Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Day 11 - South Shore

Day 11 - Tuesday the 18th

Once again, it was a boiling hot day, and it's been such a big deal that the front pages are full of stories about it. Halifax, simply put, isn't known for 30+ degree days.

Today, we packed up the van and headed for the South Shore for the day. Our first stop was in Mahone Bay, a picturesque town (really, most Nova Scotia towns along the coast are) about 50 minutes from Halifax. We parked halfway down on the main street and strolled up and down checking out all of the shops in the area. Picked up some more souvenirs and knick knacks for the boys to keep them entertained. We made an extended stop at the Amos Pewter shop where they had a display centre in the back to demonstrate how they create pewter products, quite interesting. We bought a couple of pewter Christmas tree ornaments to give to our friends who are watching our cat while we're away, and some pewter starfish earrings for Ashley. Also explored a new tea brewery, antique shops, The Teazer (a well-known shop) and took pictures of the three churches from the other side of town. Here's a pic of the three churches:



After all that, we were ready to hunt down some lunch, so decided to hop back into the van and make the 10-minute drive further down the road to Lunenburg. Had a decent lunch at a local diner called Large Marge's as I knew the kids would be a little fussy about eating at some of the tourist places with all the seafood on the menu. After lunch, we set out to explore the streets and waterfront of Lunenburg. Lunenburg is a very colourful town (as you can see from the picture below) with houses and buildings in all sorts of wild colours (bright blue? check. neon-purple? check. pink? check. lime green? check.) and has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its cultural/natural heritage. It's also home to the Bluenose II, the schooner -- if you have a Canadian dime around, that's the original Bluenose on the front of the dime.

We explored some of the interesting shops around and picked up a loot of stuff to bring back home (also got a thank-you gift to my parents for having all of us over), then went to the Fisheries Museum on the waterfront. They had huge aquariums to showcase the various types of fish that can be found in the ocean, plus tanks for the kids to reach in and pet starfishes, crabs, lobsters (with rubber bands on their pincers!), etc. The museum also had displays of the various crafts used by fishermen over the past two-plus centuries to pull in fish.

Here's a shot of Lunenburg's waterfront:



We intended to continue on to The Ovens, a natural formation of caves that can be explored which is about fifteen minutes south of Lunenburg, but we had just spent four hours exploring and it was sweltering with some of us starting to get overtired and really cranky, so we elected to just head on back to Halifax in time for dinner. Ash, who really pushed for us to go to The Ovens earlier, didn't even make a peep about missing out on The Ovens. Maybe on a future trip...

After a nice dinner of provolone-stuffed chicken breast smothered with parmesan and Italian herbs, some of us drove out to Sandwich Point, about ten minutes down Purcell's Cove Rd. from my parents, and went for a stroll amongst the rocky shoreline. Really, a great way to stretch out the legs and be able to look out into the horizon over the endless ocean with nothing in between there and Europe.

Oh, and remember when I mentioned in the previous day's post about Zack losing his cellphone and later finding it at the admissions desk? Today was Ashley's turn to lose her cellphone, and she finally found it underneath the van's seat after I made several calls to her phone to help her find it. At 11:30 at night. Sheesh, kids... there's a reason why parents develop gray hair quite quickly.

Tomorrow (Wed.)... ack. Our last full day in Halifax before we make the long drive back home.


1 comments:

JBug said...

I am enjoying your family's vacation!
Your blog is a perfect way to keep & treasure these wonderful times. Makes me wish we had thought to write all about our family vacations back when I was a kid (before computers & internet LOL).