Here or there . . .
Returned last week from Nova Scotia -- and never did get to post a followup while we were there. The computer connections in the public internet access after the first we used were much, much slower. That's no excuse, but it does increase the frustration level in doing anything online of course. And when you're on vacation its easy to blow stuff off.
Anyway, the rest of our trip continued to be great, despite not a whole lot of continuous sunny weather. Nova Scotia is a province of fairly low density, which makes for a low keyed vacation almost by default. We did some "eco tourism" kinds of things (I guess that's what you'd have to call it) including hiking an isolated peninsula two hours to an isolated headland overlooking the Bay of Fundy and nesting gull colonies; taking a boat trip to offshore islands to see nesting seabirds (puffins the main feature, with seals an attraction, and feeding the bald eagles on the way in . . . very rough sea); and taking a whale watching trip, which started out in the inevitable fog, but had great pathces of sun. We were fortunate to see a mother humpback with her perhaps eight month old calf. The calf frolicked and "breached" numerous times making for great photos (I'll post one if I can figure out how).
All these activities took place from northern Cape Breton to south of Digby neck on the Bay of fundy. Towns we frequented and stayed include Wolfville, Pictou, Lunenburg, as well as small towns in Cape Breton and south on the neck. Its all accessible. Folks are saying the tourism is down and , curiously, a universally cited factor is the presidential election in this country. We can't understand this and disputed it, but virtually everyone says it happens every four years. Other factors suggested were the increased price of gas (it was about 90 cents Canadian per liter) and the fact that later in August is an Acadian festival (memorializing 400 years since the Acadians were forced out of Nova Scotia) and the possibility that folks would save their travel until then.
The last night we spent walking around Halifax before our early a.m. departure. It rained. We found refuge in the wharfside shopping pavillion and ultimately had a light dinner in a busy pub with excellent microbrew.
This was our second relatively recent trip to N.S. and we went to Montreal and Quebec spring of '03. We like to travel. Recently our travel bug has been merged with a growing sense that the perennial wish to escape the increased opression in the US under the post 911 regime has led to more serious consideration of moving abroad . . . with all of the untold complexities that may entail. Since my 93 year old father is in a local health care facility, suffering from dementia, its unlikely we can move while he's alive. Our own retirements from our jobs loom ahead as well. But its a thought, and one which raises a myriad of questions from the practical to the existential. I wont go into all the factors here -- and we probably haven't thought of them all -- but it is incredibly sad to have become so discouraged with what life in the US has become that leaving is more than a whim or idle "threat".
Fortunately the idea of living abroad is not one that turns on the political climate. It is an attractive idea on its own, in the best of times. The political situation just gives it an added dimension. And its not a question I will answer tonight!
Anyway, the rest of our trip continued to be great, despite not a whole lot of continuous sunny weather. Nova Scotia is a province of fairly low density, which makes for a low keyed vacation almost by default. We did some "eco tourism" kinds of things (I guess that's what you'd have to call it) including hiking an isolated peninsula two hours to an isolated headland overlooking the Bay of Fundy and nesting gull colonies; taking a boat trip to offshore islands to see nesting seabirds (puffins the main feature, with seals an attraction, and feeding the bald eagles on the way in . . . very rough sea); and taking a whale watching trip, which started out in the inevitable fog, but had great pathces of sun. We were fortunate to see a mother humpback with her perhaps eight month old calf. The calf frolicked and "breached" numerous times making for great photos (I'll post one if I can figure out how).
All these activities took place from northern Cape Breton to south of Digby neck on the Bay of fundy. Towns we frequented and stayed include Wolfville, Pictou, Lunenburg, as well as small towns in Cape Breton and south on the neck. Its all accessible. Folks are saying the tourism is down and , curiously, a universally cited factor is the presidential election in this country. We can't understand this and disputed it, but virtually everyone says it happens every four years. Other factors suggested were the increased price of gas (it was about 90 cents Canadian per liter) and the fact that later in August is an Acadian festival (memorializing 400 years since the Acadians were forced out of Nova Scotia) and the possibility that folks would save their travel until then.
The last night we spent walking around Halifax before our early a.m. departure. It rained. We found refuge in the wharfside shopping pavillion and ultimately had a light dinner in a busy pub with excellent microbrew.
This was our second relatively recent trip to N.S. and we went to Montreal and Quebec spring of '03. We like to travel. Recently our travel bug has been merged with a growing sense that the perennial wish to escape the increased opression in the US under the post 911 regime has led to more serious consideration of moving abroad . . . with all of the untold complexities that may entail. Since my 93 year old father is in a local health care facility, suffering from dementia, its unlikely we can move while he's alive. Our own retirements from our jobs loom ahead as well. But its a thought, and one which raises a myriad of questions from the practical to the existential. I wont go into all the factors here -- and we probably haven't thought of them all -- but it is incredibly sad to have become so discouraged with what life in the US has become that leaving is more than a whim or idle "threat".
Fortunately the idea of living abroad is not one that turns on the political climate. It is an attractive idea on its own, in the best of times. The political situation just gives it an added dimension. And its not a question I will answer tonight!
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