It’s been a hot, unproductive summer here in Toronto but, as I remind myself daily, at least everything’s not on fire.

I’ve had “write something about your vacation on the blog” for weeks now, so the time has come and I must do it.

In June, my husband and I flew to Moncton, New Brunswick, with a box containing my father’s ashes – and believe me, many moments were lost in anticipatory anxiousness on my part over getting said ashes through security at Billy Bishop airport. But, of course, it was, as Ryan George says in his videos for PITCH MEETING, “super easy, barely an inconvenience.” For which I was very grateful.

With my brother and various Moncton family members in attendance, we had Dad interred in the urn garden plot he had bought years ago. For a long time, he said it didn’t care what happened with his ashes, but in the last days, he admitted that he did want to go back to be buried in the cemetery in his home town. He even knew what he wanted the marker to say.

It was wonderful to see everyone, to explore Moncton again, to eat a cheese sandwich at Le Notre Dame De Parkton restaurant (seriously, go there), and to discover how many Dollaramas we could find in a fifteen minute walk.

We even saw the famous tidal bore from right outside our hotel.

Then we hit the road for Nova Scotia, with appropriate tunes on the rental car system.

We stopped at Joggins Fossil Cliffs and Centre, one of the best places in the world to find fossils from a mere 300 million years ago. We checked out the museum then did a guided tour of the beach below. You can find fossils everyone – but you have to put them back!

After several days of visiting family, we headed down to Annapolis Royal to the Port-Royal Historic Site, then to the Point Prim Lighthouse. We ended the day in Digby.

It poured rain in our next stop, Yarmouth, so we did what one does on those occasions – we went to the Yarmouth County Museum & Archives. We spent an enjoyable time looking at everything from lighthouse glass to a Victorian hearse to some haunted dolls. We then had an excellent lunch at the very busy The Shanty Cafe, where a kind local not only shared his table but bought our lunch. Maritime hospitality is real.

More rain accompanied us to Lunenberg, but the skies cleared the next day for a quick visit to Halifax before we had to fly home. We scored a great breakfast at Bliss Caffeine Bar and liked it so much we went back for lunch. We also had time to check out the local scenery, have more delicious meals, and see some more of the sights, including the gorgeous new Halifax Central Library.