Our Summer Vacation (Part 8)

Leaving Digby, Marilyn and I motored on to Yarmouth. The trip was uneventful, and all in all, a pleasant drive.  Arriving in the town of Yarmouth we went directly to the restaurant where we had arranged to meet Marilyn’s school chum Helen and her son Evan for supper.  We figured it would be best to be sure of parking nearby and then we could kill the time we had with a bit of local sight seeing.

The ferry from Portland Maine, known as the CAT, which is short for catamaran, was in dock, so the traffic was quite heavy on the local streets.  However, we found a parking spot directly across the street from Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant and Brew Pub.  We later found out they had a large customer parking lot of their own with plenty of room, so parking wasn’t a problem.

(Click on any photo to see an enlargement)

The CAT in dock in Yarmouth, NS

We walked around the local streets, investigating a couple of art galleries and some craft shops.  The prices seemed a bit high on most things but then that’s typical in an area with a relatively high tourist traffic.

Mural on a local coal shed.

An example of local stone construction.

A fishing boat next to the ice loader.

Lots of boats but this one seemed especially tough.

Getting close to time for our supper date we wandered into a small shop selling leather items.  It turned out to be run by a young fellow who had taken over the shop from his mother, who still supplied some of the leather items that were on display.

The outside view of the leather shop. Owner told us all these works of art were created with rope.

I bought a small leather sheath to hold my utility knife on my belt when doing renovation projects around the house.  Having just spent several days shingling the roof at home this item would certainly have come in handy a few days earlier.  Oh well, I’ll have it for next time.

By now it was nearing 5:00 so we decided to head on in to Rudder’s Restaurant and find ourselves a table.  Rudder’s Seafood Restaurant & Brew Pub is located in the former Parker-Eakin’s Building which was built in 1867 as part of Young’s Wharf for John Young. The building was used as offices and a store for the firm of Young, Kinney & Corning until 1874 when it was leased to Parker, Eakins & Company who purchased the property in 1877.

Rudder's also has a seafood outlet in an old streetcar on the waterfront in case you want to walk around and eat.

Helen and Evan soon arrived,  having spent the day at their jobs with the local Canadian Tire store.  The prices weren’t too bad and the food was excellent.  Service was a bit slow but it was supper hour after all.  Our waiter, Cliff, was new on the job I think, or not very knowledgeable about his place of employment.  At one point I asked him if they had any ales on the menu as I can’t drink lager. Don’t ask me why, it has something to do with the brew process.  Lager gives me a headache, ale doesn’t,  Go figger. I know I’m weird.

Anyway, Cliff was pretty sure they had no ales, and went on his merry way.  I proceeded to read the menu, which I should have done in the first place.  It turns out that Rudder’s brews 5 different types of beer on premises, all of them ales.   Of course I couldn’t help rubbing it in a bit when Cliff came back.  He took it good naturedly.

After an enjoyable meal Helen invited us out to their place for a visit and to camp in their driveway if we so desired. We graciously accepted as it meant not having to search out a camping site.  Helen and Evan live in the community of  Arcadia, a few miles south east of Yarmouth.

Evan and Helen and Marilyn just before the mosquitoes carried us away.

Well in the next few hours Helen and Marilyn discussed every fellow student, teacher, and principal they had both known during their school years.  Evan and I stood by and kept track of the casualties.  Yearbooks came out of nowhere, and brain cells got quite a workout, stretching back over the almost 40 years since these school chums had last layed eyes on one another.  We indulged ourselves in the coconut cream pie we’d brought from the restaurant, since we hadn’t had room to eat it there.  The coffee flowed and the memories started piling up in drifts on the carpet.

All too soon we had to call it a night, as Helen had to work at Canadian Tire in the morning.  Evan was the lucky one who could sleep in, as his shift didn’t start till noon.  We said our goodnights and packed ourselves off to our caravan in the driveway with warnings to Helen not to wake us when she left for work.  No point in all of us being miserable.

Somehow we managed not to get any of those giant starving mosquitoes in the van with us. Thank heaven for small favors.  The next morning we went in for breakfast with Evan and then headed back into Yarmouth to see what we could see.  More about what we saw in the next installment.

Sphere: Related Content