We arrived in the village of Chester to meet our new friend Cindy who had been introduced to us by Paul’s friend and classmate John.  We soon discovered that she and Paul had also been classmates in junior high before Cindy moved away from Minnesota.  Lucky for us she eventually chose Chester, Nova Scotia as her home and we could quickly see why she fell in love with this place.  She has a lovely cottage right on the water with a stunning view.  Her friends across the street offer their home to friends to stay while they are away, so we were in for a treat with our accommodations.  We had a delightful dinner at Cindy’s with her friend Jim and his son-in-law Andy – with wonderful conversation all around.

The next day, Paul arranged to go golfing at the Chester golf club – a lovely course right on the water.  I happily took the day to rest at our guest house including a hot epsom salt bath and time sitting on the deck in the sun looking over our guidebooks for Nova Scotia that I had not had a chance to look at before leaving home.  The day of rest seemed to have been good for me and bad for my cold – meaning it helped get me on the healing side of the cold and back in sight seeing mode by the next morning.  We enjoyed dinner out at the Foc’sle Tavern in Chester with the biggest piece of breaded fried fish (fish and chips style) that I’ve ever seen!  That and the seafood chowder were delicious.  After dinner we were treated to a harbor tour with Jim as skipper and tour guide.  It was a beautiful night to be out on the water and we arrived back just as it started to get chilly.

The following morning we were off to Lunenburg with Cindy as our tour guide.  We first took in the view from the golf course across the water then found a parking spot in the shade and headed off on foot.  We visited the old cemetery and then spent a couple hours working our way through the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.  Next came lunch on the patio and wandering through some shops in town to view local artisan’s wares.  We ended the day with a drive through the surrounding community and the village of Blue Rocks including a stop at the Art Barn where I fell in love with Linda’s art work and had to take home a piece made with bees wax and handmade paper.  After a lovely day together, we said our farewells to Cindy and packed up the car to leave in the morning.

– Mindy