Day 50 - Cavendish, PEI to Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia 345km

The jumping pillow, Cavendish, PEI

We drove the short distance from Cavendish Beach to Charlottetown, the capital of PEI. We visited the legislative building which still has the room where the first meeting took place to discuss the idea of Canada as a country back in 1864. The room has been untouched since 1890. Seeing the room, listening to the Canada Parks guides and watching the 17minute video really brought home the significance of this event in Canada’s history. This room is where Canada was born! 

I had heard about the dates that various provinces had joined ‘confederation’ (joined as a country) and I was confused as to why the Maritime Provinces were first. It turns out, some of you history buffs may know this so skip this paragraph, that the meeting was intended to discuss the future of the Maritimes. The Americans were getting quite organized in the South and were threatening the borders of the un-united Canada.

John A McDonald (leader of upper Canada now called Ontario) heard about the meeting and grabbed his counterpart George Etionne Cartier (leader of lower Canada, now called Quebec) and they invited themselves to the meeting. This was a bit of an imposition to the maritimers but it appears they were as friendly then as they are now and they welcomed  the visitors and agreed to hear them out. In addition, to allow them time to get to know each other before starting to talk business they spent a week socializing and getting to know each other.

The best thing I learned was that there were no notes taken, no documents signed and no formal agreement taken away from this meeting. 

The first provinces to join confederation were Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec three years later in 1867. Ironically, Newfoundland was one of the last to join in 1949. All of the other provinces agreed to join some time in-between.

Charlottetown, like all of PEI was quaint and beautiful.

When I grow up... Big Crocs, Charlottetown, PEI

We took the one and a half hour ferry over to Nova Scotia and headed up the coast to Cape Breton and stopped at start of the Cabot Trail.

We finally buckled and had a lobster dinner! I’m reluctant to say too much as I don’t want readers to think that all we think about is food. But I must record a couple of facts. Don’t offer unlimited mussels when the Watermans are coming to dinner. We went through 7 bowls (each bowl had at least 20 mussels) and then we had unlimited fish chowder before tucking into our 1 pound lobsters. Jemma had a ‘childs plate’ which was half a baby lobster, and when she was trying to get the meat out of the claw it flipped out of her grasp and skidded across the floor. Without hesitating Jemma chased it like a cat, grabbed the claw with the meat hanging out and popped it in her mouth. I guess she was observing the 3 second rule! When she sat back in her seat we could see lobster guts on her face, chest and arms. That’s my girl!

The 'childs plate'

Half of the mussel remains