The last two days sure were filled with a lot of BEAUTIFUL SCENERY! Forest, canyons, plateaus, headlands, bluffs, cliffs, rivers and streams, ocean coastline, fishing villages, and lots of shopping, just to name a few. Mom's trigger finger is in traction - over 230 pictures! And, some of them are pretty good! The name of the area is the Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada, but the entire drive is called The World Famous Cabot Trail. Yesterday we drove a little over half way around the park and even drove to the end of the most Northern road to a place called Meat Cove. We haven't really figured out how it got it's name, but is sure was pretty. The park it's self is over 367 square miles (950 square kilometers), but we covered an area almost twice that size by the time we drove all the way around. The actual road is 200 miles long, but by the time Dad got done taking all the side roads it was more like 275 miles. That really doesn't really sound like much, but when you drive it at 40 miles an hour or less, and make all those stops to go shopping, take pictures, and make pit stops, it takes a long time. We watched a bunch of lobster boats work their traps, and boy oh boy, are there ever a lot of traps out there. The coves are covered with hundreds of different colored buoys for the lobster pots. OH, and as you will see in the pictures, the sun came out for our whole trip. It was nice and warm for the most part, but the wind sure blows up on top of those mountains. By the time we got home today, the clouds had moved back in.
We really wanted to see a moose, but they were all hiding, I guess. We stayed in a motel in Pleasant Bay and that had to be the most disappointing part of the trip. It looked good from the outside, but the rooms really needed some work. When we went to bed, we all met in the middle, and Mom had a hard time sleeping on the edge. I guess we are spoiled, because for $80 per night you would think you would have shampoo, conditioner, and coffee in the room - but not here - and the restaurant didn't open until 8:00 am today, so Mom had to wait for her coffee this morning. Mom and Dad had dinner there last night too, and that was disappointing also - Dad's turkey was a little dry, but Mom said her scallops were OK. Breakfast wasn't much better today - Mom's french toast could have used more egg on it, but it filled the hole.
The most exciting part of the trip was today on the way back. Dad was driving along when all of a sudden a black bear charged across the road! Mom SCREAMED "BEAR", Dad hit the breaks, I did a nose plant on the dash and Mom got one shot of him. He was sure BIG, BLACK AND SHINNY! Dad still can't hear out of his right ear, and I am deaf!
Let's see if Mom can pick out a few pictures for you:
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| Here we go! |
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| River heading towards the ocean. |
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| Up on top, looking back |
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| The famous Keltic Lodge (sits on top of a bluff overlooking the ocean). |
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| A view of the cliffs. |
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| Driving through the forest (if you look in the center of the picture, you will see a little white spot, that is the road up ahead! |
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| Meat Cove - the flat green area is a tent campground. |
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| Another little fishing village and cove. |
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| Fishing village boat docks and the village in the background |
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| Forested canyons. |
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| Cloud hanging over the mountain. |
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| This is the road along the coast line. |
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| A view of the coastline closer to the water. |
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| Typical fishing village. |
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| BEAR! I know this doesn't look too exciting, but at the time Dad and I thought Mom was going to pee her pants! In Moms defense, she didn't have time to zoom in on him and she had to shoot this through the windshield! |
Tomorrow we are going to head to Halifax, then it's on the Quebec. Looks like we are turning the corner and heading towards home! (Of course, it took us 9 months to get out here, so who knows how long it will take to get back!)
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