Great suggestions, we appreciate all the help! We are searching places to stay in Halifax and Baddeck and will write a trip report this summer. If we do Marine Drive we will plan on a full day and I think it will work out great. Thanks again!

Not to pile on what others have said, but my mother, sister and I spent a week in Nova Scotia last August and we felt absolutely safe. I'm not sure we've ever met friendlier people on a trip, which certainly gave the impression that if you ran into trouble, people would help.

Cape Breton in July-we saw moose, a pod of whales (adults brought young whales into Meat Cove-Cape North where they all swam about, breaching etc-spectacular), a scarlet tanager-wow!). Eagles were frequently seen and a fledging eaglet landed on our camper when we were at Bras d'Or lake.
Very very safe everywhere we went.

A lot of places in Nova Scotia are the sorts of places where people don't lock their doors. Not that I'd recommend that anyone be careless and not follow basic safety rules - (obviously crime happens everywhere, and sometimes people on vacation make tempting targets), but I really wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks for all the info, I think it sounds like a great place to visit and our biggest worry will be deciding where to spend our time!