Halifax - Day 2

Day 2 in Halifax was just as beautiful as day 1. The sun was shining, but the weather was warm instead of hot. We got off to a late start, sleeping in until 10am, then going grocery shopping at the Walmart. We purchased about $50 worth of food overall, but it should last us quite a while.

We got downtown around 12noon or so, and we started with a visit to the Historic Properties. They turned out to be a bunch of shops, which we browsed. Nothing of great interest there, and unfortunately the Bluenose wasn’t docked.

We walked down the boardwalk after, with Julie hoping to catch Theodore Tugboat at port. We weren’t so lucky, but we did take down his schedule. Julie was determined to get a picture with him.

Peace Monument (on the inside)

To pass the time, we took a ferry to Dartmouth where we visited the peace monument—a half-formed pyramid full of rocks. Literally. Hahaha. Apparently, students had put the monument together, and had contacted all the governments of the countries participating in either the G7 or G20 summit that occurred sometime in the 80s or 90s, or something like that, and all the governments had sent them pieces of rocks for the display. Some were neat, like a chunk from the Berlin wall, but others were just labeled “rock”, and that was that.

We didn’t spend too much time in Dartmouth, since we had a busy schedule. But we did take the time to test out the playground! Lol. We also met a gentleman with whom we chatted for quite a while. The people here in Halifax are so friendly! It still weirds me out to have strangers just randomly talk to us out of nowhere.

Back on the Halifax shore, we walked the boardwalk and came across some tallship tours. We decided to take a ride on the Tallship Silva. 

We thought it would be a guided tour of the Halifax Harbour. There was no “guided” part, but we did get to sail around the harbour for a good hour. Boy were we unprepared for sailing though! Being on the water, even just in the harbour, was COLD! We enjoyed our relaxing little tour, though that Barrett’s Privateers song (the one that the choir kids always sing…Stefanie, Brian...you know what I’m talking about. Lol) played about 4 or 5 times while we were on the boat. Apparently their music selection was very slim! That song turned out to be the bane of our time in Halifax as you will find out a little later.

Anyway, once back on shore, Julie and I rushed over to catch Theodore Tugboat. He was just pulling up to dock when we arrived. Julie was like a school kid! We got one of the Theodore employees to take our picture. I also took a couple one-on-one photos of Julie and Theodore…Julie can now cross yet another thing off her bucket list (this is thanks to you by the way Simon Mattioli!).

At this point, we’d pretty much accomplished everything we were planning to accomplish, except for dinner and a tour of Keith’s Brewery. Hungry and tired, with 3 hours to kill before the last tour of the day at 8pm, we decided to head back to the van hoping that we would have enough time to drive it to the nearest park with picnic tables so that we could cook dinner before going for beer. We also decided that we wanted to go out and experience the Halifax nightlife (the tour, which offered two pints-worth of beer, seemed to be a good start to the evening…).

The bus back seemed to take longer than expected, but we arrived at the Walmart parking lot around 5pm. We used the GPS to help us find the nearest park, and we packed up our backpacks and shoulder bags with pots, cutlery, food, and dishware. Then we ventured into the park to find a picnic table. It was our first time using the camping stove. Julie and I were a bit afraid that we would make the propane tank explode somehow. We were also really worried that we would get in big trouble for cooking in the middle of this jogging park of sorts. So one of us pretty much kept a look-out while the other cooked.

We ended up creating a delicious spaghetti dish with spicy sauce and spicy sausage added in. No other food ever tasted so good! (Everyone always says that…lol). 

True to our deadline, we were out of the park and heading back to the Walmart parking lot for 7pmish. We got all dolled up (well, as dolled up as Julie and I get), and we went out to catch the bus at around 7:15pm. We were pushing it for getting to the Keith’s Brewery on time for the last tour. The bus came at 7:35pm, and Julie and I were getting a little antsy. We were almost confident that we were going to miss the last tour. When the bus finally arrived in the downtown area, we missed our stop. The stop after we jumped off. It was 7:53pm according to Julie’s cell phone. Desperate to start our evening with two pints, we ran all the way to the brewery – downhill! Julie was terrified of falling, being in flats. I was more worried about blisters and missing out on the tour.

At 7:57pm we entered the doors of the Keith’s Brewery. We rushed into the little gift shop where the tour tickets could be purchased, and we were just in time! The tour was…interesting. Probably the best Keith’s commercial we’ve ever seen. It started with a more than chipper tour guide who was so over-the-top happy, we thought she was going to have a heart attack. She kept gushing about Keith’s beer as if it were the love of her life. What a script! The poor actress! Lol. She was dressed in period costume as befitted her character and the tour, and she escorted us “back in time” to the humble beginnings of the Keith’s legacy. At this point, we watched a historic video about “Keith’s crisp, golden, India Pale Ale” hahaha literally. We learned about the fact that the beer was called India Pale Ale because it was the first good tasting beer to be sent to the troops in India (the first beer that didn’t go bad before it was shipped there) during a time when the British army had decided on a 1 gallon ration of beer per solder per day…no wonder they couldn’t shoot straight! It wasn’t their shitty muskets, it was because they couldn’t see straight! Lol.

After the film, we were taken into the brewing room, designed to look exactly like the brewing room would have back in the late 1800s. A very enthusiastic male guide joined us and explained how Mr. Keith always inspected the ingredients himself, to ensure only the best quality possible for his beer. Then he lead us down a tunnel that had originally connected the Keith’s brewery to Mr. Keith’s house. This time it lead to a “tavern”, where we were provided with large pints of any of Keith’s 4 available beers – the  blonde, red, stout, and the pale ale. While the guests drank their beer, the actors, 4 of them total now, sang a few songs. The first was some sad tune about a lover, but can you guess the second one? That’s right! Barrett’s Privateers! Wasn’t THAT a treat! When they announced they were going to sing it, I involuntarily shouted out “NO!” and quickly turned away with my hand over my mouth, embarrassed. They didn’t listen to my protest and forged on with their song.

Now a note for those who decide to visit the Keith’s brewery for the tour: it says you get 2 pints of beer on the tour, and this is true enough, but what it doesn’t say is that you must chug your two pints or you do without. Two songs and one joke in, they announced a last call for beer! Julie wasn’t more than half-way done her pint. I had been drinking quickly, so I was about 2/3 done, but many of the other guests weren’t half done themselves! Julie and I decided that it’s their way of saving money on the beer. They rush you through drinking so that you don’t consume as much…wasn’t very cool in our opinion! But overall, the tour was fun. We even met a couple of girls who were from Chatham and Ottawa respectfully. They were both in Halifax for some kind of veterinary conference. Pretty neat!

Once we were done the tour, we decided to walk along the boardwalk and enjoy the sunset. We ended up passing the Jazz festival that was going on, and were almost at the right time and the right place to receive free tickets for the evening. Only we weren’t. Instead, the couple just in front of us was stopped by the stranger looking to relieve himself of his jazz festival tickets. Julie was sorely disappointed. Lol.

Walking along the boardwalk at sunset was absolutely beautiful. The water was very clear and we could see down to the rocks in the shallower areas. I couldn’t tell you how many starfish I counted while gazing down into the water! There were starfish with four legs and some with five. I even saw a few move.

Once near the information booth we veered uphill, heading to a bar-populated area we’d seen earlier that day. Being such a beautiful night, all the patios were packed, but we managed to squeeze ourselves into a two-seater table at the Foggy Goggle. (I loved the name of the bar!) Julie wasn’t feeling so hot, due to rushing while drinking the last beer and a half at the Keith’s Brewery, but we ordered a pitcher and a couple glasses of water and slowly worked our way through them. There was a huge group of guys sitting beside us who looked like they might know the city well, so we decided to poke one of them and ask him if he knew where we could find any live music. The answer was the Split Crow. He gave us directions, and then turned back to participate his man date again (apparently they aren’t exclusive to New Brunswick. Lol).

Later in the evening, his friend, who was absolutely hammered (so much so that he spilled beer all over his pants not minutes before introducing himself), approached us and invited us to go to the casino with him and his friends. We obviously declined, not being gamblers ourselves…momentarily we were interested in potentially having a random adventure. But in the end, we didn’t go. That’s something we need to work on. We need to be more adventurous! But it’s hard to feel comfortable going somewhere with perfect strangers, and a group of guys at that! I guess that’s part of what Canada is about though. Sure, we have crazy people here, but not nearly as many as the US does. Stefanie and I were talking about that before I left on this trip actually. She was telling me how she was so shocked that such a big deal was made out of the military commander who was nabbed for murder out in Trenton, but as Brian pointed out, that kind of thing almost never happens! Doesn’t feel that way of course. I mean, what with the media, we are never able to forget how scary the world is. But anyway…

After our pitcher, our party spirit was pretty much dead. Julie’s stomach was in full rebel mode and neither of us was sure exactly when the buses stopped running, so we found ourselves a bus stop and we went back to Cloud 9. We certainly slept like babies that night!


-Nicole