I have always wanted to travel to Nova Scotia and visit the East Coast, but never got around to it until Laura & Stephen asked me to photograph their wedding near Peggy’s Cove at the Oceanstone Seaside Resort.  Of course I’ll share those amazing photos and stories later, but first I thought I’d share my take on Peggy’s Cove.

I was going to blog my whole trip and photos, but that would make this post way too huge….

So let’s start with my first couple of days at Peggy’s Cove:

My stay at the Oceanstone Resort was so SPEC-TAC-U-LAR that I booked an extra night after the wedding to show Shaun around (He arrived later and I knew he’d love it as much as I did, in fact we ended up spending Canada Day on the beach there eating pizza and enjoying a bottle of wine… or two.)

If you ever end up staying at the Oceanstone Resort, here’s a few tips:

–  The Rubarb Restaurant at the entrance is good, but a bit on the pricy side for breakfast ($10 for bacon and eggs), but has delicious coffee!
-  If you stay in the guest house at Oceanstone, be sure to locate the kitchen and help yourself to coffee, tea or hot chocolate – all are delicious via the magical Keurig machine! There’s also a fridge (label your drinks before you put them in there!) and toaster should you need it.
-  Be sure to locate the binder of information that Oceanstone provides and read the story of how it came to be, it’s an amazing story and is the perfect example of the kind of people that are on the East Coast.
-  Grab a pizza from PizzaTown for dinner, it’s tasty and only 20-ish min away.  Bring it back to the Resort and eat it on the beach (be sure to take your trash with you)!
-  The liquor store (NSLC) is near the PizzaTown and connected to a Sobey’s, another reason to make the pit stop
-  Although the rooms seem small, it won’t matter because you’re outside exploring 85% of the time you’re there, 10% in front of an outdoor fire pit at night (whether on the beach or at the main building) and the last 5% of the time, you’re sleeping.
-  Peggy’s Cove and the SwissAir 111 Memorial Site are a 10 min drive max and totally worth checking out first thing in the morning when the tourists are still in bed.

The first morning I woke up there, it was a foggy 5:00am (4:00am in Ontario) morning and I tossed on my jeans, runners and a heavy sweater and headed to Peggy’s Cove to capture the sunrise.  I obviously don’t know much about the East Coast because if it’s foggy at 5:00am, it’s going to be foggy at sunrise an hour later. (duh!) However! Not a bad thing! No one ended up being out there and it was just me and Peggy chillin’ out in the fog taking photos.  A memory I will cherish for a very very long time.

These photos of the foggy morning at Peggy’s Cove are some of my favourites of the trip (besides the wedding of course!)

I have to say that this series contains some of the more calmer moments I’ve ever photographed.  Being out there in the fog alone capturing the real Peggy’s Cove was not only a lot of fun, but it taught me that sometimes I’m going to have to get up at 5:00am, toss on some runners and a sweater and get outside for fresh inspiration.  I mean, I have a whole new respect for people like Peter Lik and how he captures those natural moments when everyone else is in bed asleep.  There’s something really great about being the only person out there watching life play out, especially in a tourist spot.

Also, there are more Nova Scotia photos to come and they’ll be more colourful, so stay tuned!