It took a long time to get our breakfast served at the B&B's associated restaurant. Immediately after breakfast, we went to Captain Mark's Whale Watching office to book the whale watching tour. With early booking, it costs less than $30 per person for this 2 - 2 1/2 hours of whale watching tour. They have 3 tours scheduled for each day. However, due to weather condition, they canceled their 10AM and Noon tours on that day. We put our names down for the 4PM tour and went to do some more hiking. We hiked MacIntoch Brook, Lone Shieling, Bog, and Benjie’s Lake trails. We also hiked Fishing Cove trail a little bit. There was no one on the trail except us, therefore we turned around pretty quickly without finishing the whole trail.
We rushed back to Pleasant Bay around 3PM to check on the availability of 4PM whale watching tour. Luckily, the wave died down and they decided to have the 4PM tour. On the boat, they explained different types of whales in the Pleasant Bay and the most whales spotted in the bay are Pilot Whales. At the first 2 hours, we were just boating around trying to spot the whale. Finally, one of the zodiac spotted a school of pilot whales. We followed the zodiac and saw lots of pilot whales in the last 30 minutes. At the same time, the Dalhousie University research students were providing more details of these whales, and they were teaching us how to spot them and to watch their playful actions. It was the first time we ever on a whale watching tour and the results are more than satisfactory.
Today, we were trying to cover the Northeast portion of the Cape Breton Highlands NP. The first trail we visited was Jigging Cove. Then we hiked on Jack Pine trail to the point it meets Coastal trail then we turned right and kept on the Coastal trail. The Atlantic coastline along with coastal forest is absolutely beautiful. The combination of Jack Pine and Costal trails allowed us to avoid too much hiking and also allow us to see the best part of both trails. Then we traveled further south on Cabot Trail to visit Black Brook Cove and Green Cove. We were surprised by the beauty of Green Cove which does not require any hiking and you are able to be on top of giant rocky ocean headland. The view is just breathtaking. On top of the rock with ocean breeze, it makes you totally relaxed and excited about this wonderful experience of witnessing this natural beauty.
On our way back to Pleasant Bay, we also visited the Warren Lake and Mary Ann Falls. Mary Ann Falls is located inside mountain valley. After 30 minutes driving on dirt road and a short hike you will find it with tranquilized surrounding, sun bathers, swimmers, and high divers jumping from the surrounding rocks to the lake. It is just a peaceful and beautiful spot.
We visited the southeast part of the Cape Breton Highlands NP near Ingonish, NS. First we hiked the Franey trail. After about 20 minutes hiking we found out that it is not as good as we expected. The hiking trail is great for hiking, but the scenery is just OK. We turned around and went to Middle Head trail.
The trail head of Middle Head is near the Keltic Lodge and it extends to the end of a peninsular. We were witnessing the beautiful Keltic Lodge and told ourselves that we will stay here next time if we ever come back to Cape Breton Highlands NP. It turned out that the Middle Head trail is the most beautiful and exciting trail we had hiked in Cape Breton Highlands NP. After Middle Head, we visited Ingonish Beach and hiked up a short and steep Freshwater Lake Look-Off trail to have the panoramic ocean view.
About 3PM, we concluded our visit of Cape Breton Highlands NP and drove to Truro on our way to Halifax, NS. One the way out of Cape Breton Cabot Trail, we end up with a ferry ride to take us crossing Jersey Cove. This is the only ferry ride we had on this trip.
In Truro, we stayed at Tulips and Thistle B&B which is a typical B&B as we expected with nice home environment and nice hosts. It restored our confidence of staying at B&B.
In the evening, we visited the Victoria Park in Truro which is a very nice park with nice walking trails and the Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob’s Ladder is a wood staircase comprising 175 steps up the hill. Many joggers use it as part of their physical training facility by jogging up and down these 175 steps.
We heard about the Berlin Wall Sections and the Tree Sculptures in Truro. Amazingly found that such historical item like Berlin Wall Sections can be seen in a little town like Truro. Since it doesn’t have beautiful appealing to most of Truro residences, it had been moved to Dalhousie University campus. We visited it for its historic value. Truly, it is not physically appareling.
We spotted one of the Tree Sculptures at a corner of a supermarket’s parking lot. If we did not ask locals, we would never know it is a sculpture made from a dead tree trunk.
We took a leisure drive to Halifax in the afternoon. After we checked into the hotel, we went down to the waterfront to visit the boardwalk. We were not impressed by Halifax. The road leads to Halifax downtown is hard to follow and the downtown streets are pretty narrow and old. The downtown is nothing comparing to any US mid-size town. It rained in the afternoon, we could not enjoy the walk on the boardwalk. We could not find any shops in downtown worth to shop either. Therefore, we drove to a Roots outlet store to shop clothes as souvenirs for our granddaughter (who was born in Canada).
We visited the Halifax Citadel national Historic Site of Canada to experience a part of Canada’s history. The Citadel itself is not very impressive, however the view from there to the whole Halifax downtown is great.
It has walking path to the Old Town Clock too.
After the Citadel tour, we visited the nearby Halifax Public Gardens. To us, this is the best attraction we had visited in Halifax. It is one of the most beautiful, well kept, and cherished sites in Halifax.
In the afternoon, we visited the Halifax Marine Museum which has a lot of exhibitions regarding the Titanic.
