Fayette State Park, Michigan

Furnaces at Fayette

Yesterday, traveled from Montreal to Sudberry, Ontario, then today, we made it to upper Michigan. We’re staying the night in FayetteState Park, home to the historic townsite of Fayette. This was an iron smelter town from 1867 to 1890. Left on the grounds is the smelter, charcoal kilns, and some of the commercial and residential buildings of the company town of 500 people. It was a very different place to visit, a place to stop if you're nearby. The buildings are somewhat restored, usually a couple rooms in each building. They explained a lot about the original town, it’s inhabitants, and their work of restoring the town based on what they find on the grounds and buildings. 

Historic buildings of Fayette

We then headed to Appleton to visit my parents and see how they were doing. I got my perch dinner on the first night home and the next day we visited Door County and then had dinner with Bob and Cindy. 

Then off to Minneapolis to visit Laura and Greg. We worked on wedding plans, had a great dinner at  oriental restaurant and, of course, a Swedish breakfast on Sunday at the Taste of Scandinavia

We planned this trip, because we had always intended to revisit Nova Scotia after a short stay there a few years ago. A full week there was almost enough, if we had 2 more days we would have headed for the Northeast coast. We made use of it to visit friends and family along the way. We probably had too many long travel days - sometime, we've got to take a few months and just tour up and down the East Coast in a more leisurely manner.

If you'd like to see the video here on youtube. 

Montreal Botanical Gardens

We traveled to Montreal in the morning and our plan was to revisit the Montreal Botanical Gardens. We were quite impressed with the sheer size and variety of the gardens last time, and ran out of time to fully explore them. The sun came out after the rain of the morning and the gardens were spectacular. Our favorite part is the Chinese Gardens which are similar to what we saw in Shanghai many years ago. I also recommend the rose gardens, Japanese gardens, and the Lilac Gardens. We also took a walk through the woods. We ended up finally at the green house section which not only had tropical plants, but also featured orchids, desert plants and a Bonsai section. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

Estilebe Chinese Garden

Quebec City

Friday was a travel day through New Brunswick. One part of the highway was devoid of towns for over 125 kilometers going through forest land on a road that was good in spots and bounced us around in others. There was almost no one on it. 

Hotel Frontenac

Saturday, we did a walking tour of the old city of Quebec. The fortress walls surround most of the old city and inside it seems your planted in an old French town. We spent quite a lot of time in some of the old churches – the chapel for the Ursaline convent, the Catholic Cathedral and the Episcopal church with its colorful organ. The upper town has most of the government and church buildings as well as the landmark Hotel Frontenac. We ate lunch on the steps down to the lower town which has a historic square with a church on it as well as many shops selling to tourists. Last time we had visited the Citadel, so this time, I had hoped to go to Battlefield Park which explains the battle between the French and English on the Plains of Abraham. But it was already 3:00 after our walk, we decided to relax instead.

Place Royale Lower Town

Bouctouche, New Brunswick

We traveled most of the day through rain from Cape Breton to Bouctouche, New Brunswick.  Our only stop of the day was the Irving Eco-Centre here in Bouctouche which helps preserve a 12 mile long sand dune between the Bay of St Lawrence and a river estuary. The rain stopped for a while, so we were able to walk the boardwalk for some 800 meters above the grass and sand. It was rather chilly, but that didn’t stop the kids from enjoying the beach.

Dunes at Bouchtouche

Cape Breton National Park

Cabot Trail 

We spent most of Tuesday traveling from Port Royale to Cape Breton in the far Northeast corner of Nova Scotia. We were careful never to let our tank get too low, because there are often 30-40 mile stretches of this island that don’t have a gas station. We camped at Broad Cove campground in the park (with electricity, water, and sewer). On Wednesday, we took a ride around most of the park on the Cabot Trail. We started out with a stiff wind and rain on the Atlantic coast. But after we turned inland, the rain stopped and we were able to do some sightseeing from the viewpoints and a number of short hikes. We had a nice hike to a waterfall on Macintosh Creek

, and through a bog area. But the highlight is the coast facing the Bay of Newfoundland.  Here the highway goes up some steep slopes rising to 400 meters high and then plunges down again. It is a beautiful coastline. We stopped at the visitor center on the other side, and then headed back and the rain began and kept going all night. I even had to barbecue in the rain. But a beautiful day even if the weather wasn’t sunny.

Macintosh Creek

Port Royale

Fort Anne

Monday, we headed back Northwest to camp in DunrominCampsite outside of Port Royale. Here we saw the remains of Fort Anne another star shaped Fort (but only in earthen works) from the time of the French and British competition. Port Royale was the original capital of Nova Scotia and in the officers quarter we saw one of the two remaining copies of the Charter of Nova Scotia. This town faced a similar history to Grand Pre with most of the French property confiscated and the people deported.

Historic Gardens

Nearby is the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. The gardens is particularly noted for his Rose Gardens, but it also has a large variety of different gardens and was a pleasant place to take a stroll admiring the various plants.

Nova Scotia Atlantic Coast

Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove

Sunday, we visited Peggy’s Cove, one of the most picturesque areas on the coast. The granite here gets pounded by the surf creating stone formations that look like the back of a whale. The lighthouse here is the most photographed spot in Nova Scotia. They’ve kept a rustic look to the boats and buildings making the whole place charming. Since the weather wasn’t particularly nice, we didn’t have to fight the crowds to see the place.

Peggy's Cove

We headed along the coast to the fishing and shipbuilding town of Lunenburg.  Here we visited the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. I was worried about another nautical museum and as expected the aquarium part of the museum was disappointing. But we were fascinated by our guided tour of one of the fishing schooners. Our guide had been a captain for over 32 years of his 47 years at sea. His explanation of the challenge of fishing really made it all come to life. This was hard work. He admitted that the fisherman were at fault for the decline in the fisheries. They would have to go out farther and farther to catch fish, and would cheat at any opportunity – to increase their catch, even if it was illegal. For example, they would sell catch to foreign ships who weren’t allowed there and then continue fishing for their own catch. It eventually resulted in the closing of the fisheries off of Newfoundland.

The Bluenose racing

The other superb story was the story of the Bluenose. We watched the film and saw the many exhibits.  In 1921, after the America’s cup had been cancelled because of 22 knot winds, the men of Lunenburg and Gloucester, Massachusetts, decided to have a race between fishing schooners. The purse was put up by a local merchant, and Gloucester won that first year. The next year, they built a new schooner, the Blue Nose (named for how your nose looked after being out at sea). The Blue Nose easily won, though the race was close, until they turned into the wind. This ship continued to win every time it sailed. It became famous, and was on the 50 cent stamp, the back of the Canadian nickel, and even today is on the license plate of Nova Scotia. It was never defeated retiring the International Fishing Trophy to Lunenburg in 1938, the last race before World War II and the last of the fishing schooner races.