Day 3 - Edmundston, New Brunswick to Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia - July 15, 2010

We checked out of the Quality Inn in Edmondston, NB at 10:10 am after having a delicious breakfast via room service. Excellent food again. The hotel was on Canada Road, which in French is Chemin Canada. Now I know what Chemin means on all those signs in Quebec. We returned to the Trans Canada Highway, which was Routes 40, 20 & 185 through Quebec. From our home to Quebec it is Hwy 401.

The whole stretch almost to Nova Scotia was like this, mostly forests, rivers, lakes and moose fences. It was a beautiful stretch but got boring after awhile. Lots of hills and mountains for miles and miles. We noticed the fences along the highway had openings every so often with part of the fence built out to funnel the moose back into the woods through a one way gate. I wouldn't want to drive this highway at night. The big rigs (or transports as they call them in Canada) from this area all had huge bumpers on the front to avoid damage from hitting a moose. Click Here to see what the fences look like, it will be the 3rd photo from the top.

I plotted the whole trip with Google maps, and did a fine job, I must say! Except for one little screw up. For some strange reason my directions when we were approaching Fredericton, told me to leave Hwy. 2 for a bypass and would cross over the Princess Margaret Bridge. I though oh perfect, avoid the traffic congestion of the big city, but instead the bridge was closed and we got detoured right through center city. No big deal, at least I got to see the Capital of New Brunswick and the drive along the St. John river was just so beautiful this screw up turned out to be a good thing. Then back on the Trans Canada Highway again and more trees and mountains. Just glad that the only screw up wasn't in Montreal:-)

I was so busy watching the maps, I didn't take any more photos along this route. The above photo is Amherst, Nova Scotia. WooHoo finally in Nova Scotia. It was a beautiful town with wooden statues all over. If I ever come back I want to explore this town. The drive along the Sunrise Trail Hwy. 6 was very scenic, some of the roads had a redish tint and some had a greenish tint to them. We stopped at Foodland Mikes in Tatamagouche to get groceries for the 3 days we would be at the cottage, and then to the LC. If you ever watched Trailer Park Boys you will know what the LC is. Its short for NSLC, Nova Scotia Liquor Control.
Finally we are here!!!!

We had the 6th cottage from the right, the green one of course, #66 Port Marker at Sunrise Oceanfront Marina Cottages.

It was low tide when we arrived.

The cottage was beautiful, just like the photos on their website.

Even had a fireplace, which I'm sure would be wonderful in the Autumn.

The kitchen even had a dishwasher, and there was a reverse osmosis faucet for drinking water.

This was our room.

The bathroom had a Jacuzzi tub, but the water was smelly and not much water pressure, and a small hot water tank, so no jacuzzis for us.

This was the spare room with two twin beds. Johns brother Chris from British Columbia arrived that night, just in time for steaks on the BBQ, and this was his room.

Ceiling fans in all the rooms was all we needed to keep cool. Even on the hot days, the ocean breeze was nice and the fans did their job.

Life is good!!!



I can't even remember what time we arrived, as I was finally there and didn't bother writing things down for the next three days. But I think it was a seven hour drive for us and would have been less if not for the Fredericton detour.

Day 4 - Celebration of the life of Marion Kennedy - Pictou Lodge, Pictou, Nova Scotia

Today was the main reason for our trip to the maritmes. This morning we drove to the Pictou Lodge in Pictou, NS for the memorial service for Johns Aunt, Marion Kennedy. It was about a 45 minute drive, and the service started at 11 a.m.

Pictou is on the Northumberland Strait close to where you can take the ferry across to Prince Edward Island. We were under the impression that the memorial was going to take place at Sunrise Cottages, where we had booked our cottage, otherwise we might have chosen to stay here as it was so beautiful.

Meeting Johns Aunt Geraldine was something I can't explain. She looked so much like Johns Mother Ruth and even had the same mannerisms. Even though John hadn't seen her in years, and I never met her, we both knew immediately who she was. It was so nice to finally get to meet her!

Meeting new cousins Aaron and his then fiancee and now beautiful wife Marta. (below)

John and I, below.


Views (above and below) from inside the Pictou Lodge.

Marions daughter Caroline, center below.

Sister Geraldine, grandaughter Megan and daughter Jane.

Son, Pastor Jim Kennedy officiated the service with daughters Jane and Carolyn also speaking.A buffet lunch was then served. Below an article of one of Marions many accomplishments.

Although born and raised in Nova Scotia, Marion spent the better part of her life with her husband and family in Barrie, Ontario operating the Kennedy Strawberry Farm, before moving back to their beloved Nova Scotia. As a tribute to their times at the Strawberry farm, Strawberry shortcake was a perfect choice for the dessert.

We then proceeded to Bell Gift cemetery in New Annan, which was back closer to Tatamagouche for a few brief words and burial of Marions ashes combined with her late husbands ashes.

Only a portion of the ashes were buried here at the cemetery so it could give future generations a place to pay their respects.

Then we drove to the family homestead on Kennedy Hill Road for burial of the remainder of their ashes. This whole area was just beautiful.

The Kennedy homestead! I could imagine living here. Its so peaceful and secluded!

Day 5- Balmoral Mills & Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia - July 17, 2010

Beautiful day again, very hot, but not overbearing with the cool ocean breeze.
Cooked up ham, eggs, hash browns and fresh rolls with Tatamagouche butter for breakfast. John, Chris and I were going to see the sites. Chris shoffered us in the Crapalier, as he has been back to this area a few times. Our first stop was the Balmoral Grist Mill, which I had heard about from Ruth. Balmoral Mills is just another beautiful part of Nova Scotia.











The admission was $3.60 each, but they gave us the family plan for $7.95. Unfortunately they didn't have enough funding so we couldn't see it under full operation. The girls who were on staff that day knew the Kennedys well and since we pretty much did the self guided tour, they tried to give us our money back, but we told them to use it for a donation to the mill and said next time we come, we expect to see it in full operation:-)

Now we were back to tour the town of Tatamagouche and the Tatamagouche Creamery was the place to start.

The Creamery was in operation from 1925 to 1992 and advertised in the 40's as the best butter in the world. The first thing I noticed when shopping at Foodland Mikes was the Tatamagouche butter and it truly is the best butter in the world!

This door reminded me of the old cheesehouse we would visit near Westport, Ontario. This would be the door to the refrigerated section of the barn or house where they stored the cheese.

The Creamery is a museum about everything, culture, history, fossils, mining, archives and more.



This mining exhibit below caught my eye, as my Dad was a coal miner in Pennsylvania, before he moved to Delaware. The Davy Lamp in the photo, was used to detect methane and other poisious gasses in the mines. I did a report on one, I think it was 5th grade, and took the davy lamp my Aunt Marie had made into a real lamp for her home.

John, below photo, looking from the upstairs of the cremery out onto Tatamagouche Bay.

In my opinion, the biggest attaction of the Creamery was the Anna Swan exhibit. Anna Swan was born and raised in the Tatamagouche area on the North Shore.
She was well known as the "Nova Scotia Giantess" and was employed at P.T. Barnum's American Museum in New York City for several years before touring Europe with a troupe of entertainers. At age 4 she was four feet in height, and by age 6 stood as tall as her average-sized mother.Anna reached a height of 7 feet 11 inches and weighed almost 400 pounds.





Above photo shows the Farmers Market in Creamery Square and the rare grain elevator. These grain elevators were common in the Praires of Canada (Mid-West) and from what I hear it is the only Prairie-style grain elevator left standing east of Manitoba.

Finally what I was looking forward to was visiting the shops of the downtown area of Tatamagouche.



After a recommendation from one of the shop owners, we decided to go to Big Al's Acadian Restuarnt & Lounge for a late lunch. By this time we were sweating from the heat and needed a cold one. The beer was cold, the restaurant was comfortable and the food was ok. There was a room in the back that people kept going in to, and coming out sweating as it wasn't air conditioned. We found in Nova Scotia they have slot machines, but they call them video lottery terminals. Nice name to legalize gambling:-)

Since Big Al's was on Station road, I walked down the road to get some photos of the Train Station Inn & Restaurant. Some of the train cars are actual hotel units you can stay in. I think I would like to stay here sometime. The gift shop was great and very inexpensive.




An enjoyable town that I very much want to visit again! We went back to the cottages, the Kennedy sisters were having a swim in the ocean as they did together years ago and we watched the local fishing boats returning for the evening. We ended the night watching the stars and sitting around the campfire. Brother Chris headed back to the Halifax Airport Hotel in preparation for his flight home to British Columbia the next morning.