What a full and fascinating day this turned out to be!
After the usual great breakfast and good conversation with our hosts and fellow guests, Heidi and Lee walked over to the nearby Historical Gardens, a seventy-five acre collection of plants and trees laid out and cared for with great attention to attractive and informative groupings. Lee, of course, ended up with even more digital images of flowers; but both of us thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the site, taking in all the beauty on display.
On our return walk to "downtown" Annapolis Royal, we stopped by to photograph the harbor at high tide. While at the wharf, a local workman nearby indicated that the high tide last night had reached twenty-nine feet, reaching right up underneath the wharf-side shed where he was working. On our way out of town thereafter, we stopped to watch the rushing influx of tidal waters adjacent to the Tidal Power Generation Plant on the edge of town, fascinated by the swirling, foaming waves rushing upstream into the Annapolis River.
We then drove out to the Habitation, a recreation of the very first French enclave in the Americas, established at Port Royal in 1605. This was also the first major historically accurate reconstruction effort undertaken by the Canadian government back in the 1930s. The resulting meticulous restoration of the entire outpost proved eye-opening for us both. The attention to detail was everywhere apparent, and the costumed interpreters really knew their stuff. We spent a good ninety minutes exploring the buildings, questioning the guides and poking around, in the process coming to admire the relative luxury of the accommodations (The settlement even had a wine cellar; and the inhabitants, a social club which, within a year, put on a production of the first ever play to be written in the New World!).
After an agonizingly slow (but delicious) lunch at the Bistro East, we again hit the road, this time headed west to Port Maitland where we dropped in to meet and chat with Heidi's second cousin, Abbie, and her husband, Ross. Abbie knew not only Heidi's Grandfather and Grandmother Crosby but her Great-Grandparents as well! We enjoyed our chat with both deep-rooted residents of the small town from which Heidi's Grandparents migrated to the Boston area and will return tomorrow to be taken to some of the local sites associated with the Crosbys.
Our final stop for the day brought us to Yarmouth and the Murray Manor Bed and Breakfast, a Gothic Revival mansion, where we will stay tonight and tomorrow while Heidi undertakes some genealogical research at the Yarmouth Museum and Archives.
Dinner this evening took us across the street to Peg's Family Restaurant where we had our first experience with the huge portions "everyday" Canadians demand when dining out. Among the "new" items on the menu were a hamburger slathered with both peanut butter and cheese and another patty served between two toasted cheese sandwiches (which even the waitress admitted would serve most folks for three meals, not just one)! The desert specials included deep fried chocolate bars...
After the usual great breakfast and good conversation with our hosts and fellow guests, Heidi and Lee walked over to the nearby Historical Gardens, a seventy-five acre collection of plants and trees laid out and cared for with great attention to attractive and informative groupings. Lee, of course, ended up with even more digital images of flowers; but both of us thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the site, taking in all the beauty on display.
On our return walk to "downtown" Annapolis Royal, we stopped by to photograph the harbor at high tide. While at the wharf, a local workman nearby indicated that the high tide last night had reached twenty-nine feet, reaching right up underneath the wharf-side shed where he was working. On our way out of town thereafter, we stopped to watch the rushing influx of tidal waters adjacent to the Tidal Power Generation Plant on the edge of town, fascinated by the swirling, foaming waves rushing upstream into the Annapolis River.
We then drove out to the Habitation, a recreation of the very first French enclave in the Americas, established at Port Royal in 1605. This was also the first major historically accurate reconstruction effort undertaken by the Canadian government back in the 1930s. The resulting meticulous restoration of the entire outpost proved eye-opening for us both. The attention to detail was everywhere apparent, and the costumed interpreters really knew their stuff. We spent a good ninety minutes exploring the buildings, questioning the guides and poking around, in the process coming to admire the relative luxury of the accommodations (The settlement even had a wine cellar; and the inhabitants, a social club which, within a year, put on a production of the first ever play to be written in the New World!).
After an agonizingly slow (but delicious) lunch at the Bistro East, we again hit the road, this time headed west to Port Maitland where we dropped in to meet and chat with Heidi's second cousin, Abbie, and her husband, Ross. Abbie knew not only Heidi's Grandfather and Grandmother Crosby but her Great-Grandparents as well! We enjoyed our chat with both deep-rooted residents of the small town from which Heidi's Grandparents migrated to the Boston area and will return tomorrow to be taken to some of the local sites associated with the Crosbys.
Our final stop for the day brought us to Yarmouth and the Murray Manor Bed and Breakfast, a Gothic Revival mansion, where we will stay tonight and tomorrow while Heidi undertakes some genealogical research at the Yarmouth Museum and Archives.
Dinner this evening took us across the street to Peg's Family Restaurant where we had our first experience with the huge portions "everyday" Canadians demand when dining out. Among the "new" items on the menu were a hamburger slathered with both peanut butter and cheese and another patty served between two toasted cheese sandwiches (which even the waitress admitted would serve most folks for three meals, not just one)! The desert specials included deep fried chocolate bars...
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