Southwest Nova Scotia (09-05-18)

We came away from Cape Breton with a much better picture of my family history- especially regarding the King family, which has been my primary focus.  We have new leads to follow and have already started. We stopped in the Guysborough area of Nova Scotia and although we didn’t learn much here, it was very cool for me to realize that my 5th great grandfather moved to this area from Virginia, in 1784.

We were headed to Halifax, again, to look for land deeds, but we took the long way there.  With temperatures hovering at 30 degrees ( that's Celsius) we opted for one more beach day. One of the perks to traveling in a truck camper is that we can check out from one campground, stop at the beach with the camper, hang out, make our own lunch, take a shower, and then go to the next campground. And that’s exactly what we did.

Once in Halifax, we hit the Archives as soon as they opened, and found the records we were looking for. We had suspected that my 5th great grandfather came to Nova Scotia with 4 children, not just the 3 we knew about, and the land deed records showed that Amelia Cook, daughter of George King, sold land at the same time as her sister, Rebecca King Langley.

That was a key piece of information for me, and the only thing we were looking for, so we met with Neil and Susan again for dinner, this time down at the Halifax waterfront.

Labor Day weekend is one of those weekends that its not always a good idea to wait till the last minute for campground reservations.  Paul and I had looked ahead and had to decide where we wanted to go. We could have done the Cabot trail again, on Cape Breton, but decided we didn’t need to do it again.

We debated heading back to the States, but there was a section of Nova Scotia that we hadn’t really explored, and we decided that it could be “now or never” so we booked places along the south western section of Nova Scotia.

Shelburne

  We bypassed the quaint, but well known towns of Liverpool and Lunenburg because we had visited them before and settled near the seacoast town of Shelburne.

This is a cute little town, with a few nice restaurants and a long history of Dory making.

I have seen Dories before, in fact, Gloucester MA has dory races every year. Anyway, although I had seen dories , I didn’t know much about them. Shelburne was known for their Dories, and at one time there were 7 dory builders in town. Now there is one museum, and they build about two per year.So here is what we learned:

A Dory is a shallow bottom boat, usually about 12-15 feet long. The shorter boats can be manned by one person and the longer boats require two people at the oars.

Dories have many purposes- fishing, transport, etc

They were cheap, and considered to be disposable, so if a dory sprung a leak, it was tossed overboard.

They were painted “Dory Buff Yellow” which was, at the time, the color most visible in a fog. New ones are sometimes painted in neon colors.  Back in the day, when they were used for fishing, two members of the same family were not allowed to go out on the same dory- the fatality rate was pretty high in the dory fishing world.

Kejimkujik

Trying to get back into the hiking routine, as much as possible, we stayed in provincial parks, as well as Kejimkujik National Park.

There are two sections to Kejimkujik- one deep in the woods, and another along the seashore.

We hiked them both. Paul’s favorite trail was probably the Gold Miner Trail- an interpretive hike that showcased the gold mining history of the area.

We noticed these weird contraptions all over the park, and finally chatted with a volunteer to find out what they are. The Blanding Turtle is endangered, and they love to lay their eggs in this particular area, only at night, and each year they return to the same spot. There is a group of volunteers that stay here and cover the eggs once they are laid, protecting them from predators. Once they hatch, each turtle is marked with a unique code ( they notch the shell) and released.









As we were hiking back to our campsite one day, I got a kick out of this sign that showed our speed. I was pretty impressed with our walking pace until I remembered it’s in kilometers per hour, not miles. Still, it was funny.

Digby

Our final stop in Nova Scotia was Digby.  They are known for their scallops so of course we searched for a restaurant on the water where we could enjoy a glass of wine and some seafood.

Nearby Annapolis Royal has a cute downtown area and also Historical botanical gardens.  We meandered around the gardens for a bit, and bought some amazingly delicious orange vinegar from their gift store.

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (08-28-18)

Well, I am kind of getting ahead of myself a bit. Before we went to Cape Breton, we spent 5 days in Halifax.  Halifax is the largest city in this area of Canada, and is where the historical records are kept for the province.  We spent 4 days combing through records.

We came up for air long enough to meet up with our friends Neil and Susan.  They live here, and we met them on our first visit here.  It was Neil that convinced us to go to Newfoundland back in 2013.

Once we had gathered all the information we could in Halifax, we left for Cape Breton. Cape Breton is an island, connected to the mainland by a causeway.

Its not a huge island, so we decided to stay at Battery Provincial Park for our entire stay. It is centrally located enough that we could reach all the places we needed to be.

It’s about 30 minutes from Port Hastings, where my father’s paternal grandparents were from, about 40 minutes from Isle Madame, where my dad’s maternal grandparents were from, and about 25 minutes from where my maternal grandmother grew up.

We really loved this park. With no reservations, we had to move sites a few times, and mostly didn’t have electric hook up, but that’s easy to do in the camper, and the park was very well kept and had great views.

As added bonuses, there were very few bugs, so we could have campfires, and there is a pair of resident bald eagles that we watched a few times.

I think we spent a total of 4 or 5 full days at the Port Hastings Historical Society. That is the area that the Kings were from, and when I said what family name I was interested in, they handed me a folder with a ton of information! I didn’t have time to digest it all so I took pictures and have been going through the information as I can.






One thing that makes it harder, is internet access. Although I have my full data allotment, Paul has nothing, so we have to share.  And Google maps is a data hog. Many public places have Wi-Fi, which helps some but it is still a challenge.

We took one full day and drove the island of Isle Madame, home to many many Samson and Boudreau families-I am related to most of the people on the island, in some way or other. We spent a few hours in the library there, and one of the guys working  there set up his computer and let me copy a “communal” family tree that was put together during a genealogy summit a few years ago.

Once we had that, we drove around the island checking out the towns and seashore. Samson Cove was very pretty.

My great grandfather Thomas Boudreau was born here on the island, in Boudreauville- there are many small towns on Cape Breton that are named for the family that lived there. I love sea glass, and it was actually really cool to find some on a beach near the town.










There are people who I correspond with who are researching the same families- so we are related in some way- and we share what information we find. I have also reached out to a few people on Ancestry DNA, sometimes to share info, sometimes just to say hi.

Leo King and I have been sharing information for a year or so now and he set me up to meet his brother Charlie, who lives on Cape Breton. Charlie and I are 2nd cousins once removed. It was very strange meeting a relative named Charlie King- that was my dad’s name.

Charlie was awesome and showed us all around, pointing out where the old settlements had been. Most were gone and the families moved on- often just down the road it seems. One challenge in doing research here is that the names of the towns have changed since the time period I am researching. My great grandfather was born in Caribou Cove- its now Port Malcolm. My great great grandfather lived in Plaster Cove- now Port Hawkesbury, and my great great great grandfather lived in Ship Harbour- now Port Hastings.  At least I feel like I have the lay of the land better now!



I got a response to a message I sent on Ancestry to a 2nd cousin who lives in Nova Scotia. The reply said “hi- I am the guy whose computer  you used the other day in the library- we are cousins??” Too funny!


The nearby town of Johnstown is where my grandmother Josephine Johnston grew up. While Isle Madame is the French/Acadian area of Cape Breton, Johnstown/Red Islands  is the Scottish area of the island.

Many of the signs are in Gaelic as well as English, including some stop signs. I have been fascinated with the differences we have found in the food and the accents on the Island. Many of the people of Isle Madame speak with a French-ish accent, and the people of Johnstown favor a Scottish one.

I remembered that the last time we were here, we missed the annual Milling Frolic by just a few days so I asked around and found out we would indeed be here for it this year!

It’s the oldest running milling frolic in Nova Scotia- 87 Years . In days gone by, people got together to “kneed “ wool cloth to shrink it. Nowadays it’s a social event, where they mill the cloth while singing in Gaelic.

They open the Sacred Heart church community center for the party. We were amazed to see hundreds of people show up for this event .

There is food served, a room where Bingo was being played, and a place for kids to do artwork.

Before all the “real singers” showed up they asked people to fill in the seats, so I got to sit while everyone else sang in Gaelic. Once the Gaelic singing was done they had a dance that lasted till 1 am. Or so we hear. We left at 10:30.

After about 10 days on the island, we were both ready to move on.

Campobello (08-10-18)

Once you head north out of Acadia National Park, it isn’t too long before you run into Canada. We had no reservations anywhere, so we looked at a map to see what looked interesting. Campobello was the answer to that question.

Campobello is an international park- basically that means that everyone who comes to visit needs a passport. Its also an island, and the border stops are at either end of the bridge.




At the border stop our way onto the island (which is in New Brunswick) we were asked, as usual, about our alcohol. Paul replied our agreed upon answer :  not a lot- just enough for personal use. Deliberately vague, since we are only allowed basically a liter apiece, and we perhaps had more than that. (We sort of had forgotten we brought a .75 liter bottle of the good tequila.) The agent was very nice and let us know that  next time, we need to know exactly what we have, in case they check, and find more than we said- in which case they could flag us. Hmm…now we had to drink for two days or heaven forbid, dump something out.

We had booked two nights in the Provincial Park, and once we were set up, we went off exploring. At one end of the island there is a smaller, very picturesque island, with a light house on it.

Both the island and the mainland we were standing on had stairs leading down into the water-and a big sign:

When we looked into the water, we could see arrows painted on the rocks, showing where the trail is. It would have been fun, but we never did get there at low tide. That’s ok, we got to watch the whales off the coast.

So, what is Campobello? An escape from everyday life and the heat of the city for the rich and who cares if they are famous.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s parents took him here when he was a young child and was sick, because they thought the sea air would do him good. They fell in love with the place and built a “cottage”. They were one of about 30 wealthy families who had homes on the island. Whenever they were here, they mingled with the locals and were really just interested in the fresh air, being outdoors, and sailing.



Franklin grew up spending summers on the island, and his children continued the tradition as much as possible. When the next door neighbor passed away, she left her cottage to Franklin and Eleanor, and they no longer had to share space with his mother.

We took two tours on the island, which are offered free of charge. The first was a half hour tour of the Roosevelt cottage. The tour guides are really knowledgeable and the tour was really interesting.

The second tour was longer, and was called the FUN tour. She started by asking us all to introduce ourselves by adding an adjective in front of our name that starts with the first letter of our name. We went around the circle, and I became Silly Sue, since that’s all I could think of. When we were done, she said she just wanted to see if we would do it. There was some silliness like that, but also we got to go behind the scenes more, and heard more personal type stories of the people on the island.




At a neighbors cottage, we heard about the crazy parties they would have, with dancing and live music. Franklin would often play the piano at the parties. Then she asked if anyone played, and everyone who did, was given a chance to play the piano.

Usually the dancing would take place on the large deck, and once we got there, each family group was given 5 minutes to practice a dance to perform for everyone. There would be a prize for the best dance.

I was surprised that everyone was pretty inventive. We had the Chicken Dance, the Macarena, and the Hokey Pokey.

I was even more surprised when we actually won, for our version of the “Porter Polka”.



Most people participated- and the guides were very upfront before the tour- if you didn’t want to have fun and be silly, its not the tour for you!





After the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962, the land was deeded to the United States and Canada and is jointly owned and operated by the two countries.


After leaving the island, we spent one night back in the U.S. before heading back into Canada. We stocked up on some food items and did some laundry before we would need to pay for it with Canadian coins.

Once we crossed into Canada again, we headed straight for Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. We have been here before but it was a good stopping point along the way to Nova Scotia.

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world- up to 50 feet.  When the tide is low, you can walk on the sea floor. There is an up stair case, and a separate Down staircase, due to the amount of people. You buy at ticket that is good for two days, so you can come at low tide one day and high tide the next.

Lucky for us that a) we have been here before and b) we chose to go at low tide first- because the second day, the weather was awful and certainly was not worth getting drenched to see high tide.

Anyway, this is what the rocks look like at low tide and  high tide- to get a perspective, you can see people underneath the rocks in the first picture.





















We had one more treat to repeat before we headed into Nova Scotia. The tidal bore. Along with such a huge tidal change, comes a tidal bore.  Basically, so much water rushes in the river so fast, that it comes in as a wave.  In Moncton there is a park where you can watch the bore come down the river. Once the wave passes, the water level raises at an incredible pace.

Now we were ready to move on to Nova Scotia.

Hiking Acadia (8-05-18)

We have been to Acadia twice before, and I guess you could say we have seen the “tourist stuff”. So this time, we were all about the hiking, and the food, and the visiting…..

The only reason we really decided to stop here now is because I looked for a last minute spot and actually found one, in the park,  no hook up, but close to hiking trails.

We hit the ground running, so to speak, with the Dorr Mountain Ladder Trail. This trail uses ladders and stone stairs to ascend Dorr Mountain.














When I saw the description of this trail I was pretty excited. It had a good amount of elevation gain at 1150 ft, and at 3.3 miles, it was short enough for us to handle.

I thought it looked like a lot of fun, and it was. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Once we were done with the ladders, we had some granite to hike up.

The views at the top of the fog shifting over the nearby islands definitely made it worth it.

Our descent was slowed by the blueberries along the trail. We are in prime blueberry season and there were thousands of them just sitting there along the trail. Yum!

Our “day off” from hiking was spent…hiking. One of Paul’s fraternity brothers lives in the area, and we met up with him for a hike. It wasn’t in the National park- it was in a dog friendly park so that we could bring Cooper, Rich’s young black English Lab.

It was a 3 mile hike but essentially no elevation gain, so it was reasonably easy.









With the temperature and the humidity in the mid 80s, Cooper was just happy he was allowed to go for a swim!










Our reward was lunch with a view. We picked up sandwiches at a nearby deli and relaxed on the waterfront.
We also went to dinner at Rich and Sue’s house one night, but of course, I didn’t get any pictures!

Next up on our hiking agenda was the Precipice Trail….sounds scary, doesn’t it? Yep, so scary that this is all I saw of the trail:

They warn  you in large letters that if you are afraid of heights, this is not the trail for you. It literally climbs up the side of the mountain. Hmm, not for me, but Paul has wanted to do this trail for a while.. It’s usually closed because of nesting peregrine falcons, but there was no nest this year.











Off he went, along with about 20 other people that started at the same time as him. With my having no cell coverage in the park, we both took Jeep key with us. It was my intention to walk down the road to the beach and hang out there while I waited for him, but I never left.




Instead, I chatted with people as they were starting the trail and also with those who were finishing, so the time passed by pretty quick. And I took lots of pictures.  I couldn’t tell until we got home to the computer that I actually managed to get a few of him.



:
He is waiting for his turn to climb one of the ladders in this picture.

This is what it looked like to him:

He was quite impressed with the view from the top.

It took him about 3 hours to do the trail.

Its been really hot and muggy in Acadia, and we quickly learned to keep our swimsuits and towels in the Jeep so they would be handy. Most days we ended up at Sand Beach for a swim, or in Paul’s case, watching his wife swim.

Running out of days to hike, we broke our unwritten rule of taking a day off in between, and headed for the Beehive Trail the day after he hiked the Precipice.

The Beehive isn’t a long trail on its own – once you climb up it, you decide which trail you want to take to get back down.

Its a mini version of the Precipice trail, with it’s share of ladder climbing and steep drop offs.

This picture was actually taken when we hiked it the first time, in 2009- it shows both the steep drop, and the gorgeous views.

This is my least favorite section of the trail, where I really debate turning around.

Once we reached the top, Paul decided his legs had had enough and he opted for the short trail back down. I wanted to do the Gorham Mountain Trail, so he went back to the Jeep and drove down the road to the trailhead where I would finish.

It was a fun trail, with great views, and the total mileage was only about 2 miles.

Before leaving Acadia, he managed to have lobster one more time- this time it was a lobster roll- his first time having one! It was so great that the weather was nice enough to sit out on the dock at the Fish House Grill.