“Raspberries or ice cream?” my aunt asked me once when I was a young child, and she was serving dessert. “Both.” I replied. My mother was horrified and embarrassed by what she considered my greediness. My aunt just laughed and gave me both delicious options. 

Sometimes, you don’t have to make a choice. Would you prefer a trip to the mountains or a vacation at the seaside? What if your destination is where the mountains meet the sea? Then you can have “the best of both worlds.”

I grew up in Nova Scotia, a province in Canada. Nova Scotia is a peninsula, nearly surrounded by water, but connected to the neighbouring province of New Brunswick by a strip of land called the Isthmus of Chignecto. Given its location on the Atlantic Ocean, it’s not surprising that Nova Scotia has beaches, some sandy, some rocky, all beautiful. What is perhaps less well known is that Nova Scotia also has mountains. The mountains in Nova Scotia are part of the Appalachian Mountains. This mountain range extends southwest into the United States, all the way down to the state of Alabama. 

Summer vacations for me as a child were often spent driving and walking through low elevation mountains and swimming in the ocean. I lived near the lovely Bay of Fundy along the west central coastline, the site of the world’s highest tides. When the tide is out you can see and walk on the mudflats of the ocean floor. In Nova Scotia you don’t have to choose between a trip to the mountains or a vacation at the seaside; you can have both!

Speaking of choices, choose a lesson with me and we can explore choice-related verbs and vocabulary in English.