We waited until morning to pack because we had time with no distant activities planned before our afternoon departure to Yarmouth. We needed to be out of the apartment for cleaning and new guests by noon but made arrangements to store our luggage until later. Our host was flexible and helpful in these situations.
Off to a nearby bus stop to find the Ardmore cafe, a local favorite and award winning spot in the Quinpool area beyond the middle of town and waterfront areas we had explored. It seemed the bus drivers hadn't been there though as each said a coming bus would take us. I'd forgotten to save my google map search for off-line use. Finally a driver agreed to find it for us which was easy.
The Ardmore had good and filling fare. Laurie tried salt cod cakes with "chow" a very sweet relish that some like. I stayed with a more traditional meal but avoided the huge Lumberjack special. We re-traced our steps for some local shopping after finally getting into the beautiful Public Gardens near where we stayed. Apparently the grounds were nearly destroyed by a hurricane in 2003 which has become a frequent event in Nova Scotia recently.
We finished our time here with some shopping and trying to get into the public library. A new one has been built but is fenced off and the nearby old one is permanently closed. Back to the Public Gardens in search of good "wash rooms" as they are called locally. Part of the routine for on foot travelers like us.
We returned to the apartment to get our bags and leave the key. Some confusion about leaving the key earlier in the lock box left the cleaner out but no harm done. We returned to get our bags and wait for the private shuttle to come and take us to Yarmouth. Rental cars cost a lot with one way fees, the train was closed down about 30 years ago and there are no buses. This gap is mainly filled only with a few private shuttle vans like this unless the airport offers a local flight. The ferry itself was closed and has recently reopened privately with some government funds. The region needs this transportation but seems to be at the mercy of others.
Our shuttle was late although we had confirmed it was coming this morning. We had tried for an early trip down today for a little exploring and a good dinner to go with our short stay at a B&B and off to the ferry. Late meant less options or worse we could miss our chance to get there today and miss connections for lodging and the ferry. We called in via Skype and found a late ferry had delayed the shuttle along with mechanical problems on the other shuttle. We were picked up about 3:30 and became part of the broken shuttle replacement with trips to the airport for a rental van and sitting on the side of the highway waiting for a tow truck before we could leave. The shuttle owner, our driver, made contact with the B&B and looked for food reservations but our late arrival limited that. We also had extra people and chatter plus fast driving initially to deal with.
When we were on the road finally, we did stop briefly in Mahone Bay around dusk, a beautiful spot in the middle of their annual scarecrow festival and settled for some local food on the run. We learned some about the area through the driver and local radio plus our other rider, Robert, who was coming down home to see his young son and would soon work on a lobster boat.
We made another stop and experienced our first Tim Horton's which is now owned by Wendy's, Burger King, or someone instead of an ex-hockey star who drank too much and crashed.
We finally arrived about 9:30 and found the motel parking lot full of well kept old sports cars. Our shuttle driver gave us a senior discount for the inconvenience and we laughed that it was all in a day of vacation for us. The host made us tea and offered salad and cheese sandwiches but we were happy to go up to our B&B room for a very cozy night. We got in a FaceTime chat with Elle and the boys with baseball talk etc. We'll start with an early breakfast in the morning hopefully ahead of the old car drivers, a lift to the ferry and off we will go, leaving Canada behind but taking many fun memories and adventures with us back to the US.
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