The trip back home

Friday, October 11, 2013

We got up at 2am to get ready to fly home. We left the room a little before 3am and told the front desk we were checking out and had all of our luggage with us and were here for the airport shuttle at 3:30am. As I said before Caravan or Marty had arranged for us to exchange our breakfast voucher for a box breakfast. The desk clerk got 2 insulated souvenir lunch bags and handed them to us. Now this was a nice touch and we have never had this happen that if your travel plans cause you to miss an included meal that they give you one to go. Usually if you miss a meal, you just miss it. While it was a very nice and thoughtful gesture, it wasn’t too practical.

 

We walked back and sat at the table and chairs in the business center and looked in our bags since this was a free 20 minutes or so and Marty had told us to eat it then as a warning of things to come from experience I think. Inside we had a bottle of fruit punch (over 3 ounces! Can’t take it with you through security). Clay drank his. Since it had citric acid, mine was just left on the table unopened. We each had an Activia yogurt. Mine was strawberry and 3 oz. so I ate it. Clay’s was blueberry and we discussed if it could go in one of our liquids bags and go through security. Clay ate it instead of taking a chance. We each had an apple, a sesame seed bagel, a small granola bar and a little tub of cream cheese. We discussed if the cream cheese was a gel or whether it could go through security outside the liquids bags. We also discussed if the apple could go and how far since we would be crossing a border today mostly likely in Toronto. We decided since the bags were foil lined we would probably be pulled over at the x-ray, but we took a chance and put them in our backpacks anyway. This really should be better thought through and give a sack that will assuredly make it through airport security for the day ahead or provide something that can be consumed there in 15 to 20 minutes onsite. As the woman with us said, it’s nice but all I really want is a hot cup of coffee right now.

Marty showed up at about 3:10am. This was a shock! We have never ever seen a tour guide after the farewell dinner. Usually you are on your own after that. But, Marty came to make sure that we made it on the shuttle with our luggage and had our sack breakfasts. We were absolutely amazed. I told Clay that it actually softened my opinion towards her. I still resent that she withheld critical information from us at various points that diminished our ability to enjoy and make the most of our time here, but now I could see it in a new light and that changed everything. I now think it was wrong but from a well-meaning heart. Now I think she did it because she honestly felt responsible for each of us and this was a way for her to keep us in her sight. I thought that was what she was doing before by denying us the information to independently sightsee and skip those lunches but now I could understand it in a more kind-hearted light. It is a conundrum, but no one would be up and dressed and working at 3am if it were not required unless they truly felt it was important to them personally to do so.

We made it through airport security without a question. We each took one bite of our apples at the gate and tossed them anyway because they were mealy. We ate the bagels with cream cheese and saved the small granola bars for later. Our flight, Air Canada 603 was full and on time. A waiting plane is the best reason for trying to take the first flight of the day no matter how early! I had not realized that we would be caught up in Canadian Thanksgiving traffic today at the beginning of their long holiday weekend. Poor planning on my part as Caravan had a trip leaving every other day and I could have easily chosen an earlier or later date and still traveled in the same time frame. Live and learn. As Clay says though, he doesn’t foresee any trip to Canada any time soon. I feel bad though because this poor planning really hurt Mom & Judy! I knew Canadian Thanksgiving was in mid-October though and I don’t know why I didn’t think of making sure we’d have no conflicts. Sorry!  

We were quicker through Toronto this time. There were much longer lines with the holiday traffic but we didn’t have the 45 minute maze walk we had inbound. We made our connection gate with time to spare. It turns out with lots of time to spare. They were missing a flight attendant. The first one that arrived was the sole flight attendant we had inbound on this same small 2x2 jet. I guess it was because that flight was mostly empty, but today they expected a full flight and wouldn’t go without 2 attendants. We had to wait for one to be transferred from the domestic side of the airport, which meant she had to be located and then go through US customs and immigration and security again to get to our gate.

While we thought they should have been using this time to gate check our rolling luggage they didn’t and didn’t mention it as they began boarding. We assumed that meant either they had changed equipment, hence the need for 2 attendants or that they were telling people as they presented their boarding passes and entered the jet way. No one said anything, there was no luggage drop before the plane door and the attendant at the door said nothing as we all entered. Then we turned the corner and saw we were on the small plane with the minuscule overhead bins. It was a nightmare. They never offered to gate check anyone’s luggage. Not even when we pointed out to our inbound stewardess that the bags would not fit. You could put one each of regulation size under the seat in front but not 2. As people stopped boarding and we waited for a gate check opportunity that we asked for and were promised, Clay put my bag under an empty row across and in front of ours. Then he moved over there and strapped in. I stayed in our row by the window. The stewardess who had promised us a gate check came back up as we waited for bags to be unloaded that had been checked by people who had then left the gate area as we kept extending our wait by a 15 minute increments and then they started loading Air Canada employees who were flying standby, a pilot, a stewardess, and a family of five. The family had the exit row behind us with a small child. Of course, he would not be allowed to sit there, so the attendant asked the single man across the aisle from me and me if we would move to the back and the exit row. I declined since my husband was across the aisle and in front of me. She said that was fine, since so only really needed 3 seats to get the child and his parents moved from the exit row and the grandparents could stay back there. So the father and son took the single man’s row and he left with his suitcase. The mother sat beside me and complained that I had used all the under seat space. I told her sorry but since they always gate check rolling bags on this equipment and today they didn’t it wasn’t my problem to solve. She passed her purse over to her son. They had 5 rolling bags between them as I saw them at the bathrooms in RDU. They had evidently done what we had done in the back where they left their bags after going to their ticketed seats. I don’t know what the sole man did who moved back there, but again it wasn’t my problem to solve. The good news is that they closed the doors before Clay got displaced with my suitcase! I felt bad for all the people that were booked and had their bags removed so all those Air Canada employees could fly. The wife next to me told the attendant how lucky they felt and how rare it was for her husband to get to use this employment perk. Yeah, especially on a holiday weekend. Too bad for those paying customers who had based their plans on relying on Air Canada. We were not happy with Air Canada at this point and we had chosen them earlier when the US Government was shut down for a while and it affected air traffic.

It turns out the US Government shut down again during our trip and Mom had assumed the danger of air traffic being affected had past. She and Judy got stuck in LaGuardia because she was wrong. She called last night from a Marriott in NY. She told me that their flight leaving Halifax was delayed. I am not sure why, but she went to the gate agent who told her they would miss their LaGuardia connection. He canceled their booked seats and rebooked them on a later flight. It turns out they arrived in NY in time to make their original flight and went to the gate to try to get on it. They were told no because their seats had been resold. Then their new flight was canceled because they didn’t have air traffic controllers. Delta told everyone at the gate they were out of luck and on their own and to complain to their US Representative, I guess. Mom said that she and Judy stayed and argued for a long time that they were Delta’s problem because the Delta gate agent had canceled their booked seats. Eventually someone at Delta agreed and put them up for the night at the airport Marriott and put them on standby lists for 2 flights on Saturday morning. That is the good news. The bad news is that those flights were overbooked too and they still don’t have seats booked on a flight out of LaGuardia. It is Saturday morning at 10:30am and I haven’t heard from Mom again so I don’t know what their status is. I will post the outcome here when I learn it. I have my fingers crossed that she hasn’t called because she is on a plane flying home! Mom & Judy did finally make it home about 24 hours later than expected.

Meanwhile, we got home about 45 minutes late and were satisfied because we did not have to make a connection. I don’t know if that was true for everyone onboard flight AC 7974. We went out into a cold drizzly day. It was colder here than it was in Halifax! But we were happy to be home. As we neared the I-40 intersection I was amazed at the wildflowers. Clay said they had bloomed sometime in the past 3 weeks before we left so maybe in August. I thought I saw a lot of small Dahlias!

The treadmill repairman was scheduled for 4pm today. The treadmill has been broken since August. He has ordered and tried replacing almost all the electronics in the LiveStrong treadmill. This is with a purchased extended warranty from Dick’s Sporting Goods. The repairman is an independent contractor, but still. He has had almost 3 months to fix it and the parts are delivered in a timely fashion but if you can’t troubleshoot it and show up for your appointments or make them with less than a week’s planning, that means the treadmill is just out of service for months at a time. Not acceptable. At 4:15pm I called him and asked him what the status was. He had not wanted to make this appointment until after we returned and wanted me to call him next week. I told him no, that was unacceptable that we had waited too long and he blamed it on our travel schedule which he has made it is business to document so he can stretch this out even longer. So, we made this appointment understanding that if we couldn’t keep it because of flight delays that we would call him and cancel. I figured he had already blown us off again. When I called after our appointment time, he told me that he had programmed an alarm for appointment but that it hadn’t gone off so he must have done something wrong. But since I reminded him that he would come when he finished the appointment he was on now and call before he headed for our house. He called after 6pm and said he would be here within 30 minutes. Sometime after 7pm he arrived and he left sometime after 8pm. It was killing us because we had been up for a very long and stressful time, but at least for now the treadmill is finally working.

That is the end of this trip. Next month is Las Vegas! Stay tuned for the Cirque du Soleil Vegas marathon.

 

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Photos

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Clay and I were up too early again. I was down in the lobby about 6:30am printing our boarding passes for tomorrow. We met Mom & Judy at 7am for our most bountiful and delicious breakfast of the trip. It makes those cold buffets with a hardboiled egg look embarrassing. It was still a buffet but there was an omelet/waffle station in addition to everything that has been all our other buffets combined. I had a ham and cheese omelet and a slice of wheat toast with a strawberry yogurt and coffee. Then I went back to get a Belgian waffle for my dessert, but the chef only had chocolate batter! It was really thick batter that she had to press and spread into the waffle iron and then it oozed and dripped out as it cooked and released a crazy aromatic steam. The aroma pretty much set off a waffle stampede. The cook said that she only had chocolate because it has been slow and it has taken her a week to use up the chocolate batter she made. Usually they have both chocolate and buttermilk batter. Mom tasted mine and knew what she was having tomorrow morning, so I hope the Caravan crew didn’t eat up all of the chocolate batter today. It was more suitable to be a dessert and now we knew why the whipped cream was on the buffet. I was putting maple syrup on it, which was what I had seen that made me want a waffle in the first place. I wasn’t expecting chocolate batter. Another woman with our group caught me as I was leaving and told me, you know you have to put whipped cream on there and she was right. It made it perfect. Clay thought strawberries and whipped cream would make it perfect. Anyway, tomorrow we leave here at 3:30am. We have to turn our tomorrow’s breakfast vouchers into Marty today for a box breakfast from the front desk tomorrow on our way out. I expect we had our only waffle. I am just hoping that tomorrow we don’t get blueberry yogurts!



We met Marty and the group at 9am. She took our dinner orders for tonight. Chicken, Atlantic salmon, or vegetarian. Mom & I ordered chicken and Judy & Clay ordered salmon. That done, she told us that we would meet beyond the lobby stairs for a family photo at 6pm and at 6:15pm we should have our drink vouchers for a cocktail party. The vouchers are good for a nonalcoholic drink or 15% off a nonalcoholic drink.

Marty told us all kinds of stories about how Sir Walter Raleigh and Blackbeard the Pirate were here in the Maritimes. She told about how Queen Anne’s Revenge was based at Oak Island which is close by here. I think she needs a fact checker. Yesterday she told us Jeannette MacDonald is a famous woman buried here in Halifax. She dressed Bonnie Prince Charlie as a woman to escape the Battle of Culloden and had to flee Scotland and she died here. Um. Wasn’t that Flora MacDonald? And she was in North Carolina too and  not Nova Scotia and she died and was buried in Scotland, so not even close to factual. What was that about? Regardless of the factuality of the stories, Marty told us stories for a very long time just outside the Marriott's side door on the stairs to the boardwalk. Finally she walked us very slowly to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic which is just down the boardwalk. 

We eventually made it to the museum and got our brochures and ID tags and were turned loose to self-tour sometime after 10am. It was interesting and the CSS Acadia, a 100 year old ship docked outside was open since the weather was so nice and we got to tour that too. There was another ship that was a later Corvette class ship the Sackville, and it had an extra charge to tour, so we didn’t. But, the interpreter there told us about it. It had a green maple leaf painted on the smokestack instead of a red one, which is now the symbol of Canada. I asked him what was up with the green maple leaf. He said that sometime after WWII, the symbol changed from green to red and so for period authenticity they kept it painted green. I asked him if he meant the whole Canada flag was green and he said yes the end pieces and the leaf used to be green but he didn’t know why they were changed. Spring to fall after WWII maybe. Something to look up. It seems like that would have been a major undertaking not to mention a major expense post-war and you would think almost all Canadians would know about it, but they didn’t and that was our first clue of it in 3 visits. There were a couple of films being shown inside the museum that were included but as we hung around we never saw the turnover between showings where you could go in and get a seat. So, we never saw the films. Maybe just as well since they were both about disasters.

We walked back to Beavertails after and everyone made their choice. Mine was maple and I thought it was delicious. They fired the noon cannon at the Citadel while we were eating in the sunshine on the boardwalk and they rang the bell on the Acadia too. We were right at the ferry terminal where we planned to return and take the round trip ferry to Dartmouth just to see the harbor from water, but we sadly did not go in. If we had, we would have learned that they were not running any ferries between 3:15 and 6pm. So, when we did go in later in the afternoon, it wasn't an option. Oh well.

We walked up the hill slowly since it is very steep. It is less than a mile probably to Halifax Public Gardens, but it feels longer since it is such a steep climb. The Gardens were really crowded. I don’t know how many were locals out because of the spectacular weather or if it was from the Princess and Carnival ships that we know were in port here today. The Gardens were just stunning. The Dahlia plot was amazing. I have decided I want some Dahlias in the yard next year. I wrote down the names of the pink and white ones I saw and liked first, but there were so many I just stopped. Mary’s Jomanda, Brian’s Dream, Parkland Rave.

We walked back down to the waterfront on Spring Garden Rd. and we stopped at several shops. We found some OMG’s at a drugstore. We went in Alexander Keith’s Brewery Market and skipped the tour but Clay got a t-shirt and a beer with Judy. We walked back to the Marriott on the boardwalk. We stopped and watched some glass workers at Nova Scotia Crystal. We found we couldn’t take the ferry. We stopped at Cows and Clay got some more expensive ice cream. We came in and I printed Mom & Judy’s boarding passes in the lobby. Clay wanted to go out for a real walk and he dropped his jacket and his string pack off in the room and changed from a heavy long sleeve t-shirt to a light short sleeved one. He had been too hot for hours.

The ladies thought it was nap time and I am going for one now. Later. That was quick. As soon as I got the blackout curtains pulled an industrial vacuum cleaner started working outside our room and kept me awake. Instead, I worked on packing. I cleaned up for dinner.

Clay returned and he packed some. He told me he walked down to the Farmer’s Market which is not open today at Pier 21. He told me 2 ships were docked down there. He said he went through the permanent shops over there and he found a dairy shop. He walked in and found an empty slot about 3 feet wide with one package left in it. He picked it up and turned it over to find at last, cheese curds! Before he could register it, the woman working the counter called out to him, Are you going to buy my last package of cheese curds? He did. He wanted to have a little snack time before going downstairs but at 5:30pm Mom & Judy were not answering their door so I assume that they got to sleep before the vacuum cleaner showed up. I will say that it is kind of noisy here. We get street noise in room 341, but loudest is the noise from the hall whenever people are loudly passing by. I am sure they must not realize how the sound carries through the room doors. Back later with a report of the rest of the evening.

So, we had a group photo taken on all our cameras by our 2 wait staff. We then went immediately into the restaurant where we had breakfast this morning and we all crammed into the room. Our 2 wait staff offered the coupon’s complimentary beverage of freshly brewed local iced tea with blueberry syrup to no takers. Clay and Judy each ordered a beer. They delivered drinks and bread baskets as well as finding out who had ordered what and what we wanted for dessert. Dessert choices were cheesecake with strawberry sauce or apple spice cake. It was all weird again. Mom and I each had a half of a tiny bird carcass. It tasted like chicken but it was a very small bird to be chicken. We had some weird stiff kind of flavored smashed potatoes with skins and other vegetables. Clay & Judy had Atlantic salmon with the veggies and roasted potatoes. Clay had the apple spice cake and said it was very cinnamony. The cheesecake was just weird. It had no crust, a pile of crunchy white crumbs on the side and very tart berry sauce. We all wound up leaving Judy to settle the drinks bill because the wait staff was overextended for the size of the crowd. Clay and I have to get up at 2am to catch our airport shuttle for our 5:30am flight home and we needed to get to sleep. Mom was just too tired to keep sitting there as we waited for checks. Clay left more than enough money to pay for his beer. We said our goodnights and see you at Christmases and left. Clay is in the shower now and I am waiting to brush my teeth.

Marty spoke for quite a while between ordering and eating. She also handed out certificates that were pretty cool. Member Order of the Good Time Nova Scotia.

I will try to type up some notes about the trip home when we get home. I will get through Clay’s photos as soon as possible and get these entries posted from home later. Good night!

Photos

Peggy's Cove

Photos

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

We had another long hard travel day today. Another downside to this Caravan Tour is that we seem to have 4 hours of bus riding for every 2 hours of sightseeing. Is that necessary? Honestly, I just don’t know. It isn’t something I even thought about researching to see if we could do better on our own because we had been so pleased with our past Caravan Tours to Copper Canyon and the Canadian Rockies. Anyway.

Breakfast and bags out were at 6:30am. Bus was a little later than our scheduled 7:30am departure. Breakfast was a disappointment. I had the plain pancakes (as opposed to blueberry, which had blueberry syrup on them, and not blueberries in them anyway). The menu said they came with maple syrup, but they did NOT. They came with a little plastic tub of pancake syrup, which had no contents labeling, but it was clearly not maple syrup. Boo!

We drove off of Cape Breton Island and returned to mainland Nova Scotia by the Canso Causeway again. We pulled in to the Visitor's Center again at Port Hastings, but it was closed so we drove on. We arrived in Antigonish and pulled off the highway at St. Francis XavierUniversity where we parked at Canadian McDonald’s for our comfort stop. There was a Tim Hortons next door on one side and a Needs Convenience Store on the other side and a Subway across the street. The problem was that the McDonald’s restrooms were closed by a construction project and they had a couple of port-a-potties outside. Clay and Judy got in line there and Mom & I walked to Needs (mainly because we had not seen Tim’s through the trees, but Clay said almost everyone from the bus was lined up in there, so just as well) and they did not have a public toilet either. We went back to McDonald’s parking lot and used the port-a-potty. It turned out there was a separate unisex port-a-potty right beside the bus that we hadn’t seen before because we weren’t looking for port-a-potty!

We stopped at Truro at the Glooscap Mi’kmaq Heritage Center. We started unloading the bus at about 10 of noon. Marty asked us to not stop at the restrooms or gift shop but to go through to the center where we would have a demonstration and then free time. A man and a woman spoke to us about the history of the Mi’kmaq and then sang a song. When they stopped we had 10 minutes to wander their displays, use the toilets and visit the gift shop. So, you had to choose because you couldn’t do all 3. It turns out that this stop is described in our Caravan Tours' day-by-day itinerary with equal billing to Peggy's Cove. Not quite. I am glad I hadn't read about it previously so I didn't have to be really disappointed.

We drove on to Peggy’s Cove and arrived at about 1pm as scheduled. It turns out that Marty had made a reservation for us by the lighthouse at The Sou’wester Restaurant. When the bus parked she got on the mike and asked everyone once again to follow her and not stop at the gift shop or restrooms until after they had taken a seat and placed their order. What order? She had not said a word about lunch until the moment we started unloading the bus. We were to be back on the bus at 3pm.

Clay and I grabbed our backpacks with snack foods in them and our water bottles because we weren’t sure we’d be eating lunch in The Sou’wester. We caught up with Marty in the parking lot and she assured us it was good food and affordable and something for everyone. We went in and found seats and picked up menus. Lunches ran about $16 for fish or sandwiches or hamburgers. I only saw 3 things that were not seafood and I didn’t really want a $16 hamburger or chicken fingers. I walked out followed by Clay then by Mom and finally by Judy.

Much later, after we had eaten our snacks, we found a hot dog and sausages cart for $5 and $6 and picnic tables below the rocks of the lighthouse and that would have been perfect. But, we found them too late. What would have been perfect is if Marty had told us about our lunch options before we got there. Like before we stopped at Needs and Subway this morning and people could have bought what they wanted and picnicked.  It was a gorgeous sunny day with long views and she had the group spend an hour of our time here at a crowded, noisy, and in my opinion, overpriced restaurant with no views. Crazy.

Information is power and evidently withholding it keeps Marty in control of her group. But, that doesn’t best serve us who are paying for the trip. Anyway. We all shared a bench facing the water next to the rocks and the lighthouse. We all had our fill of the snacks we had brought along and drank all the water. Mom & Judy would have brought their water bottles had they realized what was happening.

Then we walked around to view little Peggy’s Cove and found the hot dogs and picnic tables too late. We spent some time wandering around the lighthouse out on the rocks. Judy stayed there by the bus, but Mom and Clay and I walked back around Peggy’s Cove to view the rock carved by DeGarthe and went over to the Visitor’s Center. I picked up some literature there and we used the restrooms. There was a beautiful little inlet off the back of the building surrounded by a boulder-strewn landscape. It was quite lovely and we wished we had more time there but it was time to start back to the bus.

We shortly got to Halifax where we spent about an hour taking a driving orientation tour with Barrie on the bus. She had him drive us to the top of the Citadel because she had planned to take a group photo there, but we had heard that there were something like 5 cruise ships in port here. We saw Crystal and Celebrity. Peggy’s Cove was certainly mobbed with cruise ship tours. We got caught up in bus 15 at the Visitor’s Center out there! Anyway, the parking lot at the top was packed with buses already as well as people and it turned into just a quick photo stop for anyone who wanted to hop out and get a picture over Halifax from the hilltop. You really couldn’t see anything but the entrance of the Citadel without paying to enter it. It is the British fort answer to the French fortress at Louisbourg.

Halifax is evidently a very important Atlantic coast port. Marty says it is the 2^nd deepest natural harbour with Sydney being the deepest natural harbour. People who live in Halifax are called Haligonians. Seriously. This is true. I am not making it up.

In other news, we learned that we have put 1286 miles on the coach. And all without ever washing the windows. Amazing. Really. 

Barrie continued the waterfront Halifax bus tour and dropped us off in front of the Marriott Harborfront about 4:30pm. We all said goodbye to Barrie and took our keycards and various vouchers and made our ways to our rooms. The Marriott met our expectations and Mom said it exceeded hers. There are still no refrigerators in the rooms, but they have a fitness center and all the other amenities. The building feels structurally strong and not flimsy like the North Winds or Laurie’s Inn. Gisele’s was okay and in between the feel of those 2 and the Marriott. The main thing is the number of people available at the hotel offering to help or offer suggestions or directions. They did drop the ball though when Clay and I had not gotten our suitcases within an hour of arrival. I went out looking for them or someone to talk to and found our bags at the intersection of the north and south towers just abandoned on a luggage cart. I stood there with them for about 3-5 minutes before a bellman came walking down the south tower corridor toward them. He asked if he could help me and I pointed to the bags. He took them off the cart and headed toward the north tower with me in tow. He apologized and said they had gotten all the bags delivered in about one hour and that wasn’t bad considering they were shorthanded at the moment. I said nothing. I guess it didn’t count that the last 2 bags delivered took over an hour. Who knows how long they had been sitting where I found them or how much longer they would have if I hadn’t gone and found them? After we got the bags, we got online with Clay’s tablet to check out menus and pick a dinner place.

We are in room 341 and Mom & Judy are next door. We have a view across Water Street of the Pedway. We asked someone across the hall what their view was and they said it was of a fence and a hole. Someone in this hotel must have harbor views because the building is sitting right on the harbourfront! But, clearly not anyone in our part of the north tower.

Bluenose II was about 2 blocks away and Marty highly recommended it. As we walked out of the hotel, all the employees that asked to help us that we told we knew where we were headed also said it was a very good choice. So, we didn’t even look at Salty’s menu next door. We asked a couple of people about BeaverTails since we wanted to go there for dessert and they thought it would be closed. We did not see times on the website. The 1^st man we asked took us to a 2^nd man and asked him to find out. He couldn’t find hours online either and he offered to call and find out. They were in fact closed and said they don’t post hours because they open weather dependent, whatever that means. The guy here at the Marriott thought it meant whenever they felt like it. He told us to walk down the boardwalk past the ferry terminal to find their kiosk. He told them he had Marriott customers wanting to come down and they said they expected to be open at 11am tomorrow. We will shoot for lunch there tomorrow then.



The Bluenose II was good. It was close by and only a short walk in the nice but cooling weather. It was less expensive than the lunch prices today and the portions were huge. I had moussaka with rice and a Greek salad with about $6 of feta on it. Clay and Mom and Judy all had fish and chips. We also ordered a poutine for the table, since it seemed no one but me remembered the last one we had. Also since we had it in a little Chinese restaurant before no one was sure it was authentic. It was as authentic as the one we had tonight I am sure. But the one tonight was cheesier (no curds, but shreds) and the potatoes were better.

The sisters that we shared time and dinner with in Charlottetown asked if they could tag along with us tomorrow after the guided morning tour. So, breakfast begins tomorrow at the Marriott at 6:30am. Marty said to allow time because it is a sit down and order breakfast. We have 2 vouchers for it with our key cards. We plan to meet Mom & Judy at 7am for breakfast. We meet Marty in the lobby at 9am to lead us on a morning walking tour along the historic waterfront to the included visit of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. (Spoiler: Halifax, Nova Scotia is the final resting place of many of the Titanic’s victims. So, completing the Titanic cycle for us. The actual cemetery is not walking distance so we will miss that. We touched the recovered hull piece of Titanic earlier in Raleigh at a museum exhibit, then to Belfast and Titanic Experience where it was built, to here where many victims rest.) We have the afternoon free. But since we have no idea when or where exactly Marty will turn us loose we have not made any plans. Clay thought he wanted to do the Alexander Keith’s brewery tour, but after reading descriptions and reviews online he thinks not. He would still like to see if he can visit the gift shop. I read they have a tavern or pub next door so he can certainly go in there. The sisters were willing to do the tour too. One of them balked when I said we planned to have BeaverTails for lunch. She said she wasn’t eating beavertails! Her sister asked her what she was thinking and she said I don’t know these people or what they eat. We cracked up, I guess she forgot what a picky eater I am. Anyway, once her sister and I explained it was a pastry, she was all in. Judy looked very interested at the Victorian Public Gardens and we all thought if it were a nice day that would be a nice place to stroll, but weren’t sure about timing. It looks like it will be about a half-mile from the museum of the morning to the garden. It will be a straight uphill walk though! So, now Clay and I think if we skip the brewery tour that it will be the best thing to do if the weather is a repeat of today. We’ll see. More later.

Photos

Fortress of Louisbourg

Photos

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Clay and I were up too early and went for a walk in the dark along the waterfront boardwalk. We bundled up as if for a cold rain, when it wasn’t raining. It turned out we were so hot that we both were stripping off layers and I changed from a sweater to a knit top when we got back. It was a long walk in the dark to get there and the boardwalk was only about a block and half or 2 blocks long. We hoped to see a sunrise, but got back to the hotel before it happened.

We stopped in Baddeck at the Highwheeler Café and bought cookies for our picnic lunch today. We have had some Oat Cakes here in the Canadian Maritimes. I had one as a cookie at Anglo Rustico on PEI. We had some triangles in a bread basket at Le Gabriel’s dinner in Cheticamp that Judy and I thought tasted similar to the Oat Cake cookies. (Mom & Clay hadn't chosen the Oat Cake that day.) Today in the Highwheeler we saw squares that looked the same (and tasted similar again) that were labeled Cape Breton Oat Cakes. We got a small bag of those and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I will let you Google this for your own recipe if interested. Frankly a disturbing number of the recipes contained shortening or lard, but many contained butter. Still they were probably much less heathy than they tasted and we all enjoyed a lot of them!

Breakfast was at 7:30am today. We had a menu to order from with full wait service! The menu had 4 choices. They were continental, petit (1 egg), pancakes, or grande (2 eggs). The last 3 came with bacon or sausage. We all had eggs, either petit or grande and we all got burnt toast. Oh well. It wasn’t a cold buffet!

The bus departed a few minutes late. We drove about an hour and a half to get to the Fortress of Louisbourg. It was reconstructed in the 1960’s and is set today at 1744. The morning started out windy and it started raining just after we reloaded the bus at 1:15pm, so that was lucky. We started with a park ranger and a talk and a guided walk. We saw a small herd of sheep in the fort eating grass first thing. Charming! All that had been missing from a lot of these landscapes were sheep. The rest was just all of us freely wandering the streets of the Fortress and entering the buildings that were open and interesting to us. We went into maybe half the buildings, but like our guide said about 4 or 5 of them were storehouses and if you only enter the stone one on the corner that she recommended as the best of them, you could skip the rest. It was interesting and each building was not necessarily a reproduction inside but many of them were museum displays on different aspects of life at the time with a scattering of archaeological artifacts from the site.

It was very windy and the sea was just roiling off shore with lots of sea spray flying high from the rolling breakers. It was a bleak scene. We saw lots of places to sit and eat but there was too much wind and blowing dirt. I picked a barn that was open air but not so the wind was coming through. It had nothing of interest to really see, so us sitting in there on the wooden platform didn’t impede other tourists. We all had a place to sit and we were out of the wind. It was fine. Then the long ride back. It poured rain. Just before we got back to Baddeck it started clearing.

We still took the bus all the way back to Gisele’s to drop our day bags before our 3.5 free hours in Baddeck. As the sunshine returned, we visited a number of shops, but I think only Judy made a purchase. Clay bought a 6-pack for himself and Judy and some crackers at the food Co-op. We took Mom & Judy to see the boardwalk and see the statue of Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel sitting on a bench across from their home. As we were walking along in daylight discussing if these Bras d’Or lakes were like Scottish lochs and could be freshwater or saltwater or both, we spotted crabs and blue starfish. Definitely saltwater or at least brackish.

We got back and had the crackers and beer before dinner. Dinner was in Gisele’s restaurant at 6:30pm. It began with salad. Mom & I had chicken supreme. It was good but weird. It was a very fruity tasting chicken breast. It had prunes stuffed inside and a fruit sauce with not only cranberries but some other berries.  I am sticking with they were huckleberries. I ate it.  Judy and Clay both had a sole roulade and they both said it was good and they ate it all. Overall, I would say that we all thought this was closer to the caliber of food and service we had expected in our Caravan dining experiences and it didn’t come until day 7. Dessert was weird too, but not bad. It was something chilled in a footed glass bowl with whipped cream and a pineapple slice atop it with a white creamy sauce and a red sauce both poured over it into the bowl. You couldn’t see what formed the base under all this. I asked the waitress as she was handing them out and she scowled at me and said "It’s bread pudding. It’s delicious. Eat it." We ate it and I don’t think anyone thought it was delicious or bread pudding, though clearly it was bread pudding under there. Just the raisins and the strawberry sauce competed with the pineapple slice and the cinnamon sprinkled over the whole thing didn’t help. It was just weird, but not really bad. We all went to our rooms after that because tomorrow is an early morning and long travel day again.

Breakfast is at 6:30am. Judy and I both plan to have pancakes. Bags out at 6:30am too. Bus departs at 7:30am and we were reminded how critical it is to leave on time. We should have a midmorning stop at Truro. I don’t know why but I do know this is one of the tidal bore spots on the Bay of Fundy. So, maybe. Nope, I just checked the Bore Arrival table I picked up in Halifax and on 10/9 it is at 3:32am and 3:50pm, so we’ll miss that. We’ll go to Peggy’s Cove in the afternoon. No idea what is happening at lunch time, so we’ll be prepared with leftover protein bars and random snacks. Just in case.

We spend the next 2 nights at the Marriott Harbourfront in Halifax. Marty warned us before we left the bus today that we would bid Barrie, our driver, farewell tomorrow upon our arrival in Halifax. The next time we’ll be driven is with some shuttle company to the airport. We will say our farewells to Marty the next night at our last included dinner in Halifax. Marty also warned us that we’d have a group photo made tomorrow at some point. Well, good night for now. Back tomorrow.

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Cabot Trail drive to Baddeck

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Monday, October 7, 2013

Breakfast this morning was at 7am down at Laurie’s Restaurant and not a minute before. It was an exact repeat of yesterday’s buffet. It was fine. Certainly it was better than the cold buffets of the beginning of the tour at North Winds. It just seems like a lot of self-service meals from Caravan on this tour. Still Laurie's felt like a truck stop without a highway. Cheticamp is not the place I would have chosen for a 2 night stay on Cape Breton.



Bus left at 8am. The windows had not been cleaned. At least the one we got today was cleaner than yesterday’s. Mom said hers wasn't though. It really makes you appreciate when you have a good bus driver who takes pride in his bus. It's all the difference when they are proud and want their passengers to be able to sight see and photograph through the bus windows. Today was the closest we got to the front of the bus. We were in the seats behind Marty and she is right behind the driver. Mom & Judy were behind us, so tomorrow they should get the front row on the door side. (But they didn't. It worked out that they were in the 2nd row on the door side and us behind them that day. After that we just kept working our way to the back of the bus again.)

It was another long traveling day but it was our best one of the trip and finally felt like what we were thinking when we booked this trip. It was pretty sunny all day, the wind had died down and it wasn’t as cold. The water was perfectly calm with no white caps everywhere we could see it today and it would have been a perfect whale watching day. In fact the day we arrived in Cheticamp the people who operated the harbor cruise said they had seen 25 right whales. It is too bad that Caravan does not build any flexibility into providing that whale watching tour, especially since it is so weather dependent.

So, we did the Cabot Trail drive today through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Marty handed out nice maps this morning on the bus. It was indeed a very scenic road. The leaves were in beautiful color. The sun shone and we made lots of photo stops today, for once. We started out by startling a big bull moose into jogging down the road in front of us as we headed up French Mountain. There was mountain on the right and a guard rail on the left and he had nowhere to go. He actually seemed pretty stressed by the time he got to the top and found a place to flee the road. Since we had the seats right behind Marty today, we could see out the front some and really got to see some things from the bus in addition to all the photo stops. The moose was great though. A big bull moose in sunshine with a big rack of antlers was what I had wished for yesterday and first thing this morning I got it. But wait, we drove on and just around the corner in French Lake, Clay spotted a moose and called out. There was a female moose wading and eating in French Lake and on the barren above her was another big bull moose, both out in the morning sunshine. That was it. That was all the wildlife we really saw. But, I finally got to see a live moose in Canada. Thrilling!

We stopped for photos again at the Wreck Cove Point overlook, at Cape North, at Aspy, at Lone Shieling, and we took the Coastal Loop. We stopped in the morning at Pleasant Bay at the Whale Interpretive Center on the east side and on the west side we took a little walk around a lighthouse and working harbor at Neil’s Harbor.

Caravan provided a complimentary lunch today of make-your-own cold sandwiches with hot soup and cookies, brownies and fruit with tea, coffee and water at the Keltic Lodge on Middle Head. They also gave us each a 10% discount coupon for the gift shop. Clay used his. That was a nice gesture because they know people have gotten a little unhappy with the trip. Unfortunately for me it just proved that there are nice places to stay out here on these islands, but that we aren't getting those places.

This afternoon Marty handed out papers and had us all put our name in the lower right corner, then she described part of the first moose we saw and asked us to draw them. The catch was that we had to pass the papers around so we each paper was a team effort. They were all ridiculous of course. Then she appointed 2 passengers to judge the drawings. Clay won 2^nd Place and his prize was a Cape Breton magnet. I don’t know what 1^st prize was.

When we arrived at Baddeck we went first to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. It was self-guided. You could see as much or as little as you wanted but you were there for a hour and 20 minutes. Marty had shown us the 15 minute film they show there on the bus so we wouldn’t have to spend our time seeing it there. We still watched a few other films. The most fun part was the kite flying though. Evidently AGB was big on kites. He wanted a kite that could carry a man but never succeeded. So, they have a bunch of kites there that you can take outside and fly. I flew an eagle, badly.  It was built too top heavy. Another woman flew a seagull and it was so aerodynamic that I went inside to the gift shop to see about taking one home. It was $23 and would have fit in my suitcase, but it was made in Austin, TX!



We drove in the bus around Baddeck to get us oriented for our dinner tonight and our free time tomorrow. It is very small, but having a 4-way stop sign intersection automatically makes it bigger than Cheticamp was. We got to Gisele’s Country Inn about 5pm. It is the nicest place we have stayed yet on this tour. We are in room 203 and Mom & Judy are next door. The building we are in is weirdly sited and we have no views here overlooking Bras d’Or Lakes. We also have no refrigerators and no fitness center, there is no Gisele. There is a restaurant onsite. We will eat there in the mornings for breakfast and for an included dinner tomorrow night. We placed our orders in the bus already. Clay & Judy ordered a sole roulade, Mom & I ordered chicken supreme and they also had a vegetarian dish that was unknown.

Tonight we walked down to town and looked at 4 menus and no one was thrilled with any of them or wanted to make a decision, so we just went in Tom’s pizza and got 2 thin crust pizzas. They were fine. They were about $20 each for 12 inch pizzas and we finished them off. Over dinner I don’t know who said it first, but the consensus was that everyone was ready to go home now. None of us were willing to book another Caravan Tour's trip. I was willing to give another try to Panama, Costa Rica or Guatemala, but the others all said no. Mom said she would investigate other tour companies and suggested a trip to Branson, MO, Clay and I weren’t interested.  Clay and I proposed a road trip on our own or an American river boat cruise, but Mom & Judy didn’t seem too interested. It will be sad if even the best day of this tour can't save it from being our last.

Tomorrow we have breakfast at 7:30am. Bus departs at 8:30am. We will visit the Fortress of Louisbourg in the morning and be there for lunch. Marty described lunch as a trip back to the 1700’s. That when you enter the restaurant, they tie a big cloth around your neck and give you one pewter utensil to have something that might have been served then, like soup. It turns out they were serving either fish soup or pea soup on our visit. She said it was reasonably priced and the only restaurant. I know I will not eat there, Clay was not inclined to, Mom wanted to but said she wouldn’t when she realized we wouldn’t. I think we can pack snacks to carry us from breakfast to dinner. Anyway, I have been looking at my maps and brochures trying to figure out where this fortress is and it looks like it is a very long drive! One map I have says it is 114 km or 1 hour 45 minutes each way.

Our afternoon tomorrow is free in Baddeck. Our dinner tomorrow at Gisele’s is at 6:30pm. The weather forecast for tomorrow is 64 F and 80% chance of rain.

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Cheticamp, Cape Breton Island

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Sunday, October 6, 2013

Today we had rain. It was a cold blowing sideways rain. It felt colder but I think it was still in the mid-50s F this morning. The rain did clear up by afternoon but the wind was still vicious.

We went down the hill to breakfast about 7:30am and found Mom & Judy down there already at a big full table. We sat at a 2-top near them. Clay knew they had already gone because he heard them leave but he didn’t tell me. He is taking this trip's whole-you-don’t-need-to-know thing to new heights. I had Eggs Benedict and a bad cinnamon roll with coffee. I thought the Eggs Benedict was pretty good, if a bit over cooked for my taste. The French toast and waffles looked good. Clay had scrambled eggs and a variety of meat and toast. They also had oatmeal, cold cereal and hot beans. It was a good if very busy buffet. They have some kind of ATV road rally staying here with us at Laurie's Inn and there must be about 50 couples on ATV’s here. They came in from a full day of mudding right after we arrived last night. They were roaring by coming and going as we walked down to breakfast and a lot of them were at breakfast. They all seem very friendly, but their ATV's are very noisy and it made for a very busy place.

At 9am, I think everyone (all 46 of us on Caravan's tour) showed up for Marty’s optional surprise tour. We drove into the Cape Breton Highlands National Park on the Cabot Trail a little ways past the bog walk. We took the bog walk and found a smashed down place where a moose had slept and saw several pitcher plants, but otherwise the only thing we saw besides rain and landscape and tree colors was a partial rainbow on the way back to Cheticamp. We did have a couple of photos stops today, fortunately because today the windows were covered with rain.

In Cheticamp, we stopped at Les Trois Pignons (3 gables). It is a hooked rug museum and we used the restrooms and had a guided tour there. Apparently, Cheticamp is some kind of world capital of rug hooking. I enjoyed it but Mom felt we were there too long. A lot of people were buying a lot in the gift shop so I felt ok about the amount of time spent there.

For lunch, we ate snacks in the room. Clay & Judy decided they would go on the now harbor cruise as it was too windy to go out whale watching. Mom & I decided not to go and maybe nap. I rethought that and walked downstairs to ask about seeing inside St. Pierre church. It is an impressive stone edifice down the street from us in Cheticamp. I wanted to find out exactly how far away it was and if we would be allowed to visit it as tourists on a Sunday, if we could walk there. It turns out it is always open, it is 1.5 km one way and the woman at the desk suggested riding the bus to Quai Mathieu with the boat group and walk only about .25 km to get there and then just walk back. She also told me that Caravan always takes the boat group to visit the church after. We couldn’t get that information out of Marty, though! I dashed up to get Mom and suit up for the weather and we got on the bus and cleared our new plan with Marty. It worked out perfectly. Mom & I had quite the adventure visiting the 1^st priest and church builder/founder’s tomb under the church when I decided to avail myself of the toilets down there. (I still have to wonder if the toilets were already in the basement when they decided to encrypt Pere Fiset?) Thinking we were alone in the church and not realizing there was an outside door nearby, I didn’t lock the door. A man who never spoke to me opened the door on me as I was finishing up, so I had my pants up, but still. Embarassing! Mom was waiting by the crypt and not the toilets' doors and heard all the door slamming and knew it wasn't me making all that noise. She was laughing pretty hard imagining what must have happened when I returned red-faced. We watched the harbor cruise boat sail by the church as we were exiting it. Clay & Judy told us it didn’t take that long to get on life vests and load the little boat. They said they sailed the opposite way first and saw the crab processing factory and a small boat harbor before sailing on into the harbor. So, the church was quite impressive. It was surprising light and airy on the inside for appearing so substantial and imposing from the outside.

Mom and I meandered back along both sides of the street as well as on an over-water boardwalk with a lot of historic photos and descriptions of better times. We walked through an open pharmacy and went to Tim Hortons. We never heard English spoken except in response to us.   We shared a Canadian Maple from Tim Hortons as Mom’s reward for the effort of the walk. About 30 minutes after we got back to the room, the bus arrived back. We had seen Barrie leave Laurie’s Inn heading back to the boat dock to pick them before we reached Tim Hortons. Clay & Judy said they had entered the church through the same door my intruder used and went past the toilets and the tomb before going up the ramp to enter the church. Clay and Judy also went up in the choir loft and saw the organ, which we did not do. We had an extra Canadian Maple for them, but Judy didn't want any. Clay had assigned me to go to Tim Hortons to get a 10-pack of Timbits for tomorrow.

We visited for a while after they got back and about 5:15pm or so Mom & Judy knocked on our door and we all walked down to Le Gabriel for dinner. I had chicken fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli, Mom had shrimp and scallop skewers and Judy & Clay had whole lobsters for $25 each. It was all very good and Mom ordered a massive and delicious piece of coconut cream pie for the table for only $5. (I say delicious but I don't eat coconut so I am just repeating what I heard.) I think I was traumatized for life as Clay & Judy reenacted scenes from Alien with their sea bugs. Only in the movie when the Alien goo landed, it ate through everything because it was acid. So, OK, it was slightly less dramatic. It was evidently very amusing though as we all got a little slap happy after Clay shot a spray of lobster goo across my face and torso, even inside my eyeglasses. I think some got in my right eye and I still have it (the eye, not the goo!) so it was just lobster and not acid Alien blood. Still. We walked back to find the hall lights out at Laurie’s Inn, but we all made it back inside our rooms. Later, after Clay showered he found we were out of ice and sent me. I had to take a flashlight to find my way out of the hall and back and get the key in the door in the pitch dark. What is up with that? This is our last night here.

We have bags out and breakfast at 7am tomorrow. Bus leaves at 8am. Tomorrow we travel all day on the Cabot Trail to reach our next stop at Gisele’s Country Inn in Baddeck. We will be there for 2 nights. We are all hoping that it redeems Caravan for Laurie’s and even really North Winds. The only thing that is on our written itinerary is visiting the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. We are all hoping for nice weather tomorrow to help us appreciate and even view the scenery on the drive tomorrow. We were looking for moose today on the small part we drove and we’ll be out there earlier tomorrow so fingers crossed for another chance to finally see a moose. It will be a first for Clay & me if we do! Another first today was Judy having a whole lobster! That was a source of a lot of the laughter at dinner. Well, that and exploding lobster bits. Which is either gross and disgusting, or hilarious and perhaps a bit of both. Well, we have a pretty early start tomorrow so it is bedtime for me.

Photos

PEI to Cape Breton Island

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Saturday, October 5, 2013

Judy is better, but of course feels wiped out. She had lots of napping time on the bus today. We all got an early start and watched sunrise from the breakfast room today. When we boarded, the bus windows were filthy and smeared and streaked. What the heck? We have a full day of travel and sightseeing with few stops and no photo stops and you can’t even take photos out the windows because they are too dirty! We drove from 7:45am to 9:30am or so to get to the Northumberland Ferries Ltd. terminal at Wood Islands, PEI. Marty played loudly local music for almost the entire bus ride. Barrie paid $402 for the bus to leave PEI on the ferry. Driving round trip on the bridge would have cost $44 on departure from PEI. I guess Caravan does it this way to give some variety and a different experience, but I think we all would have been just as happy on the bridge roundtrip. People aren’t allowed to stay in their vehicles. You have to go upstairs. Marty told us to take the elevator from B to D and to make sure we came back the same way when they announced that we should return. The ferry landed at Caribou, Nova Scotia. It was about 75 minutes and it was a pretty smooth and comfortable ride. I was worried for nothing, but then I was taking a double dose of meclizine, a Relief Band and using MotionEaze, so it should have been fine! We arrived in Caribou at 10:45am and got back on the bus.  We drove off and headed toward Pictou. From there we drove by Antigonish and along St. Georges Bay on our way to the Canso Causeway to cross to Cape Breton Island. Marty played a lot of more local music too loudly before doing an interesting show & tell about tartans. We stopped at Port Hastings Visitor Center and used restrooms. I also went to the gift shop next door and found a locally made ear band in Nova Scotia tartan that I got to replace the black one we lost last year.

Marty told us that she had selected a special place for lunch and it was a surprise. It was. She did not tell us they would serve almost the same lunch as yesterday’s complimentary lunch for $12 and that it would include more local music loud and live. I saw the menu of soup and tuna or chicken salad and got up and asked Marty if those were really our only choices, she said yes or you can have a salad. I left. I went back to the bus and asked Barrie if I could go back onboard for a moment. He didn't like it but I got my water bottle and a protein bar and sat outside  in the smokers' section where I could still hear and feel the live music. Mom came out once and told me that 20 minutes later they only had a glass of water. I felt no pity. They all had the option of walking out whether anyone told them that or not. Barrie and Marty both were upset that I wouldn’t go to their performance lunch at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre at Judique. I am not here to make them happy, as I am afraid Marty learned. The good news is that there was no more music loud or muted on the bus today. Mom came back out as soon as she finished eating. I had seen 3 girls walk across the lawn with Popsicles or ice cream cones and I got Mom to walk over to the convenience store next door with me after I used the restroom. I got a little Nestle Oreo sundae. It was good. I shared it with Clay when he came out and told me he ate rhubarb for dessert.

After lunch, we drove past a town Mabou that several people had inquired about because of the Rankin family and The Red Shoe Pub. Marty told us about it before we drove through the town and past the pub. We also drove past the Glenora Single Malt Distillery which Marty told us we would see but not stop at.

We did stop in the afternoon at Le Centre de la Mi-Careme which no one had heard about or asked about. Caravan must have paid our $5 pp entry and we had about a half hour here for restrooms and an Acadian cultural presentation. About ¼ of the people had walked up to the food co-op and waited for the bus instead because Marty told us we would need food for 2 nights in Cheticamp because everything would be closed on Sunday. She also told us to use the restrooms first and then to wait for the presentation. But a lot of people had left to go photograph an enormous bald eagle that was sitting on some rocks behind the building and others left then or after the restrooms to walk up to the food co-op. We waited with a dozen or so others and when nothing happened we all walked out and headed for the store instead of waiting for a bus ride there. But then Marty came out and rounded us up and told us to go back inside for the presentation. By, this time maybe half of us were there for the show. It was one Acadian man and he talked and showed us a short video. Then he went to open the mask gallery and greeted us costumed and masked. Marty cut him off during his mask making lesson because our time was up. Clay and I left and walked up to the food co-op. There were a bunch of our group standing out by the road shivering in the cold wind and one woman yelled at us to tell her what was taking so long. We told her they had put on a cultural presentation down there, but were loading the bus to move it up here now. Clay had finished shopping by the time the rest of the crew came in the store. People were shopping but Marty had not told us that Laurie’s Inn would have no refrigerators or a Laurie. When we arrived we met an Asian man named Gordon who owns Laurie’s now. It is spread over several buildings. We are in rooms 47 and 48 on the 2^nd floor of the main building. Maybe the other buildings are nicer. Ours is not nice.

The Cape Breton Visitor's Guide I picked up at Port Hastings says to allow up to 6 hours here if you are interested in hearing live Acadian music. We'd had enough of that and now we have 2 nights here.

Discussing this before dinner, we are all in agreement that if this had been our 1^st Caravan Tour, we would never have taken a 2^nd one. We are mystified and wonder what we are missing based on the uniform raves we heard on our past Caravan Tours from people who all told us this Caravan’s Maritimes Provinces tour was the best they had done. They all raved about how much better the guides were and how great the facilities and meals were. Something must have changed. The hotels and the meals must have been downgraded. While we were a bit disappointed with our guides on our past 2 Caravan trips, we continue to be. We had a fantastic bus driver last year, he kept that bus and the windows spotless and was always ready to pull over for photo opportunities, but not this year. We are all pretty disappointed so far and are hoping that things improve in Baddeck, but no one is feeling very positive. Marty told us the end of the tourism season is a holiday weekend with Canadian Thanksgiving on the 2^nd Monday in October. There is some feeling that this being the weekend before marking the end of the tourism high season in the region may have something to do with it, but I don’t think so. I mean they are just nearing peak leaf color here and I know that is a tourism draw too. Caravan does leave here after October 16^th though I think that is a tour start date. In any event, lots of businesses have already closed for the season. So, who knows? I fear though that this is the end of our little foursome’s Caravan Tours' trips. It is too bad that it has to end badly. 

We arrived in Cheticamp at 5pm or so. We were greeted at the bus by the owner and a front desk woman. Marty distributed a single key for each assigned room as they told us where things were and when. The restaurant is down the hill on the street along the waterfront. We were welcome to go there at our leisure for our included pre-ordered dinner. We had to tell Gordon what we had pre-ordered. Then, we could help ourselves to napkins and drinks and silverware and soup and salad as we waited for our pre-ordered main course to be delivered as well as any alcohol ordered. Clay and Judy ate all their fish so it must have been ok. The Acadian meat pie was just strange. It tasted just like American Thanksgiving of turkey and gravy, with the rare odd bite of pork thrown in. There was no unusual spicing or flavoring. It was even served with mashed potatoes and American-style jellied cranberry sauce. Was this because of thanksgiving approaching? Was it an Asian interpretation of an Acadian dish (since the proprietor and all the workers were Asian. Our waiter, not Gordon, was anxious to get home to Toronto!)? Dessert was also on the buffet. It was blueberry cake, gingerbread and chocolate brownies with a side of brown sugar sauce in a crockpot. We’ve decided that although no one has mentioned it that bell peppers must be in season here and in abundance, be inexpensive and locally easily obtainable. They just keep appearing at all meals. 

They were offering live music tonight there on the 2^nd floor as well. None of us would go even at gun point. Enough already. The Eastern Canadian music as Marty calls it is a combination of Scots and Irish with bluegrass and Cajun to my ear and understanding. We heard many of the exact same songs this spring in Scotland and Ireland, meanwhile the local songs are more bluegrass sounding which would be explained by the similarities with the Scots/Irish in the Appalachians and their music. It all has the same strong rhythms and twangy sound. While I don’t find it particularly unpleasant or at all unfamiliar, a little goes a long way for me and I have had more than my fill of it today.

There was some confusion with Marty telling us breakfast was at 6:45am and the locals telling us 7am. Marty also told us that our morning tomorrow is free with nothing scheduled until a whale watching cruise at 1pm or 1:30, weather depending or else a harbor cruise. She told us though that she was going to provide a surprise bonus drive to nowhere at 9am for those that were interested. Well, we’re not interested in sitting here all morning with nothing to see or do. There is not even a fitness room here, though plenty of people got excited about the laundry room. There are no TV channels besides the basics. While the village of Cheticamp is in walking distance of this hotel, there doesn’t appear to be anything to particularly see or do here and the physical locale itself is not particularly scenic or charming. So, we are inclined to take the optional morning bus tour, but honestly, enough with the surprises. Just tell us what is happening. She wouldn’t tell us what was for the optional lunch today either. She said it was a surprise and we’d be pleased. We weren’t, surprised or pleased. What the heck? So now she tells us tomorrow morning is another option but gives us no alternatives or even tells us what she has scheduled so we can make a determination how to spend our time here if we chose to opt out. A lot more useful information about our local choices and a lot fewer “secret surprises” would make us infinitely happier. But, right now we are all very disappointed in Caravan Tours and the Maritimes experience in fall that we had heard such raves about. Mind you the colors of fall are as expected and the weather is as expected, but nothing else about the experience is as expected. Expectations can be a tricky thing, but I think ours were realistic and they are not being met.

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