Today we left the Walmart in Port Hawkesbury and drove east to Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site:

The first room focused on Bell’s work with the deaf, including a fascinating display explaining Bell’s father’s invention, Visible Speech.  Bell’s efforts to understand the nature of spoken audio led him to discover the waveform of voice which in turn led him to the invention of the telephone:

This poster was on the wall near the restrooms:

After inventing the telephone and making his fortune, Bell and his wife moved here to Cape Breton Island where he focused on aviation and hydrofoils:

A replica of the Silver Dart, a collaboration with Bell and others in the Bell-funded and led AEA.  This is the first heavier-than-air craft to fly in Canada, as well as the first airplane in North America to fly over one mile:

Bell and Baldwin developed the HD-4, the first water craft to travel over 100KPH.  This is a full size replica of the original HD-4, completed in 1919:

Models of the HD-4 (left), HD-5, and HD-6:

The original hull of the HD-4:

The original radiator and gas tank from the Silver Dart:

The original propeller from the Silver Dart:

Alexander Graham Bell’s slide rule:

Bell telephones:

The first device to ever transmit voice over wire:

It’s easy to see why Bell called this area home in his later years:

The kids completed their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

We left the RV at Alexander Graham Bell NHS and continued east with just the truck to visit Cape Breton Highlands National Park:

We drove the Cabot Trail through the park.  The rugged shoreline was beautiful:

M and I hiked the Skyline Trail, despite the late hour and temperatures in the low 50s, which we did not expect.  The altitude here is not that great, so perhaps the cold was due to winds blowing off the North Atlantic.  We got handled both problems by walking fast:

Meadows have recently formed here because moose are eating all the saplings.  Parks Canada built this enclosure to compare rates of plant growth with and without moose influence:

We spotted a moose cow browsing outside the enclosure:

The Cabot Trail, where we will be driving after finishing the hike:

More wildlife:

The end of the Skyline trail:

On the way back, now 20 minutes after sunset, we ran into this bull moose just outside the moose enclosure, about 50 feet away: 

Moose inflict more human injuries than any land mammal except the hippopotamus, so we hiked cross-country the skirt the moose and avoid startling it into charging:

We managed to get back to the car and reach the visitor center minutes before its 9pm closing time.  The kids handed in their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

We drove back to Alexander Graham Bell NHS, hitched up the RV, and drove east to overnight at the Walmart of Sydney, Nova Scotia.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

This morning we left our RV at the Walmart of Dartmouth and drove into Halifax to visit Halifax Citadel National Historic Site.  The fort was built in 1749 as a response to the French Fortress of Louisbourg near present day Sydney, Nova Scotia.  The fort was never attacked, and was rebuilt several times, the most recent incarnation being built in 1856.  It is this period that the re-enactors attempt to bring back to life:

Our tour guide:

Barracks:

Between the citadel wall and one of the three ravelins:

Looking over the rampart into downtown Halifax:

This gun is fired every day at noon:

Guard house:

Tailor’s room:

M tried on some of the costumes:

The school room, where soldiers were taught to read and write:

The powder magazine.  Structural components are held together with wood pegs or copper to avoid any chance of a spark:

A model of the citadel:

We went to the second story of the barracks, which today houses as extensive Canadian military museum.  The docent was very excited to show us a display about the Jewish Legion, trained right here in Nova Scotia to fight the Ottomans in World War I:

We heard more stories outside:

There were several exhibit areas in various buildings in the citadel:

The park service has built a mock World War I trench between the citadel walls:

Using trench periscopes:

We watched more demonstrations:

Boom!  But not really, it seems they didn’t ram the charge in far enough, so the fuse couldn’t light the charge.  The crew now has to fill the cannon with water to render the charge inert before they can remove the charge:

The kids completed their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

We did some grocery shopping in Halifax, then returned to the RV, hitched up, and drove east to overnight at the Walmart of Port Hawkesbury on Cape Brenton Island, Nova Scotia.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Shabbos at the Walmart of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia was nice.  We had mild weather and went for a family walk in the afternoon.

Today we got up early, knowing that we had a full day ahead of us.  We drove northwest to Grand-Pré National Historic Site:

We first watched the site movie in the auditorium.  Each seat had headphones with a switch to select english or french audio.  The movie focused on the history of Grand-Pré, an Acadian settlement founded in 1682.  The settlement flourished until 1755 when the British deported the Acadians from Acadia for refusing to swear allegiance to the Crown of England.  The Acadian population, historically French but under alternating French and English rule from 1605 to 1755, developed its own identity and attempted to remain neutral.  Acadian assistance in the defense of French Fort Beauséjour (see Day 748) in 1755 encouraged the English to view Acadians as siding with the French, and shortly thereafter the Acadians where deported wholesale from what is today New Brunswick.  Most Acadians were forced onto ships and transported to the American colonies, where the English Protestant colonists refused to accept the French-Speaking Catholic Acadians.  The Acadians were then shipped back to Europe.  Many Acadians fled to what is today Nova Scotia, where they remained until the English captured the Fortress of Louisbourg and expelled the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1758.  Eventually, many Acadians made their way to the only non-English controlled portion of North America, Spanish-controlled Louisiana, where the Acadians became known as Cajuns.

The visitor center had exhibits on the deportation, as well as the extensive dike system built by the residents of Grand-Pré, so historically significant that the “Landscape of Grand Pré” was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2012.  The settlers of Grand-Pré used dikes to convert over 1,000 acres of tidal marshland into the most fertile farmland at this latitude in North America:

The dike’s clapet, a one way gate that allows the diked marshland to drain but does not allow incoming seawater into the diked area:

We walked the grounds where the settlement of Grand-Pré used to stand.  A statue of Longfellow’s Evangeline, which inspired a wave of Acadian resettlement of Maritime Canada, stands watch over the grounds:

Looking out over the diked marshlands:

Playing settler games:

The reconstructed blacksmith shop contains a sling for horses which, when raised, allowed easy access to the hooves for shoeing:

Bust of Longfellow:

An archeological dig is underway to find the palisade built by the English to impound the Acadians during deportation:

The kids completed their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

Continuing west, we stopped at a tourist information center to refill our water tanks, then continued on to Port-Royal National Historic Site:

Port Royal was settled by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons in 1605 after loosing half his colonists in the winter of 1604 at St Croix (see Day 743).  This site was the captial of Acadia until 1613 when the English destroyed this site:

Looking out into the Bay of Fundy:

This site was rebuilt in the mid-20th century by Americans in “compensation” for the Amercian colonial destruction of the original site in 1613.  The attention to detail is impressive:

Park staff dressed in period dress use recreated period tools to fabricate roof shingles:

Pondering the Acadian’s fate:

The kids completed their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

We drove east a couple miles to Fort Anne National Historic Site.  After the above-mentioned destruction of Port Royal in 1613, the French moved the Acadian captial here in 1632, when the area was ceded to the French by treaty, forcing the removal of Scottish settlers from the area.  In 1710, the English captured the French fort and ultimately renamed the fort Fort Anne.

This needlepoint, completed by dozens of volunteers, tells the convoluted story of the history of the area:

The original charter for Nova Scotia, granted to Sir William Alexander by King James in 1621:

The kids had fun with the costumes in the visitor center:

A model of Fort Anne.  Later building projects would add more ravelins:

Out on the grounds, we played croquet:

A casemate, later used as a prison:

The oldest Parks Canada building in the country, a powder room built in 1708:

This is gym class:

The kids completed their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

We drove west and south along the Nova Scotia coast.  Towards evening, the fog settled in:

Trish has taken up Rug Hooking, a craft synonymous with Scottish Nova Scotia:

Tonight were overnighting at the Walmart of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Today the kids did homeschool while I took the truck out to get gas and propane.  We left the Moncton casino this afternoon and drove east to Aulac, New Brunswick, where we visited Fort Beauséjour – Fort Cumberland National Historic Site:

The site preserves the fort built here as Fort Beauséjour in 1751 to protect what was established as the border between British and French Acadia by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.  In 1755, the British captured the fort from the French after laying siege to the fort.  The fort was renamed Fort Cumberland, and was instrumental in preventing American control of Nova Scotia during the revolutionary war.  This model depicts Fort Beauséjour in 1755 on the eve of the British assault:

The bell from an Acadian church nearby, cast in France in 1734:

This room in the visitor center was filled with relics collected by a local Acadian, and didn’t necessarily have anything to do with Fort Beauséjour:

Ship in a lightbulb:

We toured the fort, whose walls contained several casemates, this one built by the French to house foodstuffs:

Looking down into the fort:

Barracks foundation:

This stone casemate was added by the British after conquering the fort in 1755:

Another French casemate:

Cannons from the fort are on display:

The kids completed their Parks Canada Xplorers workbooks and received their tags:

Continuing east, we crossed into Nova Scotia and stopped at the nearby welcome center:

The welcome center had a display on traditional rug pulling and included an area where visitors could try it themselves:

A completed pulled rug:

The welcome center had a nice flower garden:

We continued east, stopping in Amherst, Nova Scotia.  We had called ahead and the Chamber of Commerce told us that the town had a public water spigot.  When we got there, we discovered it had an unthreaded hose, and that a button had to be pushed to dispense water one gallon at a time.  We used our water bandit to attach our hose, but the pressure was too high so I had to push the water bandit against the supply hose each time Trish pushed the button.  It took a while, and we were both pretty wet by the time we were done, but we managed to fill the tank.

After getting diesel (about $3.75 per gallon here), we continued on to overnight at the Walmart of Amherst.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.