East Coast Lifestyle/ Changes

               The week has flown by, and I only have three days left of my trip.  I gotta say, I love the East Coast. Managed to fill the days with lots of travelling, site seeing, food, and of course, a lot of quality time with my partner.

              Our Bed and Breakfast at the Farmhouse Inn in Canning, NS was great. Lovely owners, and each morning we got to chat with the other guests.  Interesting to learn that the population of NS has grown to 1 million since the pandemic.   Doesn’t sound like much (that’s the population of Edmonton), but the economic impact it has had on them has been vast.  Essentially, there has been a lot of immigration to the Maritimes where people can work remotely.  The issue is that it has increased the cost of living: home prices, taxes, lack of contractors.  Makes me think of how places like this, like the Kwoon, my own business, is like a fragile ecosystem that can be thrown into chaos under certain strains.  I know the cost of living is getting out of hand across Canada, but interesting to see how it is impacting various places.

               Next, our visit to Hope Well and the teapot rocks.  Crazy how far the ocean recedes during low tide, and then how fast and high it comes in during high tide.  I have a couple of pictures I’ll post of me standing under “Lover’s archway” during low tide, and that same area during high tide with the water nearly up to the top of the arch.  Again, this change in tide, along with the gradual erosion of the rock formations (I believe some of the teapot rocks did topple over last year), makes me think about fragile ecosystems, and about impermanence.  Fun fact, Hope Well is home to the Peregrine Falcon, which can dive bomb its prey at speeds of up to 390 km/h!

              PEI, the third province of this trip, and this one was just a short stay.  We ventured into Charlottetown after driving the Confederation bridge.  We hit our first snag here.  Our initial plan after lunch in Charlottetown was to venture to the edge of the island to hop on the ferry back to Halifax; however, we learned the ferry was out of service and a replacement one wouldn’t arrive until the 19th.  Making the only way in and out of the island the bridge.  Again, there’s that ecosystem analogy rearing its head.  So after a delicious lunch filled with PEI mussels and fish and chips at Gahan house, we drove back over the bridge ($50 toll to leave, but you can enter for free), back through NB, and finally to Dartmouth, NS, our final destination for the remainder of the trip.

              Tomorrow we’ll visit Peggy’s cove, then at some point Pizza Corner, aka, Blowers and Grafton, and Fisherman’s Wharf.  See y’all on the mats soon!