Continuing along the Lighthouse Route in Nova Scotia

Continued from here

We left Lunenburg the next morning and continued along the Lighthouse Route. This is the road that winds along the coast as opposed to the highway, all along the south shore of Nova Scotia. We joined the route at Lunenburg that day and followed it to Halifax, stopping at Mahone Bay, Chester, Queensland Beach and Peggy's Cove.

The route is a great one to drive, winding coastal roads, almost always with the sea within view to one side. As the route takes you though lots of little towns and villages it's really easy to just stop and get out whenever there’s something that takes your fancy.

Not far from Lunenburg is Mahone Bay, a pretty little town set at the end of a small inlet. Lots of yachts were all moored up in the bay. We carried on to Chester. The guy that ran the B&B that we were staying in had suggested we stopped there, so thought it might be a good stop for a late morning pit stop. He was of course right. I really liked Chester. It’s a very picturesque, clean, idyllic little town. (almost stepford wives but not quite!) The houses were all perfectly painted and the place just seemed super relaxed. There’s a yacht club which I can imagine gets pretty busy in the high summer season, and a nice headland which you can walk around. We came across the Kiwi Cafe, and boy am I glad that we did. I immediately felt at home, from my days in New Zealand. The cafe is bright and cheery, with super friendly staff and a great atmosphere. I sampled a Nanaimo bar and a fresh lemonade and Tim had an espresso, apparently so good it was in his top three best espresso's ever, so that’s saying something! They had some yummy looking things on the menu too, all beautifully fresh and organic. Highly recommend stopping there.

After feeling refueled we headed back onto the road and came across Queensland Beach, in Hubbard’s Cove. Gorgeous white sandy long stretch of beach grabbed our attention and made us stop for a walk.  We had a lovely time playing in the sea and wandering along the beach. Some crazy souls were even brave enough to get out into the water!

Our penultimate stop of the day was Peggy's Cove. We had made sure we had the whole afternoon there to check this infamous place out. Peggy's Cove is a tiny settlement of about 50 people, a small fishing community and its main attraction is the lighthouse set on top of the rocky outcrop sticking out into the Atlantic Sea. It s a pretty busy little place, there were a couple of tourist buses there whilst we were, but it wasn't too bad, I wouldn't imagine it’s that fun during the main summer season. There are a few houses, most of which are gift shops or art galleries. There’s the main gift shop, post office and restaurant up next to the lighthouse. Tim and I got a hearty feast to take out from there of actually reasonable fish and chips, and a lobster roll (the main staple of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick it would seem!) sat ourselves down on the rocks and had ourselves a lovely afternoon chilling out. There was a pesky giant seagull that seemed intent on stealing my chips but I was having none of it. It is quite a special place, I really felt happy there. We had been blessed by beautiful sunshine for our whole trip, but just as we sat there on the rocks some clouds came rolling in off the sea which made from some quite cool photos.

We ended our trip to the Maritimes with a night in Halifax and then Moncton. Which was pretty odd for me as my younger brother had done his initial pilot training in Moncton a couple of years back. Small world. And possibly one of the only airports that I know where you can buy live lobsters to take home with you….

Cupcake Challenge - Crave vs. Buttercream

I love a good cupcake as much as the next girl.
So when I moved to Calgary I was overjoyed to discover Crave , the ultimate cupcake shop on 17th Ave SW. (They also have a shop in Kensington)
They sell normal sized cupcakes, mini cupcakes (my fave!) and also cookies too. You have a choice of a chocolate or vanilla base and then a multitude of toppings, my favorites being Va Va Vanilla and The Princess on vanilla cake. I prefer the mini ones, the large ones seem just too indulgent, but the mini ones seem to have just the rate ratio of topping to cake, in a handy two bites. The mini ones also handily fit into my cupcake holder that Crave also sell.
Recently a rival cupcake shop has opened on 17th Ave, Buttercream. I thought I would take it upon myself to find out which was better and would I be converted.

On Saturday I hit up Crave first, getting my two favorite minis, they had been freshly baked not long before, and they put them in a box for me (which irritatingly was too big for them so they fell over in my bag and go squished, hence the less than elegant photos below!). I then went on down to Buttercream, They had lots of the big ones left but not many minis. When I asked the lady for just one vanilla one she went hunting out the back and found me one.

I must of looked like a lunatic carrying my precious cupcakes in my hands down 17th Ave, but I found a park to sit down in to conduct my experiment. First I had to put my squashed ones back together. I tried the Buttercream one first, the sponge was nice and light, the topping was also quite light, still tasty though. The crave one again had a light sponge, slightly crisp too, the topping is pretty rich and you can definitely taste the butter cream. Both pretty damn nice.

In conclusion, although the Buttercream cupcake was a bit lighter, if like me, you treat yourself to a single cupcake every now and again, if you're gonna do it, do it properly, and go for the most indulgent taste of the two and that would my old friend Crave! Yay!

So Crave still holds me for now, and next time I must remember not to try my cupcake challenge for breakfast....

Ferry to Digby and lovely Lunenburg

Next stop - Nova Scotia!

On Monday we left our lovely luxurious room in the Rossmount, jumped into our hire car (which I discovered had xm satellite radio, so that I could listen to my favorite BBC Radio One. Hurrah!), and drove back up the coast to St John where we caught the ferry that crosses the Bay of Fundy and goes to Nova Scotia, stopping in Digby.The ferry took just over 3 hours to do the crossing. Tim and I found a nice spot at the back of the ferry shielded from the wind outside and settled there, apart from the hour where I whopped his ass at Uno and he whopped mine at Mastermind. Grr.
Dibgy was holding a motorbike festival just before we arrived so as we went onto the ferry its seemed like a never ending line of bikes came off.

We had to charge across the middle of Nova Scotia to reach Lunenburg where we were staying for the night. I always entertained me on our trip just how many places have the same name as places I know in the UK. I'm guessing given where Nova Scotia is, people from the UK sailed across the Atlantic, landed in Nova Scotia and thought "hmmm why name it something different lets just name this place after my town". As a result I drop past Bridgewater, Truro, Alderney, Londonderry, Chester, Bedford and Dartmouth just to name a few.

It was nice to be driving on roads that have curves and corners again, although not sure Tim was as impressed as I was. Next time I shall take a wee sports car.
We arrived in Lunenburg in the late afternoon. We stayed in a lovely B&B, The Alcion, a large white house on a corner in the more residential part of Lunenburg. We found it a bit weird staying in a B&B, chatting to a bunch of people over breakfast isn't always my idea of fun when I've just woken up, but the breakfast was lovely. The room was gorgeous too, we were in the Dragonfly room, light and airy, and with a lovely bathroom with a hydrotherapy bathtub.

Once we'd dropped off our stuff at the B&B we walked into the main part of the town just in time for sunset over the dock. It's definitely a fishing and boat making town, so I felt right at home! There's an idyllic seafront, there's the harbour level and the rest of the main part of the town is set on a steep hill over looking the harbour. The houses are all painted different colours and seafood is definitely the main item on the menus. It was labour day so we were a bit worried no where would be open, but fear not we found a couple of places. Tim had his first lobster of the trip, and I had some tasty fishcakes. The lobster eating kept me pretty entertained throughout the meal anyways.I really like Lunenburg, it seemed so relaxed and chilled out. The town was really pretty, lots of tree lined avenues in the residential areas. Next time will spend at least two days there.

St Andrews and the Lau/Sallis Wedding

Last week I used the event of Andree and Jason's wedding in New Brunswick as a damn good excuse for a week off and a chance to visit the east coast of Canada. Tim and I visited New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and then to Chicago for the weekend where we caught up with my friend from Uni, Danielle, who was travelling round the states for the summer.

I was super excited to be on the coast again and couldn't wait to see how different the opposite side of Canada is. I'll break up our trip over a few posts.

Tim and I flew to Toronto to meet each other and then caught a flight out to Moncton, NB. We drove the 3 hours or so in the dark down to St Andrews ready for the wedding the next day. Was weird driving all the way without being able to see much of the landscape around us, especially seeing as we know that the sea was just there... It was a beautiful night, a full moon and clear skies. Was great being able to see all those stars again.

The wedding venue that they chose was the Rossmount Inn in St Andrews-by-the-sea. A beauftiful house turned hotel set up on a hillside looking out over the bay. Most of the guests from the wedding were staying at the Rossmount too. The food there on a normal day is supposed to be sublime, although we didn't get a chance to sample it this time. Next time!

St Andrews in a little town on the Bay of Fundy. It's pretty touristy, thankfully we were there towards the end of the season so it wasn't too busy. The town is made up of wodden houses of all different colours and shapes. Theres a nice little pier with fishing boats tied up to it too.

Saturday brought Andree and Jason's wedding. It was honestly the most beautiful wedding I have been too. The day was relaxed and laid back and seriously seriously enjoyable. We were blessed with a beautiful cloudless blue sky, and it was lovely warm day. Andree and Jason had obviously planned the day so well that it seemed effortless. The ceremony was out on the pool deck of the hotel, a record 8 mins of some beautiful vows and my two friends were declared husband and wife. Swiftly followed was champagne and lots of lovely canapes out on the pool deck, Oysters, Goats cheese tarts, salmon, raspberry refreshers and more...

The programming language themed table plan was also a lovely touch. Definitly an 'in' joke. Andree had picked out some lovely options for the dinner, Tim had a pretty damn tasty Lamb dish and I went for the yummy fish. On our tables Andree had left us some really thoughtful party favours. Some how she had managed to find a picture of each of us and Andree or Jason, and put them into photo frames. Such a lovely idea. I was honoured to be part of their day, and they both looked radiant and so meant for each other. Yay.

We spent the rest of the weekend in St Andrews too. The post wedding brunch the next day was pretty fun, more food than any of us could ever manage (even Andree's Dad!), and great wrap up from the day before. Tim and I then took a boat trip to go whale watching. It was brilliant to get out on the ocean again, miss being on a boat. (ironically my brother was sailing with my Dad and stepmum at the time too). We went with Quoddy Link Marine, it was refreshing to see that they were really concerned with letting the whales be whales, they didn't want to crowd the whales like all the other boats were so we went off in search of some more whales. And that we did, we saw quite a few of the massive Finback whales, and also a whole load of seals sat on a rock that gets covered by the massive tides in the Bay of Fundy.

That night saw us having a chilled out evening with those left around from the wedding party.

Lake O'Hara Hike 29th Aug '09

Yesterday the ThoughtWorks hike club set off for another adventure.... this time to Lake O'Hara, in British Columbia, Canada.

This was the most amazing hike I have been on so far. To steal JJ's phrase, "Maximum gain for minimum effort". This was certainly true. In a good way.

JJ and Sarah picked me up at 7am in the Kia Ronda partymobile. To my absolute delight I was greeted with a warm bacon sandwhich and a banana! Legend JJ. Went very well with my tea. Whoop.
The base of Lake O'Hara is just under 3 hours from Calgary, about 25 mins past Lake O'Hara. There we met fellow hikers Kim, Kunal and Mike. We all loaded up into a classic yellow school bus that was going to take us up to the lake. Lake O'Hara is in Yoho national park, and access is restricted to 40 or so people a day to preserve the park (see the national park site for more details). There is a private lodge up there and a campsite. Would be a lovely place for a relaxed long weekend.The bus takes you up the 15km to the Lake and drops you off in the area where the lodge and campsite are. Imediatly you are such a beautiful place. Lake O'Hara is a beautiful aqua marine colour and completly clear. We quite enjoyed throwing stones in and watching them go right to the bottom. The six of us trooped off along the edge of the lake and then took a right fork off the lake edge trail through a lovely forest up to Mary Lake. This lake was much greener in colour. The whole valley we were hiking we were surrounded by grey mountain sides and a view behind us out over the rest of Yoho National Park. Due to the restriction on the people allowed up the mountain we were blessed to hardly meet anyone on the trail. Felt very exclusive!

We then started climbing 200m or so up the side of the cliff onto to Opabin plateau. Amazing view on route of Mary Lake, Lake O'hara and the national park. This part was mainly scrambling up a rocky path. Wouldn't suggest going down that route, certainly not if you are scared of heights. Up is much better.
Once up onto the plateau you are greeted with a surreal world. Feels almost crater like, lush green and big boulders. There are a series of smaller lakes that lead up to Opabin lake at the top and the glacier that feeds them all.We were blessed with the most blue skies and lovely sunshine. Not too hot either. Meant that the lakes were super clear and reflecting the mountains in them. Absolutely beautiful. Feel almost spoilt to see that many lovely scenes in the one day!
To see more of the photos from the hike head to my Facebook page here.

While stopping for snacks in Lake Louise on the way home, I mentioned that I had actually been to Lake Louise or Moraine lake near by, so JJ and Sarah declared we were detouring to Lake Moraine and were going to take me there while we were so close. Moraine Lake is also just beautiful and an easy place to visit if you are in Banff. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but as were there in the evening most of the crowds had dispersed. The most striking thing about Moraine Lake is the colour. The photos don't do it justice. It looks as if it has been dyed.
The journey home of course contained the obligitory Anne and JJ roadshow. We sing out hearts out to some sort of cheesy song, accompanied by some awesome dance moves, amusing the hell out of whoever else is in the car. Sarah's tweet sums it up pretty well I feel

rerevisitedHighlight of the amazing hike to Lake O'Hara: couple of Brits singing their little Shania Twain hearts out. Thx @ateabutnoe & @annejsimmons!

The most amazing day had. Next weekend it's off to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia...

This week I have mostly been reading....

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Conclusion: Awesome - Read it!

Weddings, Banff and a night out at a "microclub"

Last weekend I had the pleasure of Tim in Calgary for a whole 5 days. Yay!

On Friday we went to I think my favourite sushi place in Calgary, Zen 8 - more pricey that the other sushi places but way nicer in my opinion. Had a nice bottle of sake too. nom nom.

Saturday saw us going to Milt and Judy's wedding. Tim used to go to university with Milt and so it was a pretty good reunion with a lot of his university friends. They got married in a church in Kensington, they are both Chinese and Milt's family is pretty large so they got an impressive turnout.

All glamed up Tim, I, Abe and Carol headed off for a bite to eat and stopped by Mountain Equipment Co-Op for them to get a backpack to put their son Bryce in. We certainly looked out of place in a camping shop dolled up in our wedding gear!
We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, not to hot but warm enough. The evening 'do was in the stampede grounds. Huge reception of 300-400 people, beautiful set up and for that many people must of been run with military precision.

The next day we headed out to Banff for the day. Tim's sister Kim and her husband were randomly in Calgary picking up a friend from the UK from the airport. They live down in Nelson which is in inner British Columbia, in the Rockies. Tim and Kim haven't seen each other for a couple of years so it was pretty good luck that they both were passing through Calgary on the same weekend. We drove up to Banff town and met them at the Bison Restaurant & Lounge for brunch. The food there is divine..... definitely must go back. Banff is quite different in the summer, nice but almost like a different place. They were right when people told me it was busier in the summer than in the winter though. Feels weird going to the mountains when they're not covered in snow! Wrong somehow.
It was great to meet some more of Tim's family. Have to confess I was pretty nervous. Turns out there was no need to be though. Felt like we all got on immediately, Kim and Wes are lovely people, seem very kind and very in love. Look forward to getting to spend some more time with them at some stage.
After hanging out in Banff for a few hours we headed back to Calgary and went to Farm for dinner. I love that place. We consumed a bottle of champagne in celebration of Tim selling his condo here and ate a large pile of cheeses and local meats. Good weekend on the food front!

This week I have working away as usual. Our dev team on the project I'm working on has shrunk recently and I was quite worried about the dynamics. But actually it's turned out to be working quite well. Which is nice. I am having a super lazy weekend this weekend, which is awesome. Long lie in's, PJ's.... Got all my hair chopped off yesterday, now its just above my shoulders. Then JJ, Sarah, Amit and Michelle and I all headed out for a few drinks last night. We went to Meet, and then the Milk Tiger Lounge. Nice place, lots of petites Bouches, (small food on a stick to you and me). Again, YUM. Then we ventured to Habitat which is a wee Micro Club. It was pretty small.... Although we all showed our age and gave up a 1.20am. Nice night though.