I have been working with blogspot since my return from Canada to improve my ability to post while traveling. Blogspot blames it on a Google problem and Google will not address it.....
SO
I'm moving my blog to wordpress. Please feel free to visit my "new" blog at:
carolnbill.wordpress.com
Hope to see you over there.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
HOT, HUMID AND DOWNRIGHT MUGGY
We arrived back home to a sweltering heatwave…. Reagan National Airport has recorded 42 90+ degree days, tying with 1994 for the highest number of such days in a year through July 25th. We haven’t beat the record yet, which was 1980 with 67 of these hot, humid, muggy days. Monday was the first day below 90 degrees in 2 weeks.
Whereas in Baltimore Washington Airport hit 100 yesterday, breaking the previous record of 99 from 1934. It has reached 100 for the fifth time this month – THE MOST EVER 100 DEGREE OCCURRENCES FOR ANY MONTH IN BALTIMORE IN RECORDED HISTORY! It also marked Baltimore’s seventh 100 degree or higher day in 2010, tying with 1988 and 1933 for the most ever in a summer. AND WE STILL HAVE AUGUST TO GET THROUGH!
WHY DID WE COME BACK HOME?
We drove over to the Eastern Shore to visit Olivia. Billy brought her home from daycare at noon so we could babysit her until they got home from work.
We were only gone about a month and she’s already sitting up!
Whereas in Baltimore Washington Airport hit 100 yesterday, breaking the previous record of 99 from 1934. It has reached 100 for the fifth time this month – THE MOST EVER 100 DEGREE OCCURRENCES FOR ANY MONTH IN BALTIMORE IN RECORDED HISTORY! It also marked Baltimore’s seventh 100 degree or higher day in 2010, tying with 1988 and 1933 for the most ever in a summer. AND WE STILL HAVE AUGUST TO GET THROUGH!
WHY DID WE COME BACK HOME?
Oh yea, my grandchildren. We got to see Shane briefly before flew out to California for water polo. Below he is enjoying California's beautiful weather with friends.
We drove over to the Eastern Shore to visit Olivia. Billy brought her home from daycare at noon so we could babysit her until they got home from work.
We were only gone about a month and she’s already sitting up!
Gaspe & Canadian Atlantic Maritimes Trip Departure
Preparing for our departure from our trip to head home, Bill took a picture of me working vigorously on the last day of the blog.
In case anyone is disappointed that they won’t be able to read about Newfoundland, the new tailgunners are continuing the blog at: http://www.travelingwithsykes.blogspot.com
Our last day with the Caravan…….As Bill and I walked around the campground bidding our last farewell to our guest, (who were up and about-we were sorry we didn’t get a chance to see everyone, but with the schedule everyone had been keeping, we didn’t want to wake anyone up) we couldn’t help but feel the sadness that we were unable to finish the trip. Everyone was wonderful and understood, but we still had that feeling of letting everyone down. It didn’t make us feel any better to find that one of our guests awoke that morning to a dead RV….. It was a Saturday, so they had to wait until Monday to have it towed in for repairs and missed the 14 hr. ferry over to Newfoundland and had to wait until Saturday to get on the ferry. Later, on the road in Newfoundland, another one of our guests had a computer problem of some sort which required them to backtrack in order to get it fixed. Boy, they would have continued to keep Bill busy! But we were happy that they were able to find new tailgunners to come in and take our place, and we really appreciated the fact that they drove MANY miles to get up there (as they are from Arkansas).
Unfortunately I have no pictures of coming home as we were both worried about Bill’s dad, driving fast, over REALLY ROUGH roads. We made it to the border and then some the first night. Crossing the border, we were asked some stupid questions like, did you get into any trouble while in Canada……dah like we would have told him! I forget the name of the town we made it to, but we drove 625 miles miles! We made one mistake. We should have exchanged our money prior to leaving Canada, because now it was Saturday and no banks are open on a Saturday in Nova Scotia.
We made it from Maine to home on the second day, ANOTHER 625 MILES, getting home in the evening and boy did it feel good! The roads were so bumpy (and it didn’t help with the fact that Bill was driving as fast as he could) that somehow my jumpdrive came out of my storage box & our recliner chair “jumped” on it and it is now in pieces…..Not to mention a lot of other things that were thrown around in the 5th wheel.
The one good thing was, we didn’t break down on our way home AND paying $2.75/gallon for diesel felt good after paying $1.01/liter in Canada!
The other good thing is, Bill’s dad is “out of the woods.” He’s still in a lot of pain, but he’s on the road to recovery. He is now complaining about stomach pain and the VA hospital can’t find anything wrong in that area. As I write, they are preparing to ship him back to a nursing home to recover. Let’s hope he doesn’t end up back in the hospital.
In case anyone is disappointed that they won’t be able to read about Newfoundland, the new tailgunners are continuing the blog at: http://www.travelingwithsykes.blogspot.com
Our last day with the Caravan…….As Bill and I walked around the campground bidding our last farewell to our guest, (who were up and about-we were sorry we didn’t get a chance to see everyone, but with the schedule everyone had been keeping, we didn’t want to wake anyone up) we couldn’t help but feel the sadness that we were unable to finish the trip. Everyone was wonderful and understood, but we still had that feeling of letting everyone down. It didn’t make us feel any better to find that one of our guests awoke that morning to a dead RV….. It was a Saturday, so they had to wait until Monday to have it towed in for repairs and missed the 14 hr. ferry over to Newfoundland and had to wait until Saturday to get on the ferry. Later, on the road in Newfoundland, another one of our guests had a computer problem of some sort which required them to backtrack in order to get it fixed. Boy, they would have continued to keep Bill busy! But we were happy that they were able to find new tailgunners to come in and take our place, and we really appreciated the fact that they drove MANY miles to get up there (as they are from Arkansas).
Unfortunately I have no pictures of coming home as we were both worried about Bill’s dad, driving fast, over REALLY ROUGH roads. We made it to the border and then some the first night. Crossing the border, we were asked some stupid questions like, did you get into any trouble while in Canada……dah like we would have told him! I forget the name of the town we made it to, but we drove 625 miles miles! We made one mistake. We should have exchanged our money prior to leaving Canada, because now it was Saturday and no banks are open on a Saturday in Nova Scotia.
We made it from Maine to home on the second day, ANOTHER 625 MILES, getting home in the evening and boy did it feel good! The roads were so bumpy (and it didn’t help with the fact that Bill was driving as fast as he could) that somehow my jumpdrive came out of my storage box & our recliner chair “jumped” on it and it is now in pieces…..Not to mention a lot of other things that were thrown around in the 5th wheel.
The one good thing was, we didn’t break down on our way home AND paying $2.75/gallon for diesel felt good after paying $1.01/liter in Canada!
The other good thing is, Bill’s dad is “out of the woods.” He’s still in a lot of pain, but he’s on the road to recovery. He is now complaining about stomach pain and the VA hospital can’t find anything wrong in that area. As I write, they are preparing to ship him back to a nursing home to recover. Let’s hope he doesn’t end up back in the hospital.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Day 26-28 Baddeck, Nova Scotia
We toured the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. He was a remarkable person. It’s amazing the other things you learn about famous people. When we think of Alexander Graham Bell, we think of the inventor of the telephone. I had no idea he had anything to do with teaching deaf people to speak. He grew up in a family where speech and hearing were very important. Both is father and grandfather were well-known teachers of speech.
Bell’s lifelong commitment to helping the deaf began with his father, Alexander Melville Bell, whose greatest achievement was a new phonetic alphabet which he called “Visible Speech.” When Alexander Graham Bell tried using his father’s invention to teach the deaf to speak, he was an instant success.
Visible Speech was based on Melville Bell’s knowledge of the human organs of speech. He studied the vocal organs when making sounds and assigned to each sound a symbol that represented the corresponding position of the vocal organs, creating the phonetic alphabet.
Below is a photo of Bell with Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Bell first met Helen Keller when she was a little girl. She later gave Bell credit for her ability to write and speak.
Fascinated by his father’s work, young Alec Bell explored the mechanics of speech. He and his brothers constructed a “voice automation,” a crude replica of the human speech organs. They also taught a dog to speak. By the application of suitable doses of food material, the dog was taught to sit up on his hind legs and growl continuously while Alec manipulated his mouth, and stop growling when he took his hands away. The dog’s repertoire consisted of the vowels “ah” and “oo,” the dipthong “ow,” and the syllables “ma” and “ga.” They then manufactured words and sentences composed of those elements, and the dog’s final linguistic accomplishment consisted in “ow-ah-oo-gamama,” which they passed off as “How are you, grandma?” The fame of the dog spread among their father’s friends and people came from far and near to witness the performance.
In 1875, Bell’s gifted assistant Thomas Watson, accidentally plucked a transmitter reed on Bell’s apparatus. Bell, in another room, heard a sound. Watson had unexpectedly generated an electric current strong enough to activate Bell’s receiver. Bell quickly modified his apparatus which worked. Watson could hear the muffled sound of Bell’s voice. VOILA The telephone was born.
Alexander taught at a school for the deaf and ultimately married one of his students. They had 2 daughters and 10 grandchildren. Their Nova Scotia home can be seen from the museum.
Once a year on their wedding anniversary, the middle of July, their family (there are approximately 100 members now) comes together to their to home to raise a toast in their honor.
As we were leaving the museum, a beautiful sailboat sailed past the lighthouse. I couldn’t resist grabbing a picture.
Our last day of touring with the group before our departure, was Cabot Trail by bus. We visited the Village of Cheticamp and Celtic Lodge and Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
First stop was the scare crow patch. What an imagination the creator has! Unfortunately we did not get to meet her as her husband was ill and she closed the shop for the season and is searching for a buyer.
Stopping at Saint Pierre’s church,
our guide gave us a great tour and one of our guests demonstrated the acoustics by YODELING for us.
We made an unscheduled stop at an art museum with the most unusual hook rug pieces.
Marguerite Gallant, 1890-1983, was a native of Chéticamp with a profound love of collecting. As Marguerite's reputation for collection spread through the community, people brought objects to her rather than let them be thrown away. Thanks to this incurable collector, many valuable artifacts from Chéticamp's history have been preserved. Check out these photos of her house!
The museum holds the largest collection of pieces by Elizabeth LeFort, born in 1914. She learned to hook rugs at a very young age. Over the years, she made hundreds of tapestries in a large variety of subjects including pastoral scenes, birds, animals and floral motifs. She was so skillful at reproducing photographs that she began to create portraits in wool.
Her portrait of Dwight Eisenhower was presented to him at the White House in 1957.
She’s done Queen Elizabeth II, Pope Pius XII, Jacqueline Kennedy, Prince Charles. Consequently, her art has graced Buckingham Palace, the White House, and Vatican City. Her tapestry of the “Last Supper” is displayed in Vatican City.
She offered to sell her tapestry of the Presidents to the United States Government, but they declined. They obviously didn’t understand what they were turning down, our loss, Canada’s gain.At the height of Elizabeth’s career, she could hook 55 loops each minute, 3,300 loops per hour.
Her largest creation was a rug for a house in Virginia many, many years ago, but Canada’s attempt to locate it has failed.
I never really thought much of hook rugs, but these are extremely beautiful. Every stitch is done with precision.
We ended our day with our final driver’s meeting and bid farewell to our new friends.
The caravan will ferry over to Newfoundland on Monday night. We wish them all well.
Bell’s lifelong commitment to helping the deaf began with his father, Alexander Melville Bell, whose greatest achievement was a new phonetic alphabet which he called “Visible Speech.” When Alexander Graham Bell tried using his father’s invention to teach the deaf to speak, he was an instant success.
Visible Speech was based on Melville Bell’s knowledge of the human organs of speech. He studied the vocal organs when making sounds and assigned to each sound a symbol that represented the corresponding position of the vocal organs, creating the phonetic alphabet.
Below is a photo of Bell with Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan. Bell first met Helen Keller when she was a little girl. She later gave Bell credit for her ability to write and speak.
Fascinated by his father’s work, young Alec Bell explored the mechanics of speech. He and his brothers constructed a “voice automation,” a crude replica of the human speech organs. They also taught a dog to speak. By the application of suitable doses of food material, the dog was taught to sit up on his hind legs and growl continuously while Alec manipulated his mouth, and stop growling when he took his hands away. The dog’s repertoire consisted of the vowels “ah” and “oo,” the dipthong “ow,” and the syllables “ma” and “ga.” They then manufactured words and sentences composed of those elements, and the dog’s final linguistic accomplishment consisted in “ow-ah-oo-gamama,” which they passed off as “How are you, grandma?” The fame of the dog spread among their father’s friends and people came from far and near to witness the performance.
In 1875, Bell’s gifted assistant Thomas Watson, accidentally plucked a transmitter reed on Bell’s apparatus. Bell, in another room, heard a sound. Watson had unexpectedly generated an electric current strong enough to activate Bell’s receiver. Bell quickly modified his apparatus which worked. Watson could hear the muffled sound of Bell’s voice. VOILA The telephone was born.
Alexander taught at a school for the deaf and ultimately married one of his students. They had 2 daughters and 10 grandchildren. Their Nova Scotia home can be seen from the museum.
Once a year on their wedding anniversary, the middle of July, their family (there are approximately 100 members now) comes together to their to home to raise a toast in their honor.
As we were leaving the museum, a beautiful sailboat sailed past the lighthouse. I couldn’t resist grabbing a picture.
Our last day of touring with the group before our departure, was Cabot Trail by bus. We visited the Village of Cheticamp and Celtic Lodge and Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
First stop was the scare crow patch. What an imagination the creator has! Unfortunately we did not get to meet her as her husband was ill and she closed the shop for the season and is searching for a buyer.
Stopping at Saint Pierre’s church,
our guide gave us a great tour and one of our guests demonstrated the acoustics by YODELING for us.
We made an unscheduled stop at an art museum with the most unusual hook rug pieces.
Marguerite Gallant, 1890-1983, was a native of Chéticamp with a profound love of collecting. As Marguerite's reputation for collection spread through the community, people brought objects to her rather than let them be thrown away. Thanks to this incurable collector, many valuable artifacts from Chéticamp's history have been preserved. Check out these photos of her house!
The museum holds the largest collection of pieces by Elizabeth LeFort, born in 1914. She learned to hook rugs at a very young age. Over the years, she made hundreds of tapestries in a large variety of subjects including pastoral scenes, birds, animals and floral motifs. She was so skillful at reproducing photographs that she began to create portraits in wool.
Her portrait of Dwight Eisenhower was presented to him at the White House in 1957.
She’s done Queen Elizabeth II, Pope Pius XII, Jacqueline Kennedy, Prince Charles. Consequently, her art has graced Buckingham Palace, the White House, and Vatican City. Her tapestry of the “Last Supper” is displayed in Vatican City.
She offered to sell her tapestry of the Presidents to the United States Government, but they declined. They obviously didn’t understand what they were turning down, our loss, Canada’s gain.At the height of Elizabeth’s career, she could hook 55 loops each minute, 3,300 loops per hour.
Her largest creation was a rug for a house in Virginia many, many years ago, but Canada’s attempt to locate it has failed.
I never really thought much of hook rugs, but these are extremely beautiful. Every stitch is done with precision.
We ended our day with our final driver’s meeting and bid farewell to our new friends.
The caravan will ferry over to Newfoundland on Monday night. We wish them all well.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Day 25 – Murder in Margaritaland
Today was a free day which gave us an opportunity to prepare for our Murder Mystery Dinner. How creative our guests were.
It was fun to watch them interact with each other to expand their wealth, collect clues, as well as give clues.
When all of a sudden screams were heard, then crying because a murder was committed. There was Sid, stiff as a board!
Thank goodness we had Sgt. Lord available to keep everyone away from the dead body, and believe me, that was a tough job. They kept trying to come closer as he ordered them to stand back. I thought he was authoritative. He didn’t seem to faze some of them, but she sure scared me!
Our tattoo artist, Sharon, was truly an artist. She did “free hand” tattoos for those who wanted them. I got a flamingo and Marsha got a gecko.
Poor Sharon barely got to eat as her services were required non-stop.
Dick, who btw is an award winning smoker, has smoked several of our meals for us got a great tattoo.
I actually thought she would come away with the most money, but it turned out to be David who sold chances for a piece of artwork! What an ingenious idea!
This was one of our more intelligent groups, or maybe they were just better at sleuthing because we had 4 people guess the murderer correctly! Good thing we had plenty of prizes.
We ended our evening with sad news. Two of the guests were leaving us after tonight. They only joined us for about two weeks (their main objective was to see PEI), they fit right in, and we enjoyed their company.
Bill and I also had sad news for our group. We will also have to leave the caravan on Saturday to return home. Bill’s father is in the hospital, and we need to be there. We always felt sad for those guests who end up leaving a tour early for whatever reason and now we have first-hand experience on that sadness. This has been such a fantastic group and everyone has brought enjoyment in some way to make it a fun trip. I hope everyone has enjoyed our blog which has enabled us to share our wonderful experience.
Ending the day on a good note, there is a great couple who will join the group for the Newfoundland part of the trip to replace us and hopefully the blog will continue so that Bill and I can keep tabs on our new found friends.
It was fun to watch them interact with each other to expand their wealth, collect clues, as well as give clues.
When all of a sudden screams were heard, then crying because a murder was committed. There was Sid, stiff as a board!
Thank goodness we had Sgt. Lord available to keep everyone away from the dead body, and believe me, that was a tough job. They kept trying to come closer as he ordered them to stand back. I thought he was authoritative. He didn’t seem to faze some of them, but she sure scared me!
Our tattoo artist, Sharon, was truly an artist. She did “free hand” tattoos for those who wanted them. I got a flamingo and Marsha got a gecko.
Poor Sharon barely got to eat as her services were required non-stop.
Dick, who btw is an award winning smoker, has smoked several of our meals for us got a great tattoo.
I actually thought she would come away with the most money, but it turned out to be David who sold chances for a piece of artwork! What an ingenious idea!
This was one of our more intelligent groups, or maybe they were just better at sleuthing because we had 4 people guess the murderer correctly! Good thing we had plenty of prizes.
We ended our evening with sad news. Two of the guests were leaving us after tonight. They only joined us for about two weeks (their main objective was to see PEI), they fit right in, and we enjoyed their company.
Bill and I also had sad news for our group. We will also have to leave the caravan on Saturday to return home. Bill’s father is in the hospital, and we need to be there. We always felt sad for those guests who end up leaving a tour early for whatever reason and now we have first-hand experience on that sadness. This has been such a fantastic group and everyone has brought enjoyment in some way to make it a fun trip. I hope everyone has enjoyed our blog which has enabled us to share our wonderful experience.
Ending the day on a good note, there is a great couple who will join the group for the Newfoundland part of the trip to replace us and hopefully the blog will continue so that Bill and I can keep tabs on our new found friends.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Day 23-24 Halifax, Nova Scotia
Upon arriving in Halifax, our group all voted to see the Royal Nova Scotia International “Tattoo,” featuring over 2,000 world-class Canadian and international military and civilian performers. They have pipes and drums, military and civilian bands, historic reenactments, dancers, acrobats, choirs, military displays and competitions, drama and comedy in a number of innovative acts.
Why is it called Tattoo, you ask? Well, I asked too. In 17th century Dutch villages, drummers marched through the streets summoning British soldiers to return to their quarters from the taverns and inns. A drumbeat signaling innkeepers to “doe den tap toe” or “turn off the taps” was shortened to “tattoo.”
We started our first full day of touring in Halifax with a first class motor coach tour. Our guide showed up in his kilts and was informative as well as entertaining. The terrain in Nova Scotia is very different from Gaspe and Prince Edward Island. The Halifax area is very, very rocky.
We stopped at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the burial site for the protestant victims of the Titanic, April 15, 1912. Only 700 out of 2,200 were saved. 328 Titanic victims were recovered. 209 bodies were brought to Halifax, the closest port to the area of the sinking. Most were men, since woman and children were put on the life boats, but there are 4 women buried at Fairview. The graves are lined up outlining the bow of the ship.
One headstone marked the grave of an unknown child whose remains recovered after the disaster, but our guide informed us that just a few years ago, thru DNA, they discovered the child’s name. He was a 2 year old boy from England.
Citadel Hill has served as the site of four different forts since 1749. Each was built during a time of perceived threat. The Citadel we toured was the last to be built and took over 28 years to complete, finished in 1856.
One of our guests we call Marsha “Small” (because our wagonmaster is Marcia “Tall”) cracked me up standing next to this soldier.
During two world wars, the Citadel served as a sentinel on the home front and a symbol for those departing for overseas. In front of the fortress is a beautiful clock/bell tower.
December 6, 1917, a Belgium steamer (Imo) sliced into the French munitions freighter (Mont Blanc) in Halifax Harbour. Mont Blanc blew up and resulted into an explosion that flattened six square kilometers of the city. The blast created earth tremors and a huge wave ripped ships from their moorings, tossing them about like toys. More than 25,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged. Casualties were horrific – 2,000 killed and 9,000 injured. Below is a picture of personal objects recovered from bodies of two victims of the explosion.
Somehow the oldest wooden house in Nova Scotia withstood the explosion.
We toured through the section of most beautiful homes in Halifax. The “castle house” is my favorite.
Built by the Olands of Oland Brewery and the sponsor of the Bluenose II. It’s the most expensive house in Halifax, worth $5-6 million.
Then it was on to the beautiful downtown gardens.
We had lunch at Peggy’s Cove, my new favorite place.
Peggy’s Cove is a picturesque village and lighthouse and is among the most photographed places in Canada. I could spend all day in this town just taking photos. It is an absolutely gorgeous setting. But then again, I’m partial to lighthouses.
We stopped at a monumental work of art. Now what would you do with a 30 metre (.01 mile) piece of granite in your backyard? Well in 1977, Artist William deGarthe, age 70, decided to make it a piece of artwork. He chiseled figures sleeping in the rock for over 10 million years. A monument to the hard-working fishermen of his adopted home, Peggy’s Cove.
While driving home, we stopped when we saw this house completely painted with a Muriel of Peggy’s Cove to remind people of the romantic folk tale about how the Cove got its name. The artist, Ivan Frazier, grew up in this house. It was his grandmothers. As it happened, while we were stopped for pictures, he drove up and introduced himself and gave us copies of the 3 books he wrote about Peggy’s Cove. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF THAT HAPPENING! How lucky can we be?
We invited him on the bus to tell us the folk tale. Young Petty was travelling to Halifax to meet her fiancé when the ship she was in foundered on the rocks. She was rescued by local folk, and when visitors went to see her they would say they were going to see “Peggy of the Cove.”
As he finished, he laughed as he told us the neighbor next door, said his grandmother would be rolling over in her grave if she saw this house now. LOL You can visit his website at: http://peggyofthecove.com/
Why is it called Tattoo, you ask? Well, I asked too. In 17th century Dutch villages, drummers marched through the streets summoning British soldiers to return to their quarters from the taverns and inns. A drumbeat signaling innkeepers to “doe den tap toe” or “turn off the taps” was shortened to “tattoo.”
We started our first full day of touring in Halifax with a first class motor coach tour. Our guide showed up in his kilts and was informative as well as entertaining. The terrain in Nova Scotia is very different from Gaspe and Prince Edward Island. The Halifax area is very, very rocky.
We stopped at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, the burial site for the protestant victims of the Titanic, April 15, 1912. Only 700 out of 2,200 were saved. 328 Titanic victims were recovered. 209 bodies were brought to Halifax, the closest port to the area of the sinking. Most were men, since woman and children were put on the life boats, but there are 4 women buried at Fairview. The graves are lined up outlining the bow of the ship.
One headstone marked the grave of an unknown child whose remains recovered after the disaster, but our guide informed us that just a few years ago, thru DNA, they discovered the child’s name. He was a 2 year old boy from England.
Citadel Hill has served as the site of four different forts since 1749. Each was built during a time of perceived threat. The Citadel we toured was the last to be built and took over 28 years to complete, finished in 1856.
One of our guests we call Marsha “Small” (because our wagonmaster is Marcia “Tall”) cracked me up standing next to this soldier.
During two world wars, the Citadel served as a sentinel on the home front and a symbol for those departing for overseas. In front of the fortress is a beautiful clock/bell tower.
December 6, 1917, a Belgium steamer (Imo) sliced into the French munitions freighter (Mont Blanc) in Halifax Harbour. Mont Blanc blew up and resulted into an explosion that flattened six square kilometers of the city. The blast created earth tremors and a huge wave ripped ships from their moorings, tossing them about like toys. More than 25,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged. Casualties were horrific – 2,000 killed and 9,000 injured. Below is a picture of personal objects recovered from bodies of two victims of the explosion.
Somehow the oldest wooden house in Nova Scotia withstood the explosion.
We toured through the section of most beautiful homes in Halifax. The “castle house” is my favorite.
Built by the Olands of Oland Brewery and the sponsor of the Bluenose II. It’s the most expensive house in Halifax, worth $5-6 million.
Then it was on to the beautiful downtown gardens.
We had lunch at Peggy’s Cove, my new favorite place.
Peggy’s Cove is a picturesque village and lighthouse and is among the most photographed places in Canada. I could spend all day in this town just taking photos. It is an absolutely gorgeous setting. But then again, I’m partial to lighthouses.
We stopped at a monumental work of art. Now what would you do with a 30 metre (.01 mile) piece of granite in your backyard? Well in 1977, Artist William deGarthe, age 70, decided to make it a piece of artwork. He chiseled figures sleeping in the rock for over 10 million years. A monument to the hard-working fishermen of his adopted home, Peggy’s Cove.
While driving home, we stopped when we saw this house completely painted with a Muriel of Peggy’s Cove to remind people of the romantic folk tale about how the Cove got its name. The artist, Ivan Frazier, grew up in this house. It was his grandmothers. As it happened, while we were stopped for pictures, he drove up and introduced himself and gave us copies of the 3 books he wrote about Peggy’s Cove. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF THAT HAPPENING! How lucky can we be?
We invited him on the bus to tell us the folk tale. Young Petty was travelling to Halifax to meet her fiancé when the ship she was in foundered on the rocks. She was rescued by local folk, and when visitors went to see her they would say they were going to see “Peggy of the Cove.”
As he finished, he laughed as he told us the neighbor next door, said his grandmother would be rolling over in her grave if she saw this house now. LOL You can visit his website at: http://peggyofthecove.com/
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