Canada: Nova Scotia & New Brunswick (dedicated to my Uncle Bill)

Until recently, all I knew about Nova Scotia was that it’s in Canada, and that Carly Simon sang about some vain ex flying his leer jet there to see the total eclipse of the sun.

Canada had been on my bucket list for several years, and at some point I had bought a travel magazine which boasted of its beauty through articles supplemented by photographs that reinforced my idea of seeing at least some of it someday. But I had never narrowed down any particular places in Canada I wanted to visit. As my cousin, Denise, and I were at the early stages of planning a trip for the Fall of 2022, we started digging through some of my travel paraphernalia for ideas on where to go. I have a book by National Geographic called 50 States 5000 Ideas: Where to Go-When to Go-What to See-What to Do. This book includes ten Canadian provinces. This book contained our winner!

We were both enamored by the photographs in the Canada section of the book. But it was a photo of a woman wearing waders, standing ankle deep in the Margaree River fly-fishing, surrounded by woods full of tall Balsam Fir’s amidst other trees whose coloring shouted of early fall that really lured us in. I’ll admit, as much as I love rivers, lakes, and salt water (especially), boating, sailing, swimming, etc., I have never been into any kind of fishing. But Denise lit up when she started telling me she had learned to fly-fish and what great fun it is. She was convincing enough with her words and with the joy on her face from talking about it that we decided our fall trip would include fly-fishing in Nova Scotia!

Because neither of us knew much of anything about the area, I read up on it to find out about things to do in Nova Scotia. Halifax seemed to be the hub for all things people go to Nova Scotia to see. It’s where the cruise ships dock, and it’s the pickup point for tour companies like Viator for people who book any tours of Nova Scotia through them. So, we decided Halifax would be our home for the five days we would be there.

We took the ferry from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. We then drove the three and a half hours from Yarmouth to Halifax. It was just getting dark when we got off of the ferry, so the drive was after the sun went down. We couldn’t see anything around us on the road through the thick darkness that was. Any landscape around us was a complete mystery. The entire drive was on a highway that was void of any other traffic, gas stations, resting areas, or any other visible structure that denotes civilization. We passed an occasional car here and there, but there just weren’t many people on the road. That was helpful when I had to pee and just couldn’t hold it any longer-it made the typical concerns about pulling onto the shoulder of the road and taking care of business become no concern at all!

When we finally made it to Halifax, we were both stunned at what we were seeing. From the pictures and all that we had both read, this was supposed to be a beautiful place. But that was not what we saw. It felt like we were someplace not safe. It felt dark and oppressive and dirty. Our first siting of people was a young man and woman on the side of the road yelling at each other, and it appeared he had grabbed her purse and thrown it, with the contents strewn across the sidewalk and street, her trying to pick it all up in the midst of their fight.

We made it to our hotel and felt safe enough once we were in the room. But we both had concerns about our safety overall. Regardless, the next morning, we loaded up and headed out along the coast-destination Peggy’s Cove. The wind was ruthless, and the rain equally persistent, but it was still an amazing day. We saw a lot of spectacular views along the coast on the drive. And once we arrived at Peggy’s Cove, we stayed for a couple of hours. The views were worth the drive, and they were worth enduring the wind and rain. The gift shop at the lighthouse undoubtely sold many raincoats that day-at least one for certain.

After viewing the lighthouse, we had lunch at a restaurant right beside it called The Sou’Wester. I had lobster nachos for the first time in my life. Let me just tell you, they were the best nachos I’ve ever eaten! When we finished lunch, we walked around the area and visited the shops within walking distance. We also got a lot of photos from the fishing cove. The place was spectacular. Should you ever make it to Nova Scotia, I highly recommend a visit to Peggy’s Cove. Although I don’t recommend going all the way to Nova Scotia (should it be a long trek for you) just to see it.

Once we were back in Halifax, we visited Fairview Lawn Cemetery, where over one hundred victims of the Titanic sinking in 1912 are buried. Halifx played a significant role in helping recover the victims of that trajedy. I have had a lot of interest in learning details about the ships sinking for years (sparked by the 1997 James Cameron film, Titanic), so seeing the graves of many of the victims was surreal for me.

Halifax is mostly known for its harbor that holds 2.5 miles of boardwalk lined with incredible restaurants and shops. When Denise and I left the cemetery, we headed for the boardwalk. This was when we discovered that we really had not done a very good job with our homework on the area, so, that’s on us. But learn from the mistakes we made. Like much of New England in the U.S., Halifax businesses are seasonal. The places that were actually open (very few) closed at 5pm…or maybe it was 6pm, but regardless, it was about fifteen minutes before we parked and started exploring the area. It was a ghost town! And in one of the two or three shops we found that were still open, the girl working there didn’t know anything about anything. She had no idea if other places were open, other places we could go, nothing!! Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nothing beyond the time the store she was working in closed, and that the ice cream stand just outside of her store was open “sometimes”. I felt like we were in the midst of living out a Stephen King novel! (Notice there are almost no people in any of the photos taken in downtown Halifax!)

We did manage to find a place for a nice dinner in Halifax, then headed back to the hotel. Once we were back, we decided to cut our trip to Nova Scotia short. We were supposed to be there Monday through Friday, but we got there Monday night and left Wendesday morning. Our decision was based on the fact that we had seen all we came to see, nothing was open, and then the significant fact that hurricane Fiona was on her way and predicted to hit right where we were (and, in fact, did just that). That being the case, our ferry back to Maine got cancelled because of the already rough seas. So, we loaded up the car and drove that little rental Kia all eightish hours back to Bar Harbor, Maine. The plus side to that was that we were able to see a lot more of Nova Scotia in the car during daylight, which confirmed we didn’t really miss much while we were there. It also meant we had to drive through New Brunswick to get back to Maine.

Because we were in New Brunswick anyway, and St. John was one of the places we had to drive through to get back to Maine, we stopped there to see what we could see. St. John is also a docking town for cruise ships, so we thought there may be some neat things to see and do. We had already decided before leaving Halifax that we would determine whether or not to stay the night in St. John, or to drive on back to Maine, based on what we could find to do in St. John.

While it was a beautiful town, it was the same deal we encountered in Nova Scotia. Everything closes early. Really early. And notice again the lack of people around in the photos taken there. We walked around for about an hour or so, then got in the car and headed back for the USA. I should point out before ending this recap of my visit to Canada that we never could find a place that hosted fly-fishing that would work for our schedule. We both searched and searched, and of the one or two we found, it was such a far drive from Halifax that we just couldn’t make it work. Had we managed, it likely would have been cancelled anyway because of the hurricane making its way toward us. In addition, we did get to see the Bay of Fundy. We saw LOTS of it at various points along the drive between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. It was a muddy mess, but it was still neat to see it. And one more cool point about this trip-after crossing the border from New Brunswick back into Maine, we were at the top of US 1, which runs from Florida to Maine and is the longest north to south road in the United States. This means I have now been to the very top and the very bottom of US 1, with the bottom being in Key West, Florida. I wish I had taken a photo of me standing next to the sign in Maine like I did in Key West.

In short I say this about Nova Scotia; If you’re close to it and you want to see some of it, by all means, DO IT! There are some beautiful sites to be seen. But if getting there is a long (or more importantly, expensive) trek for you, find a place closer to where you are with similar landscapes to see. I find the coast of Maine to be much more beautiful than Nova Scotia. In fact, the only parts of Nova Scotia that I actually found to be beautiful at all were directly on the coast. The rest was just flat, plain, and uninteresting…but, that’s just my opinion. Ultimately, it all boils down to what you like and are drawn to. Having said that, should you decide to plan a trip, do your research on the seasonal operations. I suspect downtown Halifax is amazing during peak season. It just wasn’t while we were there.