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 1st
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
Photos
