The Mudhoneys Explore the Maritimes

Tree at Hall's Harbour, NS

Hall's Harbour is located near Wolfville, home to Acadia University. We spent the night in New Minas while we were de-oxiginating our peepers (sediment pore water devices) with nitrogen at the university. Hall's Harbour features a restaurant, a tiny antique shop that is as antique as what it sells, Brent's boat house and a beautiful beach with rocks to keep any geologist intrigued. Michelle took this picture of a tree growing out of the rockface near sunset right on the beach.

The Take-Out Bus, Cape Bretton, NS

Apparently this is what they have for take-out on Cape Bretton Island... If you look closely, the sign written in red on the right hand side says "TAKE OUT".
Having finished a few days early, we drove north (or east if you're from Nova Scotia and use their wonky map system) and up onto Cape Bretton Island where we drove around the Cabot Trail. The Cabot Trail follows the ocean through the highlands of Cape Bretton and is scenically incredibly beautiful. Somewhere along a dusty roadside we passed this bus, and just had to stop to take a picture.

West Point Lighthouse, PEI

If there's one thing you see a lot of on the east coast, it's lighthouses. That and churches. After a while they tend to get repetitive. West Point Lighthouse was, I believe, the most interesting lighthouse we saw. After driving around Cape Bretton we made our way back down to Antigonish, but there were no accomodations anywhere in the northern (or eastern if, again, you're using their map system) half of Nova Scotia due to the Tall Ships being in Halifax. We slept at the ferry terminal and caught the 7:30am boat to PEI the next morning.

PEI is a neat place. The roads are red, the dirt is red, the sand is even red. We did the Anne of Green Gables thing in Cavendish, battling it out with the Japanese tourists for a glimpse into Anne's bedroom. We decided that Anne of Green Gables can get old really fast. I'm glad I don't live on PEI for that reason. The only other thing of note really were the potatoes. Potatoes everywhere. Going into a gas station, instead of coolers full of drinks you get freezers full of potato products. And the pop bottles are all the old recycled glass ones that I remember only vaguely from my childhood.

We drove around PEI from coast to coast, checking out the lighthouses and the numerous beaches along the way. North Point Lighthouse was also of some note, being located on a very windy spot where two opposing ocean currents buffet the tip of the island, carving out a sharp point and creating a long spit stretching out into the water. West Point was probably the last major lighthouse we saw on PEI, but it impressed us the most. We ate lunch at a small restaurant there, and learned that you can actually rent a room overnight within the lighthouse itself (check out the windows in the actual tower part of the lighthouse). Of course, this room books out seasons in advance and costs several hundred dollars a night, but it's still a neat idea.

From PEI we headed over the new Confederation Bridge and briefly into New Brunswick, stopping only long enough to purchase a post card before heading back down to Keji Park to finish off the last few tasks before flying home.

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