Tourist traps and history

     Tonight is our next to last in Canada. We have a reservation on the Yarmouth- Portland ferry Friday morning. It will take six and a half hours and Matty will enjoy every minute of it. Who knew he was into ferries?
    After two scenic, but not particularly touristy days in New Brunswick we have more than caught up on our tourist duties the last couple of days. We went to Magnetic Hill where you coast down a hill that looks as though it goes uphill. From this one trick of the eye they have built an impressive tourist attraction with a zoo and water park. It is billed as Canada's third most popular tourist destination. It took all of ten minutes. Then we went to see a 42 foot tide at high tide. The next morning we went back to see it at low tide. Even better than the magnetic hill. Then we went to Joggins, our first stop in Nova Scotia. It has fossil beds on the beach of the Bay of Fundy. It was cool, somewhere between the tide and the Hill.
    Today went to a historical site dedicated to the "derangement" of the Acadians in 1755. By all accounts the 1500 Acadians living on the south coast of the Bay of Fundy were living successful lives having managed to tame the tides by building dykes and farming on them. Unfortunately, politics did them in. They were adamantly neutral regarding the French and Indian Wars, which the English found threatening. So they were kicked out and replaced by settlers who would swear allegiance to the crown. The English claimed it was all done for security reasons, but I have to believe there was an economic component in there as well. The whole episode reminds me of the Highland Clearings several years later when the English kicked Scots off land they lived and worked on so that the landlords could open up the land for more profitable uses.
    We also visited a site established by the French in 1605. When Jamestown ran into trouble the English sent forces up here to ransack the place, which they did in 1613. The English did not get a lot of love today.
     The tourist industry has certainly invested in this part of the country. Whereas in New Brunswick there were areas where you wondered when the next restaurant or lodging would appear, around here you need not worry. Many of the towns have a Cape Cod feel. Hotels, B and B's, and lots of camping/rv's/cabin facilities. Art galleries and antique stores abound.
     Matty finally had the full on lobster experience today. He tried to do it a couple of days ago, but was told that the lobsters had shed in July losing fifty percent of their meat and their hard shells in the process and harvesting would not begin again until October. The restaurant he went to serves lobster year around by being so huge that they harvest extra lobster in the summer and keep them alive for this time of year. I don' t know if that affects their taste and texture, but when compared to Dungeness crab he gives lobster the edge in practicality, but crab wins in taste and tenderness. He was told by an offended Nova Scotian that the inferior soft shelled lobsters are served in New Brunswick. Apparently the provinces are not divided only by language.
    Tomorrow we drive to Yarmouth to buy me some Dramamine.

Precious

Comments

  1. Ferries are wonderful especially after long drives. Looking forward to more pictures. Thank you for writing it sounds beautiful. Looking forward to hearing about New York

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  2. Ah-yuh. I had me a lobster day (lunch and dinner) in Maine fifteen years ago. I haven't felt the need to eat lobster since. --Barbara

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