Our Trip to the Atlantic Coast

All of my pictures are posted on facebook (well, the ones worth looking at, anyway), so here’s the lazy persons way of putting them on my blog. 

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127452&id=638161726&l=d2d88c357d

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127472&id=638161726&l=5018290859

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127710&id=638161726&l=4f926cf83a

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127914&id=638161726&l=659b3b9018

Whew!  that pretty much sums it up.  Except for the places we stayed and the food we ate.  Lots of fish.  YUM!!  They really do make the best fish ever out there.  I’m not a big fan of seafood chowder, but had some in North Sydney that was excellent.

The one thing that is missing from my pictures is our adventure in Glace Bay.  We popped into a mining museum at exactly the wrong moment.  A guy glommed onto us and told us excitedly that the last mine tour of the day was just about to get underway, and if we wanted to join it we should hustle on down, and don’t worry,  you can pay later!  So we hustled.  We donned hard hats and big black capes.  I only had time to think that this would probably be an underground ride on one of those little mining cart train things, but as we walked down into the mine shafts I realized THAT wasn’t gonna happen.  The ceilings got lower and lower so that we had to stoop.  I kept banging my hard hatted head on overhead beams.  And I’m pretty short.  Finally we joined the group of similarly demented tourists who were patiently awaiting our arrival.  The talk began, and I think it was pretty interesting, but my mind was kind of wandering.  It was dark, and cold and wet and generally icky down there.  I couldn’t see what was happening with my camera, and found out later I had taken a video of a stuffed horse.  It was a very short horse, so maybe it was a pony.  Told you I wasn’t listening.   I put my camera in my pocket and concentrated on breathing instead.  We went further down into the earth.  It got darker, if that’s even possible.  The guide started talking about mine disasters.  Water was dripping from the beams and I swear the passages went down to a height of four feet.  GAH.  Then we all packed into a little area with slightly better light around a little hydroponic garden and sat on benches and got a good look at eachother’s stunned expressions.  Even sitting we still had to stoop.  The fellow talking to us had been a miner, and his father before him.  He knew a lot of stuff.  He could answer all your questions, and with a sense of humor too!  I decided to save laughing until I got the hell out of there.  Finally walking steadily towards the surface felt like leaving hell behind.  I don’t know how those miners kept their sanity.  Maybe they never had any in the first place.  Taking off the hard hat and the cape felt very liberating.  Then we watched some film footage of miners and mines and strikes and poverty.  Those miners were slaves.  Our little jaunt was a picnic compared to what they endured. 

Now I can add fear of being underground to my fear of water.  Seeing an underground lake would probably kill me.  The ferry rides were okay because the ships were so huge and you could look at many things other than the ocean.  The overnight part was okay too.  I just kept telling myself that as long as the alarm bells weren’t going off, we were probably still afloat. 

All in all, it was a wonderful experience.  Nova Scotia in particular was worth seeing.  The people we met there were the friendliest I think.  And they have a Nova Scotia accent, not as pronounced as the Newfoundlanders, but endearing  just the same.  Would I ever go back?  Probably not.  Been there, done that, didn’t drown.  Saw some great stuff and learned at lot.