Digby Neck is a peninsula extending into the Bay of Fundy. Along with Long Island and Brier Island, it forms the northwest shore of St. Mary’s Bay. On Long Island, we hiked the 1.5 mile trail and descended 235-steps to the viewing platform for Balancing Rock, a narrow 30 foot tall vertical column of basalt, balanced on its tip. It was only a matter of minutes before the kids figured out a way off the platform and up to the rock formation for a closer look. A second short ferry ride carried us to Brier Island where our exploration and another short hike took us to a seal colony on the Bay of Fundy side. Jeanine was hoping to find seals all vacation long and it was wonderful to satisfy that desire on our last full day in Nova Scotia. The colony included some two dozen seals with several pups.

On our return to Beaver Lake, we paused in Annapolis Royal. It was the French settlement of Port Royal (briefly Charlesfort) until the Conquest of Acadia in 1710 by Britain. The town was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for almost 150 years, until the founding of Halifax in 1749. It was attacked by the British six times before permanently changing hands after the Conquest of Acadia in 1710. Over the next fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital. Our tour of Fort Anne and its dry moats helped us to understand why it was able to resist so many attacks. Our visit to Annapolis also included a brief tour of North America’s only tidal power station and a visit to Ye Olde Town Pub, allegedly the smallest pub in Nova Scotia. Here we sampled Rapee Pie, quite possibly my new favorite food in the world.