Good friends. Cousins. Good food. Great music. Home.

I am sure that most people have a place that they go to where they immediately feel at home. For me it is here in the Maritimes. Of course I was born and mostly raised here so it is familiar, but there is more than that. It’s the salt air. It’s the friendly chatter at the Walmart. It’s the cadence of the language and the stories in the songs. It’s the laughter and the smiles and the people that share them with each other.

I had a chance to attend a show at the Tidnish Community Hall this week. “The Elderly Brothers” was a story and concert performed by local musicians and actors worthy of the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton. The Everley Brothers would have been proud of the harmonized vocals, the guitar riffs and the gently told story of their life.

Everywhere in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI talented people play to small audiences on a regular basis. For twenty dollars you can be thoroughly entertained. For another twenty you can have an absolutely magnificent lobster meal, chowder and all you can eat muscles and salad bar and a medium sized lobster. Don’t forget dessert. Pies and crumbles to die for.

Today it is time to go home, back to Alberta, back to my family. I am taking with me wonderful memories that will sustain me until next time. When I return it will be familiar again. Not much changes here and I am glad it doesn’t. The ocean waves, the wind in the trees will be here forever calling those of us who have had the experience back for more.

The Territory is more, much more than the Map.