Saturday, July 18 - Lunenburg

Edie, a friend from aerobics, told me about a special ship that was being built in France.  She and her husband visited the shipyard a year or two ago.  It's a replica of the ship built for Lafayette in the 1700's to sail to America and free us from the nasty Brits.  It's a long story, but one that interested G and me so we planned a trip to Nova Scotia to see the ship when it visits the U.S. and Canada.  The name of the frigate is Hermione, but the French consider frigates feminine and use the article "la" when talking about them.  Thus the "l" in front of the name: L'Hermione.  And of course the "h" is silent.  Now that we have that straight.....

L'Hermione sailed into the Lunenburg harbour to much horn blowing, cheering and surrounded by small boats of all kinds.  L'Hermione fired a few of her 32 cannons, which made all the dogs in town bark, it seemed.

After she docked, the crew lined up on the side and sang some lusty French songs for us.  It was glorious!  The only disappointment was that we would not be allowed aboard.  There was a party on board for important people, of whom we are not.

Here she is:  Sorry it's not a sunny day.  And sorry the sails aren't up.  But she is still beautiful.

There was another tall ship in the harbour--the Bluenose II.  Another long story, but basically it's a ship very important to Nova Scotians.  One lady got tears in her eyes telling me about the ship.  We did get to go aboard the Bluenose, so G got his fix.

We drove to Hirtle's Beach for a 3 hour hike in the afternoon.  J decided it was our best hike of the vacation--we all agreed.  It started with a long walk along a sandy beach, then through beautiful woods filled with ferns, then over some slate-like rock formations and back to the beach.  Here are the guys on the rocks: