A tale of New Scotland.

I’m back from vacation and ready to share my experiences from Nova Scotia—that province in Canada near Maine that takes its name (New Scotland) from my ancestors in the old country. Having said that, I learned quite a bit of Nova Scotia’s history and discovered that it was originally settled by the Mi’kmaqs, an Indian tribe belonging to the greater Algonquin nation. And the first white folks who came around to settle the area back in the early 1600’s were the French—who called themselves Acadians. They got along with the locals and made the tidal-drenched lands very fertile. The Scots came along later and claimed the highlands, as it reminded them of their lovely home.

But I’ll get to all that later because it was very interesting learning about this little island’s history. What I’ll start off saying is that the current locals—made up of my favorite cousins, the fun Canadians—are friendly and good natured people. My parents and I enjoyed our tour of the island and came back enlightened about the Nova Scotian people and the various cultures that have made up this endearing place.

The only Canadian on this trip that I didn’t like was the customs guy. He kept asking me questions as if I was a danger to his people. Now just before leaving for vacation I heard an expert on national defense discuss the latest policies of the TSA. He rightly criticized the organization for bowing to public fear and political correctness instead of doing what works. What doesn’t work is making us all take off our shoes so we have to walk barefoot on the disgusting airport floors and spending time questioning the girl who has been called “wonder bread.”

But whatever. On another note, I just want to say that I refused to go into the “naked” machine. You know what I mean—the new security x-ray scanner that allows TSA agents to see you the way only doctors should. Not-uh. That’s my line in the sand boys. Ok. Just had to get all that crap off my chest. I probably just put myself on some government watch list. I can only hope my blog gets that many readers. Wow, I’d be like some kind of travel-screening rebel. “Hell no, we won’t go…without our shoes, water bottles, toothpaste, and lighters.”

Moving on…having passed inspection, we got into our car and headed off to our first stop, Peggy’s Cove. I’ll continue on with the vacation diary next time. Until then, remember that there are now nawnstop flights from Halifax to Bawston. That was the first sign we saw driving out of the airport. The second one was for ice cream. I’ll get to that later. Stay tuned for Peggy, Ann, and the German girl with Strudel.

Scenes along the way…

Hiking along the Cabot Trail near Ingonish

Cabot Trail

Nova Scotia coast

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