A Fall Hike at Cape Split, Nova Scotia: Blogger Adventures, Beautiful Views + Cozy Vibes

I don’t usually post on the weekends, but I woke up in the middle of the night and could not get back to sleep, so I’m choosing to take that as a sign there is no time to waste! What self-respecting blogger could sit (or sleep) any longer on a trip recap featuring a three-way blogger meet-up??

Fun fact: I am fairly certain (though I can’t actually verify this since my original blog was deleted several years ago) that my very first blog comment came from SHU on a post I wrote about Peggy’s Cove. It said something to the effect of: “These pictures are gorgeous. I want to visit Peggy’s Cove some day, but I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t know where Nova Scotia is.“

Well, she had come to the right place because I am a bit of a Nova Scotia evangelist and in the interim have written…a lot about Nova Scotia! (Now that bloggers have actually started to come to visit, I always feel a bit of trepidation that I’ve “oversold” the province, but I think so far Kae and SHU are feeling pretty wowed.)

Fast forward to January 29th 2025, when Kae, SHU, and I started a WhatsApp group called Nova Scotia 2025!!!

What began as a single blog comment/dream was turning into reality. Eventually, after months of planning, the day arrived!

DAY ONE: ARRIVAL + SETTLING IN

Because of various logistics, Kae arrived two days before SHU. (Here’s her recap of Day One!)

It was a half-day of school for both kids. As soon as Indy arrived home, we packed up and headed to the airport. He gathered his pillow desk, blank paper, and drawing/colouring implements, and spent the whole time drawing figures from Minecraft — while listening to music with me, of course, and occasionally lifting his head to look out the window and spot nice cars.

Imagine his DELIGHT when we arrived at the airport and spotted a big group of Porsches. Once we were parked, he insisted on borrowing my phone and running back to a vantage point where he could take a picture.

He might have been excited to spot fancy cars, but I was excited to spot this particular lady!!!!

Conversation flowed easily on the drive home. Kae snapped pictures of the fall foliage and kept commenting on how much SHU was going to love the leaves (more of a novelty for a Floridian than for someone from Wisconsin).

Before I knew it, we’d turned off the highway at our local exit. On a complete whim, I decided to drop by the Horton Deportation Cross.

During the Acadian expulsion from the local area in 1755, this is believed to be the spot where the British forcibly loaded the French settlers onto ships bound for American colonies, Europe and the Caribbean. (Many ended up in Louisiana, and their descendants became known as Cajuns.)

The clouds were ominous (we didn’t end up getting rain until early evening), but they didn’t impact the great views.

The cross is at the end of a farm lane, and we couldn’t resist going to say hello to the nearby dairy cows.

The next stop was my place. Kae settled into her room, we chatted for an hour or so in the living room, had supper (butternut squash soup and biscuits), and then the evening chauffeuring adventures could begin.

Belle needed to get to her church youth group early, so we dropped her off and sat talking in the parking lot until it was time for Indy to go into his program.

Then we drove to a local thrift store and waited out the rain in the car, filling the time with deep conversation (aka: unbloggable stuff). Once we were feeling brave, we raced through the rain and wandered through my favourite thrift store. I walked out with a puffer coat for Indy. He managed to lose not one, but TWO, puffer coats at school last year. *Me screaming into void*

I feel like puffer coats are designed for in-between weather, which means he needs it when he goes to school, but it’s warm enough in the afternoon that he doesn’t realize he’s left it behind.

This meme sums it up:

With the temperatures taking a dive, I knew he needed a puffer coat, but it’s not nearly cold enough for his winter gear (he has multiple winter coats). But this post is not about my son’s forgetfulness, so moving on…

One more thrifty stop — I saw this mug and had to take a picture and send it to my sister — and then we headed back to pick up Indy, who finishes quite a while before Belle. I had hummed and hawed about what to do next, but we headed to the grocery store and bought MORE FOOD. It feels like all I do is grocery shop these days.

We rounded out the evening by waiting for Belle who’s small group ran long. But it was a great opportunity for Kae to get a glimpse into our church community.

I was pretty tuckered by the time I got home, but after getting the kids settled, it was a delight to sit on the couch and hang out with Kae for an hour.

Then, bedtime. We had a busy next day ahead of us.

DAY TWO: CAPE SPLIT + COZY VIBES

After weeks (months!) of record-breaking heat and dry conditions, the temperatures started to cool SIGNIFICANTLY. I saw the kids safely off to school, and then loaded up a day pack with snacks and water and we headed to Cape Split.

(If things looked familiar to me, it’s because I walked with same trail with Birchie a few weeks ago!)

En route to the trailhead, we stopped at the Valley Lookoff. The sun was at a weird angle so pictures don’t do the beauty of this scene justice.

And then we were off. It was feeling very brisk, but within a few minutes we were unzipping coats and vests. Walking and talking generates a lot of body heat!

The trail was beautiful. Despite the rain, nothing was muddy (a big relief!), and we did not stop talking the entirety of the walk. I can’t remember everything we talked about, so I’ll let the pictures tell most of this story…

Because conversation flowed so easily, it felt like no time until we reached the penultimate view! We were at the Cape.

As usual, it was windy. There is a primal instinct that kicks in when you’re close to a cliff edge and the wind is blowing, so we were extra careful with our chosen paths and never got too close to the edge. (A few times we even knelt down to lower our center of gravity.)

I love this picture of Kae, and it offers a great perspective of the ruggedness of the cliff topography.

All that walking and talking had worked up an appetite, so we found a sheltered little nook just off the trail and enjoyed a few snacks. (The hit for Kae were these Energy Balls, which I suspect were extra delicious since they were made with local Nova Scotia honey.)

After a little break and caloric refresh, we headed back from whence we came. The return trip is mostly downhill, so it was an easier trek back to the car. We started working through the 36 Questions (it’s a blogger tradition at this point), and the main delay to our progress was frequent stops to take pictures of the foliage. The trail was absolutely gorgeous.

A respectable 12.94 km walk! I very easily ticked my Cool Bloggers Walking Club box for the day.

We moseyed back toward my place, stopping in at The Church Brewing Company for a quick bowl of local seafood chowder with a salted garlic twist (they called it a pretzel, but I do not think it at all resembled the texture or aesthetic of a pretzel). Regardless, it was delicious.

Kae kept commenting on how much Ivan and her dad would love this craft beer vibe. And on an overcast, chilly October day, it was feeling extra cozy.

We made a quick stop by the Wolfville sign, mostly so I could point out the tide differential (stay tuned: in the next post I’ll do a side-by-side comparison).

And then we came home and my place became a revolving door for various kids and their playdates. At one point I had to drive to pick Belle up from time spent with friends, so I dropped Kae off at her accommodations to get settled in.

And then we all came back to my house start supper. Kae helped prepare a smoked salmon risotto, I hit the easy button and boiled up frozen peas, finished off the various veggies needing to be used up in the fridge by tossing them into a salad…and that was supper! I don’t feel like the picture makes it look very appetizing, but it was yummy.

For dessert, I made…lavaless lava cakes. Oops. We were talking in the living room and I ignored the timer. Oh well. Instead of lava we ended up with slightly gooey peanut butter chocolate cakes instead.

We spent a few hours hanging out in the living room (Belle is just out of view on the couch) and tackled more of the 36 Questions. For me, this was the highlight of the visit so far. It felt cozy and relaxed and despite knowing so much about each other from reading blogs, there is an added layer of intimacy when you’re sitting in the same living room.

Before I knew it, it was time to take Kae to her local inn (she only stayed with us one night). We needed a good sleep because our next big adventure was SHU’s arrival and a trip Peggy’s Cove. (If you want some spoilers, here’s SHU’s recap of that day.)

It is now 5:00 am and since we have big plans for the day ahead (anyone sensing a theme?), I’m going to mosey back to bed and cross all my appendages that I can get to sleep for a while.

Stay tuned for more recaps in the coming days, and I’ll see you back here tomorrow for a very photo-heavy Cool Bloggers Walking Club Week 1 Recap!!!

• Okay, who’s ready to book their plane ticket to Nova Scotia??