We hung out in downtown Halifax on Friday, first going to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The major exhibits there are on the explosion in Halifax in 1917 and the tale of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. I had an aunt who was an infant in her crib during the explosion. It was caused by 2 ships, the Imo and Mont Blanc, one an a munitions ship colliding, killing over 1650 people. My aunt was left deaf caused by that explosion when the glass above her crib shattered down on her. From there we walked over to the casino that is right down on the harbour too……to have lunch and enquire about the lobster dinner we had heard about. Then we walked up the hill to the Public Gardens…..the first in Canada. Did you know there are lots of hills in Halifax? It was quite lovely although compared to Beacon Hill park and Butchards Gardens in Victoria, well……..

Next day we travelled out to Musquodoboit Harbour so that Jeanette could connect with a childhood friend, Patsy and her husband Marcel. What a hoot the two of them are. I left her there visiting while I went to visit my cousins, etc. in East Chezzetcook where my mother was born and raised and where my husband Floyd died when we were here in 2003 on the trip planned to attend the celebrations at Lunenburg. I spent a fair amount of time with cousin Weldon and wife Bernadette reminiscing. He took me over to see cousin Diann’s husband Keith (she passed away 2 years ago) , around to other cousin Lloyd and wife Jeanne’s but unfortunately they had to go out so we missed them…..and around to significant places in the area. Thank you Weldon! We returned to Halifax in time to take in the lobster dinner at the casino…..a $14.99 deal with a players club card. Wow! And it was fantastic!

Sunday the 1st of July, Canada Day, we took the bus down to the waterfront first going to the immigration museum and refuge museum…..amazing and sad! In it we both had the opportunity to enquire as to some of our ancestors. Mostly it was through census’that we were able to find out anything. My family the “Miseners”, that arrived in 1753 to Lunenburg…that information wasn’t available because that was before the records that the government kept. And so I enquire about the “Grants” and Jeanette, the “Galarneau’s” and “Ryan’s”. We both need to delve deeper. Interesting! There was entertainment and shopping in the farmers market. The waterfront walk is beautiful. We then took the transit ferry to Dartmouth and back. It was free today as was a lot of things because of Canada Day. By this time we decided it was time to take the bus back to the “dorms” because we had had enough walking. Alas, there was an accident that screwed with the bus traffic route. We walked and we walked only to find that we were on the wrong side of the road or the bus didn’t stop there or, or, or. Finally after almost walking the whole way back, we made it…….almost 13,000 steps!!!

Monday the 2nd, we checked out of the dorms and headed up along the Eastern shore toward Port Hawkesbury where we stayed the night. Definitely better accommodations that what we had in Halifax. The whole drive is dotted with tiny villages that don’t even have a store or a gas station. We did stop at Sheet Harbour (scenic bridge and waterfall)….they had a tourist info centre and bathrooms…..yeah! I thought it was there that there was a cable ferry but instead it was at Isaacs Harbour. The ferry had left just as we drove up. Well…… didn’t you know it but the “captain” stopped the ferry, backed up to come for us….even though it runs constantly back and forth….every 10 minutes. That was pretty much the highlight of this part of the journey. There really wasn’t a lot to report…..lots of trees. We arrived at Port Hawkesbury but trying to find a place to stay…..well……. had to pay quite a bit more than we were used too! Oh well!