July 24

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

We woke up in B&B and ate breakfast with Terry the owner.  His breakfast was

rather simple (scrambled eggs), but his homemade jam was delicious.  He was

also a huge hit with kids, since he listened to all of their jokes.  It was a lengthy

breakfast, since after the meal he wanted to talk to us, too, and told us his entire

life story and views of the world.  Finally, at around 10, I had to get up to call B&B’s

for the upcoming night.  We decided on staying another night in a hotel since it was

raining pretty hard outside. When we finally got packed, it was 11 already; but then

Terry asked us to sign his guestbook, and then Sasha noticed a woman driving up

to his house.  The woman turned out to be Terry’s girlfriend, also very nice—Sasha

proceeded to ask her multiple questions, such as how long she’s known Terry and

what will they do together when we leave. Nicolas was sad to leave Terry’s house, he

really liked the guy and his food (this was the first time he tried scrambled eggs).

We were in Louisbourg fortress at 11:30, just in time to hear the canon firing. I

had no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the most memorable

experiences of the trip.  Louisbourg is a large Park Canada Historical Site,

completely re-built from 18

dresses, and they stage multiple theatrical performances throughout the day.  We

started with the musket firing, then Anna and Nick went on a tour while Sasha

and I watched the punishment of the maidservant accused of stealing (fun!).  Then

they had a great fairy tale performance, which included Nicolas in the role of

the lumberjack who saves the red riding hood. Then we went to the lunch at the

working class café; the food was authentic and very healthy: rye bread, haddock, red

potatoes, boiled carrots and fish soup.  We had to eat with spoons only, since that’s

what they did back then.  Afterwards, we went to the upper class dance, and Nick

and Sasha participated in the round of Lilibolero. Then it started to rain really hard,

and we watched the end of the day discharge of the cannon while getting completely

soaked.

At around 5:15, we were on the road to tidal bores, with no hotel or camping

reservation.  I drove through the winding roads around Brass D’Or for two hours,

periodically slowing down to a crawl because of low visibility.  We then stopped at

Tim Hortons, and I worked on finding the hotel near the tidal bores. Nicolas pooped

at Tim H’s, now he is a real Canadian.

It is roughly a five hour drive across Nova Scotia to Truro, where we’ll stay for the

night.  It was sad to say goodbye to Cape Bretton Island.  Love you Cape Bretton, as

Sasha would say.

Nick’s favorite part of the day: the tavern and being the lumberjack.

Sasha’s:  Terry and fairy tales.

Both: the entire day!