Eastern Shore, Peace By Chocolate + Wheel Pizza in Antigonish and across the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Cape Breton in our sights :)

We drive the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia and then cut across the island to the Town of Antigonish. The signs are beginning to show Cape Breton so we know we are getting close. 

Town of Peace By Chocolate 

The Town of Antigonish has been on our radar for months now as last fall we saw a film called 'Peace By Chocolate', which told the true story of the Hadhad family. 

Current Peace By Chocolate store front

After a 2012 bombing destroyed their chocolate factory in Damascus, Syria, they were forced to flee and spent three difficult years as refugees in Lebabon. In 2015 they resettled in Antigonish, where community support helped them rebuild their family business into a local success story. In 2016 'Peace By Chocolate' was launched and inspired by the family's core mission to use their product as a global vehicle for peace. 

Granddaughter of Isam - Saba

It's really quite fun walking into the shop and talking to the young girl, Saba, who turns out to be the granddaughter of Isam, the original maker of the chocolate back in Syria. She tells us the little shop the business started in was just down the street but has since been moved to a local museum. There is a beautiful painting of the little shop on the wall.

We buy many chocolate bars...hopefully some make it back for gifts...one piece can't hurt :)

Original little shop

We walk through the university grounds

Another recent reason to come here stems from our friend, Rob Dunbar, from Bedford Basin back in Halifax. Though circumstances interrupted our planned visit with him, we keep in touch and it turns out he went to St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. 

Rob tells us about his favourite pizza place called 'The Wheel', and that we must go and see if Mike the owner is working to taste his pizza. Mike isn't in but we order pizza anyway and it is really good. 

Greek and Mushroom/Pepperoni

Rob Dunbar Air Canada Pizza delivery

Turns out Mike has owned The Wheel for almost 50 years and has created many meaningful relationships with the students from the university over the years. The walls are covered with photos of the students as they ventured out in life and took pictures of The Wheel pizza box in locations all over the world like the top of Kilimanjaro or their launch into a sports career. 

Rob was on the wall as back in 1991 some people in Calgary ordered two of their favourite pizza's from The Wheel and somehow Rob was involved in the first ever Air Canada Cargo pizza delivery for New Years eve celebrations in Calgary. Too funny. 

Red highways

After pizza we head out and end up in search of a beach that we miss the entry to but end up at a fishing wharf where we walk about and chill for a couple hours. The highways are red in colour :)

Canso Causeway

Finally we cross the 'Canso Causeway' and are officially on Cape Breton Island, which is the rugged northeastern part of the province of Nova Scotia. Lots of Celtic Music and Ceilidhs (Kay-lee) are ahead of us. 

Welcome to Cape Breton

Ceilidh Music Trail 

Norse Cove Campground along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia

Dropping the pass key in the lock box

Thankfully the final brake install steps and test drive go well this morning, and by 11:30 am we are finally leaving Bay Self Storage. Funny fact...this storage lot is the longest we have stayed anywhere on this trip (11 nights)

Ouch

By the time we restock the trailer with stops at Costco, Bulk Barn, The Atlantic Superstore and a Shell fuel station, it is already late afternoon. 

Norse Cove Campground

Being a long weekend, lots of places are totally booked but Chris calls Norse Cove Kayak and Campground and they have one spot for tonight. It's very tight getting in but finally we are settled and feeling like we are finally back on track after quite the departure :)

View out our rear window

Electronic Engine Brake Module Install - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Glennifer getting braking assistance

We have travelled a ton of miles over the past 10 years in this truck and trailer, but never have we encountered the steep up and down grades (up to 17%) of Quebec and the East Coast. Back home driving through the mountains there are long steep ups and downs but out here it seems to be straight up or straight down very frequently. 

That being said, while back in Alberta Chris ordered an 'Electronic Engine Brake Module', which is basically a computer that manages a vehicle's anti-lock braking system. Our truck (Glennifer) is about to have help with braking for the remainder of our trip. Hopefully no more burning brakes smell...scary at times. 

Sadly the manual is out of date and the package is missing wires that were to be included...'Where is the Violet coloured wire'?? What was supposed to be a morning job turns into an all day affair so we end up spending another night at Bay Self Storage in Halifax. 

Missing violet wire??

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic - Titanic and Halifax Explosion Graveyard/Memorial Halifax, Nova Scotia - Emotional Day

Alexander Keith's Brewery

We leave our VRBO with our luggage in tote as we'll head to our rig later today. Thankfully the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic has agreed for us to store our luggage there for the day so we won't be hindered. The walk along Lower Water Street to the museum passes 'The Alexander Keith's Nova Scotia Brewery'. Founded in 1820 by Scottish immigrant Alexander Keith,it is one of the oldest working breweries in North America. Darn, would have been a cool tour. 

Nova Scotian Crystal Mural

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

War Memorial 

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic far exceeds anything we expected. Canada's oldest and largest maritime museum with a collection of over 30,000 artifacts highlighting Nova Scotia's marine history and the World Wars. 

Model ships aplenty

SS Franconia

There is a 'Days of Sail' gallery with all sorts of model ships and even a sail loft display. 

Sail loft

Blue - SS IMO  Red - SS Mont-Blanc

Just recently we learned of the 1917 Halifax Explosion disaster. The First World War turned Nova Scotia's port of Halifax into a boom town. The ice free harbour was the perfect departure point for ships carrying troops to Europe and the wounded back home. 

On the morning of December 6, 1917, in the Narrows - the strait connecting Bedford Basin to Halifax Harbour,  the Norwegian vessel SS Imo, (outbound for New York to pick up cargo), and the French munitions ship SS Mont-Blanc, (inbound to join a convoy headed for Europe), collided. The collision set off an explosion unrivalled until the atomic bomb. Thousands of people were killed, an entire neighbourhood was destroyed and thousands more left homeless. 

SS Mont-Blanc was a floating bomb

Mont-Blanc's holds were stuffed with explosive TNT - the ship was a floating bomb. When the ships collided, Mont-Blanc's hold was pierced and fire started quickly. The fire super-heated the hull and at 9:04 am a massive explosion all but wiped out Richmond and heavily damaged the surrounding areas.

Back when we were in PEI, a guy we met talked about the windows of grandma's house blown out that day. The blast killed more than 1,600 people instantly and the devastation was immeasurable. The city was in chaos and to make things worse it snowed 40 cms overnight. 

40 cms of snow overnight after the explosion

CNIB created

The first 10 days of rescue and recovery were apparently super-human. It is clear the scars remain as the city is peppered with monuments to the victims. 

Sadly the explosion caused the largest mass-blinding in Canadian history, shattering thousands of windows into people's faces as they looked out at the unfolding events of that day. The catastrophic surge in sudden blindness directly inspired the founding of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) in 1918. 

Model of Titanic

There is also a permanent RMS Titanic collection and Halifax's role in the recovery efforts. The massive, luxury British ocean liner said to be 'unsinkable' sank in the Atlantic Ocean during its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. 

Enjoying the deck chairs on the Titanic - she's unsinkable :)

The Titanic's Grand Staircase

The Titanic sinks

The ship hit an iceberg around 11:40 pm on April 14th that tore open six of its watertight compartments. The ship could only stay afloat with four flooded so April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 am the Titanic officially went down. It did not have enough lifeboats for everyone on board so about 1500 people lost their lives, many from freezing.  

Shockingly many of the lifeboats held very few people as passengers initially refused to leave the seemingly safe, warm liner to get into small, wooden boats hanging high above the dark freezing water. What a shame. In the rescue efforts, the dead were transported to Halifax and the living went to New York. 

Dead to Halifax  Alive to New York

It's all very overwhelming. This truly is one of the best museums we have seen in our travels. 

Marigold Kitchen

We stop for a quick meal at 'The Marigold Kitchen' as it gets 5 star reviews all around. Wow, what a meal and we are treated so kindly by the dad and son team working there. We are genuinely interested in their story and our kindness is rewarded as along with our donairs, they give us free soup samples and complimentary drinks. If ever in Halifax...look them up.

Sam - dad at Marigold Kitchen

Fairview Lawn Cemetery

To end our sombre day, we make a trip to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, which houses both RMS Titanic vicitims (121 individuals, arranged in the shape of a ship's hull) and a mass grave containing unidentified victims of the 1917 Halifax Explosion

Titanic victims

Down with the ship bravery

Halifax explosion memorial

Mass grave

Memorial Bell Tower

Finally we stop by the 'Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower'. Completed in 1985, it is a 60-foot-tall concrete structure in Fort Needham Memorial Park, which overlooks the harbour of the fateful explosion. It is meant to honour the nearly 2000 people killed and 9000 injured in the December 6th, 1917 ship collision in Halifax Harbour. 

What a day of remembering and reflecting as to why we are doing this trip. Live each day like it's your last as you never know what will happen tomorrow :)

Citadel National Historic Site - Busker Festival - Ferry to Dartmouth - Halifax, Nova Scotia

Historic buildings 

For thousands of years, long before European arrival, the Halifax area was home to the Mi'kmaq people. Then came the French fur traders, fishermen and missionaries before the British established a strategic military stronghold where Halifax became the capital of Nova Scotia in 1749 - almost 300 years ago. This explains the stunning old historic buildings everywhere within the waterfront core.

Dalhousie University founded February 1818

Construction of the Halifax Citadel began immediately in 1749 to protect the new British settlement against French forces.  It is a star-shaped hilltop fortress overlooking Halifax Harbour that has been rebuilt four times due to rot, climate and changing military needs, culminating in the 1856 stone-and-earth star fort. 

Citadel entrance

Moat

Inside fort walls

Stone-and-Earth Star Fort

Designated a national historic site in 1935, it serves as a living history museum with artillery re-enactments, people in period costumes and the 78th Highlanders Pipe Band.

78th Highlander Pipe Band

Historic buildings along the boardwalk

Next we wander down to the Halifax waterfront. 

Great places to sit and chill

Stretching nearly 4.5 kilometres it is one of the world's longest urban boardwalks, connecting historic properties, museums and local dining along a scenic working harbour.

Alderney Ferry to Dartmouth

We hop the foot passenger ferry from downtown Halifax to Dartmouth for a quick look about. It only takes about 10 minutes to get across. 

View of Halifax from the Alderney Ferry

Mural in Dartmouth

After a bowl of seafood chowder at Evan's Seafood, we walk around the waterfront and a few streets. It is pretty quiet on this side of the water :)

Tanker passes under the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

A couple of Brit's putting on a show

Back on the Halifax side the 40th annual Busker Festival is in full swing. Pancho Libre from Mexico won the 'People's Choice Award' in 2025. We think he will win again this year as no one we saw compared to his strength and talent. Amazing. 

Pancho Libre from Mexico

Gorch Fock German Tall Ship

The 'Gorch Fock" is a massive German Tall Ship on the Halifax waterfront tonight. There are a lot of people dressed in stark white uniforms and fancy dressed people boarding the ship. Who knows what event is happening but it is one impressive ship. 

George's Island

We opt out of the ferry to George's Island. Fort Charlotte was constructed on the island in 1750 but we just admire it from the Halifax shore. 

Another massive ship on the Halifax water front

It's been a long day exploring Halifax. We head to a pub and share a pint of beer before heading to our VRBO.