Got up early so I could take some unimpeded video of the ship (which will be posted as an episode of “From the Pop Culture Bunker”).
Then we got dressed and went down for a smaller breakfast at the buffet, taking some pastries back with us and sat on the balcony. The ship doesn't dock at Halifax until mid morning. It is remarkably warm here--thanks climate change! Early predictions had it in the high 40s at Halifax, and now it's saying more like 60.
It's absolutely gorgeous this morning--just some wispy clouds.
Around 10:30 or so, the cruisers were allowed to disembark, most of them scurrying to tours, but we just decided to walk around and have lunch.
Alongside us with a ship from the Silversea line, a fancy-schmancy vessel.
While Halifax is definitely an industrial town, the boardwalk area is just fantastic. It stretches for a mile or two, going past shops, restaurants, museums, and other businesses.
Since Nova Scotia translates to "New Scotland", there's a number of businesses that sell tartans and kilts. In the middle was an area called the Salt Yard, where there were various shacks and buildings selling food. We read about it on the Facebook group page. We always endeavor to get food that we can't get at home, so we had the following:
Poutine, Canada's national food (apart from Tim Hortons donuts I guess). French fries, cheese curds, gravy, and maybe meat if you'd like. Basically a lot of carbs and quite delicious.
A "Beaver Tail", similar in concept to an elephant ear except it has whole wheat pastry, with various stuff added to it. We had the Avalanche, which involved a cream and bits of Skor candy on it. Messy but very good.
Finally, from a host of ice cream places we could have picked from, The Fog Company. They start with an ice cream cone, then dump all sorts of stuff on it both savory and sweet-- then add cotton candy in a ring at the top of the cone itself. The various add-ons end up getting snagged in that cotton candy ring. You almost need a shower after eating this, but wow!
During our time in Halifax, we kept seeing this bizarre cargo ship that we were convinced was run by Google. It turned out to be a n unrelated company that ship huge industrial equipment.
Note the logo.
After walking up and down the boardwalk, and checking out some of the stores, we made it back to the ship before our sugar crash kicked in. Time for a nap before dinner!
This was our second of two specialty restaurants which were included in our cruise package. We went to La Cucina, a fancy Italian spot. We stuck to our rule of eating stuff we normally wouldn't--I had calamari with a red snapper entree, which included clams and mussels. Mindy had antipasto and ravioli with beef tenderloin. It was all wonderful.
A walk around the deck later, ,we got the "sustainable cocktail of the day--a Bananaruma, which sounds promising but (at least to me) fell into the "cough syrup" category.
Au revoir, Canada.
We sailed out into the foggy night. We're told the wind is really going to pick up and it appears to be doing so already.
Louie, I think think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.
Tomorrow--a rough day at sea on our way back to the states...
#escapetothegreatwhitenorth