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Today was our Bay of Fundy Day and border crossing. 

We left our Airbnb around 10AM to head out to Truro. We were hoping to see the Fundy Discovery Centre. If anything, it was an easy bathroom break, but to our luck, we were right on time to see the Tidal Bore where the river reverses itself as the tide pushes in. This happens twice per day at Truro (where the centre is), but it was lucky for us to be there at the moment it occurred.

After this, we thought it might be fun to take a detour to the Joggins Fossil Centre. Peter, a local we met at Peggy's Cove the other day said this would be fun for Kai. It might possibly be the highlight of our trip. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site as it reveals the most complete fossil record of the "Coal Age." You are basically walking in and around fossils wherever you go.

Also, it was low tide when we were there, so really a lot to see. 

I did also make a detour to see Hopewell Rocks. Honestly, it was too far away and I didn't have much time other than to get this picture.

If you want to work at Tim Horton's, here is your questionnaire.

When we got to the border in St. Stephen's, there was only one border agent for passenger cars. I don't think she was very busy on a Tuesday night.

After driving through what appeared to be back country Maine for almost two hours, we got to our place in Gouldsboro.

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One last full day in the Halifax area. Today was going to be our old towns and lighthouse day.

The plan was to drive down quickly to Lunenburg - a UNESCO World Heritage site as it is has been a well preserved British colonial settlement. 

Heidi and Kai on the dock

jellyfish swimming alone

view of the town from afar

Another small town is Mahone Bay. It wasn't as pretty as Lunenberg, but it did have this small fairy walk.

When I told some people I was going to Nova Scotia, they asked if I was going to Oak Island. Apparently there is rumor of treasure buried there. I believe it was a History Channel show. The island is closed to visitors apparently.

One thing that I had forgotten about was the Swissair Flight 111 crash in the late 90's. The flight crashed at sea just offshore. There is a memorial along the drive. The area near Peggy's Cove and another community helped with the clean up effort of the flight. Kind of a quiet, solemn spot.

The memorial consists a few large rocks.

And finally, Peggy's Cove Lighthouse. It was a beautiful day today when we got there around 4PM. We barely got a parking spot - I can't imagine what it is like in July and August. We spoke to a local, he said one cruise ship was seen today, but in the height of summer, normally 3 cruise ships full of people come to visit.

The rocks were really big, and fun to walk around and enjoy the scenery. I could have easily spent 2 hours just walking around. I was able to get a few of the rocks to put in my backyard.

Here is the picture that the local took of us. He did a great job on the photo.

Finally, a video - I thought it would be good at showing the full scene.

We haven't had a proper seafood meal here, so the local we asked said the Food Factory would be good. It actually was about perfect. A nice outdoor meal of Lobster Roll under an umbrella.

we liked the inflatable lobster

nice music outside as well

$29 lobster roll, but I never regret paying for an experience

Tomorrow we hit the road. I'm hoping we can visit the Fundy National Park (all Canadian National Parks are free for the summer). Should be another nice day.

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Most of today's pictures are from the Discovery Centre where we met Norann and Audrey again. One thing we really like about Halifax is that prime parking is either relatively cheap ($5 for all day like yesterday), or free like today.

operating an excavator

flying a plane

bubbles

more bubbles

LEGO

in a maze

The maze was all about optical illusions. I like this type of stuff.

After the Discovery Centre, we went for pizza. The afternoon forecast was looking possibly rainy, so we decided against the ferry to Dartmouth (the twin city across the river), and went for a local pizza shop.

After that we went for a walk on the waterfront. They have these melted light poles as art. Kind of neat - I have no idea if they light up at night. Quick google search, looks like they are called the drunken lampposts. 

This is St. George's island - it must have had something to do with the military.

One of the goals of the walk was to get a bottle of wine. You probably can't purchase Nova Scotia wines in the US anywhere, so I thought if I bought one, it might be a good conversation starter. Their wine region is called Annapolis Valley, and the type of wine they make is called "Tidal Bay."

Mike and Norann are house hunting. They live downtown where they both are close enough that they could walk to work if need be. We are farther out, so Norann was interested in seeing our place. The newer homes are in our direction, but it would also mean that they would both need to own a vehicle (they have only one vehicle now).

doing some art at our Airbnb

I don't know of a lot of foods that I eat regularly from Nova Scotia, but I think this might be the only one, so I bought it.

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Today we met Heidi's friend Norann and her daughter Audrey for breakfast at a Canadian chain called "Cora." 

Kai took to Audrey right away, and snuck under the table to sit next to her the whole time.

After that, they showed us the public gardens quickly before Audrey went to a birthday party.

it was kind of like spring again - temps of 75F were warm for Halifax

We also checked out The Citadel, a fortress high above modern Halifax. It was a British outpost - not necessarily looking to expand British/Canadian power, but just to protect the port and country in the 1880's.

on top of the Citadel Hill

And now a bunch of photos in the buildings, couryard and atop the walls where the cannons are.

Here we are pretending to sign up for the British Army using a dip pen. It took a while to get enough ink to fill out the form.

Around 3:30PM or so, we met them down at a waterfront playground. A lot happening at the waterfront.

Here is the Yellow Submarine playground.

This wave sculpture is not meant to be climbed on, but no one listens.

Some random views...

Finally, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia license plates. I have seen neither ever before (that I can remember).

I believe the ship is called a "bluenose"