Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Aug 28th

Another day to sleep in. I know, I know! Ain't vacation GREAT! heh

After breakfast we went back to Halifax and headed down to the harbour and went to the Historic Properties. A park, museum, restaurants, shopping, bars, tours both land and sea and great views all rolled into one! So yea, we took some pics...

...an old wharf...

...some traditional Scottish flinging...

...awww loo' A seagull...



The day was quickly passing and we were hungry, so we got a bite to eat... you guessed it, Fish n' Chips. This time in a more reasonable size, one that you could eat without feeling like Jabba...

Then off to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Seems where ever you go now in the Maritimes they're capitalizing on the whole 'Pirate's theme... Now in the museum it's acceptable since there was pirate activity in and around the Maritimes... ' in the day' at least...


The lens of an old lighthouse...

Naval Mines and Nazis and Didier... oh my!...

...yea, more pirate stuff...

Two other great displays they have here are of the Halifax Explosion, and of the Titanic Disasters. Here you will see me and the Mister on the lounge deck of the Titanic on a reproduction chaise lounge...

After the Museum, we took a little stroll, took some pics, you see a lot of boats... naturally. Sadly the Bluenose II was not in port....






THEODORE TUGBOAT!!!

Then, like the good tourists we were being, we took a tour called the Harbour Hopper. It's on one of those amphibious vehicles, (these from the US Military, Vietnam war. Refitted naturally)


Not the most informative tour, and it seemed I knew everything that was quizzed along the way. At one point the tour guide just started asking me directly heh ;-)

It was impossible to take a good picture on the land part because we were moving too quickly. The water part was more enjoyable. Seeing the harbour front FROM the harbour. That was very enjoyable indeed.


George's Island...

Next time we'll just take a straight boat tour, possibly to Peggy's Cove and back.... it would be interesting to see from the water for sure...

Then we stopped for an, wait for it.... Ice Cream! Didier's first COWS Ice Cream. It's damn good ice cream, even better than Ben and Jerry's if you ask us!

But all delicious things must come to an end, and so back to our visit... we walked around downtown a bit.

Saw the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS... pronounced Agnes)...

...then Province House...


...then Parade Square and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul) at one end...


... and City Hall at the other...

...And then on up the hill we climbed, to the base of the Citadel and took some pictures of the Town Clock...

Then on up the hill and did our Touristic duty...


...and then entered the hilltop fort...

I can remember many trips to the Hill as a kid. At one point Didier commented that "it's a shame that more was not marked out in the fort for people to see, as I took him in and out of open doors with next to no signage"... I commented that they were all on the provided map, but since I knew the fort so well we just seemed to weave in and out without direction... Basically if you see an open door or gate, go through it. I like this sort of under labelled discovery. Besides it's nice to take pictures without so many redundantly marked signs. We walked around for almost two hours soaking in the mid day sun, the history, and men in kilts! heh!



A view of the City, the Harbour and George's Island...



And then off home we went, with an appetite in tow.... Met the folks at home, Dad just back from another appointment at the Dr's (more on that in a separate post). Hunger taking hold of us, but all too tired to cook, we got Chinese take out... and not one piece of fish in the lot! lol

Hard to belive but our trip is already half over, and we've just begun to really feel relaxed... :-)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Next time we'll just take a straight boat tour..."
You mean there are GAY and STRAIGHT tours????

;p

Sean Newbury said...

Oh my yes. And the service is soooooooooooooooooooo much better on the gay ones... but I like to rough it so we'll do the straight one!

Bruno Laliberté said...

do like a man in a kilt...
always hoping for a gust of wind, to answer the age old question:
does he wear it in the traditional way???...
:D~
nice scenery too!!
:)~

Sean Newbury said...

Mmhmm

Men in Kilts...

...saddly they are not so traditional at the Citadel... trust me I checked! ;-)

Bruno Laliberté said...

naughty boy!!!
i wouldn't have expected any less of you...
:D~

JB said...

COWS ice cream is the best! God, I miss all that stuff (and the Bluenose is never in port, it seems).
Back when I was a kid (and you weren't born yet), the Halifax and Dartmouth Natal Day Parades used to feature a huge-headed character (a guy in a sailor suit wearing an absolutely giant mask-head, which looked to be made of paper-maché) named "Jolly Tar". He was the captain of a group of not-so-nice sailors who went around forcing men to join up by conscription, and if you didn't join, or you tried to go a.w.o.l., you were brought to the beaches of Eastern Passage near the Narrows, tied to a stake, and tarred and feathered for all to see - or so the story goes. Since we're a far more politically correct society now, Jolly Tar and his mates would have been removed from the parades before you had a chance to see them, but they were my favourite form of 'pirate lore' that was part of Halifax's history.
...and I'm really enjoying your travelogue, even with the pangs of homesickness it's giving me.

Sean Newbury said...

Ok... Cows ice cream is better than... well ok not quite as good as sex, but better than damn near everything else!

There's a new flavour... well new to me... remember it's been 16 years! lol It's called Messie Bessie. It's smores ice cream, but instead of marshmallow fluff you get a gooey caramel and it's all in a rich chocolate base. It's HEAVEN in ice form1 DEE-LISH!

As for Jolly Tar, I honestly have not one recollection of him and his gang, and I was taken to every Natal-Day Parade (as purists still call it) and the most I can remember are all those dang Shriners on their mini motobikes, and cars... and all the pipe and drum bands... gawd, is it actually possible to miss them? I do!