Just to review our trip so far, we crossed over from Maine to Yarmouth in early July, cruised our way up the coast stopping in various places, and have been in the Bras d'Or Lake (hard to see on this image) in Cape Breton - the northern island - for the past few weeks.  Baddeck is the northernmost point we've gone with the boat, but from there we rented a car and explored the Cabot Trail which circles much of the island, hiking and exploring.  Fabulous!!

We have been in St. Peters, at the southern end of the Bras d'Or Lake in Cape Breton for over a week, waiting for the weather to settle so we can start heading south. St. Peters is a lovely town and the site of the tidal lock at the south end of the Lake.  Unrelated to Hurricane Irene, the winds have been strong and the seas ugly all week so we really couldn't comfortably head south.  When in Rome... so we started paying more attention to the bulletin boards in town to take advantage of all the wonderful live music here in Cape Breton.  The culture up here is different from the rest of Nova Scotia, and music and the Celtic style reign supreme.

We've been to Ceilidhs (pronounced "kaylees") - a type of local Celtic style informal concert with fiddle and accompaniment. 

Here in St. Peters, we found the regular Monday night Family Square Dance at a local church hall.  We were hesitant about going, but the people were so friendly...  After watching the dancing for a little bit, we were dragged out onto the dance floor to do-si-do with the locals, who couldn't have been nicer or more fun.  

Afterwards we walked down to the Inn for more live music, and some of the people from the dance were there - greeting us like old friends.  We went to a jam session at the tavern the next night, met some new and some familiar faces, and enjoyed more live music at the Inn again later on.  St. Peters has a grocery store, liquor, hardware, post office, and the nicest marina around - everywhere people are just so amazingly kind and helpful.  Some folks from the square dance have come by the lock wall to see our boats and say hello (it's a Parks Canada site and a popular place for people to come and have lunch by the water or to fish off the wall).