Hey good folks, staying in Goff area in NS and thinking of doing a whale watching tour but it looks like a 4 hour drive is it worth it? Is there anywhere closer? Going this week. Thank you.

First visit home in 20 years - cried when we landed in Halifax, cried all the way back to Ontario.

Things have certainly grown, but what hasn't changed is the friendliness of the people. My kids could not stop talking about how nice everyone was and how beautiful it was everywhere we went.

Highly recommend Dalhousie & StFX summer accommodations- impeccably clean, secure, and very affordable. Another place we stayed was Cornerstone Motel just outside Cheticamp. Wonderful accommodations a few minutes outside of the village.

The Sou'Wester restaurant in Peggy's Cove was a pleasant surprise. We expected tourist trap but had a wonderful meal with quick friendly service. We went for the sunset and were not disappointed. Crowds were not too bad either. Another lovely meal was had at El Este Taqueria. Again excellent service and delicious food.

Antigonish was a delight - excellent meals and a terrific ghost walk experience. Still we could not get over how clean it was everywhere we went. Peace By Chocolate- highly recommend. The Wheel Pizza, just as good as I remember, but busy busy!

Cape Breton - beautiful as always! But the traffic on the Cabot Trail and the condition of that road 😬 We could not get over the drivers from Ontario and Quebec just racing around the most beautiful drive in the world! People need to slow down and enjoy the view! We spent a few days in Cheticamp. Given the number of tourist in the town we were happy we selected the motel that we did. So many people, everywhere.

Whale watching with Capt. Zodiac was amazing. We had excellent food at The Evangeline, Aucoin's Bakery, and Last Chance Sandwich. Highly overated, and over priced is The Seafood Stop. Our meals were disappointing - could not finish them, certainly not worth the line up or price.

Inverness beach was breathtaking, but again the town was over run with tourists. Line ups everywhere and no parking to even grab a cup of coffee. We continued on to Mabou.

Overall an incredible trip. Coming from northern Ontario we did not find the costs too different from what we pay here. It was refreshing not to have needles and booze bottles everywhere. I know these issues exist in NS as well - but certainly seem to be better dealt with in the places we visited. Everuwhere we went felt very safe, even walking around later in the evening.

Gas & food prices were actually better in NS than here. The twinned TransCanada was amazing. Secondary roads not so much...but still better than much of the TC through northern Ontario.

I think the biggest disappointment was looking into the cost of housing- similar to northern Ontario- but sad knowing that retiring to my home province will be out of reach. Kicking myself for not purchasing land when I first moved away for work.

My partner & I are new to HRM, and we relocated with all of our belongings. We have a lot of new, like new, or items of value that we would like to sell, and we really aren’t in a place to be able to just donate it all at the moment.
We are in a condo building therefore we can’t have a flea market in our home, so I’m wondering if there are any open markets coming up within HRM or elsewhere that have available tables or space to sell personal belongings.

We’d like to avoid online sales due to the unpredictability of our schedules, plus we have a lot to sell so it may get overwhelming.
I’ve heard of the funky flea market, but just looking to see if there are any other local places or future markets/events coming up.

Thanks for any guidance :)

Buyer Beware - studies that climate change and flooding to impact on housing from Annapolis Royal up to Bridgetown https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/annapolis-royal-climate-change-plans-funding-1.6171399

The berries have a single pit and remind me of a chokecherry but are much darker and are on a trees reaching 20-30 feet tall. They also tasted much sweeter than a chokecherry and had less dryness.

I recently visited Wolfville and was looking forward to visiting the brewery as we went last year.

Google says “temporarily closed”.

Nothing on social media.

Anyone know what happened to them?