Halifax, Nova Scotia

In 1749, a young British sea captain by the name of Cornwallis, landed upon the shores of the French occupied and settled area we now call Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia means New Scotland. Cornwallis absolutely detested this cold and forbidding area, and his management skills being poor, pissed off his command, and many returned to Britain with complaints about him.  He succeeded in driving the French out, and also started one of the first germ warfares known to exist in the world.  He came across a settlement where smallpox had run rampant, and he ordered his men to gather smallpox infested blankets, seal them, and then he transported them to the local Indian tribes and the smallpox spread like wildfire, killing off huge populations of native Indian tribes in the area, as the Indians had no immune protection.  Gee, what a fun guy.

He returned to England and today, a statue stands in the downtown area of this city, showing this super nice guy facing towards Britain.  There is some talk of removing his statue altogether, he is so vilified at the moment.

Halifax is a large city, there are about 400,000 residents, making up nearly half of all of the Nova Scotia province.  In the city proper, the economy depends on ship building, tourism and universities.  In the rural areas, the economy relies on an eclectic mix of agriculture (apples, wild blueberries, Christmas trees, and maple syrup), fishing (mostly lobster) and tourism.  

On our tour today, we visited the beautiful and picturesque Peggy's Cove.  A working lighthouse is there, along with a sweet little fishing village.  The cove is made up of glacial rock, and the ruggedness of the cove makes for some outstanding photography. 

Just around the bend stands a somber memorial to the Swiss Air flight that crashed in the ocean nearby in 1998, where all souls perished.  Our tour guide offered up the standard reason for why the plane crashed, fire in cockpit, bad decisions on the part of the pilot to attempt to correct the problem, but he also hinted at diamond conspiracies, and flammable items in the overhead compartment in coach class.  The diamonds were never recovered, even though over 90% of the plane and it's contents, including $100,000 in U.S. cash was......

 

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Sydney, Nova Scotia

Sydney was first settled in the early 1600's, with the first coal mine in all of North America opening in 1620.  In the early 1700's, an Italian by the Anglicized name of John Cabot, forged a trail in the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia, outside of Sydney.

Sydney really began to develop shortly after the American Revolution due to the emergence and development of its steel industry.  A few decades ago, the coal and steel industries fell on hard and mismanaged times, and eventually shut down.  Life was not easy for the inhabitants for awhile, but a burgeoning tourism industry,mwith an influx of summer travelers to take in and hike the Cabot Trail, helped transform Sydney into a once again productive and viable area.  

Sydney, as with most of the Nova Scotia province, has a long heritage of Scottish and Irish immigrants. Here on Cape Breton, Gaelic is still spoken regularly and many road signs are in both English and Gaelic.  

Today, besides a booming tour industry, lobster and crab fishing is a big business during the summer season, and logging takes over during the winter months. It is very common for families to fish in the summer and log in the winter. Most logging is spruce, and individuals sell to the paper mill.  For fishing,the only way to get a license for lobster is to purchase one from another fisherman who is no longer going to fish, or to inherit it from a family member, as the government no longer offers new licenses.  A lobster license, if purchased, will run you about $100,000.  A snow crab license will run you $1,000,000.  That's not a mistype.

Coming up over the next few days, we've got Halifax, St. John, New Brunswick, Bar Harbor, Boston and Newport.  Then, and only then do we get two wonderful sea days in a row.  I live for my sea days.  They're the best days!

We had a possible chance to see the northern lights a few nights ago, but alas they did not materialize.  But there was a beautiful full (or nearly full) moon last night and its shimmering silvery glow woke me up early this morning, hanging just outside my balcony.  It wasn't a bad way to wake up. I'll take that any day.

Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

At the south shore of Canada's smallest province, Prince Edward Island,mor PEI for short, lies it's birthplace, Charlottetown.  It's a very quaint city of almost 35,000 residents.

PEI is famous for having Canada's longest running musical, Anne of Green Gables. I believe they said it's been running continuously since the mid 1960's.  PEI is also the setting of Lucy Maud Montgomery's famous stories Anne of Green Gables, a beloved classic by many, myself included.

You can drive the island, from tip to top, in about 6 hours.  At its longest,MIT is 140 miles, at it's narrowest, just 4 miles wide., at it's widest, just 40 miles.  The biggest industry is agriculture. They produce potatoes, and provide 30% of all of Canada's supply. Go spuds!

Even though I am a Green Gables fan, I chose not to visit the "homestead" because it is just a big tourist trap now, and I didn't want to huff and puff around a fictional farmstead with 1,500 other people.  Instead, I chose to further my engineering knowledge, and picked a tour that went out to the Confederation Bridge, an 8-mile marvel, and also the longest bridge over ice-covered waters, in the world.  Even though the weather was cold, rainy and overcast/foggy, we still enjoyed the tour.  The bridge was built in the 1970's and cost $1 billion. It took six years to build.  It costs $44.50 per car to cross. The bridge links the island with the mainland.  Before the bridge, there was only a ferry, or ice boats available to cross. Today, ice boats are no longer used, and the ferry still runs, at $60 per trip.

The south shore of the island is lovely, dotted with tons of potato farms and lighthouses.  Lots of property is for sale here,  and the going price per acre is about 4,000 dollars. The average home price runs in the mid $100,000's.  There is a lot of waterfront acreage for sale, so an awesome view is there for the taking.

So, some mindless trivia - the island bird is the blue jay, even though the island is filled with ginormous black crows (love them!).  Roman Catholics make up over 55% of the population, gas cost $1.27-ish per liter (about $5.00 per gallon), and Charlottetown boasts one of Canada's finest veterinary colleges.

Baie Comeau

Baie Comeau

Pronounced "Bay Como", the town of Baie Comeau is a new stop for some cruise lines.  It is a small town located on the shores of the St. Lawrence River and has a thriving economy, thanks to its local industries of aluminum, timber and paper production.  

The area also boasts five dams,  four of which are hollow gravity.  What, pray tell, is the difference between a hollow gravity dam and your run-of-the-mill dam?  Well, my friends, it is that the hollow gravity dams are built with some hollow cores. From an engineering perspective, if the area conditions (river, rock and soil type, flow, etc) are right, you can build a dam 80% more efficient with 20% less cement.  Or something like that.  I have to admit, on my tour of the Manic 2 dam (named Manic 2 because manic is short for the mighty Manicouagan River and the second dam built on it)  I was busy looking at this insanely gorgeous hunk a lunka of a security guard that accompanied us through the inner workings of the dam, and wasn't always listening to our tour guide. And when he spoke In French to our guide, ooh la la, there might have been some discreet swooning on my part!

Because this area was covered by 4 kilometer deep glaciers way back when, most of the rock around here is glacier rock, and another reason a hollow type dam can be built. 

Baie Comeau boasts a 3 block long downtown, 20,000 residents, a Wal Mart and a McDonalds. One of the province's governors was also born here, and the town is very proud of that. Our bus guide even drove us by the house where this man was born as well as the house just down the street where he grew up.  I cannot begin to tell you how fascinating that was, but truth be told, I would have preferred to have seen where the security guard lived.....

A lot of the passengers on the ship were less than impressed with little Baie Como, and the rumor is that the HAL ships won't be back next year. I felt a bit sad, because if there is one standout from my visit (besides you know who), it is that the residents of this town are fiercely proud of their city and happy to show it to you. 

Quebec City and Saguenay

The Eurodam is the largest cruise ship I have been on so far, with 2100 passengers.  I have decided that I prefer the smaller ships, at least those with 1800 or less.  Why? One word.  Lines.  Lines to get into the dining room for breakfast and dinner.  Does not matter what time it is.  Lines.  I am most annoyed.

Also, for being a scant five years old, the Eurodam shows signs of wear and tear, at least in my cabin.  Perhaps there were just past passengers in my cabin who rode her rough, but there are some stains and nicks and tears here and there. It doesn't bother me, because they are minor, I just noticed it, that's all. The cabin is nicely appointed, everything is clean, the balcony divine, albeit cold (well, it's Canada in October, after all), so nothing to complain about there.

I settled in the first night on board after arriving about ten PM, and had a good night's sleep until the ice machine room door across the hall was flung open by a cabin steward at 6:15 the next morning. Hmmmm. Should I complain? Nahhhh.  Maybe it was just a one time deal. (sadly, it was not)

My plan for the day was to walk across the pier into old Quebec City and visit the area, wander around.  It's a lovely old city with some architectural delights, and a bunch of historical points.  Here in the province of Quebec, French is the main language, although if you smile and are polite, the shopkeepers and other townsfolk will speak English to you.  It always helps to say a few words in French, out of respect....bonjour, merci, au revoir.  That's about the extent of my French, but it is enough to be treated nicely.  Natives always appreciate it when you at least try to say something in their language.

I visited the famous Chateau Frontenac, an imposing hotel sitting atop the old city, above the remnants of this old fortress's walls.  I think it's a UNESCO site now, this hotel.  It's pretty, for sure.

I wandered around the cobblestone streets for a couple of hours, and walked up and down steep hills, so I figured I got my cardio in for the day.  I returned to the terminal area at the ship and was able to Skype with Sam and Ori for a little bit, before they called all aboard.

Yesterday, we arrived in Saguenay, in "haha" Bay.  I don't know if haha is spelled this way or not, but this is my phonetic approach.  It means "dead end" in old French, according to our tour guide.  I joined a tour that took us out to the fjord, which is the big attraction here.  However, the day was foggy and drizzly, so guess what?  No view of the fjord.

Saguenay is an old settlement town of about 150,000 people.  Their main industries are aluminum processing and logging/paper mills.  Running a close third is dairy agriculture, specifically cheese.  Ninety percent of their cheese is exported to Britain, and they make a "royal" cheese that the Queen herself is most fond of.  Who knew.

I learned that to make one ton of aluminum, you need three tons of boxite.  I don't know what boxite is, but you need a shit load of it for aluminum. Made me think about Walter White.  I could have used his chemistry knowledge yesterday.... Anyway, Saguenay is the world's largest producer of aluminum, another tidbit I did not know.  But interestingly,myoud think that if you were the world's largest producer, and if you need a lot of boxite to make the aluminum,mthat you'd have ready local access to boxite, right?  Nope a doodle.  They IMPORT their boxite from Brazil, South Africa and Jamaica!  Don't you think it would make more sense to produce aluminum in those countries? Sigh.

So that's my story of Saguenay.  Tomorrow we visit Baie Comeau.  I am going to visit the Manic 2 gravity dam. It's supposed to be pretty spectacular.

Flight Legs

When you live in Sacramento, even with a nice international airport, you still can't fly direct to many places.  Hawaiian offers one daily non-stop to (you guessed it) Honolulu, and United will take you to Chicago, Denver, and Washington D.C. So you can connect to other parts unknown.

This is totally off topic, but we were talking about skirt steak at lunch yesterday, and it stuck in my head the rest of the day. And last night. And....today. So I just googled it, and I am happy to report, for those of you who may give a whit ( or is it "wit"?) that skirt steak is actually the diaphragm  of a cow.  It's a bit tough and fibrous and you would need to beat the hell out of it to get some tenderizing to happen.  The cut is most often used in fajitas. So there you go.  Whew, I can sleep tonight, mystery solved.

I treated myself to the usual pre-vacay mani/pedi after work yesterday, and then went home and got to spend some good one on one time with my little button, aka my granddaughter, Ori.

And, I packed. It took me a little longer than usual, because there were many interruptions of rubber ducky transport between my closet and my shower, by Ori, but I was finished about 7:30, and I am happy to report that I have loads of extra room in my suitcase, and the weight came in at 42 pounds. 

Sam bravely got up at 5:15 and transported me to the airport for my 7:20 departure, and my first leg - Sac to Washington Dulles left on time and arrived early.  We had a very hard and bumpy landing, but  other than that everything went well.

I'm on a 3 hour layover before catching my final flight to Quebec City, so I am enjoying a nice glass of Chardonnay and a shrimp basket in one of the terminal restaurants.

And blogging about skirt steak.....

Canada and New England October 2013

Countdown begins for my upcoming third cruise of the year. Quebec City to Ft. Lauderdale

I leave next Saturday, the 12th, and cruise ends on Sunday the 27th, although I will disembark on the 26th at Port Canaveral, to drive to Treasure Island to spend a few days with my cousin and aunt before flying home on the 30th. It's a shorter drive from Port Canaveral by a few hours, than Ft. Lauderdale, so I secured an early disembarkation from HAL.

I am visiting several areas in northeastern Canada, where we hope to enjoy the fall foliage, then we head south, stopping in Bar Harbor, Maine, Boston and Newport, Rhode Island before enjoying 2 lovely sea days on the way to Florida.

Hurricanes!!!  Please stay away!!!  Thank you.  Namaste.