Wednesday morning dawned beautifully as we were entering Halifax Harbor, one of the largest natural harbors in the world.
Soon we were close to the city of Halifax…
Where we were greeted by Theodore Tugboat, an adorable guy whose job is to help make Halifax Harbor the friendliest harbor in the world.
Gist thinks he does a most excellent job!
After we disembarked, we walked around downtown (up a hill and back down – who knew Atlantic Canada was so hilly, not me!), stopped at a yarn store, The Loop Craft Cafe, so that Gist would know she was on vacation (it was lovely, but being committed to my yarn diet, I didn’t buy anything) and had a lemonade in the cafe attached to the shop – Gist: “This is the best husband section ever!” Then we headed to our favorite place in Halifax – The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
It was an awesome place, especially for cruise ship visitors. Our name for it was “The Museum of Disasters at Sea”. There were a lot of pretty boats…
Interspersed with lots of tales of death and destruction. The subjects of the exhibits we saw – the Titanic, other shipwrecks at sea, a siege at sea, and, my personal favorite (I’m serious, it was fascinating), Halifax Wrecked. See, in 1917 two ships collided in the harbor, creating the largest man-made explosion before the atomic age. The devastation was, as you can imagine, incredible.
After the museum, we headed over to the Alexander Kieth’s Brewery.
I had read about the brewery in my Atlantic Canada book and was looking forward to quaffing some of the local suds. We went to the Red Stag Tavern, conveniently located right next to the brewery, where I was able to get a Keith’s Sampler…
Which contained tastings of Keith’s IPA, Red Amber Ale, Light Ale, and Traditional Lager. I liked the Red Amber so much I also got a pint of that to drink with the best appetizer ever – smoked tomato and lobster dip – YUMMMMMMMMM!
Then we headed over to Sugah! an amazing candy and ice cream shop. We both got cones to enjoy while sitting next to the harbor.
And some sweets to enjoy later.
Then we headed over to the Nova Scotia Center for Craft and Design, a super-interesting place that features craft from Nova Scotians. While we were there, we saw a hand-casting demonstration and got to speak with the artists whose show was in the main gallery.
We had a lovely time in Halifax, made even lovelier by the stunning sunset over the Atlantic that we saw as we were leaving.
And because we were headed back into the US, our towel animal came with an American flag.
Next port? My favorite place in the world – Bar Harbor, ME!
