Halifax

Friday afternoon we left Borden bound for Halifax. We stopped in Oxford for food and arrived just before 5pm, just in time for rush hour. We made a quick reservation at the Westin Nova Scotian at an internet cafe before settling in. We headed out for dinner at Argyle's Pub then returned to the hotel for a break before heading to Reflections. There were three house DJs playing and the place got pretty busy, however I found out later that it is more gay on Saturdays, not that straight people or drug dealers are a bad thing! They served $2 beer until 1pm, so Joe and I essentially had a drinking race. Welcome to Halifax! We stumbled out at 3am and picked up falafels and shawarmas for a pigout feast back at the hotel.

Saturday morning I woke up and headed out for a run. I ran through Point Pleasant Park. It was devastated by Hurricane Juan in 2005 and a lot of the old trees are missing in certain sections of the park. I checked out the Prince of Wales Tower, the Batteries, and ran along the Northwest Arm before heading back into the city, running along Young St., Inglis St., Tower Rd, and the Public Garden along South St. to the Citadel. I climbed up the hill to the top and toured the Fortress for a bit before heading back down to the Harbourfront. I toured around a bit and oddly ran into Stephen Terauds and his boyfriend Scott on the walkway, who I knew from when they used to live in Calgary. We talked for awhile before parting ways.

View from Point Pleasant

Prince of Wales Tower, Point Pleasant Park - built from 1796-99

Anchor of the HMCS Bonaventure, Royal Canadian Navy aircraft carrier to 1970

In front of the Point Pleasant Batteries - originally built in the 1790s

Tower Road streetscape

The Halifax Citadel was originally built in 1746 however the present fortress was built in 1856

View from the Citadel

The Old Town Clock, built in 1803

I went back to the hotel to clean up and get Joe and we headed out to eat. We ate at McKelvie's where we ran into Jason Desrochers who Joe went to high school with in Summerside. They discovered that Jason had also just recently moved to Halifax from Calgary and he had worked at the restaurant where Joe is presently working! Small, weird world.

We toured the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (highly recommended) and the C.S.S. Acadia before walking the Harbourwalk again, grabbing some ice cream and rum cake, checking out the Garrison Brewery and Pier 21 before heading back to the hotel.

Argyle Street

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Aboard the C.S.S. Acadia

View of Halifax Harbour

Halifax Harbour

We were exhausted and decided to hang out in the hotel room for the remainder of the evening. We had a 6am departure from Halifax International and I still had to deal with the chore of getting the bike box checked in. Despite some computer glitches on the jet in Halifax and circling Pearson while the fog cleared, we made it back to Calgary, no worse for wear (except for the busted jar of Joe's mom's jam in our clothing bag - yuck) in the early afternoon on Sunday.

It was a fantastic trip - lots of great scenery and activities. I really like the East Coast. North Cape and Hopewell Rocks were especially fascinating and I really took a shine to Halifax. At the Track Nationals the CCA announced that they are going to do ALL of the National Championships (except for Cyclocross) at the same time in late June/early July in Bromont, QC. We are already planning to go and drive out to PEI and Halifax again! I can't wait!

Reality hit me over the head this morning like a sack of rocks as I headed into work and went back to doing what I was doing before I left. Sigh....if only we could vacation more than we work....