We Are Home

We arrived home on Wednesday and literally staggered off the plane exhausted. We struggled to stay awake and I went to bed at 7:30 p.m. and slept for 11.5 hours. We are slowly getting back to normal.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Nova Scotia. Son, Daughter-in-law, and Grandson were so kind to us and took us touring every day. The Annapolis valley is beautiful; lush and green.

One of our first tours was around the area where the family lives in Hants County. We went to Hantsport and stopped at the edge of the town and walked down to see the Minas Basin. The tide was out so we walked out on the floor of the basin. The loading dock was used to load gypsum on to ships when the tide was high (twice a day for 4 hours). It is no longer used. The Minas Basin is huge as it goes from where we were to Truro.

The blue water above Greenwood is the Bay of Fundy and the blue water above Wolfville is the Minas Basin.
We toured around the area looking at the apple orchards and saw how much they grew in the valley. Their growing days is similar to ours though they have more rain and humidity.
On Friday, we headed out to Lunenburg and it was wet due to Hurricane Irma.

Chester is where 103 meets the road we were on. We stopped and did a bit of shopping and then went to look at Mahone Bay.

We then headed to the town of Mahone Bay and stopped for tea and a snack. On the way to Lunenburg we stopped at Martins Brook cemetery to find my great grandparents headstone. While walking back to the car, I found my grandfather's second wife's parents' headstone.
We stopped in Lunenburg to get drinks for our picnic lunch. Across the street was this lovely building.

It was a home in its day but is now a dining room and hotel. After we ate lunch, we toured around Lunenburg and saw the old homes that are now homes or stores.

Lunenburg is a world heritage site and is preserved for its best example of British colonial settlement in Canada. What we noticed was how narrow the streets are and how it is built up a hillside. It is a very unique town and we enjoyed looking at the buildings. For me, I saw where my father's family lived when they came from Newfoundland. We went back another route coming out at Middleton in about the middle of the Annapolis Valley.
On the weekend, we attended the Hants County Fall Fair. It has been running for 252 years making it the oldest fall fair in Canada.

We toured the cattle barns and then did the building that had sewing, fruits, vegetables, and baking in it. There were garden tractor pulls, old and new equipment and the rides. We had a great day at the fair.

One of the dogs who is trained to work. They had show times at the fair where the dogs worked for their owners.
Our last tour was to Grande Pre in Kings County. Grande Pre is another world historical site as it was dyked by the Acadians about 1680 and today it still reflects how the people (known as planters) farmed.

The area is very unique as the dykes are extensive and go around the jut of land into the Minas basin.

We drove around to the cliffs you can see in the distance. We had lunch in a brew house and then drove to the top of the cliffs to see the lay of the land.

 You can see the tide is out once again in the Minas Basin.

We were amazed at the acres of cabbage grown (dark green), how many acres of grapes and the number of wineries there are. Hops are also grown and there are breweries in the area also.
On our way back from this tour, we actually saw the tide coming in.

You could not see the mud flats 2 hours later. We walked on the New Minas Basin floor at the lowest tide and it was covered when we saw it on our way home.

Our trip was fabulous and we enjoyed every minute of our stay. The people were friendly, the food was excellent, and the weather was warm. It got hot (29C) and we lounged around the pool while our grandson swam. You can't ask for anything more than that.