Fort Louisbourg

 A highlight of the trip to Cape Breton had to be the day we spent at Fort Louisbourg, an 18th century fortress that spanned the French-British struggle for supremacy in North America.  It was well fortified from the water,

(although they probably should have had some bigger artillery men)

 but not so much from overland.  It was leveled twice in its functional period, and has now been partially rebuilt as a living museum where we spent a fantastic day learning more about that period of history and how it played out in this area of Canada.

I know, we homeschoolers have strange ideas about what constitutes a fun vacation...

We entered at the gate where we were told to leave our "Canon" outside.

View of the waterfront of the fortress

cookie break--thanks Nan!

This fife and drum corps marched around the fortress several times in the afternoon, and sounded remarkably good!  I love these back-in-time visits, where we get a (very) little idea of what life was like.  I often wonder what it would have been like to live at this time period.  Life must have been very difficult--at least for many people the struggle to survive was all encompassing, yet I wonder if in some ways it wasn't a simpler time as well?