UTI – Meanderings & Mind Munchies

Digby

Our next stop in Nova Scotia was Digby. After setting up the camper, we headed into town to the visitor center, which had closed 5 minutes before we got there. Since Digby is well known for its scallop fishing, we decided to have dinner at one of the local restaurants and sample the scallops.

I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of my dinner. Greg enjoyed his but claimed that the scallops were not the best that he has ever had.

Port Royal National Historic Site

The next morning we drove to another living history museum. This one was called Port Royal National Historic Site.

Port Royal was a small settlement where French colonists traded European goods with the Mi’kmaq in exchange for furs.

Once again, the weather was dreary.

Greg had me sit at the head of the table so that he could take a picture. (This is not that picture, just in case you were wondering where I was.)

I tried on several pairs of clogs. They were extremely uncomfortable! There must be a trick to wearing them.

This is the room where the Mi’kmaq people came to trade with the French settlers.

Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens

After Port Royal, we headed to Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens.

The roses were past their peak, but I captured a few photos of those that remained.

These roses were a beautiful lavender color.

These looked like they went from yellow to pink to white as they flowered

And some other flowers, too. I have no idea what any of them are, but they sure are beautiful.

I took this picture for Migzie and Marianne.

I think one of the gardeners told us that this cottage is a replica of a 1600s croft, but don’t hold me to that.

The mosquitoes were relentless. They eventually chased us back to the car.

More medical stuff

On our way back to the camper, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some food.

While we were there, the doctor that we had seen in Lunenburg called to say that, based on the results of the culture, the medication he had given me was not going to work for my infection. He called in a new prescription to the pharmacy at the grocery store, and we picked it up before we left.

When the pharmacist handed it over, she warned me that it would give me severe diarrhea. It would not be an understatement to say that she completely freaked me out.

We had reservations to take a whale watching trip the next day. It was going to take us an hour and a half to get to the tour (plus two ferry rides), and we would be on the water for 3 hours. When I woke up the morning of the tour, I decided that it would be too risky for me to go. I had no desire to have diarrhea and have no easily accessible restroom. So Greg went on the tour by himself. He took some really amazing videos of whales playing in the water and breaching, which he showed me when he got back.

The Ovens Natural Park

Today, we visited a small private park near Lunenburg called Ovens Natural Park. It is known for its sea caves and slate cliffs.

It is possible to kayak into the sea caves during high tide, and if we had been in Lunenburg longer, I might have tried to talk Greg into doing that.

These cement steps lead to an underground tunnel with a view of the interior of one of the sea caves.

The view of the entrance to the sea cave.

The interior of the sea cave. Through that hole in the back wall, deep underground, we could hear the thunder of the waves.

Lunenberg

After visiting Ovens Natural Park, we headed to the golf course across the harbor from Lunenburg to see if we could get a good picture of the town.

I tried zooming in on the town to take a picture, but the photo looked grainy, and the details were not crisp. I had better luck taking an unzoomed photo and cropping it.

This photo was taken from the town of Lunenburg looking toward the golf course. The harbor had a large number of double masted sailing boats.

I love all of the pretty colors! Lunenburg really is a cute town. It is fairly touristy, though.

Greg was really excited to see the historical reproduction of the Bluenose schooner. Unfortunately, it was out of town at a regatta while we were visiting.

There is more that we could have done while we were in Lunenburg, but our last day was taken up with another ER visit and stop at the pharmacy to get medicine.

There is a bike path from Lunenburg to Mahone Bay that would have been fun. And I wouldn’t have minded a boat tour of the harbor, a visit to the Fisheries Museum, a walk through Mahone Bay, or a whiskey tasting at Ironworks Distillery.

Harbour Hopper

Today we headed to Halifax for a Harbour Hopper tour, which is similar to a Duck tour in the U.S. As you can see from the photos, the skies were cloudy and gray.

The Drunken Lampposts are an art installation along the harbor boardwalk. There are three of them. One is called Fountain (because it is peeing into the harbor), another is Get Drunk, and the third is Fall Down. You can just see the curve of part of Fall Down in the photo. (The rest of it is lying on the boardwalk, passed out.) Together, they represent what happens in Halifax at night on the waterfront.

St. George’s Island. I wanted to go over and tour the island, but it never happened.

One of the stories that our Harbour Hopper tour guide told us was about a huge explosion that occurred in 1917, when a French cargo ship fully loaded with explosives collided with a Norwegian ship in the harbor, causing a blast that killed more than 1,700 people and injured 9,000 others. The explosion destroyed buildings within an 800-metre radius and created a tsunami that exposed the bottom of the harbor.

Another medical clinic

After our tour, we stopped by a local restaurant on the boardwalk and had lunch (more seafood chowder).

Then we walked to a nearby pharmacy/medical clinic to get another UTI test since I was still having a lot of discomfort, and I was almost out of antibiotics. Although the people were very nice, I wasn’t really satisfied with the experience.

At that point, we headed back to the camper because the weather was getting even more threatening.

Wild flowers

Since the rest of this post has no associated pictures to go with the narrative, I thought I would take the opportunity to post some pictures of all of the lovely wildflowers we have been seeing while in Canada. Honestly, even the dandelions are prettier here.

(I Googled the names of the flowers, so there are probably errors.)

Yes, I know I included two photos of wild roses, but they are so beautiful, and they were growing everywhere.

Wind!

The woman who owns the campground where we are currently staying warned us when we arrived that the following 24 hours were going to be windy, and boy, was she right!

As we sat in the camper our first night, the wind was so strong that the camper was rocking. At one point, the wind lifted our large mat up outside and knocked over the grill. Apparently, winds as high as 150 km/hour are not uncommon here.

Canadian health care

Yesterday was another travel day. Greg decided to drive all the way back to Baddeck and then across the island to our new location near Chéticamp rather than go west on the Cabot Trail through the mountains. It cost us another hour on the road, but it was safer and less stressful.

I could tell when I woke up in the morning that something was going on with my bladder. By the time we arrived at our campground outside of Chéticamp, I knew I had a UTI.

So when we woke up today, we headed to the local urgent care center. It cost us $125 to see the doctor, and we had to pay in cash. Then we waited. This urgent care center also takes appointments, and it was clear that appointments took precedence. We waited about an hour and a half to see the doctor.

He confirmed that I did, indeed, have an infection and prescribed an antibiotic.

Since it would take a little while for the antibiotic to be ready, we decided that it was a perfect excuse to go out to lunch at Le Gabriel in Chéticamp. It had been recommended to us by Lisa, the woman who owns our campground. I thought the food was decent, but nothing special.

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry. Very exciting.