Thanksgiving East Coast Style!🦃🦃🦃
We were up well before sunrise to have breakfast and drive down to the Northumberland ferry, a part of the Trans Canada highway. Breakfast was amazing! Too much food, but the omelette was very good.
It was 0° as we set off for the ferry. Actually had to defrost the windows! We arrived and checked in at the terminal just after sunrise.
Finally on board. We have a bit of a road to run today in order to arrive on time for the cultural portion of our day which starts at 1 PM. It’s called a Céilidh (Kalie) where there is typically traditional music played. This is a link to our event, assuming we can figure out how to access our tickets, something that AT is presently working on!
https://tickets.celtic-colours.com/TheatreManager/1/tmEvent/tmEvent1539.html
This will be followed by a traditional Cape Breton (CB) community Thanksgiving dinner at the staggeringly early time of 3PM. I’m thinking that the early start allows time for the traditional east coast digestive nap afterwards!😅
And we are off! I believe it’s an hour and twenty minute crossing.
The winds are somewhat lower today than they have been in past days. A good thing as this ferry is fairly small and it must have been a fun time crossing during the past few days! It’s possible that sailing might even have been canceled.
Yesterday I read an interesting article in the Globe & Mail about the process of aging. It was written by an 80-year-old, who was looking backwards at his aging process as he arrives into what he considers to be his later years. Most interesting were the comments at the end of the article made by subscribers to the newspaper. It was quite fascinating to read various perspectives, and a recurring theme was to maintain your health and your interests, and be prepared to adjust your interests as your health situation eventually changes. I think I’ll read it a second time. Lots of good advice, and of course the aging journey is different for everyone.
After a long drive at a fairly good clip we have arrived at our first event. We have our tickets in hand and are seated waiting for the concert to begin.
Though we had a ways to go, as we came onto Cape Breton Island, the colours were immediately apparent. Just dazzling in the beautiful sunshine! We even had enough time to stop occasionally to have a good look at little spots along the winding road.
If the weather holds we are going to love this!
We are on the Mi’kmaq First Nations lands for our events today. Unlike British Columbia that has dozens of different bands, there are comparatively few in this part of the country. This is the entrance to the hall, where the Mawio’mi Céilidh will be held. We arrived just before 12:30 and then wondered where everybody was. We finally picked up our tickets only to discover that they’ve changed the time of this event by an hour until 2 PM. The dinner is no longer at 3 PM, but at a more reasonable 5 PM. We will likely have time between events to go to our accommodation on the far side of the lake and check in before coming back here for the Thanksgiving community dinner at the school.
The music and singing were good, and we had a lot of fun with a full auditorium. The guitar playing was particularly good! Some real talent. We sat beside a German couple from Munich who have purchased a summer home by Halifax. We chatted about the warming situation in Europe amount other things. We weren’t allowed to take any photographs so you’ll just have to imagine the concert in your mind‘s eye.
After the concert, we drove directly down to the high school where the students had put together a Thanksgiving meal for us in the gymnasium. It was a part of fundraiser for an upcoming school trip. The meal was a little light on turkey, but fortunately we were able to go back and get a little extra. 🙂 We sat with a couple from Peterborough and an American couple from Vermont. The Americans were distraught at what’s been going on in their country, and they are huge Bernie Sanders fans. John just retired from his architecture practice a year ago at age 71. His wife was the smarter of the two because she retired 10 years ago. 😆 He would like to walk a Camino, but was wondering if he’s now too old to do so. He looked reasonably fit, and I encouraged him to give it a go if it’s something he wants to do. I’m just a year younger and I’m not quite finished yet.🙃
We drove to our golf course accommodation in the early dark. Just adequate light to get a last photo. Also spotted a beaver in the water, but my photo was a bit blurred.
Tomorrow we are touring the island and hope to find a place to hike. Too much sitting today. We also need to find a place for breakfast and an accommodation for the following two nights.
That’s it for Thanksgiving Day in NS. We have the Jays game playing in the background. Doesn’t look too good for them again tonight. Hope your turkey day was good.
Cheers!
Geoff🍷
Distance Walker - Wandering & Wondering! 