FANTASTIC LUNENBURG

When, over breakfast this morning, fellow guests, Ray and Carol from Vancouver, raved about the several hours they had spent the previous day at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, Lee remained a bit skeptical as to the ability of ANY museum to hold his attention for longer than two hours or so before "museum fatigue" set in with a vengeance.  However, the weather forecast promised another rainy day, so Heidi and Lee set out a little after ten this morning, headed down to the Lunenburg wharf to see just how long "the art of fishing" could hold our interest.

Turned out we likely spent even more time there than did Ray and Carol!  Lunenburg has a long and rich maritime history dating back to the time of its founding in 1765 and the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic captures a good deal of that history in its myriad of exhibits.

We saw aquariums with examples of all the fish common to the local waters.  We learned about all the various types of boats used, from those common in inland waters to others setting out for much deeper fishing grounds.  We wandered around exhibits detailing how these ships (and models of them) were built by local shipwrights.  We clamored aboard a cod fishing boat tied up along the wharf and talked with a local fisherman for twenty minutes or so about his experiences out in the deep and about the state of the local economy in general.  We figured out how a lobster trap worked to entice the lobster into the "kitchen", then on into the "parlor" from which it was impossible to escape.  We marveled at the ship models and seascape paintings on display.

After a lunch break (lobster rolls at the Salt Shaker Deli), we even came back for more, focusing on local support industries (everything to outfit the ships built in Lunenburg was produced locally) and on the saga of Captain Angus Walters and the Bluenose, a schooner pictured on the Canadian dime that won a series of races against American competition back in the 1920s and '30s.

At the end of the day, the rainy weather hadn't mattered at all.  We still had enjoyed a fulfilling day of adventure and returned to the Alcion more aware of the importance of Lunenburg as a community of dedicated fishing folk and ship builders than was the case when we left earlier in the day.

And there's still much more to explore out there to keep us occupied tomorrow...