Feeling French

Welcome to the Fortress of Louisbourg! 

 A two hour drive from our campsite. We thought it would be fun to get to know the history of Nova Scotia. Who knew that New Scotland had so many French!

French soldiers in blue checking guests clothing for the color red (which means you're an English loyalist). That scared one of my girls, so we waited until the soldiers left before entering.

When I look at this, I see yarn. What do you see?

Pretty little curls

Uh oh. This is how they deal with someone is accused of stealing. 

Lovely herb garden. Sigh. I could stay in the gardens all day.

How you keep your reeds from drying out before you have finished weaving your basket. I can't imagine why this fell out of fashion. ;)

Every kid dreams of writing with a quill and ink.

Traditional lace making. No wonder it was so expensive!

British soldiers? Uh oh. 

The scariest solder in the whole Fortress! That is her man/soldier face.

Grinding something. Maybe flour grains.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

The Cabot Trail & the Highlands

The famous Cabot Trail meanders through the Cape Breton Highlands is the main tourist attraction in that region. Having already driven up a huge mountain previously, I decided that I would be a passenger for this part of the journey. Sweaty palms and trembling limbs are not a good combination for driving high in the sky.

Close to camp.

Didn't see one whale ever!

As soon as we got into the Highlands, the fog started to roll in. Ugh.

Lone Sheiling-Scottish hut reproduction in a 350 yr old growth forest

Glad that I don't have to live in one of these. It looks awfully damp and drafty. Poor Scots.

Lone Sheling roof

Inside roof

Explaining the hardwood trees in the old growth forest.

This is bad. This is very bad. We were 3/4 of the way up to the top of the Cabot Trail when I started to kind of freak out, so we decided to call it a day and head back to camp. Of course, once we left the Highlands, the storm disappeared. 

Our First Real Hike

Meet Chris. He is our tour guide for this family friendly hike of 2 hours. We got there late but quickly found the group. On the entrance to the hike there was a warning sign about bears and wild coyotes (or was it wolves). Ugh, yeah, good way to start the hike. The kids were on hyper vigilant wild animal alert. Once we joined the group, everyone felt safe, b/c you see Chris, the park ranger, he has protection. He has a big walking stick. ;)

 This hike was the first real hike that any of my kids have done. Most everything up until this point had been in the 30 minute range. What troopers!

Check out that walking stick that my lil' girl found! Woah Nellie! I think Chris is going to be envious.

I wanted to Google the disease that this tree (below right) had. We called it the "bubble tree". We saw several and were afraid to touch them. Yuck.

  

            Heading out! It's hard for little ones to hold their bladders after two hours. And we felt a little                                               awkward letting our kids pee in a protected park area.

Cape Breton in the Morning

Here is a look around our lovely little water front at Broad Cove.

We had a great time exploring our end of the campground the next morning. This is where we spent almost all of our time when we were not at our tent.

Washed up on shore. 

When there is nothing else to keep them busy, that's where the imagination begins.

More jackets and sweaters in Canadian summer!

Water going out to the sea. They were afraid to walk through it. 

Driftwood and flora

These colors look like summer to me.