Day 21 of 49

Today we got up and out of the park by 8 and hopped on a tour bus and headed out for a 180 mile trip on the Cobot Trail.  One of our stops was at Flora's.  She is a hooker, a rug hooker.  It was our first stop to show us the craft the Nova Scotia women in this area have done for ages.  The craft was rug hooking.  Now they hook all kinds of neat things.  Back in the day it was done with all different kinds of materials, but mostly wool.  Wool because it was the material of the area and it lasted a long time with all the wear and tear on the floor of the homes. They also offered us the opportunity to purchase something, a free cup of coffee, and a pit stop.  The pic is the lady demonstrating how to become a hooker.  Today they use yarn.  They do not raise the sheep here.  They purchase the yarn and dye their own with the colors they would need to make the wonderful pictures.  Rog's grandmother was a rug hooker and we have two rugs she made for us.  She would find wool coats and such and cut them into very thin strips and hook with that.  The lady here said they also did it that way until 1920 when they starting using wool yarn.   

The next stop was the Les Trois Pignos, The Three Gables.  It is a museum of the old of the island, but mostly of the rug hooking and one rug hooker in particular.  It was amazing and my pics just did not do the rugs justice.  You must come and see them for yourself.  Beautiful works of art!!!

 
 We stopped at this old church, Saint Peter's.  

   The inside of the church is wonderful.  There are not that many people here for such a large and magnificent building the community is so small, but they come from miles away.  While on the bus coming to this church the guide asked if anyone sang in a choir and I made some wise comment about about being in one, but couldn't sing or something like that and I was immediately  picked to sing in church to show off the acoustics of the church.   NO!!!!  Well I was not getting out of this.  What song do I sing?  The only one I know and know all the words to is, 99 Bottles of Beer in the Wall,  and that was just not the right song for here.  So I was forced up and just didn't know what to sing until someone suggested God Bless
America.  Great!!!! So I started and the whole group sang with me.  I was so grateful for that. Lesson learned I hope, keep your mouth shut and stop with the jokes.



The first moose in Canada.  

 

 A look back.

 
A look forward!!!  It is so beautiful here.

 
A look to the side.  Their answer to the White Cliffs of Dover.  LOL  This is gypsum used in making sheet rock in home building.  They have some of the purest gypsum in the world here.    

 
A look to the shore.  They do have some sandy beaches, but most of the coast looks like this are rockier.  

The route measures 298 km (185 mi) in length and completes a loop around the northern tip of the island, passing along and through the scenic Cape Breton Highlands. It is named after the explorer John Cabot who landed in Atlantic Canada in 1497, although most historians agree his landfall likely took place in Newfoundland and not Cape Breton Island. (Premier Angus L. MacDonald attempted to re-brand Nova Scotia for tourism purposes as primarily Scottish and, as part of this effort, created both the names Cape Breton Highlands and Cabot Trail.) Construction of the initial route was completed in 1932.
 

 
 A look at us.  
 One of our stops on our trip in, around and through Cape Breton  Highlands National Park we stopped at a small fishing village, Village of Cheticamp, to pick up our orders of crab legs.  We purchased three pounds.  This is the first time we have ever cooked or for that matter eaten crab fresh in the "leg".  LOL  We asked our guide how to cook them and he said to scoop up some water from the lake we were kayaking in and bring it to a boil and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes and eat.  The lake we are kayaking in is a salt water lake and it has the right amount of salt for cook crab and the right kind of salt.  Iodized salt would give the crab a funny taste and we did not have salt without.  So off Rog goes to get the water and who does he meet, Berry another camper getting ready to cook his crab legs. Both getting there salt water from the lake.   They were delicious!!!  I was told to get a pair of scissors and cut up the shell on the legs.  It worked too and was quite easy.  I am thinking I like crab better than lobster.  
  
This is the before pic.  The after pic was just to horrible, pieces parts everywhere.  LOL
Yummmm 
 

I forgot to post this wonderful pic from our visit to Peggy's Cove.  They put these orange gloves to mark dangerous areas on the paths to different areas because the orange cones on would usually use would blow over in the wind.  Ingenious!