The Maritimes - Maine to Halifax, Nova Scotia

A-Ellsworth, ME; B-St. John, NB; C-Capewell Hope, NB; D-Truro, NS;
E-Annapolis Royal, NS; F-Halifax, NS

Quoddy lighthouse - easternmost point in the USA

August 13, Friday, and we started off on our Maritime adventure. We left the park shortly after the 8am driver’s meeting. We had a beautiful day to drive along highway 1 north toward Canada. On the way we parked, unhooked the car from the RV, and drove to the Quoddy lighthouse. It is the eastern most point in the United States.

FDR's summer cottage on Campobello Island

We then drove to Campobello Island where FDR spent many vacations from the time he was a small boy. .He loved the island for its peacefulness and nature trails. He and Canadian President King worked closely during WWII and in 1964 the island was established as a Provincial Park (Canadian) to commemorate President Roosevelt and to serve as a symbol of friendship between Canada and the USA – it is called Roosevelt Campobello International Park. We enjoyed walking through the restored 34-room summer home and seeing all the pictures of Roosevelt and his family through the years of vacations there. The island is in Canada, but you get there from the USA; so we had to go through customs both going and coming.

We then continued on our way, crossed the border into Canada for good where we had excellent highway for the next 90 or so miles to St. John, New Brunswick where we spent the night. There was crazy construction at our exit to the campground – detours and no road signs– but we finally made it to our destination.

The next day was beautiful and we had a group bus tour around Saint John. We were first taken to Reversing Falls – The Saint John River flows into the Bay of Fundy as the tide goes down. Then the Bay of Fundy flows into the Saint John River as the tide rises. They have experienced tides as high as 52 feet. The current is so swift during tide changes that there is only a 20 minute window between tides (slack tide) when boats can safely navigate the falls area. We were able to witness the outgoing tide, slack tide and the rising tide – such an interesting phenomenon.

View from Reversing Falls restaurant

We were also treated to lunch at the Reversing Falls Restaurant and visited the Carlton Martello Tower.  This is a round stone tower built to protect Canada during the war of 1812 – it was built in a round shape because cannon balls tended to glance off the round shape instead of crashing through the walls. Only thing was, the war was over in 1814 and the tower wasn’t done until 1815. We also visited several historic buildings, and Market Square – a block long covered market.

Flowerpot Rocks at low tide

The next day we were off early on our trip to Hopewell Cape, also on the Bay of Fundy. Here the tides are also extremely high and low. We were able to visit at 11AM and hike to the beach when the tide was WAY out and the Flowerpot Rocks were high in the air. We returned again at high tide about 5PM and the difference was just amazing. At low tide many people were walking in the mud – we didn’t think it was important to do that. When we returned at high tide, we enjoyed watching the kayakers playing among the rocks at high tide, even kayaking through Lover’s Arch at high tide. The water in the Bay of Fundy is VERY muddy and at low tide the mud flats cover much of the area.

Flowerpot rocks at high tide

Monday we drove 143 miles to Truro in Nova Scotia. Our only stop that day was to the Nova Scotia Visitor’s Center. We had the option of going to the Ann Murray Museum and a Coal Miner Museum in Springhill, but we decided we needed a bit of unwinding time, so skipped both of them. Instead we got set up at the RV park and went to Walmart to get some supplies.

Tuesday we were off at 8:30 on the road to Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. We stopped at a Wild Animal Park where we walked along cages of Red Deer, Cougar, Buffalo, Bear, Deer, several bird and duck species etc. 

The next stop was at Grand Pre National Park. This was our introduction to the Acadian people – French Catholics who settled in what is now Nova Scotia. They lived peacefully off the land and sea, but the British and French each wanted them to pledge allegiance to them. The Acadians wouldn’t agree to that and eventually most were dispossessed and sent to England, the eastern USA, and other countries. We saw an excellent video about the history, enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds, and visited the reconstructed church.

By late afternoon we finally pulled into our campground (Dunromin). There were no plans for the evening, so the four of us drove the 20 miles to Digby – known for their outstanding scallops. We sat on the deck of the Shoreline Restaurant and had wonderful garlic-buttered scallops. And we also had to try the desserts – two of our group had carrot cake. When they brought the cake out we all about fainted. Each piece was HUGE – Yummy, we brought much of the cake home – also bought their fish chowder-to-go for dinner the next night.

Wayne, an Acadian, discusses 1700s lifestyle of his people

We stayed in Annapolis Royal the next day and were bused to several points of interest. We visited Port Royal – an Acadian community from the 1700s. Next we spent some time at Fort Anne. At both these places we had talks on the Acadian history.

We were then taken to lunch at a German bakery and restaurant. Following lunch we were given a tour of the Historic Gardens – a Victorian garden, heather garden, rose garden, and other beautiful plantings.

To complete our day we visited the tidal energy plant. This area experiences the extreme tides we witnessed in the Bay of Fundy (30-50 ft tides). The tide at the energy plant rises – gates close to hold that water in a huge basin. Once the tide water drops 40 feet below the dam, gates are opened  so the water in the pool spills through the generators producing energy. By using the tide, they can generate power 6 hours twice a day (after each high tide) – very interesting.

Lunenburg harbor

The next day we were off again and on our way to Peggy’s Cove on the North side of Nova Scotia. We took a side trip to Lunenburg – a quaint fishing village. Only problem was where do we park the RV? We drove through the really narrow streets of town twice before happening upon the Visitor Center and a park with adequate parking. We drove the car to the waterfront and enjoyed lunch as we looked over the harbor – we are getting our fill of seafood, and it is fresh and delicious. G and I had fish wraps, and Diann and Rich had two buckets of mussels. We then enjoyed going through a Maritime museum that included a lot of information about the schooners used for fishing a couple of hundred years ago.

Peggy's Cove and our campground

Because of our problems finding parking there and the very narrow (no shoulder) roads on much of our drive we didn’t pull into the park until almost 6PM, but it was worth the drive. We were parked at the shore of a beautiful cove and the sun was shining. This is the location of the Swiss Air flight 111 crash in 1998.

The next day (Friday, August 20) we were taken on a day-long bus tour to many interesting locations in and around Halifax. Our first stop was near the RV park – Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse. Peggy’s Cove and the lighthouse are the most photographed places in Nova Scotia.

Citadel regiment standing at attention

Then it was on to the Citadel in downtown Halifax. This is a huge fort where we had a 45 minute guided walk ending at the noon cannon firing. We enjoyed watching the fully uniformed regiments in formation.

We had a nice lunch at the Citadel Hotel before being driven to the Halifax Wharf where we had two hours to shop and enjoy the waterfront. We walked the length of the wharf where at the end we found a Cow’s ice cream outlet – in Canada, Cow’s ice cream is comparable to USA’s Ben & Jerry’s. We had to try it and it was delicious.

Fairview Cemetery - grave stones of Titanic deaths

Our final stop was at Fairview Cemetery where the people who died during the sinking of the Titanic were buried. The company that owned the Titanic bought a large area of the cemetery and put headstones there for each body – over 300 bodies were buried there. Since at the time they didn’t know the identities of these bodies, the stones were marked with the date the Titanic went down and the number of each body (numbered in order of recovery). Since that time many of those have been identified and their names put on the headstones. We learned that each body was carefully catalogued and any effects numbered so that relatives could try to identify their family members.