MacKay Brook

Day fourteen.The ferry provided a pleasant wake up call promptly at 6am, by alerting us with nautical tones on the speaker system with no volume control in our room... in my fitful sleep my initial thought of abandon ship was quickly replaced with thank god this is about over.
We pulled into Sydney at 7am and slowly purged ourselves from the ferry, following the long line of cars out off the little port town into Nova Scotia. The plan was to distance ourselves from the busy restaurants and gas stations that surround the ferry terminal and find someplace quieter along the way towards Halifax, about a 4 hour drive away.
We did find that spot in Baddeck; a small lake side town that had a beautiful harbor and quaint little restaurants and mom and pop bed and breakfast joints sprinkled about. We all settled down in such a place with the morning fog slowly lifting around us as we ate a delicious breakfast on a wide covered porch that belonged to lovely little Inn. In reality the hostess wanted to segregate our toddler infused group to the chilly, still damp, outside deck so we wouldn’t disturb the other guests... No matter, it was the better option anyway and one we were all glad for. Afterwards we walked down to the harbor where there were many sailboats tethered in the bay and ample room for the kids to get out their energy. We also spotted a huge, beautiful double masted sail boat that was at port with lots of people milling about it. We discovered it was the famous “Bluenose II”, the “sailing ambassador of Nova Scotia”. The Bluenose II sails around the world for the most part with a crew of 23 full time sailors. Today we were lucky enough to catch them here in Baddeck, a stop for them during their summer sailing schedule. They open up the top deck for anyone wanting to see first hand what a classically trimmed sailing vessel looks like. It was beautiful and shiny, the deck just recently washed and all the brass just polished. We spoke to a few crew members who were scattered about answering questions for people. Like, how in the hell does anyone get so lucky to call this a job? The crew are mostly young 20ish folks who still have freedom in their lives, that committed to a six month stay aboard the Bluenose. The crew is then run by 6 officers and one captain as they sail around Nova Scotia and other far away ports spreading the nostalgic image of their beautiful ship wherever they go. It made me a bit jealous I have to admit, sailing has always been something I’ve wanted to do. So I pulled Addie aside and tried to plant as many seeds in her head about doing something like this when she’s a bit older... I’ll live vicariously through her.
When we finished drooling and wishing about future sailing adventures...that may of just been me... we loaded back up in our caravan of two and drove the rest of the way to Halifax.
For the last night we found another airbnb, an apartment near other apartments that could easily accommodate us all. So the ensuing debate of room selection and dinner options commenced, for one last time...
I’ll just say here that my suggestion of staying at the harbor front Marriott, that had next to it the boardwalk, the restaurants, the view, the all things I thought we would enjoy on our very last night here...was rejected unanimously in favor of this apartment in the apartment district of Halifax next to nothing... but hey, I’m just along for the ride and need to keep my mouth shut and drive the car!
Ok, the Marriott was very expensive...but I’m very easily able to rationalize such things while on vacation, especially when it’s our last night. Anyway... to celebrate our last night in Nova Scotia, we got pizza take out and ate it in the apartment. Ok... so everyone, including me was tired...the kids were bordering on mutiny and if we did drag them out for one last hoorah they probably would of suffered a complete breakdown and made us all, and the rest of the restaurant, miserable. So, it was probably a good decision to stay in...damnit. At least we had one more night’s worth of 14 year old whisky.Read more