Happy National Acadian Day!

Surveying my Kingdom along the Acadian Trail!

Little did we know that when we planned this journey we'd be in an Acadian village on National Acadian Day, but here we are!  We're in Cheticamp which is described as a "traditional Acadian fishing village located on the Cabot Trail".  The village has about 3,000 permanent residents.  I'm not sure how many of them are of Acadian descent but the majority of street signs and advertisements are in French.
https://www.cheticamp.ca/en/
National Acadian day is on August 15 every year and is a day set aside in Canada to celebrate the French culture and their influence in Canada.  I think the amount of recognition the day gets depends on where you are in the country. There may not be much recognition in places like Vancouver but it's a big deal here.  There is a parade down the main street followed by a festival in the village market this evening.  We enjoy these local celebrations so I'm pretty sure we'll at least stop by for a few minutes.  It's fun to see how much pride communities have in their history and culture.  I think this will be a good one.
While in Chetticamp we've enjoyed a couple of  hikes in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  Yesterday we did the Skyline Trail.  This was a fairly flat 4 mile out and back trail.  The turnaround point was at the end of a boardwalk overlooking the Gulf of St Lawrence.  There was a brisk breeze coming off the water that made it pleasant even though it was one of the warmer days we've had since we arrived in Canada.  We went to a local restaurant last night that featured "authentic Acadian music".  Not being an expert on Acadian music I can't vouch for the authenticity of the music. It was three guys playing guitars and singing (sometimes in both English and French).  At times it had a Cajun feel so I was convinced it was authentic.  They were fun to listen to and it would have been nice if the food would have come close to matching their talent.
http://www.novascotia.com/see-do/trails/skyline-trail-cape-breton-highlands-national-park/6176
Today's hike was a little more ambitious.  It was the Acadian Trail (appropriate for the day) and it was also in the national park.  This trail was a little over 5 miles in length with an elevation gain of around 1100 feet before reaching the overlook at the top.  We were rewarded for our efforts with another great view for our picnic lunch.  As an added bonus there were wild blueberries growing all along the trail near the top.  We could have quickly picked a pint, quart or gallon but instead opted to just occasionally reach down and pluck a few.  Now that's about as fresh as you can get!
http://www.your-nova-scotia-holiday.com/acadian-trail.html

Cheticamp Beach

The top of the Skyline Trail-Gulf of St Lawrence in the background (along with some guys head)



Skyline Trail Boardwalk

Skyline Trail Board Walk-There are more people in the background of this picture than we saw on the entire hike on the Acadian Trail

Guess who is in the chair?  The Canadian National Park Service has placed red chairs like this at scenic locations in many of the parks.  Unfortunately on the Acadian Trail they only put one chair and she beat me to it!

Mountain stream along the Acadian Trail