Traveling Boy 3 Things About Nova Scotia

Traveling Boy means the travel adventures of the Traveiling Boitanos

We didn't know about
NOVA SCOTIA

What are some of the “things” or activities that Nova Scotians do for fun?

ANSWER: There is never a shortage of things to do in Nova Scotia. Our attractions celebrate Nova Scotia’s best, from sports heroes to legendary musicians, and reconstructed fortress towns to seaside vineyards overlooking the world’s highest tides. We like to take daytrips to festivals or farmers markets! We like to eat - fresh seafood is always in abundance and we have great beers and wines to accompany it! We have over 7,600 km of coastline so its only natural that we like to get out on the water, whether it be kayaking, canoeing, fishing, rafting or spending the day at the beach with family and friends.

top: beach scene along the Cabot Trail, Novaa Scotia; bottom: seafood dining
Photos courtesy: Nova Scotia Tourism

What's one thing the public probably does NOT know about Nova Scotia?

ANSWER: Although we are a Canadian province, we are not a cold destination! In fact, we are one of the most southerly locations in Canada and Nova Scotia's weather can be summed up into one word – moderate. It rarely gets extremely hot or extremely cold. The daily temperature does fluctuate both by time of day and by your proximity to the ocean. The Gulf Stream runs just off our coastline, keep it fairly mild in comparison to other parts of Canada.

top: hikers viewing the Highland Trail; bottom: cycling in Bear Rivver
Photos courtesy: Nova Scotia Tourism

Share some aspect of Nova Scotia as regards to what it has contributed to the world.

ANSWER: The Silver Dart was a derivative of an early aircraft built by a Canadian/U.S. team, which after many successful flights in Hammondsport, New York, earlier in 1909, was dismantled and shipped to Baddeck, Nova Scotia. It was flown off the ice of Baddeck Bay, a sub-basin of Bras d'Or Lake, on 23 February 1909, making it the first controlled powered flight in Canada. The original Silver Dart was designed and built by the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), formed under the guidance of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell's legacy lives on in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, where his family summer home, Beinn Bhreagh, still exists. In fact, Dr. Bell and his wife Mabel are both buried atop Beinn Bhreagh mountain, on the estate, overlooking Bras d'Or Lake.

Bell constructed a laboratory on this property, where he conducted experiments in powered flight and hydrofoil technology, among many other things. Some of his most notable accomplishments at Beinn Bhreagh included the first manned flight of an airplane in the British Commonwealth (by the AEA Silver Dart) in 1909, plus the HD-4, a hydrofoil boat designed by Frederick Walker Baldwin and Dr. Bell, and built at Beinn Bhreagh. Designed as a submarine chaser and powered by aircraft engines, their vessel set a world watercraft speed record of 71 miles per hour (114 km/h) in 1919, which remained unbroken for many years.

The Alexander Graham Bell Museum, a unit of Parks Canada, containing a treasure trove of objects donated to Canada by Dr. Bell's descendants, is open to the public. The Alexander Graham Bell Museum is on the Canadian Register of Historic Places.

motorcyclists on the Cabot Trail
Photo courtesy: Nova Scotia Tourism

For further information about Nova Scotia, click on: www.novascotia.com.

Send your feedback to editor@Travelingboy.com.

Archives

Ed Boitano's travel blog/review
Three Musical Pilgrimages: Mozart, Grieg and Hendrix

Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) could read and compose music, plus play the violin and piano, when he was five years old. Born into a musical family in Salzburg, Austria (then the Holy Roman Empire), he had a unique ability for imitating music, which first became evident when he recited a musical piece by simply observing his father conducting a lesson to his older sister. This led to a childhood on the road, where the young prodigy performed before many of the royal courts of Europe.

Tom Weber's travel blog/review
Treasures of Ireland: The Irish Goodbye (Dispatch #20)

Irish sunset

The Palladian Traveler brings to a close his 20-part series on the Emerald Isle from an upscale restaurant in downtown Dublin where he files his final dispatch and then quietly slips away.

John Clayton's travel blog/review
Two "MUST SEE" Truly Spectacular Places in Europe. Here's Why.

The Han Grotto and Culzean Castle. As the name of my Traveling Boy feature is "Travel With a Difference," it's important to me to always bring you offbeat and unusual tourist places around the world you may not know about. These two fit that category to a T, and they're absolutely worth a visit. One's in Scotland and one's in Belgium. Culzean (pronounced CULLANE) Castle is located near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland.

Ringo Boitano's travel blog/review
Highway 49 Revisited: Exploring California's Gold Country

aurora borealis lights up the night sky near Fairbanks

In the 1840s, the population of California was only 14,000, but by 1850 more than 100,000 settlers and adventurers had arrived from all over the world – and they came for one reason: gold. James Marshall had discovered the first gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in El Dorado County, creating the largest gold rush in history.