Halifax

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We wake up to loud bagpipes playing!! It is 6:50am!! We are in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The bagpipes were a greeting!! Please……Henna—are these relatives of yours?
We are awake so we get up, get our lattes and go up on the back deck. It is a partly cloudy day, about 49 degrees. It feels great to me. I am so glad it is cooler.
We ate breakfast; say hello to Minnie, Jack, Richard and Janice. They tell us Bobbie, Annie and Denny ordered room service. I get some honey and chamomile tea and we go down to their room to give it to Annie. She is still running a fever and her throat is really sore. The Vicodin did not help. They have just finished breakfast and are getting ready to head off the ship. We will see them later down in the shopping area on the pier. We are headed to Peggy’s Cove and the Titanic cemetery later in the day.
Kenny and I go back to our room, shower and head off the ship. There is an absolutely beautiful harbor here in Halifax. Everything is clean; there are many shops and restaurants, grassy park areas running along the harbor. The boardwalk is very wide and runs over a mile along the water. There is a cool breeze and I’m loving it.
We explored the many shops, walked the boardwalk, ate a ‘Beaver’s Tail’ with cinnamon and sugar, walked some more, then went to a café on the boardwalk for lunch. We split our last lobster roll; I had a glass of Chianti and Ken had a local beer. It was so pretty sitting on the boardwalk, people watching, watching the boats, enjoying the cool air.
It was time to head back to the terminal to catch our tour.
Halifax really is beautiful. Our guide is local, lived here her whole life and is passionate. She talks non-stop, with a cadence and she is putting me asleep. I try to stay awake because she is telling interesting facts about Halifax, but before I know it I have dozed off and we are in Peggy’s Cove: home of the most frequent photographed lighthouse. It is a very small coastal village with very unique rocks everywhere. It is beautiful. We spend 1 ½ hours there, walking, exploring, taking pictures. We meet an old lobster fisherman and he shows us his lobster traps and explains how it works. Next we head to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where 121 bodies from Titanic are buried. Two days after the Titanic sank in 1912, the White Star Line (ship owner) dispatched the first of four Canadian vessels to search for bodies in the area of the sinking. Two were from Halifax. The vessels recovered 306 bodies from the water but had to hold burials at sea for 97 bodies. When the remaining 209 bodies were unloaded at Halifax, the class barriers on board the Titanic were followed in death: the first-class passengers were in coffins, second and third class in canvas bags and the crew on open stretchers. Only 59 bodies were shipped by train to their families; obviously if they could be identified, but then only if the family could afford it. The White Star Line did not pay for it. The White Star Line did pay for plain granite blocks for gravestones. The victims are identified by a number on the headstone (unless they had been identified) and the death date of April 15, 1912. There are 10 victims buried at a nearby Jewish cemetery and 19 buried at a Christian cemetery.

Disappointing to some is the fact that the love story in Titanic is completely made up although Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack Dawson was someone who died and is buried in the graveyard. He was a coal worker on the ship. The Director James Cameron visited the cemetery and obviously used the name. Every week visitors place flowers and notes at Jack Dawson’s grave as they know him from the movie and either don’t know the truth or don’t want to.

Some men are cutting the grass and the smell of the freshly cut grass, the cool breeze blowing the changing colored leaves immediately takes me back to the autumns that I miss. Ken comments on it too. It is just starting to cloud up and sprinkle rain. We get back on the bus and are back on the ship in about 20 minutes.
We lounge around for a bit and then get ready for dinner. We all sit together and have a nice dinner. Annie is hanging in there…still has a fever and sore throat. They are all going to the show tonight, but I don’t like them and Ken and I go back to the room to read. As we leave Halifax, the rain has gotten heavier and the fog is rolling in.
I hear the fog horns from the ship again as I write this. Fog is thick as soup again. Guess I will hear them all night.

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Photos

Peggy's Cove
Lobster traps