Novia Scotia, Canada

And So It Begins.
I had concerns about the family road trip. After all, we hadn't been on one since I was 13. Obviously, George and I travel together all the time, but Scout was a whole other story. We're pretty much polar opposites. I'm quick to make decisions, get impatient easily and like to take the direct route. Scout is much more relaxed, ponders over menus, drives the speed limit EXACTLY and prefers the road less traveled. Excellent. A week and a half on a road trip stuck in a car together. This could be trouble.

We'd planned a trip that had something for everyone. Scout would very much enjoy photographing the coastlines. George was looking forward to exceptional seafood dishes and I wanted to visit LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables home on Prince Edward Island.

To help us succeed on our journey, George set the rules at the onset. "We play Jels' games, we're patient with Scout's photography. And I'm the leader." Sure. OK – let's see how that works out. :)

Dad – Look How Far Ford's Come.
There are always little moments at the beginning of the trip that sorta set the stage. At the MSP airport, George and I got on the escalator to check in and waved goodbye to Scout as he ascended the adjacent escalator to the next floor. Hey Scout – next time you should check out the airport facilities on Google Earth so you know exactly where to go.

NOTE: Google Earth will hereafter be known as GE. Trust me, I'm not gonna want to write it out every time. It's practically its own character in this journal.

The Toronto airport "eeeees crrrrap" as George would say. Except for the salad with a fried egg. Yes please! Get that in MSP.

The worst experience on every new trip, unfailingly, is the rental car. Every time, every rental agency has a long line of people and one, maybe two, people working. Seriously – were they not expecting the planes full of people today? And how can this not be easier? Here's an idea – set up precheck stations like airport check in terminals. Have multiple people doing all the prep work. Then just take your paperwork up and get the key. Another idea – make sure you know what vehicle goes with each key and where it's parked. Such a huge waste of time.

That Ford Escape was so darn smart that I'm surprised it didn't drive itself up to the desk and pick us up. "You've got my key. Let's go!" It was push button start, had so many gauges on it that Scout didn't even know what some were for and sensors in the windshield to auto adjust the wipers per amount of rainfall. This was not "just a Ford." The GPS was not needed. We had GE, people! Move along.

Harbor Towns.
The first day we spent driving around the cutest little harbor towns. And seeing lighthouses. Now, unless you're a sailor headed straight into the rocks, I see no joy in lighthouses. Seen one – seen them all. But my – aren't they pretty to photograph? (See Rule Two of the road trip rules.)

Lunenberg, Peggy's Cover and Mahone Bay were all adorable. Little fishing villages with great shopping. (Yes, Scout, shopping should also have an abbreviation. Let's use $$$).

Next time we go on a group trip, I'm going to have Scout look up where all the butter tarts are on GE. I want to "catch 'em all!" (Pokemon – none to be found in Canada). They are tasty little treats. Reminiscent of pecan pie with white syrup and nuts or raisins.

I thought we'd find maple treats and nanaimo bars everywhere. Not to be.

The drive in this area was so fun. Cute little harbors, colorful lobster crates everywhere and Acadian stars on homefronts – symbols of the French Canadian ancestry.

I had my heart set on a bakery for lunch, but found out it was permanently closed. (Scout – when you scrolled by that on GE, did it not look ABANDONED to you? No?) Turned out okay, though, cuz the neighboring Kiwi Cafe earned the number one spot for seafood chowder of the entire trip. Pear, arugula and

brie sandwhich also good.

Lunenberg is as pretty as anticipated. Scout got good pictures even with clouds at sunrise.

Good Thing We Weren't Playing the License Plate Game.
Remember the whole "road less traveled" thing? Well – here we go.

It was a crap day. Overcast, cloudy, drizzly – just a mess. We were driving up to Amherst for the second day of our trip. And there was a perfectly good highway to get there. But we decided to take the long way round. There were lighthouses and islands and such along the way... "Good photo ops." But in reality, the only thing we saw that day was a church for sale – a great place to open a quilt shop and bakery.

Otherwise, all I saw were trees and fog. not even any animals or houses. At least if we'd taken the highway, I'd have seen a car occasionally. There weren't even any road signs so there was no way to determine if it would ever end.

Well, it finally did. At the closed museum we stopped at just to get out of the car. Nope. Closed ten minutes before we arrived. Back in the car to Amherst.

We saw the lighthouse. And some pretty blueberries dripping with rain. And, we had exceptional clams – so that was one bright spot on a very dreary day.

We swam to dinner that night. I wasn't at all hungry so just had a cup of soup. But I woke up starving in the middle of the night. My mind searched frantically for something to eat other than the book on my nightstand. Luckily, I remembered the biscuits from the plane! Got me through to breakfast which was an enormous bowl of fruit and homemade blueberry pancakes. They were heavenly! Thanks, Jim!

Prince Edward Island.
I was looking forward to this section of the trip the most and it did not disappoint. It's a very charming farm-based island with every third building related to LM Montgomery. I can see why her books are so full of descriptions of this place. Just adorabe.

There's s super long bridge to get there – Confederation Bridge. Very impressive.

The first day we drove up to find some fishing shacks Scout

wanted to see. They weren't nearly as bright and vibrant as GE suggested. Isn't GE "real time"? I feel those shacks had lost at least five years worth of paint. We stumbled across some beautiful red rock cliffs on the beach, though.

We stopped at one of the Anne museums and LMM's birthplace before heading to lunch. We wanted to got to the Harvest House restaurant. George found this place and it got great reviews for food and raspberry pie. But they cater to busses and one arrived at the same time we did so they closed. I should have taken that as a sign. But we determinedly went back the next day. Another bus. But this time we got in. Sadly, totally does not meet expectations. The cherry salsa was the only good thing about it. Pie – not so much. :(

But who needs pie when you've got Cow's ice cream. Two common George refrains are "Do you think there's ice cream?" and "Maybe we could stop for a mocha." Interpreted – these mean. "I'd like to chat about the ice cream but am not interested in eating it." And, "I am interested in the mocha but don't actually like to drink it."

We got to Cows the first day and were going back the second

to make up for the pie. But it was closed. Seeing a theme here? We decided we were traveling at the wrong time. Too late for summer and too early for leaves. A lot of places were closed or had shortened hours.

I got the cutest photos of Scout and George at Cow's. The one time she had ice cream made her very happy.

George and I also had our first ever real in-the-shell lobster. For me – I'd prefer somebody else do all the work and just serve it up on some bread with aioli.

We enjoyed giving Scout a hard time as his internal GPS "powered by GE" failed. We enjoyed a 30 minute scenic drive in the wrong direction. Then, took a little loop around the hospital after a wrong turn. I'd offer to map the route – but I'd been smacked down for that already so just let it happen.

Things I Learned On the Way to Cape Breton.
Tim Horton's: Canadians have no idea how good doughnuts can be. We got doughnuts (and a mocha to throw out) on the way to the ferry. Just yuck! I don't understand why they are so popular.

Undesirables: In WY and other western states, law enforcement just dress in regular clothes and drive regular pickup trucks. And if they find undesirables, they just escort them right out of town to the state line. One thing I'm confused about. Most of these states have common borders. Wouldn't the receiving state just have to escort them right back? It's a puzzlement.

NOTE: I scared myself in the ferry shop's mirror. Made George laugh out loud. I was so BIG. Like a fun house mirror.

Moose? Or Moose-like Object?
The weather was not our friend and on the ferry ride we determined we needed a new plan – to try and drive further up

the coast and see as much as we could before the following day – predicted to be a rainout. Unfortunately, the stress of trying to rebook hotels set us off and we skipped Sharon's Pies and the lovely sounding shortbread cookies in Pictou. I console myself with the knowledge that Sharon's Pies couldn't possibly match my Sharon's pies.

And any loss was definitely made up for when we got to our "hotel" in Chetticamp. Wow! I would have loved to stay there the entire trip. Three bedrooms, full kitchen, fabulous living room – for $250 Canadian money. Best pillows. Best bed. Best night of sleep!

First though – we needed to find a moose. We went to the bog walk since we were never going to get the skyline trail done. Bog trail was billed as having gigantic moose. It certainly looked like a good place for them, but we saw no signs.

As we drove back to town, Scout turned around because he thought he'd seen something. And there they were – GIGANTIC moose! Holy mother! I had no idea that was what I was looking for. My squeal of happiness made Scout's "best part of the day." Of course, it probably scared the moose off, too. Fun!

The next day we're driving along and I see one out in the open. Squeal. Stop the car. Run back to look. Ooops – a moose-like object. Just a horse. I'm pretty sure that made Scout's best part of the day, too.

The only other one we saw was a female running near the road at a construction site. And search as I might, I couldn't even find a good replica to add to my animal figurines at home. There is way more moose merchandise in Stillwater than the wilds of Canada. Whatever.

The Best of Breton.
I gotta say, not really my favorite part of the trip. Maybe weather related. Maybe the time of year.

Because of the crap weather, our new itinerary took us to Baddeck for the day. More shops and things to do on a rainy day. Our first stop was Flora's – a super cute shop where they demonstrated rug hooking and had lots of rugs for sale. I got a small wall hanging of colored houses in the snow.

At Baddeck, we went to one of the best yarn stores I've ever been in. The variety was insane. Then we went to the AG Bell museum. That was fascinating. What a forward thinker. He was way ahead of his time. He worked on aviation, greenhouses, hydroplanes, teaching the deaf and so much more.

After lunch and a mocha which was thrown out, we made our way up to Ingonish for our final destination. Along the way, Scout made a point of stopping at every single shop. Either to waste time or poke fun at my shopping addiction. Unclear.

There was a shop of colored glass that I could have purchased everything in. I did not. To prove a point or because I did not want it? Unclear.

On this side of the coast, I met the two crabbiest people in all of Nova Scotia. Pizza Girl and what I can only assume is her mother, Gas Station Lady.

Our inn here was a cute little cottage right by the sea. We were kinda done with eating out, so ordered a pizza, bought some wine, picked up some pie (crap!) and ate in. Seriously – Pizza Girl was not very friendly. I was not the only customer who thought that judging by the look on the poor gentleman's face who was brave enough to ask her for his drink.

The next day when I stopped for a Diet Coke at the gas station, the woman's "Is that ALL???" led me to believe they are kin.

I broke a wine glass. When I went to the office to offer penance, she was so kind. Of course, her name was Sharon.

I asked her if there might be just one puffin left in the neighborhood. But they were long gone. South Africa, Argentina and now Canada – no puffins. Screw that, I'm going to Iceland.

On the last day, George and I agreed to drive all the way up the cost to "meat cove – as seen on GE." Oh, it was gonna be "spectacular!" And I think we felt bad that Scout hadn't gotten the photos he wanted due to the weather. This was really his last big opportunity.

So we drove, and we drove – over graveL roads, winding, climbing, around the cove roads. And around each turn, I expected to see "meat cove – as seen on GE." When we finally got there, I asked "Is this it? Are we there?" I think the cliffs right outside of Ingonish were prettier. We drove all that way and there wasn't even a frickin' lighthouse.

So we drove all the way back. To break up the trip to Sydney, we stopped to walk around a small lake. Which was worse? The drive to "meat cove – as seen on GE" or the walk that would not end.

We're crabby. We're hungry. But the best bakery of the trip restores us. The Clucking Hen was clucking fantastic. Lobster chowder with a good buttermilk biscuit. Scout had a butter tart and George and I split a gingerbread with caramel topping. Delicious! Gave them a great review on Trip Advisor.

Ready. Set. Home.
We spent the last night in Sydney before getting up at 2 a.m. for the trip home. I'm glad we weren't there any longer than we were. A sad little town.

They had a little art display of scary-ass decorated cat sculptures. Just weird.

At dinner that night, I asked my usual series of questions. Scout's answer for "something I packed that I didn't need" was "the instructions for my camera – the Spanish version."

George's biggest disappointment – her troop did not respect the boss. Shocking.

We had fun. So much that I booked Thanksgiving again in Helena. You know what – I'm gonna look for big horn sheep on GE. It will be just like seeing them. "LIVE" '

Til next time.