Travel day and Cape Forchu Lighthouse

 July 7, 2023

Castle Lake CG site 200

Arcadia, NS

It's travel day.  We get to leave the wet, muddy campground and trade it for.....mosquito haven.....and they were hungry when we arrived!!  Oh no....limited time outside once again.

Momma snapped a couple of  'on the go shots' of two of the many large homes in the historic area of Annapolis Royal as we departed.

It was a short drive today, around 90 miles heading for Yarmouth.  Another pretty drive today as we headed for the bottom region of Nova Scotia.

But it took a tad longer than expected as we came upon construction with a flagger on Hwy 101.  Dad thought maybe the flaggers had fallen asleep...or took a lunch break as we sat there with no traffic coming at us and no traffic moving ahead of us.  So we just shut off the engine, rolled down the windows and Dad took a power nap.  I guess the workers needed both lanes of the highway to complete their work.

Now I don't mean to be telling tales, but......

I have to report that Uncle Steve and Aunt Carol had special treatment today.  Upon arrival at the campground, Uncle Steve unhooked his Jeep in the entrance parking lot while we headed on to our site using the colored route the check-in gal drew for us on the campground map. Yes, there were a couple of turns to make before arriving at our site.  

We had to make a couple of forward/backward adjustments to try to locate the most level side to side location on our site and finally just decided to put a board under a wheel to get the job done.  We were 90%  set up, even after all the site settling maneuvering and still no sign of Uncle Steve and Aunt Carol.  Momma said they must be having some issues disconnecting when the truth was,  they were lost in the campground.  Soon they appeared with an escort....a good samaritan who decided they looked lost and needed some guidance.

Wasting no time, they decided to explore our newest location.  The destination was the Lighthouse on Cape Forchu...with a touch of fog.

I guess Dad figured after sitting and traveling most of the day, they needed to stretch their legs a bit as he parked in the lower parking lot.  So it was up the hill to the stairs to arrive at the lighthouse keeper's house which is now the lighthouse visitor center.

Here's a view from the top of the stairs of the Ram sitting in the parking lot. 

Now off the the left of this picture was a nice parking lot with plenty of empty parking spaces....but exercise is healthy!!

And so they got additional exercise as they climbed the last set of stairs to reach the entrance door.

With height comes fantastic, memory making views.

And for those with the desire to climb the 77 steps inside the lighthouse, you could purchase a ticket, but with the foggy view today....and the thought of more stairs in cramped quarters....they all passed.

This lighthouse has what is referred to as an apple core design.  The theory is that this design will let the wind pass by, but the wider top allows for the space needed for the refracting lights.  This design replaced the older wide bottomed, wooden lighthouse that was severly damage from the fierce winds and waves on Cape Forchu.

The upstairs of the keepers building had a museum with interesting info.

This is a pic of the Bunker Island Light that was in operation from 1924 until it was replaced by a mechanical fog bell in 1941.  

The Bunker Island Light Keeper's family lived here surrounded by water until the tide went out.  The young children would wait for low tide and walk to the bank and on to school.  After school, they would again wait on the banks for low tide so they could return home.

The best part of the visit was the conversation with Jennifer, one of the staff members who shared her knowledge of Acadian history.  That was a timely discussion as tomorrow's adventure will be to visit the Living Acadian Culture Museum Village.

The day ended with a visit from Auntie Carol who delivered my treats.  I was expecting extra treats due to missing her visits on the previous two nights, but I guess she is watching my girly figure.

I did get one more treat after they finished their game of Hand and Foot.  

Poor Uncle Steve found it difficult to swallow the fact that the girls had better cards than the guys. It's all in the cards in your hand that you have to play with that determines who wins the round.  I think he knew at the start that it was going to be downward spiral for the guys when Momma and Aunt Carol both drew the exact number of cards needed for their hands earning them an additional 200 points before the first round had even begun. And that set the tone for the rest of the game.

I'm Chloe