Our tour in Halifax was the aforementioned Lighthouse & Lobster tour, a trip to Peggy’s Cove followed by a lobster lunch. The tour started with a bus trip through the city, including the Citadel, the fortress that overlooks Halifax Harbour from the top of the hill that downtown Halifax is built into. For those who have never been there, Halifax is built into a very steep hill. It is not unusual to enter a building at street level, climb several flights of stairs and exit the same building at street level of the next street up! Larry has been to Halifax several times and the view from the Citadel is fabulous. Unfortunately all we had time for was a drive around it.
The trip to Peggy’s Cove is about 45 minutes through what we are sure is beautiful country in the summer. At this time of year, with most of the leaves down, you get the sense that Mother Nature is getting ready for hibernation, a feeling we had several times during the day. In each port, we have been the last ship of the season and Halifax was no exception. One advantage to that, of course, is no crowds! Ours was the only tour bus in the parking lot! We have been told that in peak tourist season you’re lucky to GET to the parking lot, never mind find a parking spot! Being the only ones there meant great photo ops, which means pictures of the lighthouse without several dozen strangers in the shot. Or in the case of the “Court Photographer” (AKA-Monica), with only several local seagulls in the shot. We wandered the village for about an hour, and again, the feeling of Mother Nature shutting down was pervasive. It was actually “picture postcard” perfect and very peaceful, with just the right mix of sun and clouds.
After an hour at the lighthouse we reboarded our bus for the short drive to Hubbard’s Bay and our lobster lunch at the Dauphinee Inn, another “picture postcard” location about 40 minutes outside of Halifax. The inn sits at the top of Hubbard’s Bay and has been run by the same family for eight generations, and “lobster supper”, or in our case lunch, is their specialty. Home made cole slaw, TWO one pound lobsters (cooked to perfection), followed by wild blueberry crumble. Yes, the lobster was as good as it looks in the picture. Monica, being her Mother’s daughter, did Mom proud! There was nothing left of her two lobsters but the shells and you had to look closely to make sure she hadn’t eaten THEM as well!!! Again, this is a place we will come back to in the future!
Reboarding the bus, we headed back to Halifax and the ship. We were docked at Pier 22, which in itself is not significant, but Pier 21 was the first point of entry for 1.5 million post-war immigrants. Including Monica’s Father in the Spring of 1952! Our driver told us about a research center in Pier 21 and suggested we might be able to find her Dad’s landing records, so we decided to check it out. The “happy ending” would have us doing just that, but unfortunately privacy legislation keeps these types of records under lock and key until 75 years later. Still in all , it was neat to realize that we were “walking in his footsteps” 57 years later! And yes, we took pictures.
Today, after a rockin’ and rollin’ night on the ocean, we arrive in Boston for the first of two nights. We are taking “The President’s Excursion” to the JFK Library followed by a champagne reception at the Massachusetts State House. After a musket welcome by Revolutionary War re-enactors, Gregg Michel (El Presidente de Crystal) is supposed to be making an “address from the balcony” (whatever that means) followed by a welcome from a “Massachusetts Celebrity”, the identity of whom is a surprise.
This evening we dine in Prego and tomorrow we are doing the “Freedom Trail” walk in downtown Boston. The good news, if The Weather Channel is to be believed, is that we should have sunshine and temps in the 16C range from now through next Tuesday in New York. That would be nice, but we shall see!
Until tomorrow………..
No comments:
Post a Comment