P0rt WiIIiams

August 11, 2006. P0rt WiIIiams, smack between KentviIIe and WolfviIIe (home of Acadia on N0va Sc0tia's beautiful north shore washed by Fundy tides (the highest in the world, don't you know). We arrived at our bed and breakfast a half-hour earlier than we were supposed to (check-in is at 4 p.m.) and were met by our hostess, Mary, as she was stuffing a pillow into a pillowslip. I liked her immediately, her straight-forward, no-nonsense, Maritime, country housewife manner. She told us to come back later as, in her own words, "the old lady is all alone and is doing everything by herself today." She told us where to buy beer (W0lfviIIe) and what would be a good place to have lunch (we hadn't eaten since our rather disappointing breakfast in HaIifax, although we had been munching on gourmet jelly beans purchased at a candy store before we left). The beer was because the musicians had a day off following that night's concert and had asked us to provide a malt beverage to go along with the bottle of whiskey the accordionist had stuffed in his bag.

We found the liquor control board, bought the beer (a case of this and a case of that, and then ate at a trendy little eatery called The lvy Deck where I had a bowl of seafood chowder and afterwards wished I hadn't. It was very tasty, but was made with heavy cream which did not sit well in my poor, shrunken, complaining stomach. I had also ordered a plate of sweet-potato fries, which were very tasty again, but rather oily, and I only had a few of them before handing the rest over to Hubby. I don't know what I was thinking as I hardly ever order that kind of fare. I was so hungry and I just didn't want to bother reading the menu, desiring instant gratification, so I ordered the first things I saw. Not smart.

We walked around WolfviIIe for a bit, had a tea and coffee at a very nice cafe on the corner (you've got to remember that although this is a tiny community (pop. c. 3,800), it is a university town, so it's got amenities you wouldn't find elsewhere) before returning to the B&B where Mary had our room all ready for us. It was large (two beds, a double and a three-quarter) with tons of room, as opposed to the one we'd been in the night before, no excess pillows, but with a shared bath down the hall. That was fine. It was big too. I napped while Hubby met with the musicans to fine tweak his piece, and then we hurried to the church (the W.C. was in the community hall next door where ladies were preparing for the next morning's quilt sale) for the concert.

We arrived there and I noticed microphones set up. No one had told us the concert was going to be recorded, so we were concerned that Hubby would be able to get a copy afterwards. The concert went well, the church was full and the audience very appreciative. Afterwards, as we were rising from our pew, a man came over (a man I for one did not recognize) and said, "Hubby! Elgan! It's me! EM!" Surprise, surprise! EM and I had gone to undergrad school together (he was a horn player) and I hadn't seen him since convocation 24 years ago. He said (as everyone does) that he knew me immediately, I hadn't changed a bit. He was down to the maritimes visiting some friends, had found out about this concert, and for the price of admission had recorded it. When I dug a little about his life since our last encounter, he revealed that he had married, divorced, and his life was basically his recording company. He seemed happy enough, so I didn't pursue it.

We tried to bring the musicians back to our B&B for the beer (which Mary had thoughtfully stowed in the fridge), but it was late, everyone was in bed, and she said it wasn't a good idea. So instead we ended up at a bar in KentviIIe called Paddy's (shamrocks everywhere, don't you know) where we had beer and chips (again, no supper) before going back to our respective accommodations.

Breakfast the next morning was a delight, even though Hubby found it a wee bit too formal. The table was set with linen and silverware and porcelain and crystal. For starters Mary brought out a crystal goblet of fresh fruit salad with a generous dollop of yogurt on top, then homemade granola (just a couple of tablespoons now) with milk, followed by Belgian waffles smothered in homemade blueberry sauce. Mmmmmm! There was also apple cake to finish, but I had no room at all for it. The tea was perfect, though, which was also a nice change from the breakfast of the day before.

We borrowed a map and insect repellant from our hostess and drove out to a nearby provincial park with hiking trails. We started up one and returned by another, ending at the waterfall shown in the picture in the link. It was lovely. We also walked out onto the flats where the tide was starting to come back in, walking over the red sand, gazing up at the sandstone cliffs overlooking the bay. The green seaweed left by the tide was striking in contrast against the red of the rocks, and I saw a small squid which hadn't made it back to the ocean when the water receded.

We drove back to P0rt WiIIiams via Kingsport where we stopped for fish burgers (which were really just battered fish as you'd get with fish & chips between the two halves of a bun) on the beach, returned the map and bug spray, retrieved our beer, bid adieu to lovely Mary, and got back in the car for a trip cross-country from the north shore to the south.

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