The first three posts in this series can be found here, here and here.
Some people may look at our suitcases and our touristy photos and call what we are doing a vacation. While it is true that we have had many vacations over the years to places like Ottawa, Montreal, New York City, Halifax and Boston, going to Cape Breton Island is never really a vacation. Going to Cape Breton Island is coming home. There is a difference. Today’s post will attempt to illustrate what that difference actually is. It will also show you what role that difference played in causing our daughter to decide upon a university career spent near Maritime water instead of opting for the glass and marble hallowed halls of larger universities found in more metropolitan locales. So on this day, the fourth day of our journey, we bid a fond farewell to Moncton and climbed back into the narrow spaces awaiting us in our car. The time has finally come for us to go home. Cape Breton Island, here we come!!!
“Chi Mi Na Morbheanna” is a Scottish tune written way back in the mid 1800s. It was written to be sung in Gaelic but can also be played instrumentally on the bagpipes. The bagpipe version was performed most recently and famously at the funerals for Queen Elizabeth of England, as well as the late Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney earlier this very year. The vocal version of “Chi Mi Na Morbheanna” was most notably recorded on the debut album by The Rankin Family when they first burst onto the national music scene with their hit song “Fare Thee Well, Love”. The words chi mi na morbheanna roughly translate into English as the mist covered mountains of home. That is where we are headed on this day. The opening verse, translated into English, reads as follows:
I see without delay the land of my birth;
I am welcomed in the language I cherish.
I will receive there hospitality, and love when I reach it
That I’d trade not for tons of gold.
In other words, I am home.
It takes roughly two hours and a bit to make it from Moncton past Truro, Nova Scotia (which is where the turn off to Halifax can be found), to New Glasgow (where Viola Desmond, the Canadian Rosa Parks who adorns our country’s ten dollar bill, made her principled stand against racial injustice), to Antigonish (home of St. Francis Xavier University, where my father earned his degree and where Leah almost ended up attending), all the way to Guysborough, the final stop on the mainland side of Nova Scotia. Across the water from Guysborough lay Cape Breton Island in all of its glory! By the time we reach Guysborough, my mood has become giddy. The water separating Cape Breton Island from the mainland is called the Strait of Canso. The Strait of Canso is home to one of my most special places on earth, the Canso Causeway. For at the far end of this manmade causeway is a green bridge that bears the famous words of welcome to Cape Breton. It is the spot where my wife and I became engaged over twenty plus years ago. It is the very place pictured in the photo that served as the header photo on the first post of this series. To pass under it is to be returned to the mist-covered mountains of my youth. To all of us “from away” it means that we are home. Next to the love of my family, there is no better feeling than that I have experienced in my life than being able to pass under that sign and come home again.
However, to my children, crossing the Canso Causeway has tended to mean something different. In the dozens of times that we have crossed the Causeway as a family, we have never done so with it as our departure point. Whether we have driven from the Halifax airport after having flown in from Toronto or driven from Moncton as we were doing on this day or else, leaving in the other direction from Sydney or Glace Bay, in all cases by the time we reached the Canso Causeway we had been in the car for several hours. Because the girls have traveled to Cape Breton all of their lives, my wife and I have also had to view those journeys in practical parenting terms. This includes building in regular stops along the way for small children to get some fresh air, stretch their legs, have a snack, look around, use the bathroom and so on. If you are a parent you know this drill. We are not immune to the realities of parenting small children while traveling, even at those times when the intoxicating lilt of the Gaelic infused words of “Chi Mi Na Morbheanna” have me wrapped in their warm embrace. So, for that reason, my children have come to associate crossing the Canso Causeway with stopping for ice cream at a nearby Dairy Queen restaurant in neighbouring Port Hawkesbury. Thus, on this fourth day of our shared journey, we found ourselves, once again, sitting at the same table as always, in the same solarium in the land of DQ in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. It is not the healthiest food to eat nor is the restaurant the cleanest we’ve been in but stopping there has become a tradition that has woven itself into the fabric of the feelings my daughters both have of what it means for our family to be on Cape Breton Island. That this tradition has meaning for my daughter Leah became evident before we even left Ontario. As it turned out, Leah had been discussing her upcoming journey with coworkers in the bookstore in which she worked part-time. As part of those discussions, Leah must have mentioned our traditional rest stop in Port Hawkesbury for ice cream because when her final shift was ending and she was presented with a going away/good luck/thank you card from her coworkers, inside of that card was a gift certificate from them for Dairy Queen. Sometimes a photo is just a photo and sometimes it means a little more. The photo accompanying this paragraph is one of those times when it means that little bit more. Thanks to the folks from Furby House Book Store in Port Hope, Ontario for your kindness and guidance to Leah while she was in your employ. Thanks for lunch as well.
The feeling we collectively always have after stopping in Port Hawkesbury is the same today and it has been all throughout the years. We climb back into the car knowing that the next stop is the last stop. When we emerge from the car again, we will be in Sydney and/or Glace Bay (wherever my mother happens to be) and we will be granted a reprieve from the car for a day or two or three while we visit with those we love. By this point in the journey, we will have been traveling together in cramped quarters for almost seventeen or eighteen hours. That is a grind for any family, even one like ours who are still managing to find “The Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey on the radio even here on the island. The only time I heard the sounds of The Rankin Family during our time on Cape Breton Island was when “Chi Mi Na Morbheanna” was playing in my head. Just so ya know.
When you talk to people about Cape Breton Island, one of the things that tends to come up is how breathtaking the scenery can be. Funny thing about that, though. When you cross the Canso Causeway and drive onto the island, you are met almost immediately with a roundabout or a proverbial fork in the road. Drive to the right and you go to Port Hawkesbury, as we did, for ice cream. Drive to the left and you reconnect with the Trans Canada highway which, in turn, takes you all the way to the eastern side of Cape Breton, where Sydney and Glace Bay can be found. However, if you were new to Cape Breton then you would not be wrong to wonder where all the supposed beauty was as you drive for the first hour or so on the Trans Canada. That leg of the trip is driven in conditions that mimic those of New Brunswick. It is all tree-lined mountains and forests. Been there, done that. Tired of doing that. What truly makes the scenery of Cape Breton Island so spectacular is those same tree covered vistas paired with water. Water means everything to those who live on the island. For starters, Cape Breton Island is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Getting off of the Trans Canada highway and going north around the perimeter of the Cape Breton Highlands on a route famously known as The Cabot Trail has provided an unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime experience for many who have gone there. But Cape Breton Island is also blessed by having access to inland water as well. There is a series of lovely blue lakes known as the Bras D’or Lakes or “Arm of Gold”, that provide a view that rivals that of the Cabot Trail. So, to conclude our drive for the day, we built in some time to leave the Trans Canada highway and head inland to a small village called Iona to visit a museum called The Cape Breton Highland Village Museum. Our reason for visiting this museum was that it is a recreation of an authentic Scottish Highland settlement from back in the days when Scottish settlers were establishing new homes after crossing the Atlantic centuries ago. The real reason we were stopping there was because they have Highland cows on site. Leah loves Highland cows. She has collected Highland cow memorabilia all throughout high school and has always wanted to see these cows in person. Since this is the Summer of Leah, we left the highway to come to Iona. But, my word, was it ever worth it! The views were amazing. I am sure that Leah enjoyed seeing her Highland cows but for my money, it is the glorious beauty of the Bras D’or Lakes below the museum that I will always remember. Just check out some of these photos! Wow!
Not long after leaving Iona, we arrived at our hotel in Sydney. Our twenty hour drive had come to an end. The first phase of this family odyssey was over for now. Our plan was to rest that evening in Sydney and then travel to Glace Bay the next day to see my mother and my cousin Morah (who is the daughter of my father’s sister and the only cousin I have on his side of the family). We are tired but we are happy to be out of the car and in familiar surroundings. For me, I am home. We are not at a resort. There are no waterslides or flashing lights. What there is, are people that I love and the natural beauty of the world in which I was raised. That is all that I need. That is the difference between a vacation and coming home. Everything is real for me here on Cape Breton Island. Nothing has been put there for my amusement or my tourist dollars. In the days that follow, I will have hot tea and good conversations. There will be laughter and there will be hugs. Everywhere I look I will see the beauty that our world possesses. Everywhere we go, I will feel my soul restore itself. As I feel this, Leah will feel it, too. The essence of Cape Breton Island flows through her veins, as well. It is a siren song that she felt compelled to answer when she accepted an invitation to come to Nova Scotia for university. She is the reason we find ourselves here after this long drive. I am here because being here is part of who I am. We are all here because of my mother and my cousin…..because of family. The dots assemble themselves in order. We are all connected to things larger than ourselves. On this day, as the salt air brushes my hair back from my forehead, I know that I am home with the ones I love. There is nothing better than that.
I will end this post here for now. I will write a separate post involving Glace Bay and seeing my cousin and mother next time around. Thanks for coming along for the ride so far. Since we are in Cape Breton now, I will close with the words that the door is always open and the kettle is always on. See you all again soon.
The link to the video for the song “Chi Mi Na Morbheanna” by The Rankin Family can be found here. ***The lyrics version, which is a cover NOT sung by the Rankin Family, can be found here. It is by an artist who goes by the stage name of Restless Harp. It is excellent, too.
The link to the official website for The Rankin Family can be found here.
The link to the official website for Cape Breton Island can be found here.
The link to the official website for the Cape Breton Highland Village Museum in Iona can be found here.
The link to the official website for the Dairy Queen restaurant in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia can be found here.
The link to the official website for the very best bookstore in the world, Furby House Books, in Port Hope, Ontario, can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained in this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
That may just be the most heartwarming post you’ve written so far❤️
Thanks. I am all ablush. 🤗