Day Seven - The Cabot Trail

We woke up in the small french settlement of Chetticamp this morning. We drove in last night from the ferry town of Pictou, Nova Scotia and drove a few hours over to Cape Breton Island. It was dark so we don't have any pic's of it. This is a VERY small community so the best motel around was one we found on Tripadvisor called "Merry's Motel". It was very clean and very quaint but it felt a little like you're staying in your grandma's spare bedroom. The furniture was all from garage sales and nothing matched. The bathtub was the same size as a motorhome's but the wireless internet was the fastest and easiest to connect to of all the hotels we've stayed at so far! When we checked in we were told that the free continental breakfast was a very light breakfast about 3 times! ("I'm talking small" "Arthur") Well, she wasn't kidding...blueberry muffins and coffee. Needless to say we stopped at this little coffee shop called "Tim Horton's" for something more substantial. The people were all regulars and all of the women were gathered around one table. The men on the other side of the restaurant. We asked one of the ladies if the men were their husbands and they laughed and one of them said, "I left my husband on the golf course!" and one said, "I left my husband on the lawn mower!" then a third said, "I don't take my husband anywhere!". We visited with them and they told us they call themselves "The View" and they call the men who gather there, "The Liars Club!". They were so cute and laughed so hard it made me miss all my girlfriends! One of them had made some fudge that morning (overachiever:) and gave us some, the people in Nova Scotia are soooooo nice!

Chetticamp is a town on the route known as The Cabot Trail. This route is famous because a man names John Cabot discovered this beautiful area and mapped it out years ago so others could enjoy it. It is now a national park and is located in what is known as the Cape Breton Highlands. It is truly a marvel and we completely enjoyed it. There is coastline and forests and fall color and shops and museums. It was almost uninhabited the day we were there and the weather was unbelievably warm for this time of year. I wish we could really show the true beauty, but these pics will have to do:) You aren't going to believe how pretty this place is!

Our Room @ Merry's Motel in Chetticamp, N.S.

"The View" (my new B.F.F.'s)

An old church in Chetticamp

This is the Acadian museum in Chetticamp. The Acadian's are French descendants who have been through all kinds of persecution and prejudice. We learned a lot about their history from the docent who was there. It was more than I can explain in this post, but it was fascinating.

The start of the "highlands"

Some of the first color we saw on the Cabot Trail

All four of us, on the Cabot Trail

This is a beautiful place called the Keltic Lodge which overlooks a cliff. We stopped here for lunch, it was once a vacation home for a wealthy American in the early 1800's and is now a hotel and restaurant. It is so out of the way, it's a wonder anyone even knows about it but it was amazing and so was the food!