9-27-10 Halifax does not disappoint.

Monday- brisk and sunny

Ann writes:

     We found a Starbucks before we even expected one on Sackville, but first we got tickets to the production of Rome & Juliet at the Neptune Theater.

Halifax waterfront in the backgound

     After grabbing a real mocha buried in Canadian whipped cream (yum!), we explored Arglye, the Paperchase news store, and the shops on Spring Garden Road. I took Jon's picture at the 1 Starbucks Jon didn't visit the entire time we were in Halifax

Civilization!

The entrance to the Public Gardens is at the end of Spring Garden road. The garden is a lovely tranquil place with many beautiful trees, flower beds, a lake and the biggest, fattest geese I have ever seen. The two Toulouse Dewlapped Geese, Finnegan (male) and Flora (female)", are so fat they have huge double chins and their bellies drag on the ground.

A well fed goose

On the other side of the garden is the Halifax Citidel, and we showed up just in time for the 12:30 tour in english, which I insisted we follow over Jon's protests of starvation. Our tour was led by an excellent guide who said he was one of the supervisors.




We learned:

• Kilts differ from skirts in that you wear something under a skirt.
• There are 4 seasons in Halifax- Almost winter, Winter, Still Winter and Road Work
• Pigeons are really day bats.

Standing guard at the Citadel in kilts

Finally had lunch at Q, a BBQ place that was not great- strange gravy on the brisket. We went back to move the boat to a hopefully less bouncy spot on Sackville landing which turned out to still be subject to incoming wakes and waves. On the way, I stopped to talk to artist Don Manning who gave me lots of tips, including that DeSerres art store is just a few blocks away. I bought some of his bookmarks and notecards of harbor scenes.

As soon as we were settled again, I dragged Jon off to see tugboat Theodore II- it's just soooo cute! 

We explored the shops beyond the ferry bldg. then went back to The Lower Deck for a bowl of seafood chowder and the blueberry grunt, which still turned out to be too much food. I guessed it's called a grunt because you feel like a pig after eating it!

However, as borrowed liberally from King Arther Flour:

First you take a quart of blueberries (Cape Cod aside, wild blueberries grow in profusion on low, scrubby bushes scattered over rather barren land in Maine and all over the Northeast; the tiny tart ones from Maine are by far the most famous.)... preferably, tart Maine blueberries, stir in some sugar and water and put them in an iron spider (a cast iron skillet) or casserole dish that can sit on a burner. (Grunts used to be cooked in an open cast iron Dutch oven over the coals of a fire.) Then you top the berries with blobs of biscuit dough and let it cook very slowly.

As the concoction begins to heat, bubbles slowly work their way up from the bottom of the pot to break through the biscuit dough topping. The small snufflings you hear from the pot on top of the stove today probably sounded like a significant grunting of pigs in the huge cast iron pots that were used 300 years ago.

Jon writes:

After exploring the possibilities, we moved three blocks downtown to the Pilotage Wharf, a bit quieter both on land and sea, and almost no seagulls. Just the Pilot boats coming and going at all hours. We were again among civilization, for the first time in nearly a month - there were 3 Starbucks within walking distance!

Three blocks down at Pilotage Wharf - no seagulls and still downtown

'Anomaly' is currently on the hard in Somes Sound, Mt. Desert Island, Maine