Let's Go Places (And Meet People!): Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Today's story is about the first weekend of my Maritimes trip.  I stayed in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with Elisabeth and Family.  The visit was a perfect blend of seeing epic places and spending time with epic people.

Wolfville is a university town with a permanent population of 5,000.  At any given time there are about twice that many people around - tourists in the summer and university students during the school year.  It has a good blend of small town charm but with all of the stores that a person could possibly need plus easy access to Halifax for big city essentials (hospitals, Ikea, Costco).  The only criticism anyone could possibly have of Wolfville is that there are no traffic lights, so there can be some traffic backups downtown on weekends where everyone is out and about.

Are there wolves in Wolfville?  Sorry to disappoint, but the town is named after Elisha DeWolfe who was an early postmaster.  Many of the places that we visited are outside of Wolfville city limits, but in my mind this is a Wolfville trip so I'm sticking with the title.

Saturday Morning - Breakfast and Hitting the Town

I woke up earlish on Saturday morning and crept upstairs to make coffee.  Someone must have told Indy that "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise", because he was already up and deep into one of the Lego sets that he'd started the night before.

I took my coffee downstairs for a bed rot session, and gradually the rest of the house arose and I started smelling something yummy.  Elisabeth had made a coffee cake for breakfast.  She had hers with a scoop of plain Greek yogurt, which I found myself adding to all of my Lighthouse HQ breakfasts.  The tartness of the yogurt was a perfect match for the sweetness of the cake.

Elisabeth, Belle, and I went to the Wolfville Farmer's market and hit the grocery store, which gave me a good intro to the town.  It's also where Belle introduced us to her life's motto, which is to Lock In (focus on the goal that you are pursing at a particular time).  After a tour of the market and an overview of downtown, we came back to the house, and it was time to set off on our first official NS adventure.  

Saturday Mid Day - Let's Go to Mars!

Out of all of the beaches and lighthouses that Elisabeth has written about over the years, the one place that always stood out to me the most was "the place that looks like Mars", aka Medford Beach.

Belle had chores and wanted solo time at home, so she stayed behind and John, Elisabeth, Indy, and I headed for the car.  Elisabeth told me that the "official" entrance to Medford Beach involves a long walk to get to the good stuff, but they knew a shortcut.  We drove for a little bit and parked near a cornfield.

We walked along the field for a bit, and then started walking through the grass.  You could tell that a few people had been there before, but I wouldn't have noticed the faint path or have been able to navigate it on my own.

All at once the grass gave way to a steep path down to the beach and we were in another world.

We all took off our sandals, and left them by our entrance spot.  I soon understood the reason why.  We joked that Elisabeth could add getting a free spa mud foot treatment to her next frugal things list.

I gawked at the place that I'd seen in pictures so many times.  There is just no other setting like this on earth.

 

We were standing was the ocean floor.  The beach can only be accessed when the tide is out.  

Here is a short Youtube video with the tide out:

And here is a look at what it is like when the tide is in:

We climbed on the rocks for a bit.  Indy was up and down them like a mountain goat, and John and Elisabeth were also very adept.  I stuck out as the newbie.  The rocks can be slippery, and there are places where you really have to think your way through every step.  I did what my comfort zone allowed, and respected the ability of the experienced folks.

Normally there is a pool of water near the entrance point, but it's been a dry summer, so we didn't have a way to wash our feet off before leaving the beach.  We toweled off as well as we could, and had a more thorough foot washing session when we got home.

Walking on the beach floor works up an appetite, so lunch was the next priority.  I was delighted to find that what goes around comes around.  Last year I wrote about making a yummy curried chickpea salad that a lot of my bloggy friends tried out after me, and there was a batch of it waiting for lunch.  I had a small bowl of leftover seafood chowder from the night before on the side.

Saturday Afternoon - A Frugal Errand Run

Elisabeth often writes about frugality and the great things that she finds in thrift stores.  I'm a huge fan of stretching a dollar until it screams, but thrift stores are just not all that where I live, and for the most part they've fallen out of my life.  One detail that I picked up from her blog is that she's mentioned that not only does her family get almost all of their clothes at thrift stores, but so do most of the other people that she knows.  I was so curious to see the scene.

It just so happened that the family's mandatory Saturday errands and my goal of going to a thrift store were perfectly aligned.  They needed to drop by the thrift store to return something, and Belle needed to go to the dollar store for school supplies.  The menfolk stayed home and the ladies went out on the town.

Our first stop was a smaller thrift store for a quick browse.  When we walked in the door, I was struck by a major difference between this store compared to other thrifting experiences.  There was no "used clothes smell" - it's not a bad smell per se, but there is a pervasive odor in my local thrift stores and in every ThredUp shipment that I've ever gotten.  I'm pretty sure it's some kind of a cleaning spray that they put on the clothes.  Whatever it is, there was not the slightest whiff of it in the store.

I had been thinking that I should have brought a sweater with me on the trip, and without looking too long I found a very nice gray cardigan that fit me perfectly.  In the end I talked myself out of buying it because I had limited luggage space, but the point is that I had a specific item in mind and found it in the small thrift store without too much trouble.  I was very impressed by the shoe selection.  There were several pairs of very nice winter boots.

We moved on to a larger thrift store, and again I noted the lack of "used clothes smell".  Belle went straight in search of clothes, and Elisabeth and I looked at the extensive selection of coffee mugs for funsies.  Eventually she moved on to clothes and I stayed in the kitchen ware and electronics section.  When I met back up with the girls, Elisabeth had found a great pantsuit (pictures here) and Belle had a few items.  One member of our group was not a fan of the pantsuit, and that person was not Elisabeth and it was not me.  I don't want to start any trouble, but everyone gets it wrong some of the time, and it was that person's time.

Next up was the dollar store.  I was not expecting to find anything there, but as soon as we walked in the door we were hit by a display of something that made us giggle.

Has there ever been a less necessary label on a product than this?

The poutine chips were the spark that inspired us to put together a Canadian snack selection for our upcoming movie night.  No, your eyes do not deceive you, ketchup flavored Cheetos are a thing.

To circle back on frugality, over the course of the trip I came to realize that the Maritimes are a relatively low cost of living area.  There is a thrifty mindset, which IMO is part necessity and more than part common sense.  There is a real "reduce, reuse, recycle" mindset here, and part of that is great thrift stores.

Saturday Night - Dinner and a Show

John was on dinner duty, and he whipped up a round of savory waffles.  You're looking at a base of waffles topped with prosciutto on one side and smoked salmon on the other (he offered a choice of one or the other or both, so of course I chose both, which was the correct choice), and secret sauce.  It was a combo of mayo, mustard, nutritional yeast, and other yummy things that I have forgotten.  Most of us added a light drizzle of maple syrup to our plates and it was hands down the best meal that I had on the whole trip.

After dinner we headed downstairs with our Canada snack haul for movie night.  But not just any movie!  I had the honor of joining Elisabeth and the kids for their first Hitchcock experience.  I could never pick a favorite Hitchcock any more than I could pick a favorite child, but if you forced me to do it, Rear Window would be near the top of the list.  It was a special moment to share with the group, and you have not lived until you have had ketchup flavored Cheetos.

Sunday - Let's Go to Church

Sunday morning started with leftover coffee cake for breakfast and then we were out the door to church.  I am not religious, but it was a special experience.  Elisabeth has said before that when she goes to church she takes notes, and I confirm this and I can also tell you that she was not the only member of the congregation who pulled out a notebook when the sermon started.

We went straight from church to our next destination.  Elisabeth, Belle, and I piled into the car and headed for Peggy's Cove.  It's 90 minutes away, but we had the perfect long drive activity on tap.  Have you heard of the 36 Questions?  I'd read about them and once I heard a podcast where a couple went through the questions, but this was my first time playing along IRL.  It was so interesting to ask and answer the questions with the age range in the group (14 to 50) and with someone that I knew a lot about (Elisabeth) and someone that I knew less about (Belle).

We arrived at Peggy's Cove, and the first priority was lunch.  We'd brought a picnic of cheese, crackers, nuts, beef jerky, and fruit.  We sat on some rocks close to the parking lot and ate our little feast.

Then we set off to explore, which meant a quick education for me in what Peggy's Cove is.  If you had asked me beforehand, I would have told you this:

Just a tiny lighthouse, and you can't even go inside.

I have never been more wrong about anything in my life.  This is Peggy's Cove.

Belle went off on her own to hang out, and Elisabeth and I sat down on a rock to chat and contemplate life.  The longer we were there, the more new things that I kept seeing.  There is a passage in Anne of Green Gables where Anne describes a cliff as glowing, and I could see that in the rocks.

We eventually headed home, and did more of the 36 Questions on the way back.

Sunday Night - Fun and Games

Dinner was homemade mac and cheese and salad and it was everything.

After dinner we played Scattergories and great fun was had.

Monday Morning - If We Were Having Coffee

No one had a case of the Mondays.  The kids got themselves to school, John got himself to work, and Elisabeth and I went out on the town.

We walked from her house to a coffee shop, but with a stop at Acadia University on the way and a walk through the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens.  

From there we walked to Charts Cafe.  A lot of bloggers do a monthly coffee date post called "if we were having coffee", but there was no if this time.  Elisabeth and I were having coffee!  And writing post cards.

From there we mailed our post cards (and I stocked up on Canadian postage since I still have six provinces left to visit).  I learned the fun fact that there is a Canada to US stamp, which is something that doesn't exist on our side of the border.

We came back home, and had some downtime (read: work time since I can't really take time off in this job.  When I travel do as much work in advance as I can and then just do the minimum to keep the trains running).

Monday Afternoon - Out on the Town

We kicked off the big action of Monday with a special lunch.  One of Elisabeth and John's favorite places to eat is Cumin, and with a name like that, I knew that it had to be incredible.

We shared an appetizer of fried cauliflower, and split two entrees.

For the entrees, Elisabeth asked me to pick, and there were two clear winners on the menu, but they were not normally foods that you would think of eating together: a tofu noodle bowl and a mushroom melt burger.  However when they were put on the same plate with the remaining cauliflower it was the perfect meal.  You just had to be there.

After lunch, our next stop was The Tangled Garden.  In lieu of words, here are pictures:

After our fill of the magic of nature, we went back to the house and chilled until dinner time.

Monday Night - Let's Go to the Movies!

But wait there was more!  Elisabeth's friend Joy came over for a weeknight movie night.  Joy's pick was an older movie, and one that I had heard of but never seen: The Court Jester.

As you know I love old movies, but old movie trailers are a different story - most of them stink.  So imagine my delight when I went to YouTube just now to see if I could find a short video on The Court Jester and found a channel called Trailers from Hell.  Here is John Landis giving some choice commentary on the trailer.

In any case, Joy was a delight and the movie was a delight.

Tuesday Morning - So Long but Not Goodbye

On Tuesday morning the kids left for school and I left for the next phase of my Maritimes adventure.  But that's a story for another day.

Who (apart from Elisabeth and Kyria) has been to any of these places?

Do you have good thrift stores where you live?

Elisabeth's side of the story is here, here, and here!