After delays in our flights from Minneapolis to Chicago and from Chicago to Halifax, we finally arrived in Halifax in the middle of a thunderstorm in September of 2007. We changed our wet clothing (the rain was coming down so hard that we got soaked just getting in and out of taxis from the airport to the hotel) and went to dinner in the hotel before getting ready for the next day.
We started with a city tour of Halifax. Originally home to the Mi’kmaq, Halifax was settled by the British in 1749. The tour included the Halifax Public Gardens, which were laid out in the Victorian era, Fairview Cemetery, and The Citadel.
The cemetery contains the over 100 Titanic victims whose bodies were recovered from the Atlantic, but not taken elsewhere by family members. Roughly one third of these were never identified. One of the graves belongs to the “unknown child” who was finally identified in 2002.
The Citadel was originally built in 1749. The current version of the fortress was completed in 1856. While there, we saw a demonstration of musket shooting and another of canon firing. Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland” and the uniforms at the Citadel include a kilt.
With a free afternoon, we had lunch at a café in the harbor of Halifax and then visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. This museum had three exhibits in particular that we wanted to see – the Titanic exhibit, the exhibit of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and a special pirate exhibit.
The Titanic exhibit focuses on the role of Halifax in the recovery of the bodies and has the largest collection of wooden artifacts from the ship, including one of the deck chairs. The exhibit also includes a pair of children’s shoes that helped in the identification of the unknown child.
The Halifax Explosion of 1917 happened when two ships, one loaded with explosives, collided in the Narrows. The Explosion was so enormous that it leveled portions of the city, killing roughly 2,000 people and injuring roughly 9,000. This happened in December, so the weather was also a factor. Hundreds of people were blinded when the explosion took place. They had been watching the fire on the ship from inside their homes, businesses, etcetera. Many of the stories were really heart-wrenching, including one of a railroad dispatcher who stayed behind to warn incoming trains to stay away from Halifax and signed off with, “Guess this will be my last message. Goodbye, boys.”
The next day we set off for Cape Breton where we visited the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, which included exhibits on airplanes and the hydrofoil, in addition to the telephone. He had an entire peninsula on the Bras d’Or Lake opposite Baddeck that his descendants still own. We spent that night and the next at the Inverary Resort in Baddeck. The Bras d’Or Lake is essentially an inland sea with a mixture of salt and fresh water.
Mom was feeling a little under the weather when we arrived and our room was upstairs in the building we were in, with no elevator. So I left her sitting in a comfy armchair on the ground floor and took the luggage up the stairs and put it in the room. Then I came back downstairs and sat and talked with her until she felt better. It seemed to be just a passing feeling of being winded and didn’t happen again during the trip.
The next day we took the Cabot Trail through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, stopping for lunch at Cheticamp, an Acadian fishing village, where we had wonderful homemade food. The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who settled in the area in the 17th and 18th centuries, some of who are also descendants of the indigenous people of the region. During the French & Indian War, many of the Acadians were expelled by the British who thought they might be in cahoots with the French. Some of the Acadians who were sent to France, were recruited by the Spanish to settle in what is now Louisiana. These people became the Cajuns.
That evening we took a boat ride on the lake and became acquainted with one of our fellow travelers, Colin from the UK, with whom I am still friends. He captured a great photo of a bald eagle and shared it with us. It was a beautiful night, not cold or rainy, and a lovely boat ride.
Our last stop in Nova Scotia was Pictou, which was where the first Scottish settlers arrived in 1773 on board a ship called the Hector. So Pictou is essentially the Nova Scotia version of Plymouth, Massachusetts. They have a replica of the Hector that can be explored. I really liked Pictou. It is a fairly small town (roughly 3,000) clinging to the side of a rather steep hill sloping down to the harbor.
Interestingly enough, an ancestor of mine, Captain Nathaniel Reynolds (a 6th great grandfather), was a privateer for the colonies during the American Revolution who helped capture a British ship at Pictou. For that, the British labeled him a pirate and put a reward of £100 up for his capture. The daughter of his from whom I am descended, was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia.
After exploring the ship and having lunch, we boarded a ferry to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. We explored the town during the afternoon, visiting St Dunstan Church and Provence House (which was where Canada was confederated into a country in 1864). That night we went to the Center for the Arts to see a production of a play based on “Anne of Green Gables”.
The next day we set off for North Rustico on the island, followed by a visit to the Prince Edward Island National Park. Our local guide on this part of the trip had a fun sense of humor. She said, “There isn’t a single mosquito on PEI.” After a pause she added, “They are all married with large families.” I thought that would work well for Minnesota too (where the mosquito is the unofficial state bird), so I wrote it down in my trip journal to remember it. To tell you how swift I am at remembering a joke, this is the first time I’ve used it.
Being a fan of “Anne of Green Gables”, I was excited when we got to Cavendish. There we visited the farm that was owned by a cousin of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s (the series author) grandparents. This was the setting for the books and is now open for tourists. The area in the vicinity of the house and town was also portrayed in the books, so we took a good walk to take it all in. Not only do I enjoy historic locations, but I also love to see where some of my favorite novels were based when the fictional story was in a real setting.
The next morning we took the Confederation Bridge from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick.
