After breakfast this morning we boarded our bus for a thrilling, fun-filled ride up to Cape Breton Island.

Along the way we stopped at Pictou – the site of the first landing of Scots immigrants in Canada.  At the Hector Heritage Quay we toured a modern reconstruction of the converted cargo ship they sailed on,

learned why they came, the conditions of their voyage

and what greeted them when they arrived.  Between the smallpox, promoters’ scam, and conditions that delayed their arrival until well into September it’s a wonder that any survived.  But survive they did (mostly).

Then we reboarded the bus and ate box lunches as we traveled farther north. Along the way our guide played a couple of episodes of Vinyl Cafe – a story-telling program that ran on the CBC for several years featuring a character who grew up on Cape Breton Island.

Arriving at Baddeck we stopped first at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.  Bell and his family spent significant amounts of time at their home in Baddeck  The excellent museum covered not only his invention of the telephone, but also his work with the deaf, his forays into powered flight (the first in Canada, the first airplane to use ailerons, the first use of a tricycle landing gear), his work in developing a hydrofoil boat, and other significant inventions.

Then we checked into our hotel, billed as a “country inn”, but really a very nice motel.  We had a little time for a bit of a walk before dinner, lingering conversation after dinner, and then back to the room to update the BLOG, read, and retire.

That’s today. Tomorrow’s a new adventure.

Nite all.