My late birthday always leaves me wondering about the worth of a big trip when I'll be leaving for Christmas in no time at all. Add in that I was still riding here and there (in between the 7-10 skatepark snow clearings), and I was pretty set on saving my time and money for escaping the winter hell world of February, March, April & early May.

On the other hand, highly-touted Maxime Comtois and the Drummondville Voltigeurs were coming to Cape Breton. It had also been a while since I'd left the island and I longed for the better skateparks, varying food choices, and adventure that can be found in and around Sydney Nova Scotia.

Setting off on a Friday evening, we hit a couple of my favourite bars in Port-aux-Basques before getting in line for the 2 hour ferry boarding process.

Eventually and finally aboard the ship, just as we were pushing away from the dock I made my way up to the sundeck and toasted to the weekend, while the lights of Port-aux-Basques and the Channel Head Lighthouse disappeared.

I get nervous whenever I have to propose an outlandish idea to someone. Sure, I drive 2.5 hours to Port-aux-Basques, sleep on the ferry floor for 8 hours, walk to a rental car, to spend one night in Sydney watching QMJHL hockey, just to return the rental car and sleep another 8 hours on the ferry back to Newfoundland the next night; but I feel that some people might think this is a bit ridiculous.

So it took a few passing days and some contemplation, before I finally mumbled my desired birthday plans to the girlfriend. I was additionally worried because the relationship was new and I couldn't just leave for the weekend myself, but things worked out well as she thought the plan was totally acceptable. She was also excited for a mainland break from Corner Brook.

It also worked out well when we stumbled upon the Sydney Range Front Lighthouse.

It's a funny thing that I totally forgot this lighthouse existed, but because of my reputation for navigation, she totally thought I planned this and knew how to get here.

Regardless, it was a bonus birthday lighthouse! Can't complain about that.

Instead of riding skateparks, I used the power I attained from 11am Taco Bell to go out and attempt to film a biking clip. Having scouted Cape Breton skateboarding videos for a few weeks prior to this trip, I saw a location with red ledges and knew I had to find it.

Meanwhile, back at Taco Bell, I always think of facebook checking in at Taco Bells and posting lyrics from love songs. The only problem now would be whether people thought I was talking about Taco Bell or the missus. So I checked with Isy & she figured people would know I was talking about the Taco Bell, but I still hesitated and saved the Starship lyrics for another time.

Instead of riding Coxheath or North Sydney Skatepark yet again this year, I wanted to mix in a new park from the remaining selection of not-so-good skateparks.

This is New Waterford.

And this is maybe my favourite skatepark object I've ever rode. It was too bad it was getting late and I only stopped at New Waterford to check it off, because I wanted to ride this slippery, gorgeous thing forever.

(Unfortunately for me, this ramshackle New Waterford skatepark was replaced with a new $240,000 park in 2019. After all, a place with 6500 people needs a much better park than this.)

Following New Waterford, it was back to Sydney and the familiar Royale Hotel. Yet again I got a different room than during my other handful of visits, but at the same old unbelievable price of $70.

Plus, Isy thought the Royale was great and didn't demand that we go across the street to the Holiday Inn Sydney Waterfront Hotel. Nice!

By game time it was freezing rain, but thankfully not in the face of a hurricane west wind. We scurried through the familiar streets, while trying to use every random awning on our way over to the home of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, Centre 200.

In addition to the Screaming Eagles playing the Drummondville Voltigeurs and getting to see Maxime Comtois, Pavel Koltygin and Dawson Mercer; I didn't realize it was also teddy bear toss night.

In an instant, the energy went through the roof following a ho-hum Screaming Eagles goal, with everyone suddenly losing their mind and littering the ice with stuffed animals. Our confusion and excitement was accentuated by the fact that we were sitting on the glass, where all of the fuzzy objects flew over us (except for a few people with noodle arms).

Deciding to go out afterwards, I was excited to find that there is actually a food spot in Sydney that stays open late despite what a cabbie told me 5 years ago. Unfortunately it was a pizza spot that made pizza like they do in Corner Brook, with bland sauce, mediocre crust & giant silver dollar cold pepperoni slices under all the toppings.

Across the street from Alexandra's Pizza was the Capri Cabaret, adorned with an old sign and a bouncer guarding a strange, dated staircase that lead up into the bar area. It was clear that this was Sydney's skeety dance bar for the young folk, but I also wanted to see what it was like because the building seemed so cool. Sure enough, it felt like one of those places from the 1920s where there's a stampede because someone yelled fire and people struggle to find the exits. It felt like I was back drinking at my local converted auto showroom in Windsor. I loved it.

We only stuck around the Capri Cabaret for one beer before heading back to our hotel. The club wasn't going to pick up in excitement for another 3 hours anyway, and I was excited for our plans the next morning.

Following breakfast, we drove about an hour south to the village of Gabarus. Their lighthouse is another one I've saved due to thoughts of an April cycling trip while trying to escape Corner Brook winter, but I needed a lighthouse to visit today and I've been slowly checking off all of the ones surrounding Sydney.

Gabarus was a pleasant, working class fishing village of about 30 homes and a sizable boatyard home to carefully stacked lobster traps. Two spits connected two separate islands jutting out into the Atlantic, while most of the homes were located on the mainland.

It's on one of these islands that we took to wandering down to the ocean's edge and upon its massive rocks in order to appreciate the 1890 lighthouse. If someone could only make it to the Maritimes, this powerful coast would be a good place to get some of that Newfoundland feel.

Soon after, we walked an even more daunting shoreline in an attempt to get Rouses Point Lighthouse, but I didn't write down any research notes since it's on a small island and I figured the lighthouse would be simple enough to find. Instead we only succeeded in walking on more rocks and boulders that reminded me of Newfoundland.

Lighthouses and skateparks checked off, there was only one thing left to achieve the ideal birthday trifecta.

Now I had an idea about checking out the ruins of a former community, but again I should have made research notes as its location wasn't as obvious as I imagined. This left me trying to spot an abandoned house as a last resort, something I found surprisingly difficult for a place that unfortunately suffers from a lot of outmigration.

Spotting a modest grey bungalow between a crack in the trees, I figured it might be the only abandoned place we come across. This wasn't the City of Broughton ruins, but I was still fond of the hilltop location and the yellowing grasses of year's end.

This home was located in the miniscule hamlet of Big Ridge and I suppose the name checks out.

The 2012 StreetView shows a no trespassing sign and the home in much better shape.

Although I've never visited any of them in my various hockey updates about Cape Breton, this area is home to many impressive waterfalls. Hoping to show Isy something besides lighthouses and abandoned homes, I noticed a fortuitous waterfall marked right in the area where I'd want to cut from Big Ridge over to Albert Bridge.

Things took a hectic turn though after I blindly followed my GPS and found an undulating, rutted road through wilderness that I didn't know existed in Nova Scotia. It was so intense and I was so stressed with the rental car bobbing up and down steep paths that I didn't even stop to take any pictures. We simply kept moving, my fingers crossed that the road would get better and we'd reach the other side safely.

After a harrowing half hour, we spilled out onto a much better road with a handy sign pointing us towards Devil's Hill Falls. I could have got out and kissed this new, well-maintained gravel road.

Diving into the woods and following a wet trail, Devil's Hill Falls were roaring with the rains of early December. I climbed down the slippery bank and for the first time in my life, did the whole waterfall photograph with the tripod on a slow shutter speed thing.

Once we met back up with the highway at Albert Bridge, I was concerned with satisfying my hunger in Sydney and not overly paying attention to the surroundings.

Isy interjected within minutes, "you're not stopping for that abandoned house? It looked pretty good. You really didn't see it?"

Pulling into a driveway and skeptically returning south, sure enough I totally missed an enticing stop. I had a laugh and shook my head at how much cooler this place was than the one I spotted.

This was quite the house at one point, but unfortunately the locals have had their run of it.

I know someone who has family ties to Cape Breton and she talks about her Grandma's mothballed home that's only collecting dust, while she's out west and her siblings are in Ontario. Places like this make me wonder if one day she'll return and find the place ransacked and vandalized, maybe accelerated by local kids or copper thieves.

We'd return to Sydney, leave the local bar I like because they weren't showing the Detroit Lions game, only to go to Boston Pizza and order food before realizing they didn't have the Detroit Lions game either, due to Bell Canada nearing bankruptcy and needing to up the cost of the football package for restaurants.

We then walked the floodplain area where they tore down a bunch of houses, but it was nighttime so I didn't take any good pictures. Then over to Dooly's in North Sydney to kill some more time on this drizzly and cold evening, before eventually catching the ferry and ending a good birthday weekend.