Where to begin. It was one of those rare perfect days where the stars seemed to align.
We snoozed our way into Lunenburg, about 90 minutes bus ride from where we are staying. Lunenburg is famous for having been settled in the 1700’s by German farmers, who became world famous for their wooden boat-building expertise.
We got off the buses and (insert fanfare music here) there at the dock, was the Bluenose II, the schooner that is a remake of the original pictured on our Canadian dime. BTW, it is the only icon on our coin currency that is made by human hands. Factoid.
Into the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic we went- we were the first tour group of the season for them- it was their opening day. A gorgeous deep blue, cloudless sky served as backdrop for the colourful seaside Victorian era homes and bay. The museum was great. Our group began in the “aquarium” area where tanks of Atlantic cod and huge salmon swam around. Our guide whipped out a big lobster, and showed us how to tell if lobsters are male or female. Get this: you rub its head to calm it down, flip it over and stroke it’s little swimmerettes. If they are feathery, its female, and hard ones mean male. ahem. Our lobster friend turned out to be female, and the kids immediately named her Shelly. hahaha
We learned about the lobster life cycle- I had no idea that the lobsters you see in the grocery stores are between 10-15 years old, (they grow a pound in 7 years) and that there is about one lobster per km on the sea floor, because they are so territorial. And there are BLUE lobsters- rare- but they exist. These are blue from a diet heavy in squid.
Did you know that lobsters molt? Imagine the ENTIRE shell- even the shell eyeball covers- crack open and the “meat” slides out, and hides under a rock until the new larger shell grows back.
I am just getting warmed up here with the stories… but it has started to rain on my laptop and we have to be at the church for our morning performance this Sunday morning… so I must sign off for now.
Cheers,
~DC