this was one of the many picturesque towns  we visited along nova scotia south shore and  

we had a really fun day walking around  feasting on delicious clams and lobster  

mac and cheese sampling local craft beers  hiking part of the rum runners trail plus a  

few misadventures in between we invite you to  join us for our mahone bay travel guide as we  

share some fun things to do in mahone bay  on a day trip let's hit the road shall we

well good morning good morning everyone greetings  from mahone bay nova scotia canada yeah this is a  

place we've been wanting to visit and you  know what is what like 10 15 minute drive  

from where we're staying in lunenburg yes  yeah very convenient very easy to access we  

are continuing our road trip along nova scotia  south shore and today we're spending the day  

here in mahone bay nova scotia it's a bit of a  windy day but we've got sunshine and this place  

looks so charming yeah the sun is playing peekaboo  all morning it's uh it's either bright like this  

or or a little bit overcast but it looks like it's  going to be an incredible day to explore this town  

there's no rain scheduled so we're very excited  about that and yeah so far our impressions of  

this place is just incredibly charming it's the  most relaxing town you can be at yeah it looks  

very walkable lots of colorful buildings you have  restaurants breweries souvenir shops so yeah we're  

just gonna explore on foot all day we've parked  the car and let's go see what this place is all  

about let's go check it out for anyone driving  into mahone bay on a day trip we noticed a few  

different parking areas along the harbor on main  street and edgewater street we parked right across  

from one of the three churches so naturally  that was our first stop this right here is st  

james anglican church and just a few steps over  you have st john's lutheran church there's also  

trinity united church which we somehow missed and  together these make up the famous three churches  

of mahone bay canada fun fact for many years saint  james's 30 meter steeple was marked on marine  

charts and sailors would line up the steeples  of the three churches as a navigational aid  

so a little bit of history here  right now we are walking along  

what used to be a shipyard this beautiful  coastal area in between these historic churches  

used to be where they built many of the schooners  that were part of lunenburg's fishing fleet  

of course not much of that remains today this is  more of a tourist town nowadays but yeah really  

cool to kind of reminisce and think about the  history this place has in the 1700s mahone bay  

was founded by ephraim cook who saw the bay as a  potential shipbuilding location thanks to its deep  

and narrow channel and sheltered harbor it's  hard to picture today but by the early 1900s  

shipbuilding would have been at its peak in mahone  bay and the waterfront would have been lined with  

shipbuilding wharves today no trace of that  remains safe for a commemorative plaque and an  

info board but you can visit the mahone bay museum  to learn about mahone bay's shipbuilding history  

okay so we have decided to grab an early lunch  somebody's hungry yeah i'm definitely hungry  

it's only it's only like 10 after 11. but  um you know what we've been putting in some  

serious walking uh ever since we've done  this nova scotia trip we we just walk all  

day long we're gonna check out a place i  think it's called oh my cod oh my god yeah  

with the name and with a name like that yeah you  know it's gonna be a good quirky place to check  

out yeah i think we're gonna go for seafood  honestly with a name like that we need to  

get some fish preferably cod if it's on the menu  lunchtime here in mahone bay nova scotia we came  

to oh my god just as we promised and check this  out i got the lobster and shrimp mac and cheese  

extra cheesy check out that thing of beauty  they weren't joking about the lobster show  

that look at that big chunk a little bit closer  for us so we can see but shall we try it yes

so here's the question we've been  having some great mac and cheese lately  

i don't think i could ever go back to  like that instant craft dinner stuff  

after having this that would be so hard this one  is like extra creamy yeah and it tastes like an  

aged cheese and then we have parmesan on top yes  we do and now okay let's try one bite with shrimp  

okay look you've even got some  toast yum buttered piece of bread

this is just so tasty yeah really happy with  it i can't wait to try mine i've got a nice  

looking dish too and what did you get over  there guys check out this mountain of clams  

and chips yeah they're not just any kind of  clams they're the famous digby clams which  

is one of the best places you can get well any  kind of seafood really scallops clams i think  

from the whole province very famous from digby  out on the bay of fundy and yeah we've got a  

just a mountain clams on top chips on the bottom  and we've got a nice tartar sauce over here  

this is the way to have clams yeah i really  love them fried and they're nice and salty  

they're so salty yeah i'm gonna sew about the  tartar sauce like classic classic maritime  

atlantic food here i'm just loving it great lunch  oh ho belly's full belly's very full and very  

happy we just had the best lunch ever let me tell  you that is a life-changing mac and cheese i mean  

to have lobster and shrimp and for it to be that  creamy and that cheesy so good it's amazing like  

that is mac and cheese to die for and also the  the clams and chips were good too that was good  

but going back one more thing about the mac and  cheese yeah that is the top two mac and cheese  

i've had on our travels yeah it is right up there  with the truffle and bone marrow mac and cheese  

we had inside that's high praise those two are  right up there we also got to chat with the owner  

super friendly guy and this is just a beautiful  small town great experience and um we also have a  

recommendation for a good place for dinner yes  we are going to matias bistro yeah but we've  

still got a few hours before we start thinking  about food again so we're actually going to  

drive over to oak island over the causeway and  check that out because there's a lot of stories  

surrounding mystery treasure over there so  we'll tell you more about it when we get there

indeed

okay the funny thing is we're looking  for a business called the worldly gig  

yes and then after we turn on a road i think  it's crammed to go to oak island oh there it is

that's the really good it should be right here  

to give you a bit of context oak island is a 57  hectare privately owned island on nova scotia's  

south shore the island rose to mainstream fame  when the history channel started airing a reality  

tv show called the curse of oak island which  follows a group of modern day treasure hunters  

there are all sorts of theories about what kind of  treasure could be hidden here ranging from pirate  

treasure to the holy grail and marie antoinette's  jewels to money smuggled out of fort louisburg  

some of these theories are a little more out there  than others but all we can really say is that  

the show has a big cult following now for the bad  news our visit to oak island didn't go as planned  

well that was a fun little misadventure so we  got to oak island we know it's a privately owned  

island but supposedly it's open to the public  just like at the tip of it where they have  

an interpretive center and you can learn more  information about the history of the island but  

right now they've got this big red sign that says  oak island is close to visitors no trespassing  

yeah um so so yeah that's the end of it but what  what we can see from here it's beautiful and  

um we got some great views of the water so we  took a few clips of that but that's the end of  

our oak island venture today we're just going to  head back into town yeah supposedly there's also  

boat tours that you can do but they don't go out  every day of the week and you can also do guided  

walking tours but they only release those tickets  a few times a year and they sell out immediately  

because people are really into this treasure right  so anyways um yeah we're just gonna head back into  

town and uh yeah it was a fun little fun little  misadventure this is part of the part of the  

travel experience yeah we'll just spend the rest  of the day in mahone bay that's right after our  

failed attempts at visiting the island we started  driving back to mahone bay and came across the  

rum runners trail the rum runners trail is a 119  kilometer trail that runs along a former rail bed  

and it connects halifax with lunenburg while  passing through hubbard's chester and mahone  

bay the trail gets its name from nova scotia's  prohibition which was enacted from 1921 to 1930.  

during this time bootlegger is also known as rum  runners were the booze suppliers for the illegal  

market and the coastline's proximity to the  railroad made it an ideal route for rum running  

so we are now going in a little afternoon hike  we're walking part of the rum runners trail you  

can also bike this trail and yeah it's just a  really nice trail wooded shaded if we had a bit  

more time i would totally bike this to halifax  and this particular stretch is just beautifully  

maintained the trail is just you could tell  that it's been flat in it there's no big  

rocks or anything i mean this looks this looks  like a manicure garden almost more than i know

we also enjoyed a drive through oakland  which sits directly across from mahon bay  

here we found a nice little beach to walk along

so we were really looking forward to visiting  the mahone bay museum however we didn't realize  

it's open by appointment only if you want  to arrange a visit you can message them on  

their facebook page or send them an email  through their website but remember you must  

do so at least 24 hours in advance so one of the  volunteers can be on site the museum has excellent  

reviews and most of the comments mentioned how  informative and friendly the guides are so if  

you want to have a good chat about mahone based  shipbuilding pass this is a good place to go

next up we made our way to saltbox brewing  company to sample some of their local craft beers

it is beer o'clock it is the sun is out in for  full force at this point it was a little chilly  

earlier on i'm actually only wearing this  flannel because it's protecting my arms from  

the direct sunlight poor red hair but anyways  we've got a nice selection of beers and cider  

four beers one cider and i'm just gonna  try them all for you and where are we of  

course we're at salt box brewing one of the  most uh famous attractions here in town and  

a beautiful spot to be hanging out on a late  summer day yeah for those of you who like to  

drink beer come on down yeah this is the place  all right guys first off is a very unique beer  

it is a lobster ale crustacean elation that  sounds like something i would call a beer i love  

i love things that rhyme tongue twisters and it's  coming in at 5.5 percent so let's give that a shot

that's a nice refreshing beer good for the summer  

i can't see i taste too much lobster in there  that's probably a good thing it's probably a  

good thing the next one is actually mine if  you want to have a sipper is that your cider  

yes apple cider girling apple cider sterling apple  cider and this is audrey loves her cider so i do  

by having a sip i'm depriving her of a  little bit of it i feel bad but not too bad  

that's an interesting cider that's got a bit of  a i mean i taste the apple but it's got a little  

bit of a mint aftertaste um definitely prefer the  beer but i think you'll like that one a lot okay  

let's move on to this is a sour one this is called  the sour rhubarb and it's supposed to be citrusy  

tropical and tart so this sounds really good  this is one of their most popular summer beers  

very citrusy everything's been so unique so far  i've been i've been surprised by the diversity and  

variety so next up is the make and break a double  ipa this is the strongest beer coming in at 7.5

okay i like this one a lot i love the  grapefruity aftertaste to it it doesn't  

taste as strong as you'd think at 7.5 you know  out of the four this is my favorite one so far  

but that's probably gonna change  because i i do love my stouts  

last but not least we have the ragin cajun and it  is a stow aged in a bourbon barrel that's so cool

oh that is good it tastes like gingerbread  to me this one has some kind of a bit of  

bite to it a little bit of spice to it i love this  brewery there's so many um so many great flavors  

here and one more thing to mention you can do a  flight of three or you can do a flight of eight  

right so we're doing five you got all kinds of  variety and all kinds i mean have eight if you're  

thirsty enough you know and then after all that  beer and cider we walked over to the barn this is  

a really cool coffee shop in mahone bay and our  favorite part was their secret garden outback

so we've gone from the brewery over to the coffee  shop this is a place that was recommended to us  

today the barn for tea and coffee i actually  went for tea i'm having a london fog some earl  

grey tea with milk i have a cappuccino and i've  got to say it's a great location outside and also  

very artsy inside a great place to enjoy  your coffee and and tasty bite inside too  

cinnamon roll the glaze looking very  good take a big bite of that one

cinnamon buds are good that's got some  really nice cinnamon swirls inside  

that's how it is done i'm really interested to  hear about the energy but has some really cool  

cool ingredients for sure peanut butter  pumpkin seeds chia seeds cranberries coconut  

all over the exterior the everything ball does  it taste more dessert like or healthy i'd say  

relatively healthy but very good very good yeah  you could feed it to a non-health enthusiast  

also i don't think i've had a chance to show you  guys the shirt i got yesterday i'm really excited  

about this one so it's a collaboration between  east coast lifestyle from a brand from out here