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Last show tonight in Campbellford Ontario.

We got up this morning and drove without much stopping. At one point a transport blew a tire in front of us. Luckily none of the bits hit us and the truck pulled over safely. Whew!

We arrived in Campbellford early and took a walk through the park by the river. They have a giant toonie there so we checked that out. The show at The Stinking Rose started at 9. We had supper and then got there by 8 to set up. They hadn’t turned on the air conditioner early enough and it was really hot and humid. Eeek. They turned on fans etc but I have to tell you that it was unbelievably hot. They tried opening the door but the mosquitoes were so bad and I was trying to swat at them while I was playing. It reminded me of an outdoor festival. I won’t hold that against them – it is a lovely town. It is still not as bad as the bugs around Winnipeg last year – dang! After the show we sat down by the river for a bit. The temperature was so nice but the bugs still bad. It is almost 1am and time for bed. We are going to get up fairly early and try to make it to see some of Home County Folk Festival tomorrow.

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We got up this morning and dropped by the Fusion Coffee Co. on the way out of town. Mike bought one of those coffee presses and got a cup of coffee for the road.

We drove just down the road and saw the longest covered bridge (1282 feet) in Hartland. We took a few photos and drove across it. Then we checked out a place just down the road – the Coverered Bridge Potato Chips. It was interesting to see how they were made and we got a small bag as a sample that was right off the line (still warm). Yum!

We drove to Trois-Rivieres and visited with our friend Kenya and her boyfriend Shany. We went to eat at a place on the main street called Resto-Bar Fast Fou. It was very good and I had a huge hamburger and yummy fries with a garlic & rosemary mayo for a dip. The waitress was so nice. We attempted to say as much as we could in French but Kenya certainly helped with questions about some of the ingredients. We had a wonderful meal and chat. Then we went down to the riverfront. It is a very clean and active area. They had 5 or 6 life-sized chess games that are there all summer. Most were the standard pieces but one set was characters from Mario. Fun! We walked around and checked out the old homes, churches and monasteries. Just outside of the library we saw two pirates. Random! So we asked to get our photos with them. As we dropped her off we saw fireworks going off and joked that she really knows how to treat guests.

We drove to Berthierville and decided to stay at the Days Inn.

bonne nuit
L

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This morning we had our last breakfast in Shelburne (at least for a while… ;-0). The decision was made to take the ferry at Digby. Yeah – another boat ride. Mike and I left right after breakfast and took the scenic drive all around the southern part of Nova Scotia on highways 1 and 101. That allowed us to stop for more photos as we come to grips with leaving Nova Scotia. This is where Mike used up the last of his 75 sheets of the 4″ x 5″ film.

We got on the Digby Ferry (Princess of Acadia) that takes you to St John NB. It was a huge ferry and holds many cars, buses and transport trucks. We ate lunch inside but then spent the rest of a very windy ride on the deck looking for whales. The determination payed off because we saw one! It was so cool! I took a photo with my camera but of course it looks like a speck. I really enjoyed taking the ferry. We got to St. John and said our goodbyes to Hal. He had a show there that night and we were driving on towards the next gig for us in Woodstock. We drove towards Fredericton and ended up staying in Oromocto. Let’s just say that there were not very many places that we could find open…

The next morning we got up and had Timmy’s for breakfast (thanks again Deb for the gift card) and headed the scenic route along the river. We stopped in Fredericton and checked out a lovely private art gallery with a bunch of things we wished we could afford. Then we also checked out Beaverbrook Art Gallery. They had several exhibitions running for a few months plus their permanent collections. WOW. We saw painting from 1430 – that is 581 years old. That is crazy! There were pieces of furniture from the 1600s. Gorgeous stuff with amazing details and craftsmanship. We drove to Woodstock and arrived quite early. It is a lovely town. We decided that we wanted to sit under a tree in the park and just relax for a while. The thing is – their parks don’t have large trees – most are just grass. We ended up finding a little trail entrance that had a tree. I pulled the guitar out for a bit and played a few tunes. A “friendly gentleman” from across the road came to check things out and chat a while… 

We ate supper at the Fusion Coffee Co. (where I played) and the food was delicious. I played from 8-10 for a lovely and attentive crowd. It is amazing that in such a small place I met someone who used to live in St. Thomas (only 20 minutes from London) who used to play with Orchestra London. We even know a bunch of the same people. We also met some other people who had been to London  (including the “friendly gentleman” in the park). Small world I tell ya! All in all a wonderful evening. We spent the night in Woodstock. Thanks so much to Tracie for the hospitality!

Well, I cannot upload the photos today because the Days Inn seems to have blocked uploading. I will try to get them up asap.

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Today was rainy and foggy and was a perfect day to chill around Shelburne. We got up and went for breakfast at the Scotia Lunch again. Then we went down to check out the historical waterfront district. We saw the barrel factory and several buildings from the late 1780s and early 1800s. There is the County Museum and right across from that a Dory Shop. I enjoyed that the most. We spoke to a builder for quite a while and learned so much. There is a lot of history to those boats. Then we went into the Ross-Thompson House which had been a residence, wholesale store and some sort of post office. The owner was in charge of the local militia and there are several antique rifles on the second floor. There was a building that was created specifically for the movie The Scarlet Letter called the Guild Hall – it is just off of Dock Street. We ate lunch at The Sea Dog Saloon and then checked out the Yacht Club and the Osprey Arts Centre.
The rest of the evening was for resting and catching up on things. This is our last night in Shelburne as we all leave tomorrow (Hal to St John and us towards Woodstock NB).
We haven’t decided for sure if we are going to take the ferry or drive but I think we are leaning towards taking the ferry.

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Today we drove around Shelburne Harbour and checked out a few rivers and the Roseway Beach taking photos. The destination was to eat lobster in Pubnico. We stopped at an old rail bridge, Mike got some sand for his mom at Roseway Beach, we checked out The Hawk Beach and saw a cool stone church near Clark’s Harbour. There was a boat that had probably been beached by a hurricane and was rotting in a field. As we were taking photos of it I realized that there was a cow laying down beside it – a very strange thing to see – a cow under a boat. We went for lunch at Dennis Point Cafe and I had fresh steamed lobster. The other day I went to a place that wanted $35 for it so I had the clams instead. Today it was only $14.95 for the steamed lobster dinner – and it was good!!! Oh Yeah!
We went back to Hal’s place and Nigel came over for a ukulele jam. Yup, I was jamming out on the uke. We had a blast and played so many songs. Before we knew it we had jammed for four hours. Good times. We only have one more full day in Shelburne before heading back. The time is going so quickly. A final shot for the night – Hal’s street around midnight.

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Today we set off for the show in Lunenburg at the Scuttlebutt. First stop was to meet our friend Shelah at The Dockside. There I ate the Digby clams while looking out over the harbour. Life is good. We had a nice visit and then Shelah offered to give us a little tour of town. Well, I certainly learned a lot. It is a Unesco World Heritage sight because it is one of the few towns that has retained it’s grid pattern (like Savannah). We saw the fisherman’s memorial where they list all of the fishermen lost at sea (in their recorded history). We saw the waterfront including a cool ship called the Picton Castle that was docked there. It goes on a year-long sail around the world. That would be pretty crazy and intense. People pay for the experience and have to go through psychological testing to see if they can handle something like that. It was built in 1928 as a  fishing trawler, in WWII was used as a minesweeper and then was refitted with sails to be a tall ship 1n 1996. We went down near the dory shop but couldn’t see much there. Shelah explained some of the architecture and history of the town and then took us down to see the restoration of the Bluenose II (the one one our dime). We had to wear hard hats and safety goggles to go see it. A very interesting thing she told us is that the launch of the last Bluenose was delayed as they waited for the mayor (who was also the doctor) to deliver a baby – and she was THAT baby. Cool.
There is Ironworks Distillery that operates in the old Blacksmith shop. They tried to keep much of the old look of it and have just made changes as needed and added insulation. Hal bought a t-shirt.
We found out about the widow’s walk and widow’s watch and the Lunenburg bump (looks like a bay window but on the 2nd floor over the door).
We checked out The Lunenburg Academy (built in 1894) which is a very old school that is still in use (grades one to five). We also did a tour of St John’s Anglican Church (built in 1754) that had burnt in 2001 and was rebuilt. You would have no idea by the amazing work that was done to restore it to original details. Some of the parts were salvaged and they tried to use bits of glass from the stain glass windows in each of the new ones. It was so very beautiful. We went down to the Scuttlebutt for supper before the show. Yummy!  I took a photo of my name on the sign. The owner’s daughter was so cute and chatted with us quite a bit. The owners were so nice and treated us well. Hal has known them a while and has friends and fans in Lunenburg so the evening was such fun. We also met people from all over Canada and other parts of the world. It is a lovely venue and I would recommend going there if you are ever in Lunenburg.
On the way home I took a photo of a McDonald’s sign. In Ontario we have many different “Mc”things but have you ever seen or tried McLobster? I didn’t yet but I took a photo of the sign.

Mike has been taking so many photos with the antique cameras. I have included a photo of him with the changing bag as he takes the film out of the holders and reloads them.

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Well, if I thought yesterday my back was bad – this morning… oh my! I couldn’t actually get out of the bed for almost an hour and then it took over 20 minutes to get down the stairs. I was quite worried because I had a show tonight. I rested most of the day. We went on a harbour cruise of Shelburne Harbour in the afternoon. Because of an island that protects the entrance of the harbour (McNutt), the water is very calm so I chanced it. It was a very gentle ride. We didn’t see any whales but saw several seals not far from the boat. Tonight’s show at the Sea Dog Saloon was good. I was in pain and sat between songs but the crowd was awesome and Hal and I had so much fun. Mike Bourgeault played trumpet on several songs and the crowd loved that too. I sold a bunch of cds and everyone expressed that they enjoyed the show. Yeah. Then to bed and rest my back!

Saturday – my back was still sore but at least I could get out of the bed in one try. Walking up or down stairs was still slow but going better. Today we headed to Liverpool and checked out the Sherman Hines Photography Museum. We liked it VERY much. There were so many cameras that we had never seen, some that Mike actually has and some he wished he did. They also had some of the stereo image viewers like Mike owns including a few of the photographs he has too. That was cool. I would love to try to take some pics with one of the stereoscopic cameras. Basically it takes two photos and when you look through the viewer it is 3D. When people first saw this technology they fell off their chairs. Can you imagine if they saw Avatar in 3D?  We headed to Wolfville and played Paddy’s Pub that night. What a fun crowd. Jamie and Laura drove from Windsor to the show and there were a bunch of Hal’s fans right up front. The food was delicious and the staff awesome. All in all a wonderful night.

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Today didn’t have a great start as I hurt my back by doing the “twist and bend” injury while picking up a pillow. Yes, a pillow! So I had a bit of a pinch in my lower back but I was not going to let this slow me down. Well, actually it did slow me down but didn’t stop me!

On the way to Peggy’s Cove we stopped a bunch of times when we saw picturesque scenery (which was often). We stopped for lunch at the Finer Diner. There was an arts festival that was going on this week (I had found information online and through the @visitnovascotia on twitter). People at the diner gave us a map and suggested a few places. Mike also found another camera at an antique store (another Brownie). We checked out several galleries on the way. We stopped at the Flight 111 Memorial.

Peggy’s Cove was, well… WOW! No wonder it is such a popular destination. We took so many photos. I realized that we had only moved about 30 feet from the car in the first 20 minutes. There will be photos. There were gift shops and galleries there too. We checked out a few but spent most of the time standing on the rocks up near the lighthouse. Again… WOW! Oh, an one cool thing that happened – a plane did a very close fly-by and both Mike and I grabbed our cameras. It was cool. Most of the blog pictures are from the iphone so I don’t have it in here. I could have spent days there! We drove along the shore as we headed to our next destination – Manitoba Hal’s house in Shelburne. We ended up stopping again at the Finer Diner for supper. It is quite fine – the food delicious and the staff so friendly. I recommend it.
Once we arrived at Hal’s he took us on a quick night-time tour of the harbour front and the Sandy Point Lighthouse. Mike took a long exposure of the lighthouse that turned out really nice.

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For two days we did day trips from Windsor. The first day we went through Wolfville and there was a beautiful Look Off near Canning. We drove towards Cape Spit which is the area that joins the Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy. This is where you can really see some drastic tides. We stopped at a small pier where there were a few fishing boats that were on the ground because it was low tide. During the time that we were taking photos it rose by at least 3 feet. It was very cool to see how quickly it happens. We were going to walk through the park to Cape Split but we had too much on the agenda that day and it said that it would take 4-5 hours. Next stop – Hall’s Harbour! Very cool little harbour that boasts the highest tides (although it seemed that there were several places that boast that fact!) It had a cool place where you could see the loading dock where the fish/seafood came in. It is actually the same building as the restaurant/gift shop. So, you go into the gift shop to place your order. There they have the tanks of live lobsters and you pick one. They weigh it in a bin, you pay and then take it to the cook directly. They give you a number and they bring you your meal in another building that is more like a cafeteria. (this is where my mom will be jealous that she wasn’t there for lobster). I wasn’t feeling hungry enough for a lobster that day but this would have been the place to do it. I did have a basket of fried clams and that was delicious. I took a photo of the order in front of us. We then drove to Greenwood and checked out the Greenwood Military Aviation Museum. It was pretty cool and had some full-sized planes in the building. There were mannequins with the uniforms from different divisions and time periods. Mike played in a simulator – it was old but it was cool that it had a little plane body around it. As we were leaving we saw some parachute jumpers practicing on the military base. We headed back to Windsor for the evening, had a nice supper and then checked out the Windsor Mud Flats. When the tide goes out it is cool how sculptural the mud looks. I find it fascinating to see what it looks like under the water.
The next day we went the other direction staying within the Minas Basin.We took back roads and would just turn down random roads to go down to the shore. We saw a lighthouse near Walton where you could go inside. The woman there was so helpful. She suggested that we check out Burncoat Head for a beautiful spot for photos. She was correct! You walk down the trail and then down into an area where the change of tide is almost 40 feet. Wow. It was so cool walking on the floor of the basin. The rock and sand were so red and the landscape quite dramatic. We took a few photos there too. We headed back to Windsor and checked out Fort Edward as well as the museum in town. There was also the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia where they got to see some of the puppets on display. That night was for relaxing, we watched movies, ordered pizza and did laundry.

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Saturday we woke fairly early and off we went again. We were on a mission for our destination but also didn’t want to be driving by everything on the trip. We stopped a few times at lookout areas and took a short detour to Grand Falls, NB. The falls were nice and Mike took some photos. There was a zip line that went across the falls but we didn’t have time for that this trip. As we were driving we did a FB status update of where we were and our friends Jim and Carol texted us to say that if were were there in time should head to Antigonish to visit with them that night. We made it there by about 11pm and visited with them as well as A.J and Andrew. Andrew gave me a few travel books and some suggestions on what we might find interesting. On the Sunday we got up and had breakfast with our friends and then headed to Canso for the Stan Rogers Folk Festival. It was a lovely scenic drive along the water and we stopped a few times to take some photos. It was our first time to Stanfest and we got to see some artists that we had never seen before as well as a few we had. It was a very windy day, and we didn’t have camping for that night (you needed to book the whole weekend), so we left early and missed the evening shows to get somewhere we could find accommodations. We stopped for a quick photo at the communications building where the distress signal for The Titanic was received. This building is also in distress with falling brick and broken windows. We decided as we were driving to go all the way to Pictou and stay there so we would be closer to the things we wanted to do on Monday. We checked out the ship Hector in Pictou in the morning. They have an information centre and self-guided tour of the museum and ship. Then we headed to Windsor where Mike’s ex-bandmate lives. Mike found three cameras in the downtown antique shop for a reasonable price. It was a relaxing evening with Jamie and Laura – jamming, a yummy bbq and reminiscing.