Halifax
If you have never been there, it might not look like anything special until you go by the harbor front. That is because they are doing a lot of constructions around the city now. We started with a trip to Citadel, the fortress at the top of the hill. A star shaped fortress that was build to protect the city. As a matter of fact, Halifax was never attacked. Nobody has tried because was a loss from the beginning. The tour guide, Mr. Adam, was really knowledgeable. He has been writing a book for 10 years and he promised us that it will be published in the next 20 years :). We happened to be there at noon, and as per the tradition, the canon was fired and, as per what the locals say, nobody is awake after that in Halifax. Then for lunch, we met an old friend that we used to work with. Was so nice to see him and catch up. He looks happy and I am happy for him. He moved there, after 1 year got divorced, and after another year started dating someone that sounds like a nice girl for him. They build their own house that we went to visit on our way back and was really gorgeous. You could tell that he put a lot of love on that house, on every corner of it and on every detail that was still to be finished. After that, we went down to harbor front. It is so beautiful there. Maybe because the weather was also sunny and warm, it just made that area so inviting. We went on a museum boat, on the real museum and then took the tour with Harbor Hopper, an amphibian vehicle from the Vietnam war, now changed and dressed up to be used for tourist. US made 900 of them for $900M. The guide was Max, a student at the Halifax Uni. He really knew a lot about the city. A couple of times he made me cry with the stories he told us.
Story 1
Captain Cornwallis came from Cape Breton to find a place where to build a strong fortress. When he landed to the harbor, he walked up to the hill and decided that that was the best place to build a fortress and a city. But he needed people. So he went back and he started recruiting. "I will offer you free land" - nobody came. "I will offer you free food for 1 year" - nobody came. "I will offer you free Wifi" - nobody came :D. "I will offer you free booze for 1 year" - next day 2500 people were ready to follow him.
Story 2
The most respected Mayor, had his own brewery, called after him, Alexander Keith. When the city was celebrating something I forgot, the Mayor at that time, decided to close the bars and pubs so the people wouldn't get drunk and make a mess. People got angry about that and went around the city and started destroying bars and shops. Until Keith decided to open the doors of his brewery and people celebrated in peace. I thought that was a dumb decision from that Mayor. The city was build by people bribed with booze. How can you expect them to celebrate something without booze??!!! Alexander Keith's grave is on the graveyard across the Garden. We went there and we found a lot of beer cans that people had put around :)
Story 3
During the war, the city would put a net on the water to keep the boats from offloading on harbor during night time. The net would be removed in the morning. On December 6, 1917 a french boat full of ammunition rushed to get to harbor after waiting all night behind the net, hiding what they had on board. A boat full with medications was eager to leave because missed to leave on time the night before and now was late. During the rush, the two boats hit each-other and the french boat went BOOOM. The biggest disaster ever happened to the city. Thousands of people died, thousands were injured and thousands were blinded by the flying glass. On top of that, that day the city had one of the worst snow storms of the history. Someone, Morse-ed out a message for help. People in Boston caught the message, filled up a train with medications, doctors and even Harvard students that were not doctors yet, and came to help. As a Thank you sign of appreciation, every year, on Christmas time, Halifax city sends to the city of Boston, the biggest Christmas tree they have on the forest nearby.
Story 4
Howe was a journalist that called out a lot of the corruptions going on on the government. So they arrested him. He decided to defend himself and for 6 hours, he spoke non-stop, giving examples of what was going on. At the end, the Chief Police apologized to him publicly and he was a free man. After some years, he became the Premier of Nova Scotia.
Story 5
Remember the canon that goes Boom every noon? That happened during G8, when all leaders were lined up to have a picture. They all thought they were being attacked and they were halfway to Peggy's Cove by the time they explained the tradition. Needless to say, they will not have another gathering of World Leaders there anytime soon.
Back to Halifax. Another thing to try there is donairs. Max told us that when Bill Clinton was there, he liked it so much that he got a lot of it, frozen, back with him to White House. But I had decided to eat only seafood.... and beaver's tails .... and awesome ice cream. Have to say, it is a city with a lot of history, comfort food and during winter, full of students.
At the in-laws
They live in a small town, that during night is very quite and doesn't have very bright lights. You can stare at stars at night and feel small like a grain of sand. The goal was to spend some time with them and get my daughter to understand that there are more people in the world that love her and that she should love and respect. There is an aunt there that is very sweet to us. She never forgets to send a Christmas card. So we decided to go and visit her. Tuesday was what worked best for all of us. So we went for a visit to Peggy's cove, stopped for a nice meal at a cute restaurant by the side of the ocean and then drove to her house. Her house is on a small strip of land surrounded by water on East and West. She and her husband were so happy to see us. They took us around for a tour to the backyard that was at the Indian harbor. Just amazing view! She is 72, full of energy and ideas for future. She paints, a hobby she found late in her life but she is now a real painter. She took us around her lovely house and showed us the paintings all over the walls. We got one of her paintings and she signed it on the back, with the date and with a sweet message about our visit. She told us a lot of history about the family tree. Some stories not even my in-laws knew! We asked her to put all of those stories down and create the family tree. She promised she will do that! Around 7 pm we left her place. We hugged and we waved bye. The next morning, her husband called to tell us that she passed away last night, at the hospital, after a fall.
I still cannot believe she is gone. I still have her in front of me, hugging her husband and waving us goodbye while we were driving away from her driveway one night before. I cannot understand how all the energy in that women, all the plans that she had to visit some new places, all the paintings that she was planning to make .. are all gone just like that! The painting we got from her is now in our house and her writing is on the back, with her lovely message and the date we visited her, one day before she passed away. I know she is in somewhere nice, peaceful and by the ocean. It will be the first Christmas we will not get a card from her. RIP!
One day we went to a corn maze. One day to the pool. Every night we had deers visiting the backyard and eating the seeds left on the bird-feeder. One night when the sly was clear we saw the International Space Station flying by. Now I know where my husband's first girlfriend house is, where he got drunk before prom, what window did he use to sneak out at night, and what did he used to do to get out of mowing the lawn.
We played darts, we drank, we ate, we cried and we laughed.
