This past fall our family decided to finally take a trip with just the 4 of us. Most of our vacation time up till this point is either working on large projects around the property or visiting friends and family in Ontario. We have lived in Nova Scotia for over 7 years now and still haven’t traveled around like we had hoped. At first we thought perhaps we could enjoy the Cabot trail with all the colours changing. However, due to a few small projects that needed attention (we can never seem to get away from these things. lol!), the decision was collectively made to stay closer to home and do day trips. Peter had been wanting to go whale watching for quite a while now… so that was the first thing added to the list of places to go. The whale watching tour would be the furthest destination on Briar Island. Since the season was closing the first week of October, we quickly reserved our spots on the last trip of the year. The next big wish (from the kids) was to go somewhere to view the world record tide of the Bay of Fundy. A quick google search brought me to the provincial park called Burntcoat Head park. After careful consideration of what the weather might be up to for that week, we planned to go there the day before the whale watching tour. Friends advised us that the tour would likely be a long day, they suggested we might like to book a spot to crash afterwards (we live about 3hrs away from the spot). I took their advice and ended up finding a lovely cottage located on St. Mary’s Bay. Now that the main bulk of the planning was in place it was time to head out and see what adventures lay ahead.

Our vacation time started with the boys doing some errands on the Monday. They took an ATV engine to a repair shop and an old gun pete aquired to a gunsmith. They also tied up a few loose ends around the property that needed to be buttoned down before the winter season. I took some time to make up a few maps on google that included our destinations and a few places that looked interesting to stop at along the way.

Tuesday, we took a small trip into Mahone Bay to check out the Scarecrow Festival. The Scarecrow festival usually runs a week before (Canadian) Thanksgiving. In the past we have driven through the town while the festival was on, but we had never actually took the time to stop and take a good look. The day was beautiful—sunny blue skies! There were so many interesting looking scarecrows. Mahone Bay really goes all out!

The next day we made our way up to Burntcoat Head park. This park is recorded to have the highest tides in the world. The tides at Burntcoat Head Park have an average height of 47.5 feet (14.5 m) and an extreme range of 53.6 feet (16.3 m). It is about a 2 hr drive from our place. The views were stunning as we drove down into the valley, such beautiful fall colours! At one point we were concerned  that we might get caught in a bit of rain (that we didn’t dress for), but it stayed on the other side of the Bay until we were done exploring the park. The park was amazing! Give me a good summer day, and I could have stayed there until the tide pushed me back to dry land. It’s a whole other world exploring the ocean floor and the areas around the cliffs. So cool! A definite “must see” for anyone visiting.

Thankfully, the rain held out until we had finished exploring. Rain drops started falling the minute we had gotten to our car! At this point the crew’s stomachs were starving and ready for some lunch. We ended up finding a good spot in Windsor called “Walkers Restaurant.” And boy, was the food delicious! 🤤

The final stop of the day was a book store in Wolfville called “the Odd Book.” This book store, though very interesting, wasn’t quite what we were expecting. We were hoping for a spot that had more recently used titles. This spot however, was more of a collectors store. A huge selection of antique books with prices to match! And the smell… you could literally smell the history pouring out of the old books.

Thursday, we were up bright and early! Otto needed to be dropped off at Pete’s parents for 8am and then we had to make good time to Breir Island. When traveling out to Breir Island there are 2 ferries that you must be aware of. If you don’t time it right, you could end up arriving late and miss the tour boat completely.

  The whole drive there I was all full of nerves! I don’t really love the idea of being on the ocean in a boat that is smaller than the animal we are going to go look at. Said animal could easily bump, tip, or even land on the boat! So many scenarios ran through my mind as we got closer to our destination.

   We made it there with time to spare. But true to Nova Scotian fashion, signage and direction once there was terribly confusing. Whoever said, “There is only one company on the island conducting tours” was wrong. There are 2! And they both leave from the same spot. We first went to the wrong company to try to sign in and pay for our tickets. Then when we finally found the right one, they weren’t sure they were going to go out on the water due to it being super choppy. Once we got the green light to go, we went down to the dock they directed us to and followed the people that were getting ready to board. Once we got to the boat, we were turned around again to wait for the next one. This gave us about an hour to wait for the next one. We ended up taking a walk to the end of the road to pass the time.

Finally, it was our turn to board the boat! We made it, choppy seas and all. The kids and I had made sure to take preventative gravol just incase. We didn’t want to chance an upset stomach for this. It was a good thing too, they weren’t kidding when they said the Bay was rough! The waves were rocking the boat so much on the way out of the cove. Once we got out on the Bay of Fundy it was a bit better. But I gotta say, this girl definitely doesn’t have sea legs! lol! I stayed seated most of the trip and kept my eyes glued to the horizon as the boat rode the waves.

After about a 2 hour boat ride, we made it to the spot the previous boat had spotted a whale. We sat there for about 20min or so waiting to see if we could spot anything. Then finally a whale crested, turned belly side up and slapped its fins on the water.

T’was a full day! The tour ran from 1pm- 5pm. Thank goodness I listened to my friends about finding a spot to spend the night. The cottage we rented was on Digbys neck right on the banks of St. Mary’s Bay. It was a lovely spot; perfect for a queit retreat along the ocean. Optimal spot for bird & wild life watching as well as stunning sunrises!

The final leg of or trip took us around the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia. We visited the Sweeney Fisheries Museum in Yarmouth, drove around Peter’s old delivery route on Cape Sable Island, and made a stop in Shelborne before we headed back to the in-laws to get Otto.

The Sweeney fisheries museum was quite interesting. They actually took the old wharf’s dock and all its fishery buildings and miniaturized the buildings to fit into the museum. They had a ship and all the rigging, all the old ship building tools, so many things! I highly recommend it!

Along the drive we found a cove filled with fishing boats. There were a bunch of fishermen getting their boats and rigging prepared for the big dump day. “Dump day” refers to Dumping Day in southwestern Nova Scotia, which is the day when lobster fishers in Lobster Fishing Areas 33 and 34 deploy their traps to mark the start of the lobster fishing season. This year, Dumping day happened November 24th. I don’t know how those fishermen(& women) work out there in the midst of winter ON the ocean. They are so brave! We ended up taking a bunch of pictures for Zahra so that she can have some inspiration for her paintings.

On Cape Sable Island we happened upon a guy sailing a 3 wheeled cart on a beach. It was pretty neat.

We were hoping the Dory Boat museum would be open in Shelborne, but unfortunately we missed it by a week. For future reference, if we want to visit museums and tourist attractions, most things are only open from the beginning of June till the end of September. Only a small handful of places are open year round. It was still a beautiful spot and we scored a wee tour of the neighbouring museum. It was technically closed but the manager was there opening for a group that was coming later that day. The gift shop had a bunch of whirligigs made locally. We bought a bee that now has a spot in our wildflower field.

I think I can safely speak for the rest of my family when I say we all had a really good time. Yes, there were moments that we were tired or even a bit hangry, but it was good to enjoy all these moments– the good and bad together. Our kids are growing up (fast!). One day we won’t be able to do these things all together. Adulthood is just around the corner and then their life will get busy. I am thankful we took the time this year to make memories for future stories of days gone by. Stories they will tell their kids starting with that old line, “back in the day, when I was a teenager…”

  Life is always guaranteed to be full… filled with work, routine, and to do lists. On top of that we run our kids around to their different activities. Many times I feel like I’m on a bullet train and the scenery of life is passing too quickly. Days turn into weeks that turn into months and then suddenly the year is gone. So here is a nugget of advice (that I’m sure everyone my age likes to give). Don’t forget to take a minute to slow down and be in the moments. Life is full but we get to choose how to fill it.

Till next time!