K & L's Travel Blog

After several months of intense planning, our departure date for Nova Scotia travels has finally arrived. I am a big fan of Canada, and even more so today considering the toxic politics of the US. In the past we’ve traveled to Vancouver, Toronto, Quebec (Montréal, Quebec City, Tadoussac). This will be our third trip to Nova Scotia, and this time we are traveling with our good friends Mary & Star. We’ll land in Halifax and then head to Cape Breton & Mahone Bay before ending with three days back in Halifax.

Our flight out of AVL leaves at 6:45 and arrives in Newark without any issues. The next leg is bit harder. Though we land right on time, they can’t get the Airbridge to work, so we sit on the tarmac until they can tow us to a spot and line up some stairs. Something about the “so close, and yet so far” aspect of the delay makes it feel worse than it was, but we debark and make our way though passport/customs without any issues.

There’s a shuttle bus that takes us to the airport Holiday Inn and it is delayed by about 40 minutes. But somehow, we get to the hotel, check in, dump our stuff and get on the 320 Halifax Bus to downtown at the same time I’d imagined in drafting our itinerary. We get off at Dartmouth so we can walk through the commons and ride the ferry over to Halifax. It’s Tuesday so tickets are free for seniors.

Once in Halifax we walk the waterfront where we dine on lobster rolls and poutine. From there we head up towards Spring Garden, passing the Old Cemetery. We are all tired having gotten up in the wee hours (3:00), so we decide to head back to the hotel

On the bus back we come upon a bad accident just before Fall River. The bus has to stop in the right lane. A woman wants off to get to her child but the driver can’t let her. Trucks whiz by and miss us by inches. It takes a while for the cops to arrive and it is a mess. A farm tractor was smashed by a tractor-trailer and we see someone getting CPR, other people being hugged by cops. A lot of pain, though we are relieved to read later that nobody was killed. Suddenly our worries seem minor. We are surely the lucky ones tonight.