Yarmouth Nova Scotia

The city, which grew as a shipbuilding and shipping town, fell on hard times, most recently when ferry service to Maine ended. It is, however, somewhat recovering now that the ferry to Portland has recently been reinstated. It still has some distinguished buildings and a number of interesting Georgian and Italianate homes. After a brief walk throughout historic and downtown areas, we stopped for a couple Canadian goodbye drinks (including a Rudder’s Red at Rudder’s Brewpub) before retiring to our in for the night at the lovely historic MacKinnon-Cann Inn.

Each room has a theme. Ours was from I Love Lucy, complete with comfortable twin beds and 1950s furnishings. Our bathroom was large and had great lighting. Good wifi. Air conditioning not needed (the only minor issue was that our window fan had a squeak). Neil and Michael have put a lot of effort in restoring this building and it shows. They are also both very friendly, helpful, and provide hospitality with a capital H. It is a mere 5 blocks away from the ferry terminal, making it easy to hop on the ferry the next morning. Breakfast was basically whatever we wanted as they have a full kitchen onsite. We ordered eggs, toast, fresh fruit and yogurt–all very tasty.

 

Cape Sable island

After a brief drive around Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia’s far southeastern point, we turned around since the fog eliminated the views we were supposed to see.

To recoup our losses, we decided to have our last Nova Scotia supper at Barrington Passage’s Lobster Shack. Although it has pretty much anything lobster (steamed, rolls, bruschetta, creamed and more), it is primarily known for its lobster fondue. We came for lobster and love fondue: how could we resist? The lobster (the equivalent of a whole small lobster) came divided among eight skewers, with each piece bookended by pieces of garlic bread. Although we were surprised to see the fondue was a cream sauce, rather than cheese, we did enjoy it. And since this was the first restaurant at which we saw fried clams, we decided to try some, spilt with a dish both Joyce and I sometime had for Friday dinners at our youth time homes in Syracuse–fried haddock. Overall, a pretty good last supper.

 

The Missing Quarter (The Quarter of Nova Section We Didn’t Visit)

There is one section of Nova Scotia that we did not visit–the southwestern section.

This area has two primary attractions

• Digby (the largest commercial scallop industry in the world) and the long, scenic Digby Neck that stretches into the Bay of Fundy; and
• The Annapolis area which contains two of the oldest and most historic settlements–Annapolis Royal and Port Royal.

Annapolis Royal was settled by the French in 1630, taken over by the British in 1710, and served as the capital of Nova Scotia until 1749, when the capital was moved to Halifax. Port Royal, meanwhile, was the site of one of the first (1704) French settlements in North America. Annapolis Royal has some historic streets (especially St. George), buildings (including one from 1784) and a fort (Fort Anne), and Port Royal, a reconstruction of the original French settlement.

Perhaps on our next visit.