Postcard from White Point Beach Resort

The bunnies, the bunnies, everyone kept telling us about the bunnies! Since being infected with Travel Canada fever after we went to Prince Edward Island last summer, my husband and I, along with our 2.5-year-old monster Ben, decided that Nova Scotia would be the next stop on our patriot trail. And every time we told someone we wanted to go to Nova Scotia, they got this crazy gleam in their eye and told us about this family resort that was overrun with bunnies that their kids just love. Which is how we ended up at White Point Beach Resort on the South Shore. A famous family resort that’s been around since 1928 (the main lodge was freshly opened in May after a fire) this sweet, simple getaway, with its adorable little cabins scattered throughout the woods, made me feel like I was at summer camp in Ontario all over again, with the minor addition of the crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean just outside our front door. We were handed a bag of bunny food when we checked in, and while we watched hopefully the whole time we were there, we only saw a couple fluffy friends scampering by. “A lot of them have just had babies and they’re hiding,” one staffer told me. Baby bunnies? Come. On! So not fair. But bunnies or no bunnies, it was still the perfect place to spend the Canada Day Weekend.

It was raining most of the time we were there (boo hoo) but there was still enough to keep us entertained. A nicely temperate indoor pool provided hours of entertainment (though, uh, was I supposed to let Ben go in the hot tub too? Because he really, really liked it and I hope I didn’t cook him), and an old-fashioned games room, complete with a pool table, shuffleboard, foosball table and ping pong was our other go-to. Ben’s shuffleboard strategy was a little questionable, but he sure liked sliding those discs down the board. There’s also a Kid’s Zone where they show movies, have a few toys and run several organized craft activities a day.  It took us a while to figure out that when Ben kept saying: “I want crab! I want crab!” it meant that he wanted to make crafts and not that he was hungry, but we caught on eventually. In nicer weather, there’s everything from canoeing, surfing and hiking to paddleboats, golfing, bonfires and an outdoor swimming pool.

Dessert! When we went crazy one night and decided that the iPad would entertain Ben long enough that we could actually order from the menu rather than speed dial through the buffet, we were rewarded with slabs fudge cake (with house made caramel ice cream, natch) and skillets of bread pudding that put big city pastries to shame.

The I Spy a Bunny book (by Judy Dudar and illustrated by Richard Rudnicki) all about a little girl’s trip to White Point and how she keeps, well, missing seeing the bunnies. “Remember that?” Ben said, pointing to a picture of a spot we’d passed on our hike. Aw, baby’s first nostalgia!

White Point has the best collection of Nova Scotia wines in the province, and I made a point of trying as many as possible. For research.

Check out Associate Editor Sadiya Dendar's postcard from Deerhurst Resort!