Plain Can Be Lovely

On our second day in Nova Scotia we hopped into the car and headed out to Peggy’s Cove. We also had beautiful weather and thankfully, it wasn’t as hot as it was on Canada Day.

Dan in the parking lot in Peggy’s Cove. It was already beautiful.

As we started to walk to the lighthouse, we stopped at William E. deGarthe’s gallery. He was a painter and sculptor who lived in Peggy’s Cove. Outside his gallery was a huge sculpture out of rock as a “lasting monument to Nova Scotian fisherman.”

William E. deGarthe’s sculpture outside his gallery.

Peggy’s Cove is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited. It almost felt like we were in a painting.

Me in Peggy’s Cove. The scenery was so beautiful it doesn’t even look real.

I found out later from Meaghan that there’s a web cam pointing to this exact spot and you can see it live here. I wonder if anyone was looking while we were taking pictures.

More pictures from walking through Peggy’s Cove.

This rock was near the famous lighthouse. We had perfect weather.

It was still pretty quiet when we got to the lighthouse since the tour buses hadn’t arrived yet. We got to take a picture and enjoy the spot together in relative piece.

Us with the famous lighthouse in Peggy’s Cove.

Another thing I loved about this spot was being able to look out onto the water. It was incredibly beautiful and the weather cooperated perfectly (storm clouds starting to roll in but still no rain).

Us and the water at Peggy’s Cove (we’re facing the lighthouse).

I felt so tiny staring out onto the water.

The famous lighthouse.

The rocks around the coastline at Peggy’s Cove.

This bagpipe player added to the atmosphere.

We stopped in the gift shop for a bit. It was extremely busy at this point due to all of the tourists and the fact that the weather was getting worse. It was now windy with ominous storm clouds. I bought and wrote a postcard to send to ourselves because I wanted the Peggy’s Cove postmark. It was worth it.

Peggy’s Cove postmark. It was worth sending a postcard to ourselves.

At this point we were getting hungry and tried to find food on Lobster Lane. We were unsuccessful so we stopped for ice cream at Dee Dee’s (all ice cream was made on site!).

Gourmet ice cream made on site from Dee Dee’s. Om nom nom.

We decided to leave Peggy’s Cove and see what we could find to eat somewhere else.

Our nameless rental car.

A little  bit outside of Peggy’s Cove we stopped in a place called Shaw’s Landing in West Dover. This would be one of the best food decisions we would make on our entire trip. It hadn’t started storming yet so we still opted to sit outside and enjoy the view.

Our view during lunch at Shaw’s Landing.

Dan had the lobster roll and because I was starting to feel a little chilly, I had the lobster chowder. I can’t even begin to describe how amazing their food was. The lobster chowder was tasty, warm and filling with big chunks of lobster. It was probably one of the best soups I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Dan with his lobster roll, me with my lobster chowder. Check out the close up of the lobster chowder. om nom nom

As we ate, things started blowing around so we had to hang onto our napkins. Some of the other diners outside got up and took their food inside. We toughed it out though. After lunch, we took a few pictures and then headed out again. I have to mention, after visiting Shaw’s Landing I googled it and learned about its remarkable story. The founder, Ian Shaw, lost his daughter in Flight 111. A month after the plane crash, he was in Nova Scotia when he saw the diner for sale in West Dover. A year later he bought it, and Shaw’s Landing was born. You can read more about his story here. There’s a monument in memory of those who were on Flight 111 at Peggy’s Cove but we didn’t take a picture of it.

I took this picture of Dan a little behind Shaw’s Landing.

Shaw’s Landing was definitely a local gem that shouldn’t be missed. I’m hungry just thinking about it.

On our drive back to Halifax it poured rain. We were really lucky that we had good weather while we were outside. After parking back at the hotel, we headed across the street to Pier 21 (as Meaghan aptly describes it, Canada’s Ellis Island). One million immigrants landed at Pier 21 between 1928-1971, including Dan’s grandpa who arrived from Italy in the 1950s. Now Pier 21 is a museum where we learned about its history and about immigration to Canada.

Exploring Pier 21. I stamped my book, though I suspect this is more for kids…

After Pier 21 we had dinner. Dinner was mediocre so I won’t waste time going into detail about it here. After that was another highlight of the trip, the Alexander Keiths Brewery Tour! Alexander Keiths Brewery is one of the oldest breweries in Canada. We just made it in time for the next tour group but missed the first part of the instructions. Nobody seemed to be taking pictures so I thought maybe we couldn’t take pictures (I found out later that we could). The tour was really entertaining. They brought us to a room where we watched a video about Alexander Keiths and the origin of their India Pale Ale. The man in the video kept saying “proper that!”. During the tour they kept saying “Those who like it” and getting us to answer with “like it a lot” (the slogan for Alexander Keiths). They kept telling us that Alexander Keiths was on his way but he never showed up. On the tour everybody is in period costume and totally in character. When somebody asked us where we were from and we said Toronto they said “Ah, Upper Canada!” The actors were really amazing too. They also sang, danced and told hilariously cheesy jokes. On the tour I was able to sample Keiths Tartan, which isn’t availably outside of Nova Scotia. It was really tasty and had a scotchy taste to it.

Me with Alexander Keiths.

Our tour guide Anna.

When the tour finished we decided that the only thing left to do was get more ice cream. We walked back to the boardwalk to Cows (where there was still a line) and happily got more ice cream. We had wanted to do a Harbour Tour but they were done for the day.

More ice cream from Cows.

We ended the evening with a walk along the boardwalk before heading back to the hotel.

Me and St. Georges Island. There was a monument on the boardwalk explaining that many Acadians were forced to live on St. Georges Island for a while before being deported. Most of them never saw their homes again.

Next up, our Nova Scotia trip continues with Lunenburg and Grand Pre!