A Day at the Beach

2 November 2026

The weather favored our outdoor expeditions, and since today was one of the warmest we’ve had, we decided to venture to a nearby beach. Shoreham Provincial Park was about a 20 minute, scenic drive from Guysborough.

When we arrived there was another couple walking in the distance, but they soon left, and left us feeling like the only people on earth. Unlike Guysborough Beach, there was enough sand to make the walking easy. The cobblestones in Nova Scotia as much fun for beach combing as shells are in NC as they are multi-colored and marked with varied quartz lines.

This was Pip’s first time on a beach (though I suppose this is technically a bay), and he was predictably enamored of the lapping waves and smells. He played with the kelp, a move he would later regret with a bout of nausea, but he was generally in heaven and ran himself to near-exhaustion.

On the way home we stopped at Hart’s General Store, an institution that is known for its excellent sandwiches, local sundries, and frozen meals (including Shepherd’s Pie). We bought Canada hats for the pending cold weather, a couple of gifts and two delicious sandwiches (Egg Salad for me and Smoked Meat for Kitty). The surrounding village of Boylston had perhaps seen better days, but like Guysborough was full of lovely nineteenth-century homes. I suspect we’ll return.

We took time to do a scenic drive along a peninsula before stopping at Boylston Picnic Park. It had a small picnic area, but the real treat was crossing the bridge over to tiny Priest Island. Once again, we found ourselves in a lovely, if diminutive, boreal forest with painted rocks and varied fungus.