I love Heritage Minutes, this one especially because the thought of fish so plentiful that the ships were slowed always makes me chuckle…then I wonder at our ability to catch those fish in such numbers that by 1992 the stocks were so drastically low that the Canadian Government declared a ban on the commercial cod fishery.

Many communities on Cape Breton Island were settled by people keen to take those fish out of the water but it was the Harbour at Louisbourg that became one of France’s most important colonial trading posts in 1719.

The British wanted control of Quebec, they wanted control of trade North America and in 1758 they knew that the key to getting down the St. Lawrence River to capture Quebec city was to first take Louisbourg.  July 1758 wasn’t the first time that Louisbourg was attacked by the British but it was the last.

Gratuitous use of an old map...because I love them.

After the British were successful in vanquishing the French from Louisbiurg they destroyed the fortress so that the French would be unable to return.  The town of Louisbourg remained and slowly grew around the ruins of the fortress.  Louisbourg became a town based on fishery and fish processing and suffered financially in the early 1990’s when the cod were no longer slowing the progress of ships in the North Atlantic.

In the 1930’s my paternal grandparents lived in nearby Sydney, and on their first date shared a picnic on the grounds of the Fortresses ruins.  Years later, in the late ’40’s my grandfather became the manager of the Louisbourg branch of the Royal Bank of Canada.  It was at the age of 11 that my father claims to have first seen the sun; my grandfather had been transferred to manage a bank on Nova Scotia’s South shore.

This is where my father’s family lived in Louisbourg.  Note that this photograph was taken mid-day in July.

The National Parks Service of Canada took on reconstruction of the Fortress of Louisbourg in the 1960’s.  Today the Fortress stands as an incredibly detailed monument to the lives of the people who lived there in the 18th century.

This summer we had the opportunity to view a reenactment of the seige.   I love reenactments!

When the Scots arrive the enemy should just run away.

It is kind of amazing that they even FOUND the fortress.

more fog, and a bit of rain

The best view of the action was from this perch on top of an overturned dory.

]]> http://theroadinfocus.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/came-for-the-fish-stayed-for-the-fog/feed/ 0 focusjennifer historical map louisbourg siege Foggy house in Louisbourg, NS Louisbourg Encampment Louisbourg Encampment Rain and fog at the seige of loisbourg Dory http://theroadinfocus.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/where-ya-from/ http://theroadinfocus.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/where-ya-from/#comments Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:55:17 +0000 focusjennifer http://theroadinfocus.wordpress.com/?p=95 ]]> I am from Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia.  I was born there, lived a bunch of years on Prince Edward Island but graduated from high school in Sydney Mines; it is a pretty nice place to be from.

The town of Sydney Mines was founded in 1784 by coal miners and the companies that employed them, this town’s people supplied the fuel of the industrial revolution. I am not sure when coal fired power generators went out of favour but I do know that since coal mining left Sydney Mines in the 1970’s there has been a struggle against high unemployment and declining population as young families leave the area for employment in the west.

There were a few moments during my visit to Cape Breton when I felt a strong urge to move back to my home town so that I could raise my children in a place where I have generations of family history.  The feeling passed when I remembered that there is no privacy in a small town.  I like to live in a place where I can be an asshat once in a while and nobody knows me well enough to bother gossiping about it.

One of my favorite places in Sydney Mines is known by locals know as the Barracks but it is officially called Fort Chaple Point.  Originally chosen in 1849 as a point of security for the massive amounts of coal being shipped from Sydney Harbour, the first members of the local militia were also mine employees.

The relics found on Chaple Point are the remains of a defense system built in the early days of the first World War in order to protect Sydney Harbour from a submarine attack by the Germans.

Every generation of kids in Sydney Mines has used this spot as a pretend castle, smoking hide out and general trouble making place. I picked up most of my good swear words from the graffiti on the walls of this main building. The first time I ever tasted beer was here, and I made out with at least one boyfriend in the shelter of those musty smelling walls.

The Barracks are romantic like moody Scottish moores. I lived in a house about a quarter of a mile from this spot and when nights were heavy with fog and the smell of coal fires I could hear the foghorn through my open window.  There were many late nights I would leave my bed and come here to do my moody teenaged stomping around.

image property of Organic Media

I love this picture, until recently I had not realised that the roof of the fortress had been peaked in the 1940’s.

The observation building today.

Here is where the guns that would have blown up the German subs were mounted.  The subs never made shore.  We scared them off!

These structures were searchlight housing, there were three of these on each side of the harbour. The Germans wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Observe the 29 Steps of Doom.  The most frightening spot in the whole town.  I didn’t know what was down those steps but I knew that you could die if went down too far. Based on the smell from down there I suspect that the doom comes in the form of a bio-hazard.

The Barracks overlook Lochmans beach.  The land is entirely undeveloped and I love seeing the natural vegetation of the town flourish here.

Wild blueberries are so small in Nova Scotia, and they are the best I have ever tasted. Hanna and I feasted on fist fulls of ripe ones on the day we visited.

I was pretty excited to find that the history of Chapel Point and it’s sister site has been recorded online. Over the years neighbors to the area there have campaigned the local govrenment preserve the history and buildings of this amazing spot. I don’t know were the salvation of these structures will come from, weather it will  be public or private iniative but, if this property were located in Vancouver the observation building would be developed for condos and with granite countertops installed they would list for $350 thousand dollars each.

Our first stop upon crossing the border at Detroit/Windsor was of Tim Hortons for some Ice Cappuccino and Honey Crullers.

Our first stop upon returning to our home and native land was Charleston Lake Provincial Park, this fantastic natural park was recommended to us by family members who have camped there for many years.  We pulled in late at night; as we were approaching the campground Fox asked me if there were any bears, Hanna asked me if there were any ticks and I hoped that there were no mosquitoes.  Our first inauspicious sign looked a lot like this one:

There were so many fantastic signs in strange places this summer. I wish that I had photographed more of them.

I certainly can’t say that I was thrilled that snakes might be so abundant in this area that I would have a likely chance of running one over.   Upon pulling up to the campers registration I was greeted with three warning signs.  Beware of Bears!  Beware of Ticks!  Beware of Mosquitoes!  Fortunately I had left Hanna and Fox back in the car so that I got to manage that moment of horror all by myself.

In spite of our fears and warnings of creatures great and small I would love to someday return to Charleston Lake, it is a beautiful spot.

Hanna in Charleston Lake

It was a glorious and sunny day when we awoke the next morning…and I am glad that we took the time to enjoy it because it was our last nice day for a rather long time.

Our next stop was Montreal and a two day stay with my brother Andrew,  his girlfriend Sabrina and her family. We horsed around a bit with Kahlua, the super horse.

We are not really very horsey people. Really we just aren’t horsey people at all. But, we love almost any animal enough to want to get in close enough for a snuggle.  This animal has the added bonus that she will let you hop on a take a ride.

I had never realised how much Hanna looks like my little brother until I started looking at this picture.  They are so cute!

Andrew loves to have some fun, he is pretty adorable.

There is a moose in this hoose.

This is Sabrina, how sweet is she?!

After spending 2 hours lost on the highways in Montreal I was happy enough to not do much driving while I was there. We spent most of our visit to Montreal between the barn and our host’s home doing wonderfully ordinary things like showering and sitting on a sofa.  Pretty nice after 13 nights in a tent.

I have TONS to say, my luck with internet has been horriable since arriving in to Canada and today I am using my mom’s laptop with dialup.  After spending two fabulous days with my baby brother, Andrew (aka Uncle BooBoo) I was just ready to get back to the Maritimes.  Our first destination is My mom’s place in Catalone, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  We had planned to spend a night in New Brunswick on the way, but when I got there it was raining, the kids were sleeping and I felt really good so I decided to truck it right to Cape Breton.  Trucking it means that I planned to go full steam ahead to my destination, not that I was going to put the car on a flatbead and nap while our car was trucked.  Boy, was Fox dissapointed when I explained that to him.

I arrived in to Cape Breaton just as dawn was breaking this morning:

We drove 19 hours yesterday, the kids were amazing.  I fell in to my mom’s bed and had a nap while the kids went swimming, I am about to take the bath to end all baths and tonight I am going out with a highschool friend to have a good old fashioned night of drinking. 

I will start catching up tomorrow!

We have lots to say about Chicago, but for now, have a look at Sue!

We are in Paw Paw Michigan and about to make our Run for the border then to Charleston Lake tonight and on to Montreal to Visit with my brother Andrew and his partner Sabrina.

Might not be in touch until late tomorrow because I am going to go for the hard core driving for a few days.

Sorry Aunt Trudi!  Here is Sue!

The further East we get the more vigilent I have become about Ticks and Mosquitoes.  Between Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus I just don’t like bugs.

Last night as we were lying in bed watching Ferris Buller’s Day off in preparation for our day in Chicago, Fox started freaking out saying that he had lice…we have been lucky and have never had to deal with a case of Lice in our family in spite of numerous outbreaks at the kids school.  I dismissed Fox’s worry and said that he must have just brushed a mosquito out of his hair.  Then late in the night I found a tick in the tent and this morning found another one on Hanna’s hairline.  It looks like a Dog Tick:

Hanna is freaked the heck out but we have looked each other over and there don’t seem to be any on us.  Fox will be inspected as soon as he wakes up.  Ugh…bugs, hate ‘em.

And, I love to look at Red Winged Black Birds, but to they have to be so loud so early in the day?

we saw a spam ham museum  for ham i mean ham. why in the world.  next thing you know thay will have a museum for street singhs. shesh

Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota really are Wild West Country.  The roads are wide and straight and the bikers don’t wear helmets!  The speed limits are 75mph (about 120km/h or 20km/h faster than most Vancouver highways allow) Most of the traffic drives well over these posted limits and I just drove  with the flow, suffice it to say that the Focus can boot it in a way that I never knew before.  Guess what happens when you enter Minnesota?  The highway patrol just sits there waiting for these wild drivers to enter their nice, civilized state.  When the lights started flashing I started remembering episodes of Cops and the Rodney King beating…will Canadian speeders get a beat down?  I remembered to keep my hands visible at all times and to be very, very polite.  The officer was all of 12 years old, and didn’t even reach for his sidearm.  Whew.

Funny thing is that I felt it was going to happen…I have been having that happen to me a lot lately, some odd little psychic moments.  I need to smarten the heck up and start paying attention to them.

I love Minnisota, I have been here more times than I ever thought I would be.  My count last night was 5…which is kind of strange since I never ever expected to have reason to visit here.  We are bypassing the Mall of America this time, and heading this afternoon to NorthWest Chicago.  Tomorrow we are going to visit Sue at the Field Museum.

Here is our little tent on the Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota.  We arrived on Friday night shortly after 9:00 pm and set up in wind like I have never experienced in the summer.  A lovely warm prairie wind, but wind none the less.  Our very nice tent neighbours heard us setting up and came to help us.  Tenting people are so nice!  This photo was taken in the morning, about an hour later our tent was flat like a pancake and one of the fiberglass poles was broken.  That was strong wind!

Our two day stay at the Ingalls Homestead can be described as nothing less than perfectly, perfectly wonderful.  Back in April when I first got this crazy idea of taking our yearly trip to the Maritimes by car instead of plane I started by google mapping the journey, calculating the costs and measuring my nerve; once those things checked out I started researching the states we might travel through…when I learned that there was this wonderful place that honoured my childhood hero there was no turning back.  I simply HAD to go there; it became, in my mind, akin to a trip to Mecca.

After the tent disaster we upgraded our accommodations to one of these covered wagons, ours was the one farthest to the right. That sky, it was incredible.  Like nothing I had ever seen before, but it made me familiar and at home.  Space, I have learned is something that I have unknowingly craved.

Hanna, like myself at her age, is an avid reader.  The only complaint I heard from her teachers this year is that she had a hard time putting down her books when it came time to move on to another topic.  She loves Harry Potter and has read the series numerous times.  I have encouraged her to read some of my childhood favourites, including the Little House series, for years now.  Hanna is the type of kid who must come to her own conclusions and make her own choices.  Like me she is stubborn and head strong and since Little House had no magic or talking cats in it she immediately dismissed it.  She is a very generous girl though so when I told her how much this part of our trip meant to me she was totally on board with spending some time on the prairie and begrudgingly agreed to read the Ingalls Wilder books.  I bought Little House on The Prairie in audio book since I wanted to refresh some of my memories before our arrival.  By Chapter two Hanna was hooked and is now reading The Long Winter.

She has totally adopted the prairie sensibility, though I doubt that Laura ever wore a tube top under her apron:

True Laura fans will remember when the Ingalls ladies made those decorative shelf liners.

This is Fox in summer school:

And Hanna with the traditional prairie dinner of tortellini.

Hanna driving the team, Sam and David:

The folks at The Ingalls Homestead have done an amazing job at recreating many of the elements of the Little House stories, including one of my favourite features a reconstruction of the dugout described by Laura in On The Banks of Plumb Creek. This is a wonderfully snug little dugout, that cost all of $2.14 to build back in the 1880’s.  Compared to the cost of a starter home in my neighbourhood, it might actually be manageable.

This is Tim, owner of the Ingalls Homestead.  He and his wife along with their daughter Ann operate the homestead along with a staff of about 25 employees.

Every staff member at the homestead is required to read the Little House series at least twice, and each of them have an incrediably broad knowledge of not only the books but of life is De Smet in the 19th century. The people of South Dakota are wonderfully warm and authentic. One staff member, Dianne who has worked at the information center and retail store for over 10 years said goodbye with the biggest, warmest hug that a traveller could hope for.

When I planned this visit, I had no idea that I would be arriving during the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Pagent, staged by residents of De Smet.  It was so lovely to watch this production under the setting sun with the stars beginning to twinkle!

I can’t end without showing you some more pictures of our covered wagon and the prairie.

This, we decided is the Fox Box, a place for time outs...

This is amazing sky, I wish that I had the photography skills to capture it in a way that does it justice.

This was such a wonderful visit, I can’t imagine what would have made it any better…but if you are looking for WiFi you can find an strong, open connection in the parking lot of the Super 8 about 3 minutes down the road. All praise to Super 8 parking lots across America!

This is the all you can eat pancake breakfast:

Fortunately we have the most remote tent site on the grounds, if you are planning to tent here ask for site number 409.

We pulled in to the town of Keystone yesterday at 2:00, the surroundings are stunning but the town seems to be built on tourism and every inch of the main street is full of gift shops.  The kind of things that make me want to turn around and drive to the wilderness.

Last night we went to the Lighting Ceremony at Mount Rushmore, which I have to say was pretty impressive in spite of the fact that I went suspicious that it would be a load of patriotic propaganda.  I kind of was, but damn it I totally buy in to stuff like that when I am in the moment and when a group of people join in song I can’t help but get teary eyed, even if it is a national anthem that is not of my own country. There was even a huge gift shop where you can spend a small fortune of stuff made in China. I managed to get out only spending $9.00 on patches for the kids.  I won’t even get started on how the land was stolen from the Lakota people.

I like America, and I like Americans a lot.  In the past I have been annoyed with my friends who moved south of the border (We call it the Brain Drain in Canada) Some of my smartest friends are now working as engineers and scientists in the States and in the past few years I am starting to understand their choice to do so.  Mostly because here you can buy Batter Blaster Pancake Batter (it is Organic don’t you know!?)

After seeing Bowing For Columbine I think a lot of us in the North were feeling a bit self righteous because we don’t sell guns in the grocery store (really, I saw guns for sale in Fred Meyer!)  I am a pretty peaceful vegetarian hippy type who is a Bush hater, I don’t allow my kids to own toy guns so when they came home from playing in the playground with rubber band guns given to them by some other kid I kind of freaked out and told them that they had to give them back…I lost that one, they used some sort of kid logic to change my mind and now they look like little paramilitary Canadians about to take over the pool.

I did tell them that they aren’t allowed to take them anywhere with me because I am embarrassed to be seen with kids who have toy semiautomatic weapons.  <sigh>

For the last two night I have left the fly off of the tent so that we can see the stars while we fall asleep, it is so nice to wake up to trees over your head…but then I saw this insect.

Or, insects?  I am not sure…I THINK it was some sort of conjoined twins insects, I checked really close and they were definitely attached.  Weirdness.

The car is packed up and we are hitting the road to cross South Dakota to spend two days at the Ingalls Homestead.  Yes!  The actual homestead in De Smet.  I am so excited about this that I can barely contain myself.  The drive is about 5 hours long, just about the same length of time it takes to listen to Little House on The Prairie audio book. Perfect!