The weekend of October 6th, Ed and I went to Nova Scotia for the extended weekend (Ed didn't have school on Monday and I took the day off not realizing that ARIAD didn't give its employees Columbus Day off). We left Saturday morning from Boston and arrived in Halifax during the early afternoon hours. The Halifax Airport looked relatively new and it has won a ton of awards for excellence. I was pleasantly surprised with the airport.
After we arrived, we picked up our rental car and headed West on the Evangeline Trail about two hours to the small town of Annapolis Royal http://www.annapolisroyal.com/. The trip to Annapolis Royal was beautiful -- the leaves in Nova Scotia are starting to change. So, we were able to see the start of the fall season. Once we arrived in Annapolis Royal, we checked out the historic downtwon and the town's Fort Anne. The fort was nice (even though Ed would call all forts "excellent" and "fascinating") and well kept by the Canadian Parks Service. I must say that all of the Canadian sites we visited were all very nice and looked great! They do an excellent job conserving their parks and history. As for Fort Anne, it is situated at the head of the Annapolis River / Bay of Fundy and the views from the fort are spectacular!
HQ building and sallyport at Fort Anne
Later that night, Ed and I attended our first Canadian Thanksgiving at our little Bed and Breakfast. Fortunately, we planned on eating at the B&B because the only other place open to eat was Charlie Wong's Restaurant, which features Chinese and Canadian cuisine (quite diverse eating, huh?). Our Thanksgiving dinner was very nice -- it is very similar to the US' Thanksgiving dinner -- I still had turkey and stuffing, but it came with a couple of additional items (i.e. dried apricots with a sweet and spicy seasoning, stuffed apples, etc.)
Close to Annapolis Royal is Port Royal - the first French trading post in New France back in 1605. 
The trading post was burned down a long time ago, but the Canadian Parks Service did a nice job reconstructing the sight back in the 1930s. The original site only lasted until 1614, when the colony from Jamestown, Virgina decided to raid it for provisions and killed everyone at the fort except for seven people. The seven survivors spent the winter with the local Mi'kmaq Indian tribe and left the following summer for France permanently.
The next day, we traveled through Kejimkujik National Park to the South Shore and the village of Lunenburg http://www.town.lunenburg.ns.ca/, which is a World UNESCO Heritage site. Ed and I liked the town, but we were surprised to see that it was a UNESCO Heritage site. Lunenburg was THE fishing harbor for Canada years ago and the town does a good job noting that point throughout, but we didn't see how it was a UNESCO Heritage site. When we were in Lunenburg, we toured the Atlantic Fishery Museum and sat through a discussion on lobsters, which was very interesting -- I can now tell the difference between male and female lobsters, etc. We also saw the Bluenose II Schooner (you can see the original Bluenose on the Nova Scotian license plates). The original Bluenose was used as a racing and fishing boat in the early 1900s. The boat won a ton of awards and seemed to be cherished by the Canadians, but the boat was ultimately sold to the West Indies Trading Company and crashed off the shore in Haiti.
Fishing buoys in Lunenberg
Our last stop was in Halifax. Unfortunately when we arrived, they were still celebrating the Canadian Thanksgiving and there weren't a lot of shops open. I did however manage to get Ed to spring for some Nova Scotian crystal http://www.novascotiancrystal.com/ -- we purchased a cool ornament and a small carafe. Now....to get him to pay for the remaining glasses that go with my carafe -- haha! Fortunately, we were able to walk around town and 
down by the waterfront, which was really nice. We also were able to tour Canada's "Ellis Island," Pier 21 http://www.pier21.ca/. The museum was interesting, but the way that they set it up wasn't that great. I was more interested in hearing about the history and facts and they set it up so that you could read bits and pieces (not the entire story) of people's lives who were processed at Pier 21. I just wished that they had more....
Halifax Harbor
The last day in Halifax, we went to the Halifax Citadel. Officially, it was created to defend colonial Canada against an attack from the French, and later the United States. Unofficially, it was the dumping ground for all of the Scottish Highlanders who were creating trouble in Britain; so the British decided to send them overseas so that they would no longer pose a threat to the country. The fort was nice and it had great views of the city.
Halifax Town Clock & Citadel in a office building reflection
2 comments:
I've wanted to go to Nova Scotia since reading Anne of Green Gables. It sounds like a great time. I would love to live in the northeast for a few years.
Wow Kellie, your pictures look amazing! What a great place to visit. I still can't get it out of my head that the leaves were JUST changing! Man, we have almost a foot of snow on the ground!
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