Many of our friends were surprised to find out that there are direct flights from Washington to Halifax, or at least there is one, a United flight. So off we went Saturday, July 31^st, early in the morning.

Last year we went to China to see a total Solar Ellipse. The relevance of this is because of that one flight I was able to qualify as a Premier flyer on United for the first time in years. United’s new policy is that whenever there are first class seats available then they fill them with their frequent flyers who are already on board. So Ellen and I were upgraded to first class. On the other hand, on a regional jet, which this was, the main advantage of first class was that you got served coffee or juice before you took off.

Our first day in Nova Scotia was mostly a driving day. Nova Scotia is pretty long, pointed from Southwest to Northeast. PEI is toward the north end and is itself due north of Nova Scotia. Unless you are going to spend more time than we had, you have to pick whether you will go to the south of Nova Scotia, Bay of Fundy and that kind of thing, and then PEI, or the north of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and then PEI. We picked the Cape Breton alternative.

We went from Halifax which is sort of in the middle of Nova Scotia and headed north and then to the east, ending up at Louisbourg on the Atlantic Ocean. Louisbourg is the home of the former Fort Louisbourg which we were told was a pretty interesting place to see, more on that later on.

On the way we stopped in Antigonish, a small town about two hours from Halifax. There we ate at the Tall and Small Cafe. The Tall and Small is the kind of place you would expect to find near a University. Really young, informally dressed wait staff; being pretty disorganized. Lots of strange sandwiches, not often you can get a peanut butter and banana sandwich in a restaurant; things with sprouts.

And happily for Ellen the book store she wanted to visit in Antigonish was next door. Ellen makes independent book stores wherever we visit happy.

The drive was otherwise pretty uneventful. Beautiful scenery, especially when we drove by the large internal lake in Nova Scotia, Bras D’or. We saw two hitchhikers, something I haven’t seen in many years in the States – in Canada, one refers to the US as ‘the States’.

In Louisbourg, we are staying at the Louisbourg Harbour Inn, one of the bed & breakfasts we will visit while on the trip. A beautiful old sea captain’s house. We overlook the harbour (well duh) in what was the old master bedroom – I try and get nice rooms, remember that Disneyworld goal.

Dinner was fish at the Lobster Kettle restaurant, a short walk away and also on the harbour. Sadly the less said about that the better. Overcooked Halibut, a steamed, sliced baked potato which annoyed Ellen, and slow service – like the old borsht belt joke, the food was terrible and the portions were small. We did finish up by walking around the very small downtown and buying an ice cream cup which helped a little. Ice Cream was advertised everywhere we drove, so the advertising worked.

The one big decision that Ellen agreed to dealt with Cape Breton. When you visit the north part of Nova Scotia you end up driving the Cabot Trail which is described almost everywhere as one of the ten most beautiful drives in the world. Now, for those of you who are height unhappy, I should point out that ‘beautiful drive’ almost always is a synonym for driving in mountains and looking out over beautiful vistas.

You can drive the Cabot Trail clockwise in which case you are on the inside lane on the generally two-lane road hugging the moutains, admittedly small mountains. Or you can drive the Cabot Trail counterclockwise in which case you are on the outside lane which often does not have things like a shoulder next to the beautiful mountain side. Not having realized all this, I had set us up to drive counterclockwise.

When I read all of the literature that talked about making sure you had strong brakes and how most people prefer the clockwise drive, I suggested to Ellen that we reverse the plan even though that would add perhaps an hour to the overall trip. She kindly agreed.

Two other quick things.

First, while we do not travel that much internationally, the last few years we have done a bit. Each time we come through customs on the other side is inevitably a country one needs to get used to with customs that are different – one of the reasons one does this kind of travel.

Today it felt strange for almost the opposite reason. We went through customs and almost nothing was dramatically different other than the currency and the metric thing. The relationship with Canada is so natural we really do take this extraordinary tie too much for granted.

Second, the owner of the Louisbourg B&B it turned out plays senior hockey where Sidney Crosby played hockey as a kid but is a big Washington Capitals fan. He was very disappointed, as of course was I, when the Caps were eliminated in the first round. We both are looking forward to this year’s season.

We spent Saturday in Hershey PA. That night we saw the Hershey Bears, http://www.hersheybears.com/,  wallop the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins 7-2. And we then returned to Washington Sunday in time to watch the Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3.

We hadn’t been to Hershey since our two daughters were young. That last visit, we went to a number of the Hershey Chocolate themed places, the names blur in a memory that cannot recall last week well these days. We also visited Hershey Park, where as I vaguely recall I even went on some of the roller coasters which is normally not my favorite thing to do.

The Gibson House. Lately when we travel we try and stay in Bed and Breakfasts whenever we can. You get a bit more of a sense of a location and the opportunity to interact with the other guests is much more likely which often can be fun.

The prevalence of the Internet has dramatically increased the information available about B&B’s. Typically I spend a couple of hours investigating places, leaning a lot on the Trip Advisor ratings and any other references we run across.

In Hershey we stayed at The Gibson House, http://www.gibsonhousebandb.com/, which ended up a great choice. It was a 1925 Victorian style house, which had been updated and decorated by the owner Tom Powers. The rooms were very nice, and the “and B” part which was Blueberry pancakes was great.  Equally important it was close to the tourist areas, but in a quiet neighborhood, and just a few minutes from Giant Center, http://www.giantcenter.com/, home of the Hershey Bears.

The Museum on Choclate Avenue. We only had time to visit one of the Hershey sites, the newly built Museum on Chocolate Avenue, which replaced the old Hershey Museum, http://www.hersheystory.org/splash.aspx. We enjoyed wandering around including have some Mexican Chocolate Cake.

 I was surprised at the details of what is now called the Milton Hershey School, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Hershey_School. Milton Hershey and his wife Catherine, did not have any children. Instead, or perhaps as a result of that, they created a school to help orphan children.  Originally limited to only white boys who were orphans, over time the school, happily, became available to all children in great need.

The school has controlling interest in the Hershey company, owns the Entertainment company, runs many of the local hotels as well as Hershey Park. Over 1700 children currently attend with the plan to increase that to over 2100. All students who graduate receive an $80K scholarship to attend college. The videos of former students are really heartwarming. I didn’t realize what a rich legacy Hershey, who evidently never completed fifth grade, left.

DA BEARS. That night we attended the Hershey Bears game. Evidently when the hockey team was originally formed, it was called the Hershey Bars, but was forced to change its name when it wanted to play competitive hockey, or at least that is the story we were told.

It turns out that by coincidence, the Capitals Road Crew was also attending the game that night. So we met the busload of other Caps fans at the Bear’s Den in the Hershey Lodge for dinner before going to the game that night.

We got to Giant Center around 6:00pm, an hour before the game. There already was a large crowd present; the crowd ended up at the capacity of 10,500. The Giant Center is a great arena, anyone who hasn’t gone and who loves hockey should consider the short trip up to Hershey. You get to see lots of players who have been up to the Caps plus future stars, and the crowd is great. Minor league hockey is a lot like minor league baseball, really community based and fun to attend. Hershey has  a very long and deep relationship with the Hershey Bears. The fact that they won 7-2 AND beat the farm team of the hated Pittsburgh Penguins was an added bonus.

While the Caps have two very good young goalies in Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth, it is very possible that the best of their young goalies is playing in Hershey, Braden Holtby. With both the Hershey Bears, the Capitals number one minor league affiliate, and the Carolina Stingrays, the Capitals other minor league affiliate, both far in front in their respective divisions, the organization is very deep in talent.

BREAKFAST. Sunday morning, one of those added benefits of staying in a bed and breakfast happened. We had breakfast with a couple from Carroll County, MD, who visit Hershey once a year to see the Hershey sites and go to a Hershey Bears game, and a family, with a young boy and girl, who were in from South Carolina. The wife was from the Pennsylvania area and was visiting her grandmother and other family.

We had a great conversation about hockey and to Ellen’s distress wandered into South Carolina and Massachusetts politics. It turned out that the mother from South Carolina and I had a number of mutual friends as well as an intense interest in political campaigns and politics in general. Great fun.

C-A-P-S, CAPS, CAPS, CAPS. Sunday, we return to Washington, saw the Capitals beat the hated Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 in a very physical, almost playoff atmosphere. And then sadly we had to leave the hockey cocoon to return to ‘real life’. A great two days.