6/29 This morning we got up at the crack of dawn (5:15 local time, 4:15 my body time). We had to break camp and drive to St John to meet the 9:00am Princess of Acadia trip to Nova Scotia. It was a very foggy morning. Rich thinks that fog may be common during the summer months. It is a 3 hour ferry ride from St John to Digby. They had a movie on the ferry, which I watched as there was not much to see outside. Max got to ride in the fifth-wheel. He seemed to survive OK. In Digby we stopped at the visitors center to get some information on Nova Scotia. I picked up a great book, ‘Doers and Dreamers’ very similar to the Milepost but with less detail.
Then we drove to our campground. Our site is up on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Fundy. We have awesome views out the dining room window.
To the right are some pictures of bird houses on the electric pole at the camp office. As you can see the red house is occupied with noisy, noisy babies.
6/30 Today we toured the Port Royal Habitation, a National Historic Site of Canada, a place to explore the beginnings of French settlement in North America. It is a reconstruction of a small French compound begun in 1605. This area was fought over by the French and british and went back and forth several times before ending up British.
The Acadians (French) recovered the land from the sea by some very interesting techniques. It seemed a shame that after all that work the new Englanders just came and we given the land by the British.
After viewing Port Royal we explored the Annapolis Royal area. This area includes a Tidal Power Plant, the Fort Anne National Historic Site, and Annapolis Royal itself, including a wharf, museums, shops and cafes. The Tidal Power Plant was very interesting, it works by damning the water from the incoming tide and then using the force of the outgoing water to run turbines, creating power. This plant was a test case to determine if this power source is economically feasible. It is not at this time.
Fort Anne was interesting in that it is built low with great grassy areas as protection from canons. It‘s 'earthworks' are the earliest Canadian example of a Vauban-style fort.
7/1 Today was a beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately, I slept in and then Rich was bitten or stung by something yesterday and his hand was swollen up and hot and red. We went to the emergency room at the local hospital where we ended up spending several hours waiting to see a doctor. The doc gave him some antibiotics in case it is infected and recommended he take some Benadryl for the itching. By the time we were finished with the ER everything was pretty much closed in town. Note: His hand stayed very swollen for several days.
7/2 Today we drove to Bear River, a local town with several working studios which are open to the public. I visited 2 studios and one awesome shop. The 2 studios I visited were a clothing studio and shop and a quilt studio. The woman in the clothing studio used quilting techniques and silk (primarily from kimonos) to make gorgeous silk clothing. Her colors were stunning. The quilt maker also used silk but she used a lot of silk from dresses and her colors were less vibrant. On the other hand, she painted on her quilts and used sequins in very novel ways so her quilts were stunning in there own way. The shop was ‘Flight of Fancy’ and one of the nicest collections of hand made arts and crafts I have ever seen. After we returned from Bear River, we toured the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal.
The pictures to the left are of several buildings in Bear River and Annapolis Royal. I love the look of these old homes, though as many are multi-storied I would not want to live in one.
The pictures to the right are of the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal.
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