Baddeck, a Ceiledh, and a lot you didn't know about Alexander Graham Bell

Sunday, September 9
We spent the morning doing some much needed maintenance.

First my camera needed some attention. If you look closely the pictures I have posted had a small dark spot just left of center. It was a speck on the sensor in the camera. This is tricky to clean as you need to raise the mirror and use a special cleaning tool for the sensor. Thankfully I had such a tool and have never needed to use it until now. I managed to clean the speck off and now have cleaner pictures!

Second, I had two LED lights that had failed. Actually it wasn't the LED but a switch in one case and a solder connection in the other. By installing one new fixture, which I had on hand, and fixing two others I was able to again give us full lights everywhere.....for now. I just know some of the other lights are going to give me trouble so I need to order some more and have them shipped to a campground when we will be staying put for a week or so.

Next stop for us was the town of Baddeck which is only a few miles from our campground. As luck would have it our friends Steve and Dianne (Living the Dream) were staying a half hour or so away. We decided to meet for lunch in Baddeck. It was fun to catch up with them. We first met near Lake Powell, AZ last November and have crossed paths a few times since. Hard to believe we would meet them here in Cape Breton nearly a year later! So we swapped some stories and shared some plans and they headed back to their campground.

From left: Steve, Cheryl, Dianne, me.

The beautiful Baddeck Lighthouse

Here's where we ate lunch. It was called 'The Shed' and was right on the warf. 

This is where the Ceiledh was held. (see notes below). The small hall held about 100 people.

Pretty church in Baddeck.

We hung out in Baddeck for a while. We headed over to the Alexander Graham Bell museum and started to look through their exhibits. It was getting late in the day and decided to come back the next day instead of rushing.

Next we stopped and bought some tickets to a Ceiledh (pronounced Kay-lee). Ceiledh is a Gaelic word meaning 'gathering'. These are very popular on Cape Breton and you can go to one somewhere every night if you wanted. There is always a fiddler, and usually a guitar player and of course some singing and toe tapping. Our Ceildeh had a very talented guitar player and singer, Buddy MacDonald and a young fiddler, Donna-Marie. They played two hours with only one short break. Very entertaining evening. Buddy had some CD's for sale.....and yes we bought one!

From left: Buddy MacDonald, Donna-Marie, and Nancy the organizer.

Monday, September 10
We headed back to Baddeck today. We wanted to finish looking through the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.....but first, we decided to take a little cruise around the harbour in a sailing ship, the Amoeba.

The Amoeba was built in 1977 by the current owners father. A very nice boat. She's been to the Caribbean four times. 

Raising the sails.

It was a great sailing day.

Clear skies and just enough breeze to fill the sails.

Most of the trip was along the peninsula of Beinn Bhreagh, owned by the Bell family, on Bras d'or Lake. Shown here is the boathouse. 

Another of the homes of Bell's descendants who still occupy their summer homes on Beinn Bhreagh.

So on our sailing excursion, the Captain starts calling to two bald eagles. He always feeds them frozen chicken so when he starts calling they come. (not sure of the ethics behind this though.)

Here he is swooping in for the frozen chicken piece floating on the water.

Got it! He's off to his nest with a tasty breakfast.

The Beinn Bhreagh estate of Alexander Graham Bell. Built in roughly 1885. Still maintained by the Bell family. It is closed to visitors.

Lots of happy sailors, most with cameras.

The harbour at Baddeck.

Boats of all sizes......and costs.

Book inside the cabin. 'Sailing with Dummies'. Appropriate!

The Amoeba sailing in Baddeck Harbour

After our boat ride it was off to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, managed by Parks Canada. Bell was from Scotland who was a naturalized American who invented the telephone. He hated living in Washington and after visiting the Baddeck area purchased some property and built a home. He spent a lot of time here and found he could be quite productive pursuing his inventions without the distractions of Washington. He refused to have a telephone anywhere near him!

From the grounds of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.

Bell was constantly tinkering and inventing things. He had many interests from flying to hydrofoil boats, water purification, kites and phonographs among many others.

He met his future wife, Mabel Hubbard at a school for the deaf. She was his student. His profession was as teacher for the deaf and through this work he got the idea for the telephone.

He has an incredible story and you can learn more here.

Solar still that distilled sea water into drinkable water. Powered by the sun.

Paddle wheel model. He built a bicycle for the water.

Part of his distilled water experiments.

Bell built and flew many large kites in order to perfect a flying wing. Some kites were large enough to lift a man off the ground.

Replica of the Silver Dart. (we saw the original in the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa a couple of months ago) Bell flew the Dart off the ice of Bras d'Or Lake and became the first flight in Canada (1909).

Bell was proud of his work on hydrofoil boats. The HD-4 shown here (this is a life-size model) set a world speed record on Bras d'Or Lake (1919).

The hydrofoils are basically flying wings for the water.

The HD-4 was powered by aircraft engines and propellers. 

Inside the original HD-4. It was salvaged from a beach.

The HD-4

The HD-4 hydrofoils

Baddeck is a beautiful town with lots to do and certainly worth a visit. We really enjoyed our time here and have to say this town is the most attractive in terms of beauty and things to do in Cape Breton.

The view from the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site.

.....and that was Our View From Here!