Hats, Poutine, Waves, and Chicken

 

We were in downtown Sydney at the Genealogical Society of Cape Breton, which we joined, and will be doing video histories with them and the communities (more about that later).  I saw the stacks of a cruise ship over some trees, so we walked down to the harbor as it was pulling away.  From now until the end of October, 3-4 cruise ships per week dock here.  There are numerous tours and sights for the tourists (especially the fall colors), and of course shops to entice them.  Sister Johnson thought I looked dashing in this Tilley hat, a famous Canadian brand, and she induced me to buy it.  I've never paid that much for a hat before, but I decided to go for it.  She also found one that she liked.  Notice our light jackets in June.  When we are outside we need at least these on.  It's in the mid 50'sF most days which is very pleasant if there's not a big wind going.  It rains about every 3 days.


This is Poutine, the National Dish of French Canada.  Not the French, I am told, just the French Canadians.  It is rice, cheese, fries, chicken (or beef, or not) and gravy, with a little parsley.  It varies from place to place, but the common ingredients are the fries and gravy.  I had to try it of course, and it's good, but I'll probably be sampling a lot more types of the cuisine here before I come back to this.  I wish I had taken a photo of the fish chowder we had the day after - it was superb and is a famous part of the local Cape Breton area foods.


The rocky shores of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.  You'll probably see lots of photos like this, especially when the storms come in.  After standing out in the cold and watching these waves crash (these are small ones), I'm pretty sure you'd never get me to be a sailor.  We bought a book at the Historical Society about the Cape Breton shipwrecks since 1761, and they are gruesome.



Here's the Costco $4.99 roast chicken in Canada.  This reflects the general pricing here vs. the US.  Of course the price is in Canadian dollars, which are worth $0.78 of a US dollar.  There is a 15% tax on most all items, but I don't think it's on food.  The Costco is in Halifax, so we can only get there every couple of months.  They do have most of the items we are used to, or a good equivalent in all of the stores.  We even found a mini-Costco! So far we have been able to get everything we need.  We did pay $3.99/lb for big Honey Crisp apples today, which made them nearly that price each - but they are delicious!

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