"You came too late"

Dave bought a new hat at Peggy's Cove, on the coast of Nova Scotia. It will be part of his collection, along with the Viking horned hat, the Indiana Jones hat, and the leather, WWII, Jimmy Doolittle pilot cap that hugs his head and snaps under his chin. The Peggy's Cove hat is a "slicker," to be worn along the northeastern Atlantic during "sou'westers" and hurricanes.

The hurricane hit Peggy's Cove hard last Sunday. One gift shop was washed off its foundation and several townsmen got flipped by high waves into the ocean. This morning, the bulldozers and construction workers were out to clean up the mess. As one shopowner spied Dave wearing his hat, the sort of hat used by brave guys in bad weather, she said, "You came too late. We needed you on Sunday."

As we enjoyed the strikingly beautiful sights of Peggy's Cove and northeastern Nova Scotia, we considered the meaning of "you came too late," with regards to traveling. It usually means the place has been overrun, trashed by other tourists. There are souvenir shops everywhere, the food is overpriced, the sights are grubby and littered, and the natives demand big tips. I'm thinking the pyramids closest to Cairo or the Isle of Capri in the middle of the summer. Nova Scotia is the opposite of that.

There were a couple of tour buses at Peggy's Cove, an island icon, but the tourists elsewhere were inconspicuous. The people are extremely friendly, and the landscape looks like it's just been vacuumed off and hosed down.

We walked to the lighthouse, past a bagpiper earning money from tips for her college tuition--at a school in Florida! "I've got a special deal to study turtles there, and then I'm coming home to use what I've learned," she said.

We passed some lobster fishermen, working on their cages and buoys.

And we paused at the memorial for the Swissair flight that crashed in Peggy's Cove in September 1998, killing more than 200 people.

We spent the rest of the day savoring good food and beautiful sights. Our morning snack was homemade ice cream in a waffle cone baked while we watched. This cute clerk scooped raspberry-passion fruit sorbet and banana cardamom for both Dave and Gretta.

We had a McLobster for lunch at McDonalds, where else? It was fresh lobster salad served on a white bun--a staple from Boston north. We ate the same "lobster roll" in Bar Harbor, Maine, with the Eberts last year.

We ate dinner at Island Resort--haddock loins with lemon juice and capers, served in a dining room overlooking the sea, accompanied by a pianist and fiddler playing Gaelic jigs. Cape Breton is a North American center for Gaelic music, developed through its many Scotch and Irish settlers.

Nova Scotia is fresh, clean, and lovely, with each rain and wind-washed boat, house, or church outlined against a bright blue sky.

We didn't come too late to see this beautiful place. We came just in time.