We made it to Halifax the eve of Canada's 150 birthday....when we planned out this trip we thought Halifax would be the place to celebrate our great country's birthday and Halifax did not disappoint!! The city was decked out with Canada flags and Canada 150 flags everywhere and the atmosphere in the air was a city ready to celebrate! We made the right choice. We were staying right on the waterfront and our hotel location was perfect for the activities we did within the city. Little did we know that the Canadian Arm Wrestling National championship was taking place at our hotel. Who knew this was even a thing. Canada Day started off with some rainy weather but that didn't dampened the spirit and by mid day it stopped altogether and remained just overcast. We started our day out heading up to the Halifax Citadel to watch the day's opening ceremony. The singing of O' Canada was followed by a 21 mortar gun salute. We walked around and explored the citadel for a while and watched some of the military performances taking place. With it being Canada Day access was free which was even better. We stayed for some birthday cake before heading over to the Halifax Common grounds where the free concerts would be taking place later in the evening. Walking around the city you could just feel the sense of pride in being a Canadian and it was awesome to experience. There was a sea of red and white and Canada shirts everywhere you looked. We decided to visit the Maritime Museum and the HMCS Sakeville to learn about some of the maritime history of Halifax. Admission to both was also free. We had planned to head back to the Common grounds later in the evening to take in the concerts and to watch the fireworks but we ended up having a little too much fun at the social gathering place of Halifax, Lower Deck. We stopped in here for some very tasty dinner on the upper deck of the pub before heading downstairs to the lower deck to listen the live music of local musician Paul Lamb. The place was standing room only and quite packed, but we found ourselves a spot and took in the amazing performance and signing to a lot of the tunes. A local couple started chatting us up and were shocked to hear that we came all this way. They were very friendly and chatted with us for some time and gave us some tips for the balance of our trip. They really exhibited the friendly, welcoming and laid back way of Halifaxonians. After Paul Lamb, another local band by the name of Shaydid was performing, though this time they were playing outside on the walkway alley between the pub and the market building next door. We were having a lot of fun and decided to stay for them as well. We soon forgot about the concerts and fireworks and just took in the party atmosphere at Lower Deck. This was just what I was hoping we'd get to experience....local musicians playing in a pub and people just having an absolutely amazingly awesome time. Halifax does seem like a city where the locals really have a good time. What a great way to end Canada Day! We had such a great that the next night we returned to Lower Deck, this time we hung out in the walkway alley outside the roped in section for Lower Deck patrons and listened to another local band, originally from Newfoundland, called Signal Hill. They play here regularly on Sunday nights and they bring with them a huge crowd. The place was lined up down the block well before they took the stage at 9:30 and it remained that way pretty much all evening. The place was just packed as was the walkway alley. Signal Hill is a show band and again we sang along with all the familiar songs they played, which was pretty much every song. They were awesome!!
Random fact: Proir to 1923 people in Halifax drove on the left side of the road.
We drove to Peggy's Cove, which is a short half hour drive from Halifax. This small rural fishing community is famous for its lighthouse. The views from the lighthouse and the rocks overlooking Saint Margaret's Bay are just breathtaking; even on an overcast day like the one we had. The village is inhabited by less than 1000 people and really represents the quintessential imagine of a small Canadian fishing village. It's quite a quaint and peaceful place. Our trip back to Halifax was another scenic drive which took us passed the Swissair flight 111 memorial. Peggy's Cove and its neighbour Blandford were intrusmental in aiding in the recovery mission of this tragedy.
As part of the Canada Day weekend, Halifax was hosted many different events and festivals. We decided on our last evening to have dinner at the Rib Festival being held near Pier 21. Pier 21 is infamous as the landing shed for over one million immigrants from 1928 to 1972. Ribfest put on by the Rotary Club of Halifax Waterfront on the other hand, is an open field with numerous different rib stands competing with each other for the title of best ribs. There were at least seven different rib vendors there, and as you can probably guess it was all about the ribs. We chose to get ribs from Texas Rangers, originally from Texas but now based in Ontario. These were some mighty fine tasting ribs! Good thing we had each done a workout before because this was purely a meat only dinner.
While there was a Cow's ice cream place a stones through from our hotel, there was always a long line up and we never felt like waiting. Instead we went to a place called Sugah which so happened to be right beside ribfest. Sugah is somewhat like Cold Stone where they take your ice cream flavour and can combine it with some fixings and mix it on a cold some before serving. I had vanilla ice cream with peanut butter fudge and Z had chocolate with peanut butter fudge. Very tasty indeed.
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