From Halifax we are bound for Cape Breton Island. The direct and fastest way requires driving back north almost to New Brunswick on a divided highway before crossing the causeway at Port Hastings. But a secondary road, Route 7, which runs along the shoreline east of Halifax beckoned us. It is irresistible on the map as it connects tiny coastal towns like Sheet Harbour, Marie Joseph, and Larrys River. Julia, who is learning map reading as part of her Geography study this year, traced the Marine Heritage Route (as it is called) and off we went.

Those of us who live in Maine commonly tell visitors to avoid Route 1 at all costs. It is crowded, commercialized, and doesn’t actually run along the ocean but for a few widely scattered glimpses here and there. This is not even a recent development—there is a famous essay by E.B. White from 50 years ago that lodges these same complaints about Route 1.

By contrast, this stretch of Route 7 is to be highly recommended. At almost every turn we passed a bay, the mouth of a river, a harbor, or a cove, with tree-studded islands, beaches, coastal rocks, picnic spots. The towns are mostly what Julia’s book calls political boundaries. We found exactly two stores and one gas station along the entire route. Now and then houses, the occasional church, boats on stands. And for the better part of a day, few other cars or trucks. Just blue sky, sparkling water, and a twisty two-lane road.