K & L's Travel Blog

September 25, 2025

We awaken to a beautiful misty sunrise over Mahone Bay and the sounds of birds. It’s Thursday which means it’s Farmer’s Market Day in nearby Lunenburg! We get there a few minutes before the door opens, but there is already a line out the back door. We are relieved to find the line specific to a local bakery. We enter to find a good crowd and a wide variety of wares: meats, vegetables, bread, prepared food, staples, arts & crafts, honey & jams and lovely mushrooms, hot foods (good ethnic choices of S. Asian and Asian meals). A man told us it was the first time indoors for the season and there are more people there than expected.  The energy is high as is the socializing. I spy another bakery on my list, the Boulangerie La Vendéenne, and patiently stand in line for a croissant, baguette and pretzel while Kitty browses the scene. We leave with some gifts, green beans and bread. The croissant is excellent and makes for a perfect breakfast.

We head out of Lunenburg to a cranberry farm, Terra Beata Farms. It’s not exactly public facing. They are in the business of shipping blueberry & cranberry juice concentrates across the country. But nevertheless, this is Canada and nobody is going to be turned away. I entered through the closest door into a large open office space where I intruded on two women who were clearly in a meeting. They called out for their colleague, and a petite, stout woman in a plastic cap appeared. She seemed most happy to see us and sold us a bottle of their blueberry juice concentrate as well as a bag of dried cranberries. Then she graciously led us out to the fields where they had about a football field’s worth of rectangular cranberry bogs She spent about 15 minutes explaining the business, the horticulture and farming as well as giving us a sense of life growing up in nearby Blue Rocks. She no longer swims because of the sharks, and her brothers’ fishing shacks were destroyed in a hurricane last year. Next week at the farm they’d be flooding the bogs and inviting visitors in to pick. She was wonderfully personable and informative.

Our next destination was her home, Blue Rocks, a small but scenic fisherman’s community. It has seen some serious gentrification in the past decade or so but is still loaded with charm and great views out the bay. Today the water was still and there were only kayakers about. A group of tourists was setting out on the water, and we ended up tracking with two from there group who had opted out of the adventure for a quiet walk. They knew Asheville as they were from Atlanta and we talked about Helene. I found that I appreciated their understanding of the storm’s severity and how it had impacted the entire region. 

I was hoping to capture a photo of the Bluenose II (a legendary sailing ship in Canada) heading past Blue Rocks but realized it would be foolish to just hang around, especially on such a still day. Luck was with us as we caught sight of it making an approach just as we were leaving the community. Quite a thrill for me to get the shot despite the fact there are thousands of photos just like it!

We take the coastal “Lighthouse Route” back to Mahone Bay where the annual Scarecrow Festival was getting underway. The shop under our apartment was just getting their sailor up—it looked a bit like a murder scene lying prone in their car!

For lunch we went to a highly recommended food truck, “O My Cod!” This used to be a restaurant in Mahone Bay but they lost their lease and ended up moving just outside of town. They are renown for fresh seafood at good prices and didn’t disappoint. The clientele is largely local, though other tourists arrived as we sat there. I had a Lobster Croissant, making this my first two-croissant day, ever. Kitty got Fish & Chips (Halibut) that was delicious as well. 

After lunch, Kitty stays at the apartment while I walk to the cannabis store and snap photos of the figures along the way. They are much more elaborate than your average scarecrow. Several folks were taking children around introducing them to all the strange but generally appealing figures. A local woman tells me that there’s a warehouse outside of town where they keep over 200 of them, and a team of artisans who add new ones every year. 

The town is so charming it reminds us of PEI (idealized Anne of Green Gables style with lots of shops). In the past I might have found the small-town homeyness oppressive, but instead it serves as a welcomed contrast to all the meanness and tensions in our national dystopia. We stop at the Barn Coffee & Social House for a rest and caffeine. Everyone seems so happy and relaxed. Mahone Bay feels like the perfect get-away for these times.