Day 4, The Red Shoe

The weather forecast is dismal, not horrible, but certainly not great. This will be our forth day of clouds, fog and rain. Our initial thought was to head up and do the Cabot Trail Counter Clockwise and stay in Pleasant Bay or Cheticamp.  We start packing and head out to breakfast, we opt to skip the hotel restaurant, although it looks good, but pricey. DeeDee recalls seeing a little waffle shop on our walk, so we head in that direction. 'The Waffle Bus Stop' is a small place tucked in on a back street with a small sign. Inside they offer good coffee, smoothies and waffle sandwiches. We question the girl about the waffle sandwiches and she asks us if this is our first time there, we respond and she gets the owner. He is friendly and obviously very proud of his waffles, he tells us these are not your average waffles made with batter, but traditional Belgian waffles made with yeast. We order a waffle sandwich with eggs, bacon, spinach, cheese, and we get a green smoothie. It'a all excellent, and
apparently popular with lots of college girls, not that I noticed...  While we eat, we discuss the days plan and decide on a shorter route, heading up directly to Cheticamp and then doing the remainder of the Cabot Trail clockwise tomorrow, as the weather looks to be better. Back in the room DeeDee researches lodging, which is in short supply along the Cabot Trail. In Cheticamp she finds a four room Inn with space available and books it for the evening. We pack up and head out in the fog and drizzle.
Shortly, we reach the bridge at Port Hastings that brings us onto the Island of Cape Bretton. Since accommodations seem to be somewhat scarce on the island we decide to check out what's in Port Hastings and Port Hawkesbury for the following night. The two towns are on the water, although not very scenic, but there seems to be plenty of motels about, so we figure if we can't find an alternative we can end up here. We wander up the western coastline of the Island. The fog has lifted and no real rain yet. The road is pleasant with nice views. We pass a few B&B's along the way and stop for a bit in Port Hood. Port Hood is off the main road and a quiet little town, apparently there was a large mining operation here back at the turn of the century. There's a small motel, a restaurant, a B&B on the water and a grand old Victorian Inn. This might be a good place to stop on our return. We check out the B&B, the rooms are all occupied but they have three nice cabins on the water and a restaurant. It is run by a German couple, and although very nice, quite expensive. Dinner was limited to a five course meal for $50 a person!  So we pass and move on to check out the big Victorian, named the Hillcrest Hall Country Inn. The manager is very nice and she shows us a great room overlooking the water. The room is large with a king bed and the price is reasonable. So we book it for the following night. She tells us about the little restaurant up the street and a little food truck. There is also a whiskey distillery and a brew pub about 30 minutes up the road. So back on the bike on our way to Cheticamp.

We come to the little brew pub, The Red Shoe Pub and stop for a beer. The Red Shoe is owned by the Rankin family, The Rankin Family is a Canadian musical family group from Mabou, Nova Scotia. The group has won many Canadian music awards,and the pub is a hot spot for local musicians. Unfortunately there wasn't any live music while we were there.

The pub was cozy and the menu looked good, we could have gotten pretty comfy and I could have easily had several more pints!  But we have some miles to go and one beer is enough when you have to drive the motorcycle. I tried to talk DeeDee into driving, but that didn't go over too well. 



We arrive at our B&B in Cheticamp as the fog and drizzle roll back in. The "Auberge de Pecheurs" is run by a very nice french woman who takes us to our room is on the second floor, it is the cleanest room I have ever seen. Our room overlooks the bay lined with colorful fishing boats and crab boats. There are a few restaurants and a pizza place. Our host send us up the road to a small fish shack called the "All Aboard" where she says the food is good and there is live music. She tells us the place will be busy and calls for us to make a reservation. We walk 15 minutes prepared for rain that never came, and she was right the place is full, but we have a table. We order a bottle of wine, DeeDee orders a pound of Snow Crab Legs and I order pan fried haddock. We enjoy the food while a young girl plays her fiddle in the corner. One thing we are finding out is that food and drink up here can be quite expensive, a lobster dinner runs between $35-$45, DeeDee's crab was $29! Beers run about $5-7. Luckily the exchange rate gives us about at 25% discount.

After dinner we take a stroll along the water and end up at The Gabriel Restaurant and Bar. The place is huge, the bar is apparently quite busy during the summer with a large stage and dance floor and tons of sports memorabilia on the walls, mostly hockey, even some Boston Bruins signed posters and shirts. At the bar are a few crusty locals speaking some very strange mix of French, English and Gaelic. There were pretty buzzed and having a good time.  
We finish our night cap and head back to the Auberge hoping for better weather in the morning.