Maritime Wrap-up

Only a few more pictures to share from our vacation, which I’ll wrap up in conventional tourism advice.

Food and drink · I recommend all of the following.

Schoolhouse Brewery in Windsor, NS; nice space, decent food, the Vice Principal is a good IPA. Maybe the beer that I enjoyed most was “Exile on North Street” from unfiltered brewing; you might want to follow that link and also check out the URL.

I didn’t love Halifax that much but it has this charming little neighborhood called Hydrostone, where The Brown Hound offered very solid food and beer. We didn’t spend that much time in New Brunswick, but Moncton’s Pump House was cheery and competent; a cool space; I can’t remember which of their IPAs I had, but it was good. The other peak New Brunswick goodness was Adorable Chocolat in Shediac, where everyone was effortlessly bilingual and the pastries just divine. Don’t miss it if you’re anywhere near.

Charlottetown’s not that rich in dining options, but got a really excellent lunch at The Cork & Cast. Maybe our best meal of the trip was at The Wheelhouse, in Digby. Scallops all around, seared is the best option.

Cities, towns, and other tourists · Every good tourist spot in the world seems to suffer from increasingly intense and persistent overcrowding, and the Maritimes are no exception. On top of which, they’re thinly populated, fewer than two million souls in three provinces. The biggest city, Halifax (and the entire province of Prince Edward Island) are both smaller than individual Vancouver suburbs. It’s not a place for savouring urban flavors.

In Nova Scotia, Halifax has too many cruise ships; stay away from its so-called “farmers market” unless you love cruise culture. Lunenberg is big enough to soak up its waves of visitors and still offer unique visuals.

Peggy’s Cove I just can’t recommend; beautiful but jam-packed with cars looking for parking and people risking their lives on the rocks.

I do recommend visiting Annapolis Royal; it’s got that great garden and Fort Anne, despite its lengthy and chequered military history, is lovely and peaceful.

In PEI, Charlottetown makes an effort and it has a beautiful basilica, but just isn’t big enough to reward a whole day’s visit.

In NB, Moncton is OK but its biggest tourist attraction is the tide going in and out.

Lodging · The hotels and Airbnbs and VRBOs were OK, mostly. The Harbourview Inn, near Digby, is a charmingly-traditional guest-house. The rooms are OK, but the downstairs is warmly welcoming, drinks available when the host’s there to man the bar, lots of space to sink into a comfy chair and conversation or your laptop. Also the breakfast was solid.

But the trip’s lodging highlight was this VRBO called Forest Lake House on Lake Ainsley, the Maritimes’ biggest. Isolated, comfortable, outstanding grounds, your own private forest walk; everything anyone could want. We stopped traveling and had a chill-out day there, enjoying every minute of it.

Otherwise · We only swam once, at Cavendish Beach in PEI’s Anne of Green Gables territory, very nicely set up. But what looked most appealing to me was Crescent Beach in Lockeport, Nova Scotia; I wish we’d made time to have a swim there.

Turns out all three vacationers had farming or agriculture-adjacent roots. If you care about that stuff, driving around PEI is a treat; the agriculture is super-intensive and, to my eye, pleasingly well-done.

But if you have the time, get away from PEI’s farms and head northwest, drive down the coast from Tignish to West Point; that ride is full of colors and sea-fronts that aren’t like anywhere else I’ve seen.

Since it’s the New World there’s plenty of nasty history around the indigenous folk, the Mi'kmaq nation. But you really have to look to find it. We visited the Millbrook Cultural & Heritage Centre in Truro, which is much better than nothing.

You gotta drive; we put 3,742km on a basic rented Kia. The roads are way better taken care of than here out West.

We didn’t run across a single human Maritimer who was anything less than friendly and welcoming.

Nice people living along beautiful oceanfronts, plenty good enough for me.

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