Nova Scotia

We were in Nova Scotia June 2 - 11. What a beautiful place. Ok it did rain all but 2 of the days we were there and even on the non-rain days the visibility was very low. But still it was a great time. I am still sorting through the pictures and I will put them up shortly. Here is the cool thing. We saw moose. Three to be exact. Several of the locals said that they have lived there their whole lives and have never seen a moose. Meanwhile they have street signs warning of moose. I thought it was going to be like deer around here. Like you actually have to worry that you might hit one if you aren't careful. But apparently a moose sighting is rare even for Canadians.

So I suppose we are lucky to have seen one young male and one female with her baby. And we saw the female while we were hiking so she and her baby we so close. Danny and I wanted to see a moose so bad. When we got on that trail Danny was like "we have to see a moose." But all the sudden he started getting scared. If you know Danny you know he is terrified of dogs so imagine a moose much larger than most dogs being close to him. I don't know why he didn't think about that before he got me all excited for seeing a moose.

As we got further down the trail he progressively became closer and closer to me. Then he said "ya know what it’s getting dark and I think we should turn around". It was easy to see that the thought of actually seeing a moose was becoming a bit scary for him. I said "no way I am turning around now". Then we got a little further and he said he smelled animal. And it was true I smelled it too like a really dirty wet dog. A musky smell. I have heard on various TV documentaries that there is a smell right before you see Sasquatch. I reminded Danny of this fact.

At this point he was pretty scared. I still refused to turn around though and I think he realized that if he turned around he would have to face the moose (or Sasquatch) on his own if one decided to come near the trail behind us. So he decided he would feel better if he has a weapon. He found a nice thick stick about 3 feet in length. Almost shillelagh like. So now he was ready for whatever challenge the moose presented. And in a way he was right to be afraid I mean it was calving season and females can be very aggressive when they have babies around.

Finally I stopped and quietly said there is a moose. I stopped with enough space so that I thought Danny would be able to look without getting too freaked out. He was a little freaked and he kept his shillelagh close. I of course wanted a picture. Especially when I noticed that there was a baby lying next to the mommy. Woah what a picture op I thought. Danny thought let's get the hell out of here before this thing attacks us. But I very quietly walked over to a distance from the moose which Danny was comfortable with and snapped a couple of pictures. At this point Danny saw that the moose was just laying there and didn't even react to me so he wanted to take some pictures on his own and get a better look as well.

So we walked back to the car and headed back to our hotel. On the road we saw another moose a male this time eating some plants close to the highway. And then I saw a beaver in a pond near the highway and Danny stopped and we took some pictures. Nice all the wildlife and I didn't even tell you about the Atlantic Puffins yet. heh. So the pictures will be up soon and I hope I have you excited for them now.