Hurricane Harvey

We survived Hurricane Harvey. We had water up half way over the yard a few times during the storm and have been dealing with a street full of water for several days that is the result of the releases from The Addicks and Barker dams into Buffalo Bayou.

The good news is that we had no water in the house and we have had no interruption in electrical power.

At the time of this post we are still trapped, but are hopeful we can drive out later today or maybe tomorrow.

Harvey 2017

Harvey 2017

My Street

Shark!

Winners

My two favorite shots of the trip are the two I had the least hope of coming away with.

The first is this HDR shot of an iceberg near Twillingate. Three shots on a moving boat took some work to merge. It was a total experiment that ended up working out.

Twillingate Iceberg - HDR

My other iceberg photos (including the ones from Iceland) can be found here.

The second was an attempt to photograph the Milky Way on one of the clear moonless nights. This is over the fjord near Gros Morne.

Milky Way in Gros Morne

I’m new to astrophotography and I don’t get to places where I can practice very often so I am rather happy with the results.

Day 19 – Cabot Trail

Untitled

There were storms on the island of Cape Breton. Lightning lit up our hotel room all night long. Cynthia slept like a log but I watched from the window for a while. It was pretty to watch, but was dashing hopes for a good day on the trail.

We got up and had breakfast and got on the road. We immediately hit some fog and also road construction.

Fog On The Cabot Trail

As we drove we went in and out of the fog as we went up and down the mountains. It was not encouraging. But we kept driving. Eventually we did clear the fog and the rain stopped. And the view improved.

Cabot Trail

We kept driving and decided to go ahead and take the entire loop around the Cabot Trail. That’s over 200 miles in total so it was a full day.

We had a good time, stopping now and again to see what there was to see

Inukshuk On Cape Breton Island

And even to goof around

Cynthia Moose

Jay Moose

It turned into a beautiful day and we had a great time

Cabot Trail

When we finally returned to the hotel that afternoon we took a hike on the Middle Head Trail that is on the grounds behind our hotel.

Middle Head Trail (Ingonish)

Middle Head Trail (Ingonish)

Middle Head Trail (Ingonish)

It was beautiful, but we were pretty tired so we only walked for a mile or so before turning back. This was a find end to this fantastic journey. Tomorrow we drive back to the Halifax area so we can pack up and get ready to catch our flight home.

Day 18 – Baddeck To Ingonesh The Long Way Round

Tonight we’re staying in Ingonesh, but Ingonesh is only 2 hours away from Baddeck so we opted to take a trip around the Cabot Trail via the western side.

Cabot Trail

We had to stop by the park office to get a pass to allow us to drive in Cape Breton Highlands National Park which contains much of the scenic drive.

Cabot Trail

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, stopping frequently to enjoy the scenic vistas and take some photos

Cabot Trail

Cynthia On Cabot Trail

We also took two detours to travel down some rugged gravel roads to see some waterfalls. Sadly, they were not all that spectacular and were not really worth the effort it took to get to them.

Mary Ann Falls - Nova Scotia

We took most of the day to make our way to Ingonesh and get checked into our hotel. This is the final phase of the trip and we will use tomorrow to explore the park some more before packing up and heading back to Halifax for our flight home.

Day 17 – Lunenburg to Baddeck

As usual, we were up early and got out of town quick to make our way to the next destination. The drive took us close to Peggy’s Cove so we decided to take the short detour and see if it was any better in the early morning. It was. Still some tourists crawling around, but not as bad as yesterday.

Peggy's Cove

We left and made a stop near D’Aubins Cove where we noticed the water was exceptionally still

D'Aubins Cove

We drive on to Baddeck and got checked into our hotel. Turns out there was a small festival in the city center where we were able to see some live traditional music and have an enjoyable but early evening.

Baddeck Street Festival

Tomorrow, Cabot Trail!