You guys were spot on. Too many reason why it was a great trip: the people, the scenery, the food, the drink, the exchange rate. Highlights were White Point, Meat Cove, Ingonish, Inverness, Cabot Trail, Glenora Distillery, Burntcoat Head Park, Halifax, Lunenburg. We put 2000 km on the Jeep Wrangler.
Here's a little recap of our adventure with plenty of pics.
Day 1, July 20th:
Our flight from Newark was an hour and 25 minutes and going through customs was a breeze. Was very impressed with our Jeep Wrangler from Avis that only had 4200 km.
We drove straight to Baddeck and our first stop was Big Spruce Brewing Company. Great beers and they were featured all over Nova Scotia. Checked into the Silver Dart Lodge. Our 2nd floor king room overlooking the lake with a balcony was a good start to the trip. Dinner at The Freight Shed. Great first meal of the trip. Everything was terrific, from the seafood chowder, the mussels, scallops and lobster roll. My first seafood chowder was excellent.
Pictures from Baddeck include Big Spruce Brewing, Silver Dart Lodge, The Freight Shed for dinner and Alexander Bell Museum.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZwnHn2QsLURkLtto8
Day 2, July 21st:
Checked out of Silver Dart Lodge and arrived at the Alexander Graham Bell museum around 9:15. Enjoyed our short visit and learned much about the aviation history. Pretty cool the used use the frozen lake as a runway back in the day.
On to Ingonish. We ventured to Ingonish Beach, very cool stone covered beach. Keltic Lodge and the Middle Head Trail were next. Nice hike out to Middle Head, a little overcast, but still great scenery. The jellyfish were in abundance.
Next it was time to check into the Lantern Hill & Hollow for two nights. Easily the finest accommodation on our trip. The place was immaculate, from the room to the property grounds.
After much research, we chose to eat dinner at the Coastal Restaurant. The place was packed on this Sunday night. A decent meal, but not the best on the trip.
Pictures from Day 2 include Freshwater Lake overlook, Middle Head Trail. Ingonish Beach, Lantern Hill & Hollow and Coastal Restaurant.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ohcBGr2e2aDuCFwi7
Day 3, July 22nd:
Maybe the best weather day we had, and the best scenery of the trip. We needed this, as we want to hit White Point and Meat Cove, not to mention the eastern section of the Cabot Trail.
White Point is an incredible place, hard to find without doing research. The reward is some of the best views we saw.
The ride to Meat Cove was stunning! There are lots of pull over points for great views. The road at 8km turns to non-pavement, but it was fine, just minor pot holes. The Chowder Hut was a fine place for lunch. We enjoyed it, although pricey. Three beers, two chowders, fish sandwich and lobster roll plus tip was $121CAN.
After lunch we did the 25-minute hike to the top of the mountain overlooking Meat Cove. More stunning scenery. Drove the Cabot trail to the west coast, then headed back to Ingonish
Photos from Day 3 include White Point and Meat Cove, Dingwall Beach.
White Point:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1sUvSKohe47M1peWA
Meat Cove:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/BJX7PYTWarVphcPM9
Here are the random pics from the Cabot Trail that include the one Moose sighting the following day at French Lake.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/b92CYnM26AaAPaNr7
Day 4, July 23rd:
We knew this was going to be a bad weather day, they were calling for rain all day. That being said we took our time checking out of the Lantern.
Enjoyed our second trip on the Cabot Trail to the west coast, this time under different weather circumstances. The good news is we had a terrific lunch at the Rusty Anchor. Great chowder and the seafood wraps were outstanding.
Rode the Cabot Trail to Cheticamp and checked into the Cornerstone Motel. Had a king deluxe room right on the river, another nice accommodation on the trip. The hosts were great.
After checking in we drove back up the Cabot Trail. Stopped at French Lake and saw the only Moose on our trip. He was a big boy. Also walked the bog trail and that was cool.
Pictures from the Cheticamp area, including Cornerstone Motel, Le Buttereay Trail, Skyline Trail.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/WKxxkwFVvjhstuQY9
Day 5, July 24rd:
We woke up to a low fog layer over the mountains. After Tuesday’s bad weather, this was the only day left for the Skyline Trail. We decided to head into Cheticamp for breakfast and waited for the fog to lift.
Skyline hike was nice, we did the whole loop in 2.5 hours with plenty of stops. Weather was still overcast, but it was still a pleasant walk, boardwalk was busy. I counted 273 steps back to the top.
Next was Inverness, the coolest town we visited on CBI. Nice beach and the Cabot Links Golf looked amazing. I had to visit Route 19 Brewing before heading to Mabou. Wow, great place and beers! I did try the seafood chowder and it was another winner!
Headed to the Mabou River Inn where we were staying the next 2 nights. Drove by the Glenora Distillery, but have plans to visit the following day. Mabou River Inn had the friendliest people of the whole trip. The king room was huge.
The best part of the evening was going to the West Mabou Beach for the sunset. What a beautiful spot! See the p
Pictures include Whale Point Cemetery, Inverness Beach, Route 19 Brewing, Dancing Goat, Lake Ainsley and of course the Glenora Distillery.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HJGCB7WcLUCsGYMk8
Day 6, July 25th:
Headed to the Dancing Goat for lunch. We took a longer, scenic route by Lake Ainslie. Dancing Goat was neat, very good food.
After lunch we spent a couple hours in Inverness. Walked the boardwalk one way and the beach the other. Found some sea glass that we will add to our collection from the Turks and Caicos. The walk was relaxing. Before leaving town we stopped again at Route 19 Brewing for some more good beers and also got the haddock tacos, delicious.
After leaving Inverness we were ready for the Glenora Distillery. Very nice property and loved the tour! We grabbed a bottle of the 14-year-old single malt whiskey for $120CAN. Glad we bought it at the distillery, as this bottle was not available in the duty free store at the airport. Brought it home and it’s good stuff!
We were now ready for the famous Red Shoe Pub. We arrived at 6pm and spent 4 hours here. Good time. We shared the humus platter, seafood chowder and the wings. Live music was very entertaining.
Pictures include Mabou River Inn, Clove and Hitch Bistro, Red Shoe Pub. West Mabou Beach sunset, Dancing Goat.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EZrTYeV2gVQYLLn37
Day 7, July 26th:
We headed next for Burntcoat Head Park and the famous low tide on the Bay of Fundy, actually it was on the Minus Basin. We stopped at the Fundy Tidal Interpretive Center first on the river, some good info. Burntcoat Head Park was outstanding. We were there at low tide and saw so much, lots of fun!
Pictures From Burntcoat Head Park.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/k91eF54i4ZR4tirH6
Heading to Halifax, there was a lot of traffic going through Dartmouth on this late Friday afternoon, we finally crossed the bridge and headed to the Westin downtown. This was a great accommodation located next the harbor and waterfront.
Little did we know the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Elizabeth ships were both in port on this evening. It was cool seeing both ships circle the harbor, the crowds were massive. Every eating spot on the water was packed so we opted to walk a few blocks to the Stubborn Goat. The pizza was very good, decent wings and salad. Good beer selection.
Pictures from Halifax: Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth, Stubborn Goat, 2 Doors Down, driving over the bridge.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Bb7ZCbRuUUYgQdN18
Day 8, July 27th:
We spent today going to Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg. Arrived to Peggy’s Cove at 9am and there was a decent crowd, then a tour bus pulled in seconds later. It wasn’t terrible, but we spent about 45 minutes max. We then went to the Swiss Air flight memorial, which was sobering.
We drove the scenic route to Lunenburg that included Bayswater Beach and Blanford. All the local beaches were very crowded on this Saturday morning. Once reaching Hubbards we hopped on the main road as traveling was really slow. Mahone Bay was a cool town on the way to Lunenburg.
We enjoyed Lunenburg and especially lunch. We ate at the Salt Shaker Deli and it was superb! Best mussels on the trip, excellent seafood chowder, solid pork burger and club sandwich.
After this we stopped at the Ironworks Distillery. We already had purchased our excellent bottle of single malt whiskey from Glenora. The gentleman said we could purchase their rum products at the airport….not true.
Back in town, dinner we went to 2 Doors Down. The food was stellar from the seafood chowder to the smokehouse burger to the haddock tacos.
Lunenburg and Peggy’s Cove Pictures:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/o9NnUUrkBD2nAYzo7
Day 9, July 28th
Uneventful, woke up, drove to the airport and flew home. Halifax is a terrific little city. The place is hopping on the weekend!
