The C word
Let’s talk about Covid! The goods, the bads and the uglies on how it has affected our small business. Firstly we are so incredibly grateful to still have this home and be operating a tourism business in the midst of a global pandemic. These last two years have been strange, odd, hard, devastating, unimaginable yet times of sunshine, rainbows, smiles, laughter and lots of love. We thank you all for helping support our dream and for always cheering us on - we wouldn’t be here without you ❤️.
Here are a few things we dabbled in over these past 2 years of pandemic living:
Hard work with some blood, sweat and tears! Renovating the entire exterior of our home with a change in colour. From yellow to grey we took our time and scraped away, fixed old boards, duplicated spindles to match the original design of 1912, installed new windows, extended our flower gardens, grew our own vegetable produce, and truly did everything we could to maintain this century old home.
The choice to learn something new everyday became and has become part of our daily routine. We took new courses on cleaning/sanitization to make sure all guests can be reassured they are staying in a safe and clean accommodation. We started to learn more about this community as we listened to stories being shared about the history, ate local cuisine, went exploring and adventured both land and sea with folks who are born and raised here etc. During the pandemic we picked up new side jobs, volunteered and got deeply acquainted with the magnificent people that make this area of the world so glorious. The quote
“never stop learning, because life never stops teaching” is something we can now say that we continually strive towards every single day!
Local tourism! Welcoming in many beautiful Nova Scotian guests, and giving them a taste of the South Shore! Our first couple to travel with us during the pandemic booked for one night in July of 2020 and since then they have became family and have booked over 7 vacations at Toba’s! They have travelled with both friends & family and without the pandemic we most likely would have never met these wonderful people. Additionally, Nova Scotia guests' became our highest percentage of travellers from 2020-2022! It was brilliant getting to know people who lived all throughout this spectacular province. Some of which discovered us as they biked by our property, others word of mouth and of course most folks found us by opening up google maps and finding an accommodation located waterfront 😊!
A local tragedy. Our nearest and dearest neighbour R. K. who was a big part of Toba’s and was often helping behind the scenes on a daily basis - he passed suddenly and will forever be remembered and cherished. Many guests have fond memories of meeting R.K. and we are honoured to have been blessed with so many delightful moments spent together. East LaHave and Toba’s crew will always miss R.K.’s beautiful presence, unconditional kindness, abundance of humour, eagerness of life and everlasting wisdom that he brought with him everywhere he went. ❤️
Spontaneous getaways! Packing up the car and road tripping around the spectacular Maritimes! When we had a second of spare time, we took it. Hopped on the zodiac to explore the coast or loaded up the car to visit PEI. We made time to see the beauty that naturally occurs along the East Coast of Canada. We visited the spectacular Cape Breton, some camping, some hiking and Kelly even went skydiving during the pandemic! Woohoo.
A few surprise surgeries. Who needs a gallbladder anyways? Still recovering from that one but all in all thank goodness for our medical teams who are over worked, exposed to chaos every second of every day and deserve a peaceful vacation away. Big thank you for being there and helping day in and day out.
Time, the recognition of it yet also the loss of it. A concept that became blurred. Seconds fade to weeks to months and now we are two years into a pandemic. It’s been a rollercoaster, but we are still buckled in! Toba’s is here for the journey with all of the ups, downs, twists, turns and we have learned that the adventure still goes on and make no mistake… we’ve got our tickets for this ride!
To keep this short and sweet, we hope to meet many other remarkable travellers this year. During Covid we have had many repeat guests … even some within their same trip. Folks who checked out and said goodbye just to call a few days later and book another stay. Over these past months of lockdown, we truly have become mesmerized with all of the natural beauty in this spectacular province! To be able to share that beauty with all of you is something we look forward to, starting with Toba’s B&B!
Overall, here at Toba's we are incredibly grateful to be able to call this hidden gem our home and to share it with lovely people like yourselves... Here is to our 5th year! Thank you all for taking the time to read this, we will see you very soon!
When booking with Toba’s make sure to book Direct on our website for your best rates :)!
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