The loooong drive around the Cabot Trail

Onto Cape Breton and specifically Baddeck, the normal start/finish point of the Cabot Trail.

• Stayed at our first B&B here, The Water's Edge Inn, located just off the main street of Baddeck. Great location, right by the harbour, and less than 30 seconds from the main drag. Room was immaculately clean and comfortable. It wasn't a traditional B&B however, but a cross between one and an inn. We had breakfast there on the second morning (homemade cranberry almond scones, waffles with Acadian mape syrup, this was probably the best 'hotel' breakfast i've ever had!!)

• The first night we just hung out around town, walked up and down the main street, had dinner at Bell Buoy (not bad) and realized that after 9-10pm, the town is dead! Apart from being in one of the 3-4 restaurants in town, there is pretty much nothing to do except hang out by the convenience store. Needless to say, that was an 'early' night.

• In the morning, we decided to try kayaking for the first time, and based on TA recommendations, we booked a half day kayak tour (3 hrs) along Bras D'Or lake with North River Kayak tours. Took about 30 mins to get there but the drive was well worth it. Our guides were excellent/fun and we did a tandem kayak and my wife enjoyed every minute of it. We even saw a few bald eagles along the way! Perfect weather, a bit hot but nothing a few splashes of the paddle could handle! Tons of jellyfish though which was weird but apparently not too poisonous since one of our guides picked one up with his hand. Sick.

• After kayaking we decide to continue along the rest of the Cabot Trail. Took us 6 hrs to go all around it while stopping at more than half of the 25 driving scenic lookut points. I admit it was very scenic driving along the eastern coast line but it reminded me of the Road To Hana drive we did in Hawaii. So even though the views were amazing, it was kind of like 'seen that' so not as exciting.

• Stopped at Highland Links golf course, within Cape Breton Provincial Park, #4 course in Canada or something like that..very very nice links course and we will go back to play that one day. For now, i just bought a golf shirt to pretend like i played there.

• Saw a moose along the trail!!

• Next time we will go whale-watching for sure, probably along Cheticamp or Pleasant Bay