We slept in a little this day, but we had a busy day planned. and then headed out to the other side of the island.  Our mission was Mist ice cream and a beach.  There was construction to deal with in both directions so we had to watch our timing and make it back for the Sunset Skyline Guided Hike that we had signed up for on the way back.

 

Our first stop was  Aucoin Bakery for some cinnamon buns, a coffee and a meat pie. All delicious.

Then we stopped at Proud to be Lola’s Hookers. Rug hooking is a traditional Acadian art in Cheticamp. Lola gave us a demonstration. We each picked up a kit and one of us used it to occupy themselves during car travel for the rest of the trip.

Now we were ready to set out on the Cabot Trail.  Our excursion was the Bog trail. It doesn’t sound enticing, but it is definitely worth the stop.  The beautiful boardwalk takes you past unique flora, in including 3 type of carnivorous plants.

 

We parked and stretched our legs at the MacKenzie River Valley lookout.

Then we stopped and hiked through an old hardwood forest to Lone Shieling. The Lone Shieling is a replica of a Scottish Crofter’s hut.

The Aspy Fault was our next lookout. This is where 2 continents colided. 

And finally after much searching we found the infamous Moon Mist ice cream. Our take on this ice cream, is try it once and don’t over think it.

After the ice cream it was all about when we were going to get to the beach. This side of Cape Breton proved to beach much sandier and sunnier. We settled down on Ingonish Beach for a few hours going in and out of the water to cool off and reheat.  A nice man lent us his kite to fly.  Something you kind of feel you need to do so close to Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site. Alas, we didn’t have time to explore any further.

We stopped one more time, at Green Cove, before our day’s grand finale. We didn’t see any whales, but enjoyed watching the birds dive bomb from great heights into the ocean to catch fish.

We got stuck in construction a great deal, but made it with 5 minutes to spare to our evening adventure.  We had signed up for a guided sunset Skyline trail hike. It was quite well done and educational. We saw great flora and the view is epic.

We left a little before the rest of the group and other tourists so that we could walk in quiet and perhaps spot a moose.  The moose we didn’t see, but we did hear an owl hoot and then quietly soar past us. This made us quite happy.

Back at our campsite, I spotted this amazing Luna moth.