The NEST in NS: we've arrived!

ENTER: NOVA SCOTIA

Everything we fit into the Focus...plus another guitar
and another suitcase, actually!

Two days. Two days of endless driving in an eerily straight line.

I can’t tell you how many naps I had…mostly because they all strung together into one endless snooze.

I intended to drive. I really did. But Brian didn’t want to share the wheel, and he kept turning down the A/C on my side of the car, where I was nestled up in a shawl…he’d pet my head, play some classical music…and suddenly, another two hours would have gone by.

I can’t really complain; I’m sure I’ll drive a bit on the way back. It’s more likely, now that I’ve caught onto the climate control trick, anyway.

Dad with his babies.

The first day was a fairly straightforward one, stopping for lunch at a McDonalds and making a motel room picnic out of a grocery store chicken. The second day, however, provided us with more tourist-worthy experiences. First off, we stopped at an Irving truck stop for some lunch; I’m told these truck stops are a quintessential part of the East Coast experience. Brian had a lobster club sandwich, so that seemed pretty quintessentially Easterly to me.

Then, making good time, we decided to stop at Magnetic Hill, New Brunswick: this strange place, historical and very weird, seemingly pulls vehicles up the hill by some sort of voodoo magic force. (Or magnets, whatever you prefer to call it.) We parked with the car in neutral at the bottom of the hill, and sure enough, it pulled that sucker up up up to the top. Unbelievable. There’s a video, for those who don’t believe:

And yes, there’s a boring sciencey explanation for this. And no, I’m not going to tell you it.

A giant cake at the Irving truck stop.

Magnetic Hill was also special because it’s where I finally, after years of wanting one, bought a sock monkey. It is green and awesome. I’m still choosing a name.

Our 'cottage'

After a stop at Chase’s to buy some freshly-boiled lobsters, we zipped down to Seafoam and found our cottage—which turned out to be a fantastic, huge stone house. Our bedrooms are gorgeous, the kitchen is fantastic, and the view…! The ocean I’ve missed is just across a brilliant green field, where it stretches out before me in all its cold and enormous grandeur. I feel like my eyes have never taken in so much green and blue in all my life.

Brian is having a riot. My brother and his partner arrived late on the first night, with their Chinese exchange student (Jack) in tow; Brian spent the better part of the evening teaching Jack how to juggle. We curled up in bed together after an evening of fresh lobster and Canadian whiskey, we slept like babes.

Nova Scotia has welcomed us with wide open arms. We’re happy to be here.