Canada Quirks

First off, some province signs! Whenever Christopher and I passed into a new state on our US road trips, we always made sure to snap a picture. I felt compelled to do the same thing in Canada.

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This was the first place I attempted to us Canadian cash. I felt like Arthur Weasley with muggle money. Why is it multi-colored? Why does it feel like plastic? What the heck are loonies and toonies?

I never got used to measuring in liters. Or reading kilometers. I always had to mentally convert while driving. MPH forever!

Apparently Canadian Lay's needed their own marketing.

I had a Keith's Amber beer at a library-themed called The Library Pub and Merchant Tavern. It was delicious.

Digby, Nova Scotia and a Short Ferry Ride

I decided to take the Digby-Saint John ferry on my way home to the states. I missed the morning ferry which means I got to know Digby, Nova Scotia really, really well. It is a itty bitty seaside town with a good bit of history.

Admiral Digby was the main person of importance during Digby's early history.

There was also a lovely Anglican church with a large, old graveyard and a church cat.

Saint John was gorgeous at sunset from the ferry.

Exploring the Bay of Fundy

Wolfville, Nova Scotia borders the Minas Basin, an inlet and sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy. The Minas Basin has one of the highest tides ever recorded. During low tide the bay behind my hotel would be completely empty. 

Grand-Pré- A UNESCO World Heritage Site

Grand-Pré is a beautiful site in Nova Scotia that was merely a ten minute drive from my hotel. Grand-Pré was the home of a group of French immigrants known as the "Acadians". The Acadians witnessed several European colonial wars. They were deported during the French and Indian War in order to make way for the "New England Planters", a group of farmers who had been promised farmland by the English crown.

The area was made famous by the poem "Evangline" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl Evangeline as she searches for her lost love during the expulsion.

Grand-Pré is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is a museum at the entrance of the park which offers a brief history of the Acadians. Then area behind the museum contains several monuments in memory of the Acadians as well as relics of their way of life.

It was a moving experience and one I would highly recommend to anyone spending time in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Blueberries for the Goetting's

This was our first time blueberry picking so naturally we went to our favorite farm Treworgy Orchards. There were very few people on the farm so we had the fields to ourselves! We ended the day picking vegetables in our garden and dreaming of what we could make with the blueberries.

Riverview Cemetery

As I mentioned in this post, I have a thing for cemeteries. My whole family does. We love them partly because we enjoy history and partly because some of us (*ahem* younger sisters) believe they are haunted. We might be the only family that has ever camped in Yosemite Valley and visited the cemetery. Did you even know there was a cemetery there? Well you do now.

I love reading the epithets, checking out the grave designs, and imagining what the people were like who are buried there. New England cemeteries are particularly fascinating. They are incredibly old and therefore contain a variety of epithets and designs.

There is a tiny cemetery down the street from our new home. We enjoy taking walks down there. It is a lovely, peaceful place with a few little mysteries. Who is Lydia and why is her grave shaped like an elaborate cradle? Why are some of the oldest graves in a line in the back of the graveyard? Why do some of graves only have initials? What did the several Civil War veterans experience?

If you are curious this website will take you to a list of all the graves in the Hampden cemeteries.

My Top 10 Travel Hacks

I do a lot of traveling and have therefore developed quite a few of my own travel hacks. Here are some of the most useful:

1. Make copies of all of your important documents. 
Have a set of copies in your suitcase. If your purse/wallet/fanny pack/whatever is stolen you will still have copies of all your identification.

2. Keep an extra pair of clothes and other necessities in your carry-on just in case. 
You never know if your luggage will be lost or if you will be stranded in a random city. If you have some extra clothes and a few toiletries, you will be far less inconvenienced.

3. Bring your own water bottle. 
Airports are expensive. Bring your own empty water bottle and fill up once you are past security.

4. Hit up the Dollar Tree or other dollar store for travel-sized toiletries. 
Places like Target charge an arm and a leg for tiny bottles of shampoo. Go to the Dollar Tree or other dollar store first. They even carry clear bottle travel sets.

5. Use a potholder to store your hot tools.
Waiting for your flat iron to cool before packing is annoying. Go to the Dollar Tree, pick up a pack of potholders and sew them in half. You will never have that problem again. Here is a good tutorial.

6. Use an old medicine bottle to store bobby pins. 
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman looking for a bobby pin will never be able to find one. Use an old medicine bottle to stop this problem. This is a great tutorial. I personally covered an old bottle in Dollar Tree washi tape.

7. Use Dollar Tree containers to store items like cotton swabs. 
The Dollar Tree is great for containers. I bought a pack of two containers that were originally meant for lunches and use them to store my cotton swabs and cotton rounds instead. Works like a charm! I also use these containers to store bracelets.

8. Use a make-up sponge or wedge to store earrings. 
Never lose or tangle up your earrings again! Make-up wedges are awesome for storing earrings.

9. Bring extra baggies. 
I always bring a trash bag or cheap laundry bag for storing dirty clothes and extra plastic baggies just in case something starts to leak or breaks.

10. Use a daily pill case to store medicines. 
Use a cheap daily pill case to store pain relievers, allergy medicines and anything else you can think of. You won't need to bring a huge bottle of medicine and you will save money by not buying travel sizes.

I hope you found this list helpful! Please let me know if you would be interested in additional travel (or other) hacks.