22 AUG 2017 - Peggy's Cove and the Blue Nose II in Lunenburg

We woke up not quite so stiff as the day before and after our breakfast at the hotel headed off to Peggy's cove. the Directions had been quite easy only about a 45 minute drive out of Halifax.  so off we went. The scenery in Nova Scotia is lovely with lots of lakes and trees and gentle hills. As you get closer to Peggy's cove the terrain begins to change into more rocky ground with low growing ocean front kind of plants. By the time you reach Peggy's cove you realize that most of the coast of Nova Scotia is rock. 

Peggy's cove is built on a big rock or a collection of really big rocks. It is a very picturesque small town, a village really or actually, maybe even a hamlet,  mainly for the tourists now with a few shops and B'Bs and a big restaurant and gift shop. It Also has a very large parking lot for the tour buses and cars. We found a parking spot and went to see the world famous lighthouse. We had heard about the lighthouse at Peggy's cove for years and had seen photos of it. A pretty white and red lighthouse on a rock. Nice, right? But until you see it for yourself you have no idea that it is a lighthouse on a rock, a really big rock, a humungous rock. the whole area is a big rock. It is wonderful. 
There are warning signs posted all over saying "stay off the black rocks, "waves will wash you out to sea if you are on the black rocks". Margie and I both decided to not walk on the black rocks. We had gotten there fairly early and so had beaten a lot of the tourist buses. Even so there were quite a few people there. We headed off down the paved path past the warning signs and then we wandered off onto the rocks. We were like little kids again climbing all over the big rocks. It was great fun. We talked about how our grandkids would love this, although they would probably try to go to the black rocks and give their parents grey hair.

Part of the walk out to the sea was quite tricky and we had help from a young man who was there with his girlfriend. Such a nice young man. We took lots of photos out there on the rocks. Photos of the lighthouse , of the Atlantic ocean, of the coast made of rocks, of each other.  We did see the black rocks and even though the sea was calm, we were not tempted to try our luck. 
We headed in to the Southwester restaurant for lunch just before it got real crazy with tourists and had a great lunch of scrumptious Fish and chips for Margie and a pretty good veggie burger for me. The haddock was the best Margie had ever had! A little time afterward spent in the gift shop looking for souvenirs and we were on our way again. once we negotiated the eating of the parking lot with all the cars and buses and people walking around we headed off to Lunenburg. The weather was lovely, clear and sunny but not hot. 

Lunenburg is about an hour and half down the coast by the scenic route which was very picturesque, but we would have taken the faster route if we had known about it. Lunenburg is a much bigger town than Peggy's cove. It has lots of very cool old houses with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. And there were the docks with lots of different boats. Fishing boats, charter boasts and of course the Blue nose II. 

The Blue nose II is a lovely tall ship that we went on and found out that every morning, that it is in harbour, it does a harbour tour. If we had of known that we would have stayed one night in Lunenburg just to go on the tour. It is a lovely ship with all the rigging and the sails and a steering wheel too. 
We wandered around Lunenburg for a bit longer, finding souvenirs and washrooms and tea. Then we headed back to Halifax the fast way, not the scenic way. We got back to Halifax and to our hotel and decided to stay closer for dinner so just went across the street to a nice little sushi place. yum. 
the next day was going to be a big day as we were going to PEI by way of the Confederation Bridge. Exciting!