Blogs from Nova Scotia, Canada, North America - page 46

Unfortunately for me, my layover in Halifax was short. Mostly - just enough time to sleep, grab a coffee and get back to work. I was looking forward to flying to Halifax so I could meet up with my friends Jacqui and Brent who got married in July. As I had my drills that day for work, we weren't able to make it over. My flight landed just after 11pm and estimated time of arrival was 11:40pm at the hotel. This meant a quick run upstairs, off with the uniform and into more normal attire. Unfortunately, Jacqui texted to say that she was feeling very unwell so she and Brent wouldn't be able to make it out. Doh!!! Needless to say, I still managed to rope someone into coming out for a beer. Well, it was ... read more

After picking up Dan at the Halifax airport in mid-August, we all traveled in the bus to Parkers Cove, a tiny fishing village on the Bay of Fundy. The Bay, located between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, has enormous tidal swings, up to 54 feet at its head. Our campground was right on the water and within walking distance of a little seafood market that cooked up several lobsters for the three of us. We went on a whale-watching excursion and spied mother and baby humpback whales, one of whom breached--to the delight of everyone on the boat. Mid-afternoon the skies turned cloudy and a blanket of fog rolled in. Visibility was very poor, and we landlubbers were glad to get back to shore. We visited a tidal power plant in Annapolis Royal (great concept in ... read more

25Aug07 - Liscomb - Let me start by stating that I'm alright and I was not injured at all despite what you might think by looking at the pictures. Today I started out from Sydney where I stayed the extra night to avoid a large rain storm. I'm on my way to Wade's place (a friend of Lisa's) in Dartmouth to hangout for a couple of days before traveling to meet up with my sisters in PEI. The first sign of trouble was when the video camera mount broke while I was riding. I managed to catch the camera before it hit the ground and capture the moment on video. The footage is actually pretty funny. I had purchased a waterproof case for the video camera in Boston and was bummed out that I was not ... read more

Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia and the largest city in the Maritimes, has an area population of around 400,000. The city has a working seaport, a great pedestrian waterfront, lots of restaurants and pubs, and the historic Citadel overlooking the harbor. The Busker Festival was in full swing on the waterfront. Street performers, including jugglers, acrobats, break dancers, puppeteers and the like, provided good family fun free to the public, with only a donation requested. One day we followed the Lighthouse Trail, which took us to Peggy’s Cove, home of the smallest post office we’d ever seen. The post office was inside a lighthouse and was only large enough for the clerk and one or two customers. We stopped at a memorial to Swiss Air Flight 111, which commemorated 229 lives lost and the Nova ... read more

On a Sunday afternoon threatening rain, we attended the Broad Cove Scottish Concert. For 50 years, St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church has hosted this summer music festival on their church grounds. We joined several thousand concertgoers, where from mid-afternoon until dark, a succession of Scottish music was played for our enjoyment. We enjoyed bagpipe, fiddle, bass, piano, guitar, vocals, and even dance. It was a toe-tapping good time, and thankfully the rain never came. We also visited the Margaree Salmon Museum. A salmon museum, you say? Well, the Margaree River was one of the great salmon runs in Nova Scotia. We learned that young salmon leave the river after 2 years and swim all the way to Greenland. When they return to spawn, they don’t die like Pacific salmon, but return to open water all ... read more