Sunday, June 12th.
We woke up to another beautiful, sunny, warm day. This morning there was a local run going through town, so we drove to Mahone Bay and had a look around the pretty town. When we got back to Lunenburg I visited the Fisheries Museum of the Altantic, while Shayna did some FaceTiming with family. The museum detailed the fishing industry from the beginning to the present day, including the collapse of the cod fishery and the efforts to replenish the stocks. I had an excellent tour from a young employee who was very passionate about the industry. Admission also included a chance to board and explore the oldest salt-fishing ship left in Canada, the 85 year old ‘Theresa E Conner’, the last of the schooner type ships that fished the Grand Banks. It held 12 dories which were small rowboats that two men would row and fish from for hours including at night through all sorts of weather. Again, I had an excellent tour with a young man who told me about life on the ship and the fishing processes. Below deck I saw the mess hall and the tiny bunks in the hull on the other side of the fish hold. Later, as we were going for a walk around the harbour, we tried to take a cruise on the Blue Nose II, which is docked here, but it was booked solid. So, we decided to sail on a smaller less crowded two masted ship that would allow us to take photos of the Blue Nose under sail. As we were walking around town, I recognized a colleague I had taught with at Cameron Public School twenty years before. As we were talking to her and her friend, she recognized Shayna… turns out Shayna was good friends with her sister! Small, small world. We walked around the gorgeous town and waterfront and managed to book a gorgeous inn for the night. It's called the Rum Runner, on Montague St. We got a corner room with an enclosed little patio on the third floor overlooking the harbour. Very bright, beautifully updated, freshly painted room…a far cry from last night's motel! We went on a two-hour sailboat ride on the harbour…the winds were crazy, and it was chilly. The side of the boat we were on was the side that pitched way down…we had to hang on hard to not slide off the seat, and our feet even got wet…the people on the other side were very grateful they were on the "up" side. Passengers were allowed to steer the ship, so I jumped at that chance and did it for about 20 minutes while the captain gave me some information about the ship and sailing. After the cruise, we went to a brewery, where I had a beer, and we shared a pound of delicious mussels! We sat on Muskoka chairs looking at the harbour...it was beautiful! We went for dinner a few doors away from our hotel and had a delicious seafood dinner. I had Cajun shrimp and Shayna had scallops. We chatted with a fun couple from Kingston at the table beside us. We decided to stay here today because the weather was so beautiful, and tomorrow is not supposed to be nice. So, we will drive to St John then. We made the most of it and had an excellent day! After fooling around we watched episode 5 of the Lincoln Lawyer before drifting off.
Hi again, Joe. These last 5 days of posts are great history lessons, both long-gone history like the Louisbourg Fortress and more recent history like the Blue Nose. And you look very comfortable piloting that two masted boat; must come from all that time you spent ferrying your friends from The Schemer House Pub in Magnetawan to your cottage and back. Fantastic pictures to go along with your commentary!
ReplyDeleteOops. that's the famous "Schmeler" House.
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