Monday: Adelle did her first away-from-home dialysis treatment. Just like back home, the nurses are all very nice. There are some things that are a little different -- like the machines they use -- but still mostly the same. The trip home was interesting as she had been dropped off and intended to use the public transit system to get back to the house we are staying at. She found out the ferry by the hospital only runs during rush hour, and she turned the wrong way when leaving the hospital. However, the people at the bus stop were kind enough to point her in the right direction, and the bus drivers knew where they were going, so she made it back to the house.
While Adelle was doing dialysis, the rest of the Andersons went to the Citadel. It was very interesting. Especially watching the cannon being fired. Bruce tried to take a picture of the cannon being fired, but when they fired it, all he got was a picture of the sky because he jumped so high! They took an hour long tour where Bruce and the kids learned all sorts of neat things about how they lived at the citadel, why they had the cannons they way they did, and even that they were sneaky and had hidden cannons so that any spies who reported on how to breach the citadel wouldn't realize that it was a trap! Oh, and they thought it was funny that the school room was right next to where they stored all the gun powder.
In the afternoon everyone went to Pier 21. This was the first time Bruce and Adelle got lost driving in Halifax. Immigrants came into Canada, WWI and WWII soldiers left and came home, and their war brides came to Canada through Pier 21. It is not used now, and so it is a museum to remember what has happened there. Approximately 1 in 4 Canadians have an ancestor that came through Pier 21. Adelle's grandmother immigrated to Canada from Hungary, but we are not sure if she came by boat or by plane. And Bruce's dad served in WWII, so he probably went through Pier 21.
We ended the day with supper down by the water. We all had something sea related - fish or lobster. While we were there, we saw fog roll in. It started from a ways out and then eventually blanketed the whole area. It was very different from anything we have seen in Saskatchewan.
Tuesday: We had planned to head out to the Bay of Fundy, but the rain delayed our plans. Again, this was weather we had not seen in Saskatchewan, but apparently it is not typical for Nova Scotia, either. There were heavy rain warnings as we crossed the bridge to visit the Bedford Institute for Oceanography. (Both bridges between Halifax and Dartmouth are toll bridges. It costs $1 to cross the bridge.) Our tour included learning about lobsters, crabs, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and star fish (which have been renamed sea stars as they aren't really fish) which we all got to hold as well. A lot of research happens and we found out that the Halifax harbour is the 2nd deepest natural harbour in the world. That means that the harbour hasn't been dredged to make it deeper, and they can study all sorts of sea life in it still since it has not been destroyed. Note - it was very hard to find the entrance and someone eventually took pity on us and let us in through a locked door because we all looked like drowned rats - which they have a lot of in Halifax, apparently.
Because Quintins had a GPS and we did not, we were following them to make sure we didn't get lost again. Adelle was driving and was following their blue car back home. However, when we started seeing highway signs indicating that we were heading toward the airport, we realized we were following the wrong blue car. Thankfully we had a map of Halifax and Dartmouth that the car rental gave us, so we turned off, found out where we were and successfully navigated our way back home.
After supper the rain let up and we decided to go downtown to see the Maritime Museum. We caught the tail end of a tour and heard about the unsuccessful privateers including a boat that was captured by the Americans, auctioned off, then captured by the British and bought back by her original owners. There was also a short film about the Halifax explosion. So far this trip has been as educational for the parents as it has been for the kids.
Wednesday: The weather was nice and so we made the trip out to the Bay of Fundy to see the tides. We went to Blomidon Provincial Park. One thing we noticed was how red the sand, rocks and dirt were. The tide was at its lowest when we arrived, so we walked out a long way to the water and explored. We had lunch and then decided to visit a winery and cheese-making farm while we waited for high tide. When we went back at high tide, it was amazing at how quickly the water came in. The kids tried skipping rocks in the waves, and our daughter stood on a rock while the tide was coming in. Adelle took many pictures trying to capture the tide rising around our daughter's feet.
We followed the Quintins to the park, but figured that it was fairly safe for us to get back to the house on our own. We did well until we took the wrong exit to get to our house which had us going in the wrong direction - away from Halifax. After turning around and heading the right direction, we again made a right turn instead of a left, and started heading out the city again which we realized when we saw the sign to Peggy's Cove. We made a loop and even without the GPS, we managed to make our way home. However, we now have a well-earned reputation for getting lost. It has become the running joke amongst us.
It is late and we have another busy day ahead of us tomorrow as we head to PEI. Part II and pictures will have to come later.
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