A walk along Halifax Harbor & visit to Peggy's Cove

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It started as a rainy day, but the radar indicated the weather would clear by the afternoon. We had about an hour and a half drive so we decided to head out to Halifax and walk around the waterfront in hopes the weather would be cleared by the time we got there.

Our first encounter was a couple of statues at the boardwalk entrance. We continued our walk down the boardwalk and through the colorful shops. Nothing had opened yet as it was early. The boardwalk was preparing for Natal Day (“birthday” of the Nova Scotia province) festivities.

Further down the boardwalk, there were several storyboards describing the Halifax explosion of 1917 and many of the volunteers who helped during the aftermath.

As the story goes, on the morning of December 6, 1917, the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully loaded with wartime explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax harbor to the Bedford Basin.

After the collision, the French ship ignited her explosive cargo. The cataclysmic explosion devastated the Richmond District of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires and collapsed buildings and it is estimated that nearly 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons. Nearly all structures within a half-mile radius, including the entire community of Richmond, were completely obliterated. A pressure wave of air snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels, and carried fragments of the Mont-Blanc for kilometers.

Below, I've posted an interesting YouTube video telling more of the story.

Leaving Halifax, we headed back home via Peggy's Cove. I had wanted to see the lighthouse there. What we didn't expect were the crowds of people all around the lighthouse and around the streets of this tiny area. Gene dropped me off at one location, I took a few photos and he picked me back up on the next pass. Although it was a gorgeous lighthouse, I was not prepared to deal with all the crowds and trying to find a parking place.

We had seen a live lobster shop on our way to Peggy's Cove so we stopped on our way back. We picked up to 1-1/4 lb lobsters to go with our steaks! Yum!!

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Photos

01_The Volunteers
This statue depicts women volunteers who aided in the war at home. The show an elderly woman knitting, an African-Nova Scotian woman serving food and a young girl collecting scrap metal in a wagon. The creator of the display, Marlene Hilton Moore, was chosen through a national competition. The statues are life-size renderings made of clay and cast in bronze that stand on Nova Scotia granite bases.

02_The Emigrant
The plaque next to the statue read “The pain of separation he overcame, with faith and hope his heart aflame…” This monument honors those who left their homes to find a new life in Canada.

03_George's Island LH
We couldn’t get real close to this lighthouse as it sits on an island in the entrance to Halifax Harbor.

04_Halifax Harbor
Halifax Harbourwalk. This boardwalk runs along the Halifax Harbor.

06_sea bridge
The floating sea bridge was originally developed to allow visitors an unbroken walk along the boardwalk while a huge hotel was built on the waterfront. It was installed in July of 2017, removed for the winter and reconstructed at the end of April 2018. It is estimated that over a million visitors will have walked across the bridge before the end of summer.

08_Harbor Hopper
This amphibious craft tours around Halifax streets and then into the harbor.