Halifax- the Citadel and the City (07-08-13)

Sitting high on the hills overlooking the city,the Citadel was originally built to fight the French of Louisbourg and has been rebuilt 3 times over the years to protect Halifax and its harbor from a land attack that never came.

Because the harbor here is very deep and well designed by nature, it has played an important role both in commerce and in times of war.
During the revolutionary war Halifax hosted the British soldiers after they were run out of Boston. They say that Halifax could have been the 14th colony if there hadn't been such a huge British military presence here at the time.

During World Wars I and II the harbor was used to funnel troops and supplies to Europe.  In 1917 there was a horrible accident in the harbor. A French cargo ship full of explosives collided with another vessel in the harbor, and the ensuing fire caused an explosion that killed 2000 people and injured 9000.  It was the largest man made explosion prior to nuclear weapons.

The day we visited it was spitting rain but we brought umbrellas, hoping that would keep the rain away.  Our ploy didn't work very well.

We took the free guided tour which was led by a "Scottish Sergeant" in full kilt regalia.  Oops, wrong picture.

 

Years ago England refused to let Scottish soldiers dress in traditional Scottish garb, but when the ranks of the English army shrank to an uncomfortably low level,    the two cultures worked it out so that there would be specific Scottish regiments that would be allowed to wear traditional garb.

Our guide did a nice job of giving us the picture of what life would have been like at the fort back in the mid 1800s.

I did have one question for him that showcased my ignorance of Canadian history.  We had watched the orientation movie about the city and it mentioned, in a sort of casual way, the years before and after Canada separated from Great Britain.  So I said to the guide-" Wait a minute then.  When the U.S. wanted to separate from England, we had to go to war with them to get the independence we wanted, but when Canada wanted it's independence, England just said 'ok, sure'??"  Yup, pretty much.

While walking the grounds of the Citadel, we noticed several camera crews, and being nosy, we asked what it was all about.  It turns out that the Canadian Minister of Defense  was at the Citadel to make an announcement of some kind.

             

We did walk the riverfront again, during the daytime, and checked out some of the stores. 

The jazz festival is still going on, and a free concert was in process so we stopped to listen for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, neither of us is a huge jazz fan so we soon moved on.

   Along the way we tried "Cows" Ice Cream, the self

proclaimed best ice cream in Canada, and weren't overly impressed.  As we continued to walk Paul decided that even though we had just had ice cream, he had to try Poutine. 

We've been seeing it offered different places and it was "calling his name".  So, what is it?  French fries with cheese curds and gravy.  To that you can add a variety of “toppings” such as bacon or pulled pork, or in Paul’s case, both.  It's pretty popular up here, but it's a little over the top for me.



            Halifax is also home to the Nova Scotia Archives, and Paul and I spent one morning trying, unsuccessfully to add to my knowledge of my family history.  Most of my grandparents and great grandparents are from the Cape Breton area of Nova Scotia. Although we didn't find out anything new, we do plan on spending a few days exploring the towns that they lived in.

Halifax, Nova Scotia (07-07-13)

Halifax, Nova Scotia,  is my new favorite place.


Driving down from PEI, it  took us about 5 hours to reach our destination near Peggy’s Cove, just south of Halifax.  The toll was $5.25 so I had to check out my loonies and toonies to see if I could make exact change.  Canada has done away with the $1 bill, and in it’s place there is a “loonie”- a one dollar coin.  A Toonie is a two dollar coin. (on the right). As you can see, I managed to make the correct change for the toll.

I remember hearing how beautiful Peggy’s Cove is, so without remembering details, I booked the nearest RV Park to the cove.  We are at a place called Wayside RV Park.  We arrived, set up, and Paul’s stress level immediately went UP. Every once in a while we get to an RV Park that has electrical issues.  This is one of them.

 

With the temperature outside hovering at 95 degrees, we need the electrical system, and our air conditioners, to work correctly.  The site we were given has low voltage.  That means that although everything looks OK on the surface, our Power Management System, which we installed to protect our electronics from low voltage damage,  saw that we had a problem, and routinely shut off our air conditioners, electric water heater, and even our refrigerator.




After an hour of Paul trying to work around the problem, he talked to the manager about moving to the next site over, which has 50 amp service.  Our RVer friends know that 50 amp service is much easier to deal with than 30 amp service.  Once we switched sites ( only the second time we have EVER had to switch sites) everything worked perfectly and we could move on with our lives.  
 

Being a glutton for punishment, Paul wanted to do more driving, so we drove down to Peggy’s Cove.  It’s a tiny  little community on the water and reminds me a lot of Rockport in Massachusetts.  The nearby boulders looked very inviting but it was still too hot outside to do much, so we figured we’d come back when it’s cooler.

On the way to Peggy’s Cove we stopped to check out a memorial on the coast.  It turns out that it’s a memorial for Swissair flight 111.  In 1998 the airplane crashed 5 miles off the coast here, in St. Margaret's Bay.

At 9 pm the temperature was still a sultry 86 degrees, so we made the trek to Halifax Harbor to watch the delayed Canada Day fireworks.  Watching the boats arrive as the sun was setting made me very homesick for the Boston Esplanade!  For many years, Paul and I took our boat to the Esplanade for the July 4th fireworks. In fact, that’s how we met!

The harbor front in Halifax has a wide boardwalk, with many little shops and restaurants right on the waterfront.  We hope to go back when it’s not crowded with a hundred thousand people!

   

The following day we packed up a picnic lunch and headed down the coast towards the small town of Lunenburg. The whole south coast region has a scenic loop, with lots of little small harbor towns, but  would take 2 days to drive the whole thing, so we have opted instead to choose one or two places to check out.

Lunenburg is a small fishing village, established in the mid 1700s as one of the earliest English settlements in Nova Scotia.  The houses and shops are brightly colored making it appear festive.  We braved the high temperatures and strolled along the waterfront, in and out of the little shops for an hour or so before driving on.

Our plan was to drive just a bit further, to The Ovens natural park.  It boasts hiking trails that lead to sea caves, which sounded pretty interesting to us, except for two things. It is a private park, and the entrance fee is $8 per person.  This late in the day, it wasn’t worth paying.  Secondly, it was so hot outside- mid 90s again, that we really didn’t want to hike anyway!  I hadn’t realized it is more like a destination place for families, with a pool, small campground, and a beach.






Instead,  we punched in the address for a restaurant in the small town of Chester, and headed there for dinner on the deck.  The weather was perfect for sitting outside listening to music.





I am exhausted just writing about all the driving we did, and sure enough, Paul was tired of being behind the wheel. 





With temperatures predicted to be in the mid 90s for one more day, and being surrounded by all this beautiful water, we elected to scrap our plans for Sunday and get the boat out on the water.

The weather was perfect, and so was the water temperature- cool enough to be refreshing, but warm enough to swim in.








PS, I had major issues editing this post.  I don't know if  Blogger is having a problem or it's my computer but I couldn't move the wording around the pictures correctly.

P. E. I. (07-05-13)

Many times, in our travels, we come across small towns, with no apparent industry in the area, and we wonder how the residents make their money.

On PEI, the rolling hills of farmer’s fields, and small, picturesque harbors full of working boats leave no doubt as to how the islanders earn their living-the island is known for it’s potatoes and it’s lobster.  I am sure it’s not an easy life, but you can feel the pride of accomplishment and the sense of neighborhood everywhere you go.

With a population of just 140,000, you won’t find many urban cities on Prince Edward Island.  Most towns, or villages, have very small populations, with the only local grocery store being a food Co-operative. Charlottetown is the only major “city” and visiting it was the only time we saw a population density that would even be considered suburban where we come from.

The nightlife in Charlottetown was pretty awesome though.  We only had one evening to spend in town, so we had to spread ourselves very thin, moving from venue to venue.   We started the evening early, with drinks overlooking the harbor.

Our second stop was for appetizers on Victoria Row.  Victoria Row is closed to vehicle traffic, and boasts a small bandstand in the center of it..  There are 4-5 restaurants with outdoor seating nearby, so we took advantage of the incredibly good weather and listened to some music while we ate at Fishbones.

Our next stop was just around the corner, where we once again enjoyed some great live music while we enjoyed our dinner al fresco. 

We finished up the evening inside, at the Old Triangle, where we had a drink while listening to live fiddle music.  All in all, we crammed a lot of good times into one evening!  

Part of our time on PEI has been spent with family.  My uncle’s wife is from the small village of Tignish, on PEI. The last time I was here, I was about 12, and I met a lot of her family.  Her dad, Eugene, owned the general store in town, and it’s now owned by her brother. Tignish was settled by Acadians in 1799, when they were forced to leave Acadie.  My aunt is Acadian and her family was one of the original 8 families to settle in Tignish.

Canada Day was celebrated at my uncle’s cottage on the river.

 

I’d never heard of an octopus before, in this context at least, so my cousin Greg showed his off for the camera before he ate it. (It’s a hotdog).

PEI has three “scenic loops” and Paul and I managed to drive most of all of them. That’s a lot of driving! 

The North Cape loop took us through the town of Tignish, and out to the northern point of the island, where we encountered the Wind farm, complete with interpretive center. This small wind farm supplies 5% of the electricity needed on the island.  These wind turbines don’t look that big- until you see them laying on the ground:

The interpretive center was very well done, and worth the visit.  I am sure I knew at one time what a BTU is (British Thermal Unit), but it was nice to be reminded that it is the amount of energy required to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.   There, now everyone’s memory has been refreshed. 

On the east side of the island, the scenery is just as beautiful.  We passed by numerous rivers and harbors.  We sat and had lunch overlooking this river, where we watched a pair of bald eagles for a while.

 

With temperatures hitting 30 degrees (86 F)  we were tempted to go for a swim but contented ourselves with a stroll in the shallows.

PEI actually boasts a small distillery where they make, of course, potato vodka, among other things.  We took the short tour- very worth it- as our tour guide was very personable and knowledgeable. The vodka is distilled 4 times, at which point it is 180 proof. 

The blueberry vodka sits in blueberries for 2 weeks, then gets distilled again.  All spirits are colorless when they are distilled, and the rums etc.  receive their colorings from the oak barrels.
The last process is the marrying, or blending process. He said basically, since they don’t want the vodka to be 180 proof, they add water back in, but no one wants to use the term “watered down”, so they use fancier names for it!

The final stop was the tasting room, where we sampled two vodkas, a rum, and an apple brandy.  Having never been to a distillery before, he taught me that the first sip of vodka is the “neutral sip”, and the second sip is where you really taste the flavor of the vodka. Blueberry was my favorite.  We talked about the “burn” and he said that all spirits will have a burn, but with quality spirits, the flavor will come first, and the burn will be an afterthought. 

The tour was interesting, but we left empty handed. As it actually says on the rum bottle- it would be a crime to ruin the flavor of the  rum by adding coke, and we agree- at $55 a bottle, it would feel criminal to dilute the spirits with coke, but that’s the only way either of us would drink vodka or rum so there you go.  It would be like using Don Julio to make a Margarita!


As fulltimers, we make all our plans in chalk- easily erased, and that’s just what we’ve done.  We originally decided not to go to Newfoundland.  It’s an expensive 7 hour  ferry ride to get there, and everyone who goes says you need at least 2-3 weeks to see it.  Well,  we’ve changed our minds and decided that we need to take advantage of the fact that we are here and don’t know when we’ll be back.  We’ve booked the ferry to Newfoundland for July 23. We plan to be there 16 days, but we talked to someone who grew up there and he looked very skeptical.  He thinks we’ll regret not staying longer,  so we are already thinking we might add a few more days.  That means we’ll have to bypass other things we wanted to see, like Georgian Bay, Toronto, and maybe Montreal, but we reasoned that those places are nearer to Michigan, and more accessible to us in general.