escape from the giant claw.
Some of the tourist shops at the lobster.
Lobsterheads.
This morning we headed out thinking it may be the first day that we have to contend with the rain. Our first stop was Lunenburg and it was raining off and on along highway 103 all the way there. We pulled into town and found a parking spot and almost as soon as we got out of the car the skies parted and the sun appeared. The houses in Lunenburg are very colourful.
We started off down on the piers.
Looking out into the harbour.
Looking back towards town.
We went back up to the car to ditch our jackets.
The Bluenose II was in dry dock and not in the water.
Even the boats are colourful.
One of the ships in port.
Buildings on King Street.
The Lunenburg Academy, built in 1895 for a cost of $30,000. I remember this place as the place where I first had sauerkraut on a hot dog. In 1976 (?) we came to Lunenburg to visit Auntie Patricia and we came here for some event and had lunch.
We took the scenic drive along highway 3 from Lunenburg to Peggys Cove, in Bayswater there is a memorial for the 1998 SwissAir crash.
On the Bayswater Beach.
Again we went through patches of rain on our drive, but when we got to Peggys Cove the sun was out.
Angela on the rocks.
When we got there the sun was out and it was clear.
We had a bite to eat and when we came out the fog had rolled in.
Even though there were lots of people around, if you waited long enough you could get a shot to make it look like you were the only ones there.
Claudia holding up the lighthouse.
Angela holding it up like a salt shaker.
The girls and I.
The girls fooling around for Gillian’s photo.
The lighthouse is in pretty bad shape. I read an article recently, that there is a group that would like to paint it, but they cannot get approval from the Government to do it. There is still some question as to the future of the lighthouse.
Through a lobster trap.
Peggys Cove has a lot of colour to it as well.
The same shot as the picture near the beginning.
We found a pirate cutout.
There are lots of floats hanging and laying around.
It was finally time to say so long to our cottage on PEI. The girls and I were up early and down on the beach at 6:30 am to beach comb one last time. After we had the car packed we gathered for our new blog photo (see left).
Some photos of the cottage, the kitchen.
The living room. There was no air conditioning, but with all the windows open and the breezes coming through, it wasn’t necessary. The fans gave the extra relief when needed.
The stairway up to the bedrooms, there was one bedroom on the main floor and two upstairs.
Another view of the kitchen.
From the kitchen looking into the living room and front hallway.
Looking down from the stairs to the back deck.
We have extra business cards if anyone is looking for a place to vacation. Special thanks to Rob, who works at the City with Susan, for the recommendation.
Paying our way off the island, it cost $44.25/car in order to leave, it is free to cross onto the island.
We drove through Amherst, Nova Scotia, looking for a Subway. Amherst has a lot of old building, this is the First Baptist Church.
The old Bank of Montreal building. It was built in 1904.
The old Amherst Post Office building built between 1884-86.
After picking up up subs we headed to the Maccan Tidal Wetlands Park to have lunch.
The park is an excellent spot to watch the incoming tidal bore. I read about it on the internet and how there was a gentleman who lived nearby that came down everyday to see it, and give a little info to tourists. Sure enough he was there today, pulling out pictures of what we should expect and answering any questions.
Here is the tidal bore in action, it is travelling at a good rate of speed, and it is loud and it sloshes on the river banks.
Some video of the tidal bore.
It only takes a couple of minutes to pass by. I had seen one a few years ago on the Shubenacadie River a little further south. There were 5 other tourists there to see the tidal bore.
Once the bore passes it takes about one and half hours for the river to fill in to it’s max, it changes with the size of the tide and the moon phases.
The gentleman is Gordon Boss, who posts the times and the type of tidal bore.
Here is a before and after photo of the river upstream. Before the Tidal Bore.
After the Tidal Bore.
That is Gordon Boss in the blue coat.
It was onto our destination for the next couple of days, we are staying in Dartmouth, across from Halifax.
Our route today. It was 351 km and it took us 6 hours with our stops.
After dinner tonight we headed out to Cole Harbour, NS, which is about a 10 minute drive from our hotel. They have a “Home of Sidney Crosby” sign as you enter the town. One of Gillian’s friends is a big Crosby fan, so I thought Gillian could say she has been to Crosby’s hometown. In the background is a closed Zellers store that will be converted to a Wal-Mart.
Afterwards we picked up some hot fudge sundaes from McDonald’s and brought them back to the hotel to enjoy.
