Saturday, March 19, 2011

On the Road: Halifax to Sackville

Our weekend road trip started early this morning. Of course, it has been much colder and snowier than any of us would have wanted, oh, and it has been pretty windy as well.

After a quick to the airport to add me as a driver to the rental car agreement we made our way towards Truro. Before reaching Truro we stopped in Stewiacke, the former homeland of giant mastodons. What drew us to the site was the large mastodon statue that was visible for the road. Not surprisingly, we took the opportunity to take a few photos with the mastodon and some of the other touristy items (including a cement Flinstones car).

From Stewiacke we made our way to Truro to watch the 12:20 tidal bore. Much to all of our surprise, the tidal bore turned out to be something of a local attraction (there were 15 cars worth of people there) and of a fair size. If you are in the area it is definitely worth checking out.



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After the tidal bore we made our way to Margolians, a locally owned department store. While at first I wasn't particularly impressed with the store I soon found that the prices for many of their items were half of what I thought they were. In the end I walked out with a handful of brandname shirts and sweaters for about $10 a piece. Everyone else found great things as well. Actually, we were all so impressed by the experience that we are hoping to head back on our way back from PEI.

We were all pretty impressed with Truro, it was definitely a nice little down.

From Truro we made our way to Parrsboro and the Fundy Geological Museum . After quickly passing through Parrsboro we made our way to the aforementioned museum and checked out a few of the exhibits. The museum employee then gave us a few suggestions about things to see in the region, we were particularly taken by her suggestion that we go gem hunting on a local beach.

Almost as soon as we arrived at the beach we noticed that a car a little further along the beach appeared to have gotten stuck in some loosely packed beach stones. Obviously we decided that it would probably be best if we didn't drive any further and that we should offer to help the guy get unstuck.

After a few unsuccessful attempts at lifting the front of the car with the guy while his ladyfriend gave it some gas we left them to do some digging out while we made our way down the beach to do some gem hunting (it really wasn't as bad as this likely sounds). After limited success gem hunting (none of us knew what we were looking for) we made our way back to the stranded car and helped them put some boards under their front tires. With the boards in place we were finally able get the front tires enough traction that our pushing actually mattered.

After freeing the car from the beach we made our way to Joggins Cove, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home of some very old fossils. Of course, because it is off season, we weren't actually able to see anything or visit the interpretation centre.

After our failed visit to Joggins Cove we were finally on the final leg of our trip to Sackville. Shortly after checking in at the Marshlands Inn (an inn that once hosted the Queen) we made our way out to find a restaurant for dinner. After dinner we took a brief tour of the town, though managed to see basically everything there was to see (at least those things that you could see by driving by).

The plan for tomorrow is to head to Dorchester to see the world's largest Sand Piper as well as the infamous penitentiary (there should be a museum-type aspect of the prison). We are also hoping to see the Mount Allison Owens Art Gallery, though we will have to check this out on our way back from Dorchester. I guess we will also eventually have to make our way to Charlottetown, which is where we will be spending the night.

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