July 21

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Woke up to the delicious cinnamon buns straight out of the oven—a great breakfast

at this B&B. I managed to run for half an hour before breakfast, so I was able to eat

several items from the B&B’s bakery.  It is a great place to stay.   Anna was looking

at a broken machine in gym in the morning, and wanted to say to Nicolas, “ there

is a piece missing here,” but said instead “there is a miss pissing here.”  Nick was

laughing about it all day.

After breakfast, we went to the Glenmore Distillery.  It was surprisingly

interesting—the tour guide gave an extensive description of the Scotch making

process, and even the kids liked the gorgeous grounds (probably the best garden

I’ve seen anywhere).  The Scotch itself was a bit overpriced ($80 for 10 yr. old

whisky).  I ended up not buying it.  Will have to manage with straight moonshine

bought in PEI instead.

Afterwards, we went to the Iverness beach which is famous for its sea glass.  The

waves were too high though, so we did not find any.  Sasha got a couple as presents

from passing women.  The beach itself is very beautiful, with a golf course next to it,

and a lovely boardwalk.  We spent over an hour just walking the beach and looking

at stones.

We then went to the Mabou farmers’ market.  Sasha got some pink flower earrings,

Nick a blueberry soda that turned his tongue purple, I ate a dozen local mussels.

We got lunch at the travelling organic lunch cart, it was phenominal except for the

bread, which was gluten free (GF is a big thing here, and most restaurants have GF

menus).

Then we walked to the famous Red Shoe Pub, which featured a performance by

Chrissy Crawley.  Gaelic music is so unique, and her fiddling was really great.  She

was nice looking, too.  We stayed only for about an hour, since kids got really bored

by the music (it is hard for the untrained ear to distinguish between the songs).

Then we walked to the grocery store and bought ourselves some dinner.  Ate at the

B&B again, ourselves, and off to the Celidih concert we went.

The concert was something:  local talents played and performed Celtic music.  Irish

dancing, fiddling, step dancing, singing, bag-pipe music, etc.  It was all at a very high

level and very heartfelt.  The people in the audience were mostly local, and it was

great to see both young and old enjoying and making this music.  A totally awesome

experience which vindicated my decision to stay in Mabou for two nights (which

some people doubted).  Even Nicolas liked the concert (I think).  Sasha was more

philosophical about it and asked Anna how do mermaids pee.

Kids are asleep now, and we are ready for the unplanned part of our journey.

Tomorrow is the first night when we don’t have any reservation for the night.  Nor

do we have a firm plan beyond a desire to see the Cabot trail.