A Life, Lived

Travel Tuesday - Halifax

Today I am popping to the east coast for Travel Tuesdays.

I didn't have a car on this visit so whatever I saw was walking distance from the hotel.

Photo Hunt - Boat

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'boat'.

Theodore Tugboat in Halifax harbour.

Photo Hunt - Cloud

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'cloud'.

Dark clouds gathering over the old Town Hall in Glace Bay, NS.

Travel Tuesday - Cape Breton

Thinking about my time a few months ago in Nova Scotia . . .

Photo Hunt - Hard

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'hard'.

It is hard for me to not feel relaxed when I look at this picture.

It was also very hard for me to ignore these chairs with a view of the ocean.

After sitting in them for awhile it was even harder to leave!!!

Travel Tuesday - Halifax

A few shots from my time in Halifax . . .

 

 

Halifax

It was a short flight from Sydney to Halifax - less than an hour I think. My luggage was the first off of the plane so I was first in the line up for a cab. The Halifax airport is a good distance form the city - enough for a $70 cab ride.

The only wrinkle in my travel day was arriving at the wrong hotel. There are two Delta hotels in Halifax - I wanted the Delta Halifax on Barrington Street but ended up on the Delta Barrington. Oh well, it was a 5 minute walk to the other hotel.

When I finally arrived my room had a great view of the harbour.

I quickly got settled and headed out to explore a bit.

The first order of business was to get something to eat - I hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast.

There were a number of kiosks selling food along the waterfront. One specialized in lobster rolls. MMMMM

After walking the waterfront a bit I decided to head back to the hotel for a nap.

ON the way I ended up on the Grand Parade - The Grand Parade is an historic military parade square dating from the founding of Halifax in 1749. At the north end of the Grand Parade is the Halifax City Hall, the seat of municipal government in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality.

At the south end is St. Paul's Church. In the middle of Grand Parade is the cenotaph built originally to commemorate the soldiers who served in World War I.

St. Paul's Church is the first Protestant Church built in Canada and the oldest building in Halifax. Founded in 1749, the first service held on 2 September 1750. It is the oldest still-standing Anglican church in Canada. It is based on the ground plan of the Gibbs church of St. Peter's, Vere Street in London, with later additions such as a larger tower. For many decades it was one of the only places of worship in Halifax, and other denominations would thus hold services in the building.

During the Halifax Explosion of 1917, a piece of wooden window frame from another building was lodged into the wall of St. Paul's Church, where it remains today.

A recent addition to the Grand Parade was a memorial to peace officers. The concrete arch was unveiled on October 17, 2010 as a memorial to peace officers killed in the line of duty. It is inscribed with the names of 21 fallen Nova Scotia peace officers.

 

The city has done a great job of making the Grand Parade more open and accessible to the public - even placing brightly coloured tables and chairs throughout so that people could gather and relax.

Baddeck

On Friday we woke to cooler temperatures and grey skies. Rose and I decided to visit the town of Baddeck for the day. Baddeck is a picturesque, vibrant little village right in the heart of Cape Breton Island set on the shores of the great inland sea known as the Bras d’Or Lakes. Baddeck is widely known as ‘the beginning and end’ of the famous Cabot Trail, a magnificent scenic drive along some of the most stunningly beautiful coastline in the world!

The town's most famous resident was the illustrious Alexander Graham Bell, who moved to the area in 1885, shortly after inventing the telephone. Bell's plane, the Silver Dart, flew over Baddeck Bay in 1909 to complete the first recorded flight in the British Empire. Nowadays Baddeck is a resort town, drawing tourists from all over the world who want to learn about Bell and his remarkable life at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site.

We did some running around in Sydney before the drive to Baddeck. Because of the fog we didn't stop at any of the scenic look outs . . . we'd have had a lovely view of fog. LOL When we arrived in Baddeck it was clear that we were there in the off-season - not a bad thing since the small town can be thronging with visitors. What it meant though was that many of the spots we wanted to go for lunch were closed. We found an open cafe and grabbed some lunch.

After lunch we wandered around the town admiring the old buildings and the waterfront.

After our wandering we decided to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. Situated at the edge of the town from the site’s roof-top deck, you can see the headlands of Beinn Bhreagh, Bell’s beloved summer home where many scientific inventions and explorations took flight.

You feel instantly at home with the landscape, as Bell did when he arrived in 1885 and established his summer refuge. So compelled was Bell by Cape Breton’s beauty he believed the area outrivaled any other place in his global travels. It was here where he set down his roots and engaged in many experiments - far more than just the telephone. On the waters the fastest boat on the planet raced - the precursor to the hydrofoil, and in 1909 the first flight in the British Empire took place on the ice.

 

Photo Hunt - Light

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'light'.

One of the last working lighthouses in the Sydney area . . .

A Great Day of Exploring

Yesterday's plans were to drive to Kim's house and load ourselves into her truck. We were then going to explore the area around Louisbourg - an area where Kim's family is from. The Fortress of Louisbourg is a National Historic Site of Canada and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress. Paul and I had been 15 years ago so it was great to see the changes.

We decided to just take it easy - if we passed something interesting we'd stop and wander. Between Kim, Rose, and I we saw lots of places to stop. In the end I put more than 17,000 steps on my FitBit!

Here is a selection of pics from my day: