We survived the crazy, rainy, windblown night. At some points the wind was so strong that the side of the tent bent over and was touching my head. When we woke up the rain had stopped. We showered quickly and had a quick breakfast of cereal overlooking the water of our campsite.

Our neighbors came over to talk to us and we found out that they were from Holland and that it was their first time in North America. They were bicycling for six weeks across Nova Scotia. The woman looked a little bit like my mom. Our other neighbor also came by to say hi. He was a single guy from Philadelphia traveling around Nova Scotia by motorcycle.

Later in the morning, we drove through New Glasgow, thinking that it would be worthwhile, but it really wasn’t. Since we were cold we stopped again at Tim Horton’s for coffee and hot cocoa.

The next stop was at Pictou Harbor, home of the ship Hector and a supposedly famous knife maker. The Hector is a reproduction of an actual ship that took the first Scottish settlers from Scotland to Nova Scotia. There was a small but interesting museum outlining the history of the settlers - including why they came, the voyage over, and what they found when they arrived. All of the exhibits had interesting text, but way too much of it to focus on while standing there. One of the highlights of the museum was the reproduction of the ship in the harbor, which was launched in the year 2000. We went below deck and had a difficult time imagining how two hundred men, women, and children survived the twelve week journey from Scotland. We also bought some maple cream at a gift shop in Pictou. The local library had free internet, so we stopped to check our e-mail.

Our next stop in Pictou was the Grohmann Knife Company. We took a twenty minute tour of the facility where they hand make all of their knives. One of the things that I found interesting was that they used a thick band of walrus hide to buff the metal. Apparently they had to get it from the Canadian government because walruses are endangered.

We had a quick picnic lunch at the harbor. One of the sad things about the town is that across the bay there was some kind of factory/refinery putting out a bunch of smoke into the air. It wasn’t that nice to look at.

We continued onto the Sunrise Trail heading toward the Jost vineyard. Alas, it was not meant to be that day because we couldn’t arrive in time. We stopped at Waterside Provincial Park and had a great time walking on the deserted red sandy beach. We had fun skipping rocks into the water and wading in the waves. Most of the beach consisted of compacted ridges of sand in pretty patterns. While wading in the surf, and in the other areas with water, we saw two starfish, snails making snail tracks, a sand dollar, and a bunch of dead crabs. The water was warm, but the air was slightly cool and we didn’t have our bathing suits on.

After spending some time at the beach, we decided to call it a day. There were many activities in the area that we wanted to do, but they were closed by five pm. We camped at the Seafoam Campground in Seafoam which is by the ocean and therefore very windy. It wasn’t as bad as the night before, but still cold and windy. We made a chicken stir fry dinner, and things were blowing all around while we were trying to clean up. The campground itself is large and has mostly open sites. Some sites have really nice views of the water. We played cards in the tent, planned out our next day, and hit the hay early.