Deblog

This morning, very early (i.e. 5:30am) I was lying awake in bed. While lying there, I heard a noise – a horn of sorts, perhaps a fog horn. Shortly after, I heard the same noise, but a bit louder. And then again, even louder still. Even in my semi-sleepy state, I realized this noise was a large ship coming into Halifax harbour. I got out of bed and wiggled behind the curtains so as not to wake Mike. Our hotel room faces out onto the water.

It was raining heavily and extremely foggy, so foggy that I couldn’t really see anything in the water – whether a big ship or not. I watched and listened as the noise was still happening at somewhat regular intervals and it was still getting louder. And then I saw it – a light, and then more lights in a straight, horizontal line, and then a group of lights at the end of the line of lights. Yes, there was a big ship coming into the harbour but the only thing visible were some very faint lights – very eerie!

It did rain today. But by noon, most of the rain was over. There were occasional showers and a bit of misting afterward. But we were able to walk around for another day.

We went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic today and wandered around the waterfront. I got to have a cup of tea and visit with long time knitting buddy and mentor, Lucy Neatby. I bought this little gem:

This will be my first double knit project (I don’t mean double knit as the yarn weight, I mean double knit as a knitting technique). I won’t tell you how absolutely touchable that yarn is (the light one is a silk/merino and the coloured one is cashmere/merino/nylon). It has been purring around me like an affection-starved cat all evening. Any guesses as to how long it takes before this stuff is on the needles?

Well last night Mike and I went out for a lovely dinner to mark our 25th wedding anniversary. Our hotel is right on the water so we are very close to lots of lovely places to dine. This is what the walk back to the hotel looked like:

And, yes, that is a full moon. Just for us.

Today we did even more sightseeing. We started off the day at Peggy’s Cove which is just shy of an hour’s drive from here.

It is a lovely little area which boosts 42 permanent residents. Of course, it’s biggest claim to fame is the lighthouse.

Another claim to fame for this area is the crash of SwissAir Flight 111 on September 2, 1998 just 9 miles off the coast killing all 229 people aboard. There is a buoy marking the spot which isn’t visible to the naked eye but which Mike and I were able to see with his binoculars. A very sobering monument.

Later in the day, once we had returned to Halifax, we went on a tour of the downtown core and the harbour front. We got to see a number of cool sights including this ship just leaving:

We also got to see this Italian ship which had just arrived in Halifax harbour this morning.

Check out the front of that ship. It has a helicopter on it!

It was a really big ship!

Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain. So, I’m not sure what we will do for our last full day in Halifax. Perhaps some shopping, perhaps sit in a bar with knitting and/or reading material, perhaps brave the rain to wander around some more. I will say, that our legs and feet are very tired. We have covered a lot of ground in the past three days and hardly used a vehicle for any of it. Perhaps a workout regime is in order before our next trip.

Today is the 25th anniversary of the day Mike and I got married. I’m not really sure how we got here (at 25 years I mean). I guess it just happened one day at a time. But it certainly doesn’t seem like it has been 25 years that we have been together. That’s over half of my lifetime!

But I have to admit, he’s good for me. He pushes my limit on some things, reigns me in on others and, in general, knows me far better than any other person on this earth and is my very best friend – without exception. So, I guess that means we are very good for each other.

So, our tour of Halifax continues. Today we saw Pier 21 – the port of entry for many immigrants coming to Canada between 1928 and 1971. I don’t know if my ancestors came through Pier 21. My great grandparents came from Ireland in the 1920’s. But, whatever port they came through, someone was brave enough to seek a new life in an unknown land.

This is the door that over 1 million new Canadians came through:

I have to say that this was an intensely emotional experience for me. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because I’m not sure I would have the courage to make that sort of journey? But it certainly struck a very strong chord within my being. One of the quotes on the boards was “A Canadian is just an immigrant with seniority” – how true!

While we were at Pier 21 we got to see a tanker coming through to Halifax harbour.

It doesn’t seem very big. But those little tiny boxes on the left side are the back end of 18-wheeler trucks!! Can you believe it! That thing was MASSIVE!

We went to a Mac Store to see if we could find something cool for Mike. No luck. But it was fun to check it out. We then checked out another park and then onto visit this gentleman:

That would be Mr. Alexander Keith of…

… yes, the Alexander Keith’s Brewery. They make a lovely beer which we have all the time at our house. However, I will readily admit that an Alexander Keith’s in Halifax tastes much better than an Alexander Keith’s in Ontario. So, we sampled right here at the brewery!

After all that, we visited another knitting store (and I did do some damage there) and then Staples so Mike could buy a mini-video recorder (perhaps he will blog about this). Then off to dinner to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

And if we weren’t having enough fun, Mike bought me a lovely set of pewter earrings, pendant and pin that I had admired the first day we were here. Yes, I wore them to dinner tonight and will be wearing them again and again and … You get the picture.

Okay, must go. Time to put my feet up – they are very tired. And I haven’t been doing very much knitting lately. So I should do a bit tonight I think.