Willliam Coaker was a visionary, activist, labor leader, businessman, publisher, and politician. He established the newspaper, and was knighted for his achievements. Port Union was founded in l9l6 and grew quickly to be a successful industrial and commercial centre. In its heyday, about 600 people lived here and worked in a variety of business - shipbuilding, seal processing, woodworking, salt fish exporting, printing, soft drink bottling, and so on. Above are pictures of where some of the employees lived. The bottom picture is of a printing machine that still works. It is not used, but still works. The "President Coaker" (model of the schooner) on its maiden voyage left Port Union in l923 with a load of dried fish for Brazil. She had a crew of 6 men. On her return, she ran aground and was completely destroyed. All the crew were lost at sea. I just thought this was such a sad story.
Pictures of various buildings in our travels. We stopped and had lunch at Two Whales. Vegan soup and sandwiches – very good. There are quite a few new houses, such as this red one, going up here in the Maritimes. Not quite sure what these people do here, but whatever it is, they are doing well. Have a good view as well. Lighthouses all along the coast – some in better shape than others, churches in every community and the little red building by the water, well I have no idea what it is but thought it was interesting.
We were told about the Skerwink Trail so we decided to check it out and take a nice little walk along the coast. It was the most beautiful area we’ve ever walked in as you can see by the many pictures.
Patty, Bruce and I walked the 5.3 km and the weather was perfect, sunny and breezy. Sometimes darn windy. I look like a wild woman but the view was breath taking. They actually had park benches but sure don't know how they got them up here.
I can’t believe I got this photo of the whale. We saw several spouts but with the water glistening, I couldn’t see very well so I just clicked away and got lucky. The trail was so pretty along the coast as well as in the trees.
More pictures - sorry, but it was so pretty. No matter where we were, there was another photo-op. Middle picture shows you some of the steps that we had to take - of course, they were very uneven.
At Two Whales, Bruce found an article in the newspaper about this guy that built his own sailboat and after three years launched it. We took a ride to see it and met Henry, the builder. He was a sweet little ol’ man. The boat is named for his Granddaughter and deceased wife. His entire family was there for the launching two weeks ago. He let us go on it and check it out – pretty cool stuff.
We were invited for a traditional dinner by the women in Port Union. Had some interesting but very good food using moose meat. I was a little skeptical but ended up going back for seconds for the meat as did everyone else. We were also “Screeched”. (Similar to when we were “Hyderized” in Hyder , Alaska.) Only this time, we put on fishermen’s jackets, took a shot of rum and kissed a fish. The rum was very good, but could have done w/o kissing the fish. It was all in good fun followed by music and dancing. In Hyder, we drank a shot of whiskey that burned all the way down.
The guy in the colonial costume, is the owner of the park where we are staying. He is just a jack of all trades.
A lot of us were given old fashioned instruments to play. Gordon and Chris are having a great time stomping w/their little gal as well as Wayne. With music, there is always dancing. Finally, the sunset on our day and it was time to leave.
We left a little early as I had to find a café to do my blog. We didn’t get back until after l0 at which time I started all over with going through the pictures and creating collages.
Picture of the Day!
Of course, it had to be from our hike with perfectly blue skies and water.
Hope you all had a beautiful day as well.
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