January 2013: As we unloaded suitcases from our rent-a-car into yet another

overnight stop in a stunning location on the other side of the planet, we hailed a

“good morning” to an elderly gentleman outside the next cottage.

“Where ya from?” he countered.

“Canada,” we said. “You?”

“New Yak,” he responded in a familiar twang. “What part of Canada?”

“East Coast,” we said. “We’re neighbours.”

 

“Haven’t been up there in a few years,” he said. “Is it still beautiful?”

August 2012: We waited as visiting relatives performed a photo-op atop The Lookoff

in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. A middle-aged couple were doing the same

outside their SUV bearing Ontario plates.

“You’re so lucky to live in such a beautiful place,” the woman spontaneously

volunteered. “It’s just fabulous here. We’re loving it.”

July 2010: Friends from the Cotswolds (the most scenically and historically serene

area of England) came to visit and toured the region on their own by car.

“We loved it,” they gushed upon their return. “We could move here. What a great

place.”

“But you already live in a beautiful place,” we responded. “We love where you

live, all those villages…”

“Yes, but it’s the people here,” they said. “They’re so relaxed and friendly

everywhere. Nothing’s any trouble. We’ve lost that in England.”

And so it goes; it’s just so easy to take for granted what you have.

We are, as this is being written, editing Saltscapes’ 2013 Food and Travel guide that

you will receive in a few weeks—story after story after story (usually about 25 per

issue) cataloguing and identifying and describing the magical destinations we have

right here. We shamelessly advocate local buying—and that includes vacations

(“staycations” if you like).

Following the publication of Food and Travel, it’ll be time for the annual Saltscapes

East Coast Expo, from April 26 through 28 at Exhibition Park in Halifax.

Regional travel forms one of the fundamental pillars of the Expo, and constitutes

a fair whack of our 450 or so exhibitors—and this is no accident. Our role is to

showcase and “brag up” what we have.

No airports. No customs. No security procedures. No language barriers. No

dangerous back streets.

Food for thought, perhaps, when you make vacation plans this year.

~ Linda & Jim Gourlay

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