Travels WithJohn and Janice

Travel blog

Every trip we've shared since 2011—filter by where we went, when we traveled, or what we explored.

Showing 6 of 236 posts

Looking out over the water from the Bell grounds at BaddeckCanada
2 min read2017

Dateline August 22, 2017, Alexander Graham Bell

Our last stop in Nova Scotia was the Alexander Graham Bell site at Baddeck, where the great inventor summered. We knew him for the telephone; we did not know he was Scottish-born and a longtime Canadian, nor that he chased the Wright Brothers into the air with the Silver Dart, built a record-setting hydrofoil, and gave his deepest passion to teaching the deaf, work for which Helen Keller said he carried her from darkness to light. In the morning, the six-hour ferry to Newfoundland and the heart of our trip.

#Alexander Graham Bell#Baddeck#Cape Breton
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Janice firing a musket at the Fortress of LouisbourgCanada
6 min read2017

Dateline August 21, 2017, The Fortress of Louisbourg

Everyone said not to miss Louisbourg, and they were right. The great French fortress, once guarding the third-busiest port in the New World, has been brought back to life a quarter at a time, its streets full of costumed soldiers and storytellers. We pulled on wool uniforms, stood up as new recruits before a crowd, heard how a recruit chose each month between shoes and wine, and fired the muskets ourselves. Down the road stood the first lighthouse site in Canada. A day we won't forget.

#Louisbourg#Fortress of Louisbourg#Cape Breton
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The Lakes Golf Club at Ben EoinCanada
3 min read2017

Dateline August 20, 2017, Golf in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia gave us three rounds and a new friendship. At Amherst we drew Spud and Patty from Truro, Spud raised on PEI potatoes, thirty-one years a sailor, and we liked them enough to follow Spud to his home club. A roadside repair set us back eighty-five dollars and not much time, a lakeside campground tried to park us beside two Porta Potties and lost our business, and The Lakes at Ben Eoin turned out one of the prettiest, toughest courses we've played. On to Louisbourg.

#Amherst#Truro#The Lakes at Ben Eoin
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The Hopewell Rocks at low tide, New Brunswick, the Bay of Fundy's signature flowerpot formationsCanada
8 min read2012

Dateline July 22, 2012, Back to the Bay of Fundy on the North Side, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

Back from Newfoundland and onto the north shore of the Bay of Fundy. The Truro tidal bore turned out to be a small wake of a wave that produced an entire crowd singing 'Is That All There Is?' Five Islands, Nova Scotia, was the most beautiful campground of the trip, with hummingbirds at the fish store next door. The Hopewell Rocks at low tide in New Brunswick. Kelly's Bakery cinnamon buns in Alma. And a meaningful detour: a Fairweather family ancestry mission in Sussex on behalf of John's brother Will, where we found four graves of our forebears, including Hanford Fairweather, who died at age ten and for whom John is named. Then to Saint John, the Reversing Falls, the ferry to Deer Island and on to Campobello, FDR's summer cottage, and the bridge across to Lubec, Maine. Back in the USA.

#canada#nova-scotia#new-brunswick
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The finale of the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, Halifax, July 2012Canada
8 min read2012

Dateline July 11, 2012, Halifax, the Tattoo, and Cape Breton

Into Halifax for the Maritime Museum, where the Titanic story still lives because Halifax was the port that received the bodies. A reunion with Roadtrek friends Ann and Ruth, who had just arrived in Nova Scotia. The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo on Saturday afternoon, with the 1812 Overture and a surprise wedding inside the show. Then over to Cape Breton: the Ceilidh Trail, fish and chips at the Rankin family's Red Shoe Pub in Mabou, a shot at the Glenora single-malt distillery, the Cabot Trail, the Englishtown cable ferry, and a quiet round at Seaview Golf. And finally the Marconi National Historic Site at Glace Bay, where a retired ham operator named James Charlong gave us a tour that turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole trip, partly because John had reviewed Morse code messages for the Army Security Agency a long career ago, and standing at the foundations of Marconi's 1902 transatlantic station closed a quiet circle.

#canada#nova-scotia#halifax
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The lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, one of the most photographed spots on the Atlantic coastCanada
8 min read2012

Dateline July 5, 2012, Nova Scotia, Pictou to Peggy's Cove

Off the ferry at Pictou and across mainland Nova Scotia. Truro at the top of the Bay of Fundy, where we missed the tidal bore by a few hours. Grand Pré on the Annapolis Valley with the Bay's enormous tides going out at our campground. Two wineries in one afternoon, including a Scottish ex-pat ENT surgeon named Jon Muir Murray who had landed in Nova Scotia by way of South Africa and Bermuda. Parker's Cove, a working fishing village where the lobster boats stand on wooden braces at low tide and a fresh two-pound lobster cost $4.50 a pound. Our 13th anniversary, played at Annapolis Royal Golf Club, dinner of lobster and haddock from the village fish market with champagne from Domaine de Grand Pré. Then Shelburne, Lunenburg with the Bluenose II under restoration, and the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove.

#canada#nova-scotia#pictou
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