Heading to Peggy’s Cove
Today we leave Halifax and head down the coast with stops in Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg. Firstly, we walk over to the Hertz location in downtown Halifax to pick up the car that’ll be ours for the next twelve days. Thankfully due to some great credit card perks I was able to snag this rental for around $250!
After getting all the paperwork done, we are on our way towards Peggy’s Cove. After leaving the city, the drive along the highway is really pretty. The fall colours mixed with the small lakes makes for a beautiful autumn scene. Sadly, being the driver for our trip, I didn’t get a chance to take any photos of it. The closest I have is only after arriving at Peggy’s Cove, I snapped a photo of the coast line. Even this, doesn’t show some of the vibrant reds and oranges we witnessed while driving here.
Peggy’s Cove Village
After parking at Peggy’s Cove, we stroll through the village to the actual cove. To its credit, it really is very picturesque, like something out of a postcard. With the calm water, reflections and colourful buildings and boats, it really makes for a great scene. The three of us spent a bit of time wandering around, snapping pictures and taking it all in.
Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse
A little further up from the hill, is Peggy’s Cove’s Lighthouse. It stands atop a large “field” of rocks and looks out into the ocean. Its been said this is Nova Scotia’s most well known lighthouse. On a day like today, it’s not hard to see why. Even during a “pandemic” there are still many visitors, with over a hundred or so exploring the rocks in the area.
After spending some time at the light house, papa minion and I decide to “hop around” the rocks and explore a little closer to the water. So we take some time to get closer to the water’s edge and marvel at some of the waves that hit against the rocks. I also really enjoyed this time because I don’t have many opportunities to “adventure’ my dad these days. To see him jumping around like a kid (with his hat backwards no less) makes me smile thinking about it even now.
The Sou’Wester Restaurant
The one thing that can stop us playing around in the rocks and waves is hunger. And after a bit of frolicking the familiar feeling in our stomachs see’s us reunite with Mama Minion and we get a table at The Sou’Wester Restaurant right by the lighthouse. Seeing as this is predominantly a seafood restaurant, I figure this is as good as a time as any to try my first Lobster roll of the trip! To my delight, its actually very yummy and I start to worry that this may start a very expensive desire to eat all things lobster! All in all the food we all had was great! Though I do suspect there is a bit of a price mark up given its location and how a majority of their clientele are tourists. Nonetheless, the food is good and very tasty and satisfies hungry travellers like us!
Swissair Memorial SiteÂ
After lunch, we returned to our car with Lunenburg being our intended stop. However, not 5 minutes out of Peggy’s Cove, I see a sign for a Swissair Flight 111 Memorial. I didn’t know very much about this incident, but thought it would be interesting to check out, so we pull in and take the short walk out to the memorial.
Swissair Flight 111 is a flight between New York and Geneva that sadly crashed a few kilometers offshore from Peggy’s Cove. Search and Rescue from Nova Scotia were the first responders to the crash but sadly no survivors were recovered. This memorial is one of two that was built for those lost onboard. It is also an appreciation for the rescue workers that tried to save anyone they could. I can’t speak to the other memorial, but this small one is subtle, respectful and on top of a small hill overlooking the ocean. It’s peaceful and quiet and I think it’s a very respectful and fitting tribute to those who lost their lives.
Lunenburg
Leaving the Swissair memorial, we drive for another hour before arriving in the quaint town of Lunenburg. Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage site which has a lot of its original buildings from when it was settled. In some ways it actually reminds me of Steveston Village which is also a small fishing village nearby to home for me. With this in mind, the parental minions and I did some walking along the main streets and piers. But we didn’t spend that much time because as picturesque as it is, it does feel similar to what we’ve seen at home.
Blue Nose II
One notable exception though, is the Blue Nose 2. This is a replica sailing vessel of the original that is on the Canadian dime. Its neat to see this because it’s featured so prominently on our currency.Rarely do you get an opportunity to see real life subject that our coins are based on.
There is an option to pay for a tour, but with our time constraints (and being cheap!) we settled on seeing it from land!
Smoke Pitt BBQ
For dinner, we ordered take out from Smoke Pitt BBQ in Lunenburg. In my research, this name popped up a few times and so it can’t hurt to try. Because we are in that weird time of being too late for lunch but too early for dinner, we got it to go. The intention for it to be dinner upon arriving at our hotel in Yarmouth. What I didn’t quite plan on (and I’m not sure why) is that from Lunenburg to Yarmouth is about a 3 hour drive. So by the time we actually got to eat, things were a little cold. The consensus though, is that the food, if fresh, would have been amazing. Not to say we didn’t like the food, in fact it’s really good, but if fresh it would have been great!
Drive to Yarmouth and Tru by Hilton
In retrospect, I’m not entirely sure why driving to Yarmouth made it into our itinerary. But the drive in the sunset, with the warm fall colours did offer a pretty nice distraction.
The rest of the drive (in the dark) wasn’t too eventful and about 3 hours later we arrive at our lodging for the evening, Tru by Hilton. One of the things that piqued my curiosity is that someone decided to build a brand new hotel here. And my thinking is, surely there’s a reason!
The hotel itself is actually quite modern and super new. The decor is nice and very functional. I’m still not sure why they decided to build a nice new hotel here, but we’ll find out tomorrow when we explore Yarmouth a bit!
Peggy’s Cove was being expanded to accommodate more visitors. It is a beautiful place, but the small village outside, together with it’s more original huts & cottages are nice to visit too – there is a nostalgic sentiment!
I love seeing Daddy jumping around on the rocks!! And what beautiful weather! I like that picture of the three of you at Peggy’s Cove. You had no mask on, Daddy had a mask on under his chin, and Mommy had full on mask. It was a progression of the pandemic!