lobster – Meanderings & Mind Munchies

I apologize to my Scottish Gaelic speakers for mangling the spelling of the above heading, but I’m not sure how to find Gaelic letters on my phone.

Anyway, today we visited a Scottish living history museum. The Scots were the first Europeans to settle in Cape Breton. They were pushed out of their native Highlands by the British, who imposed high rents and took over their land for sheep farming.

The Scots brought their Gaelic language and culture to Cape Breton, and it has thrived here ever since.

The living history museum sits high on a hill overlooking Bra D’Or Lake.

The building with the grassy roof represents the kind of home that the Scottish would have lived in in Scotland in the late 1700s. As you can see, there were also folks dressed up in period costumes.

The log cabin was the first type of house that the Scots built after arriving on Cape Breton. They were primarily farmers, growing many of the same crops that they had grown in Scotland, such as potatoes.

As time went on, they were able to build a more substantial home.

It seems like every house had a loom on the second floor for weaving. Even the men helped when it came time to soften the wool. They soaked it in urine, sat at a table, and sang Gaelic songs while pounding the wool cloth rhythmically on the table.

The school house. This must have been after the government required them to teach English in the schools. Speaking Gaelic was frowned upon by then.

Malagawatch Church, built in 1874. Most of the Scots were either Catholic or Presbyterian. This was a Presbyterian church.

Here is where they did the wool carding.

The ferry…again!

We took another ferry back to the Cabot Trail. This time we were first in line.

Neither of us had noticed the guide rope the first time we had done this.

Our view while on the ferry crossing to the other side

Lobster!

After arriving back at the camper, we both took showers. The power had been out when we woke up in the morning, including the water. Greg had to go out and buy coffee for breakfast. Apparently, someone down the road had run into a pole.

After getting cleaned up, we headed off for a much anticipated lobster dinner.

Seriously, you can never have too much lobster.

This lobster dinner reminded me so much of my father when he used to cook lobsters for us at the Jersey Shore. They were so tender and tasted so good with melted butter.

Ceilidh

Apparently, no visit to Cape Breton would be complete without an old-fashioned Scottish ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee).

A ceilidh is an informal social gathering where people dance, sing, and tell stories. Although there was no dancing at the ceilidh that we attended, there was plenty of lively music and storytelling.

Then it was back to the camper for a much-needed rest.

After our stay in Moncton, New Brunswick, we headed to Prince Edward Island. It’s a good thing Greg didn’t plan for more than 2 days on PEI. I think we would have been bored.

Crossing Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick

After arriving and setting up our camp, we headed to Prince Edward Island National Park to see whether we would like to go biking there the next day. Ultimately, we decided that the trail was too narrow and there weren’t enough interesting things to see. It ran right along the shoreline. There were lots of beaches, but not much else.

Then we went into Charlottetown for dinner. Our kayak tour guide from Moncton had recommended a specific restaurant called Merchantman that we wanted to try. We drove around for a while, trying to find a parking space (this should have been our first clue about things to come) before we were finally successful. Luckily, dinner was good. I had my second seafood chowder of our Canadian trip.

The next day Greg had scheduled an e-bike tour of Charlottetown. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, so we rescheduled the tour for the following day. Instead, we snuggled up in our RV and relaxed.

The next day we headed off for our e-bike tour under sunny skies, but man, was it windy! Once again, we could not find parking. Greg finally pulled over and called the e-bike tour company to ask if they had any recommendations. They directed us to a parking lot, which turned out to be full. The other parking lot that they directed us to turned out to be under construction. At that point, we gave up and told them we were skipping the tour.

We decided to check out some of the lighthouses on Prince Edward Island next. After following the directions to our first lighthouse and discovering that it was down a private road that we were not allowed to trespass on, we gave up on that idea as well.

I suggested that we go check out Cavendish Beach since it was one place that Google recommended as a sightseeing destination for tourists. At this point, we were beginning to realize that Prince Edward Island is largely a beach destination for Canadians. Greg and I are not beach people.