BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?

Subject: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 08:22 AM

Mr. rags and I are heading to Nova Scotia soon for a first time visit. We plan to drive around and "see a little" of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and the Gaspe Peninsula. I'm hoping to see (photograph) some eastern birds and that the leaves will change colour while we're there. Aside from that, I have no idea what to look for.

We'd appreciate any suggestions, from those who are familiar with the areas, about places we should visit and activities that we should not miss. Neither of us is physically fit. Rock climbing and long hikes are beyond our capability.

Thanks very much.
rags

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 08:48 AM

They'll take you down in a coal mine (not THAT mine) in Springhill, NS. And the Bay of Fundament is kinda neat as long as you can outrun the tide. Moncton is home to a wild, untamed gnu. Halifax, St. Johns, and St. Andrews are all worth a visit.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: bobad
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 08:59 AM

The scenic Cabot Trail in Cape Breton is well worth the drive. The Fortress of Louisbourg, a reconstructed 18th. century French fortress is worth a visit if you are interested in history.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 09:08 AM

Ditto the Citadel in Halifax.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 09:12 AM

I will pm you with a few suggestions, as I am quite familiar with the locations. Gnu may have some good suggestions to make also.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: gnu
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 10:53 AM

Yup. Seen it all. Besides the above, Lunenburg and Mahone Bay area are favs. Annapolis Valley is beautiful spring, summer and fall (never been there in winter. If you do the Cabot Trail (Celtic Colours Festival is October 10th, 2014 to October 18th, 2014), the drive along the western shore heading back south is nice. PEI is beautiful but I am not familiar enough to speak to it. Now, The Picture Province. The drive along the shore east of Shediac is nice. Shediac is pretty nice, especially after the 10 - 15,000 tourists leave (most are gone now). Take a walk west from Parlee Beach to the first cottages... low tide is cool and high tide brings lots of Blue Herons near the cottages. South of Moncton, The Hopewell Rocks at Hopewell Cape are a sight but getting down to them and getting back up might be onerous. Further south, Alma is nice (highest tides in the world). Fundy Park is amazing in fall colours. North of Moncton, the drive along the shore to Kouchibouguac National Park and the Park are nice.

Moncton is great for shopping. Other than that, keep on truckin. It's just another city. People may mention Magnetic Hill but I won't. Saint John is quite nice. I took a two hour tour with a knowledgeable taxi driver (I asked for an architectural tour) and it was great. sIx can clue you in on Saint John... I am sure you are aware of his photography.

As Rap said, St. Andrews By The Sea and the area is very nice. Love Fredericton. All of the Saint John River valley is beautiful in the fall, especially north of Fredericton in the hill country.

I suppose the place to start is at the provincial tourist websites. If I think of anything else worth mentioning, I'll be back.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 07:24 PM

I wanted to see lighthouses, so I planned to take the Lighthouse Route from Yarmouth to Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was told it would take me three hours to drive it.
It took me three days, and used up almost all the time I had in Nova Scotia - and I loved every moment of it. Lunenburg and Peggy's Cove are not crowded this time of year, and they're very nice.
In New Brunswick, find a place where you can watch the world's biggest tides go in and out.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 07:45 PM

A correction, Joe. The worlds highest tides were recorded at Burntcoat Head Nova Scotia, also in the Bay of Fundy. New Brunswick also has high Bay of Fundy tides, and Hopewell Rocks is a popular tourist location with some tidal interpretation material to assist. Ungava Bay, in Canada's remote north are said to have tides very close to Burntcoat Head-possibly a tie.

Did you visit Mahone Bay on your Nova Scoitia trip, Joe? Many local and tourist folks seem to find it picturesque.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Sep 14 - 07:56 PM

Btw, Joe-you got really bad advice on the driving distance-it takes 3 hours non stop driving by the highway-definately not by the coastal route, that has low speed limits, curves, and communities to slow you down significantly. Possibly you got the information mixed up?

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 02:54 AM

Thank you all very much for the suggestions. I'll print this out to take with us and try to get to all the places you've mentioned.

I'll bring a spare camera for back up and take lots of pictures. I'm hoping that we won't be too late to see migrating birds or too early to see leaves changing colours. I've heard that Autumn colours are amazing out there.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: maeve
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 04:34 AM

Have a wonderful trip, rags. Some of us live nearby and would love to see you, but likely your trip will be quite full enough without foreign excursions! I loved New Brunswick and Nova Scotia when my family visited there some years ago. I bought some beautiful wool yarn in Saint Andrews By the Sea.
PEI was lovely and interesting when I worked there one summer- lots of good fiddle music and songs. I'd give a lot to get to the Celtic Colours festival some fall.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 04:37 AM

A mere technicality, Ed. Alma indeed does have the world's highest tides because that is what the sign says. >;-)

Actually, it's simply miscommunication. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides. "The Natural World, Greatest Tides: The greatest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy.... Burntcoat Head in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia, has the greatest mean spring range with 14.5 metres (47.5 feet) and an extreme range of 16.3 metres (53.5 feet)." Nice spot. The "Western Shore" is a rock hound's heaven.

BTW, don't get sucked into the Tidal Bore thing in Moncton. A causeway was built upriver many years ago and the river silted up such that the bore is not nearly as impressive as in days of yore. It is gradually coming back because the causeway gates were opened up several years back but, from my perspective, it's lame. It's drawn surfers from California, Australia and elsewhere. I forget how many hours it takes to surf the bore but it's "impressive". Lots of clips on YT. Here is the shortest clip... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVxe1I-HgiA

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 06:50 AM

Here you go, gnu, from The Guinness Book of World Records that in 1975 declared that Burntcoat had the highest tides in the world (the Canadian Hydrographic Service has operated a tidal gauge there to measure the tides for many years):

"The Natural World, Greatest Tides: The greatest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy.... Burntcoat Head in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia, has the greatest mean spring range with 14.5 metres (47.5 feet) and an extreme range of 16.3 metres (53.5 feet)."

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 10:21 AM

Hmmm... where have I seen that before?

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 05:03 PM

Maybe in the NS tourism literature, gnu...some Nova Scotians seem to take New Brunswick's tourism "kinda" claim to the world's highest tides, that it is in the Bay Of Fundy (aka, possibky at Hopewell rocks) as an unsult to Nova Scotia's pride-it's like saying Anne of Green Gables is a Canadian story, not one from PEI, or the Bluenose scooner was from the eastern seaboard of North America. :)

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: maeve
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 07:54 PM

Or maybe gnu saw it when he posted it in this thread 12 Sep 14 - 04:37 AM

*grin*

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 12 Sep 14 - 08:03 PM

Well yes, Maeve, but....note the rest if my last post- double grin

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: gnu
Date: 13 Sep 14 - 06:19 AM

We got great geezely flowerpots! Nyah! We got fracking! Ahhh... wait...

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 13 Sep 14 - 06:44 PM

My apologies. I typed a very long message late last night, thanking each of you individually and commenting on how happy I am to have all this information on hand as I travel. When I tried to post the message, up popped the notice that the owner had put the site offline. All was lost. I couldn't even go back to copy and save it for later.

Please know that I appreciate the time and effort each of you spent replying to me and I appreciate that Mudcat provides an opportunity to exchange information with like-minded people.

I'll look up each of the places that you suggested and try to create an itinerary that incorporates as many as possible. It looks as if Mr. Rags and I will have a memorable journey.

Thank you all very much.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 13 Sep 14 - 11:33 PM

Sorry if this is a stupid question. I'd like to go to the Gaspé area. Should I buy and bring a French phrase book, or will I be okay with English?

Thanks,
rags

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: gnu
Date: 14 Sep 14 - 04:08 AM

There is no such thing as a stupid question.

I've never been to the Gaspe but I would guess you'll be just fine. If you are unsure, use Google Translate for keywords, e.g., restaurant = restaurant. >;-)

BTW... no need to thank everyone individually.

Wherever the wind takes you, I hope you enjoy The Merrytimes.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 14 Sep 14 - 07:25 AM

Thanks, gnu. You've posted a lot of useful information.

After I posted my question I had a look at the Gaspé site and think I understood most of it. So I'm okay if I'm reading it. If it looks as if we'll have time to go to Quebec, I'll, try to find a phrase book, since I won't have access to Google when I'm trying to shop or book accommodation. Although I might as well try speaking to people there in English. I'm sure they'd never figure out my mispronunciations.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 01 Oct 14 - 11:18 PM

Thanks Everyone, for your suggestions.

We've used up two-thirds of our time, visiting Halifax, southern Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, and P.E.I We're spending our second night in Moncton, (but haven't seen Moncton itself yet). Today we visited the most awesome Hopewell Rocks. What a fantastic place that is! It's a highlight of this vacation, along with wading in the ocean at Ingonish Beach, in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The 13 km long Confederation Bridge we crossed yesterday afternoon from P.E.I. to New Brunswick was also very impressive.

For dinner last evening, the desk clerk at our Moncton motel recommended Hynes Restaurant, down the road. It exceeded all expectations. They make real food there, none of that fancy unrecognizable stuff so many restaurants offer now. We liked it so much that we went back for dinner again tonight.   Tonight we each had a big bowl of fricot and shared a strawberry shortcake for dessert. Excellent!   

Tomorrow we'll go to St. John, NB, on a quest. Mr. diffuse hopes that we can find the pier where he and his fellow student refugees disembarked from the Empress of Britain, January 6th 1957.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 12:53 AM

Had a blast driving around the Gaspe peninsula! Watch for fog - you lose not only the road but the rest of your car.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: gnu
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 12:57 PM

You DID get to "The Rocks"! Cool. Hynes has been almost packed every hour it's been open and it's been open a long time... it's success has been all about the fact that the owner greets and seats. Good thing you didn't get to visit me... wicked cold from which I am just starting to feel better.

I hope Mr. gets to see the pier you seek.

I expect you'll head north toward the Saint John River valley after that. You are a bit early for the fall colours as the maples are the only ones turning now and that only began last week. Just don't steal any apples at roadside because it'll cost you at least $5 each. That was the fine in the late 70s.

Lots of sights along the way and the fresh fruit and veggies are a delight... lots of baked goods too.

"The Hartland Bridge in Hartland, New Brunswick, is the world's longest covered bridge, at 391 metres long. It crosses the Saint John River from Hartland to Somerville, New Brunswick, Canada."

That fricot pic looks good. You'll find some fantastic eats in the République du Madawaska when you near Edmunston.

Hope youse enjoy the rest of your trip.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: Ed T
Date: 02 Oct 14 - 02:56 PM

Nice meeting you in Halifax- happy that you enjoyed your trip.
Say hello to the Mr. For me.

Subject: RE: BS: BS: Must see/do NS, NB, PEI suggestions?
From: ragdall
Date: 04 Oct 14 - 02:36 AM

Mrrzy,
thanks for the fog warning. We had some of that in the dark, on the Cabot Trail. -- nasty stuff, that.

Gnu,
I'm sorry to hear that you've been so ill. I hope that you'll be all better soon!

We didn't see the owner at Hynes. It was the good food that brought us back. We're thinking of cutting back through Moncton en-route to Halifax, just so we can eat there again.

The Hopewell Rocks were the highlight of this trip for me. We got sucked into going to the bottom by "just going down the few steps to the next landing to get a better angle for a picture". Before we knew it we were on the "ocean floor".

Mr. wasn't able to find his pier. It looks as if everything has been removed and replaced along the dock areas and security fences prevent getting anywhere near those areas.

There has been enough colour in the trees along our way to make me happy. Have also been enjoying the french lessons on signage wherever we go. I'm still hoping that we can fit in a visit to Shediac.

Ed T,
The Mr. says Hello back to you. It was very nice meeting you, too. Time went by very quickly, I've never been in Timmy's at closing time before. The detailed notes that you sent us have been very helpful.

We're in Fredericton now, planning to meet up tomorrow and having a tour of the town with a friend from where we live. She grew up here and is visiting her mum.

Thanks again, all of you who posted suggestions. It was a huge help for someone who had little idea what was here.
Hugs,
rags