On our drive back (maybe out of the way a bit?) from New Brunswick, we hit up a few tourist towns to see some fun sites. The first was Peggy's Cove, a quaint fishing/lobstering town that could have been taken straight out of ever movie I've ever seen set in rural Ireland/Scotland. Let's just say, it is basically the town from Waking Ned Divine. The rocks that lined the shore were smooth and had clearly been worn by centuries of impressively strong waves. There was a small light house marking the shore to guide the ships at sea and keep them safe.
It was both cold and raining.
Then we did a quick drive through of Lunenburg. Also a quaint place with so many old and beautiful homes. It was designated a World Heritage Site by the UN. It was a French settlement that the British invaded something like 9 times. Or maybe it was a British settlement that the French invaded... I don't remember, but something like that happened, and it was cool.
We spent the night in a hostel in Halifax on the hipster side of town. This was the first time I ever did the whole hostel thing. So many of my friends have stayed in hostels in South America and Europe, but I seemed to have somehow missed out on this essential life experience until yesterday. There were four claimed beds in the room, and Alison and I were just two of them. My bunk mate was a lovely soul from Dublin who was very much enjoying Halifax and traveling in Canada. It was a little odd to sleep in the same room as total strangers, but we were all safe and super comfortable, so I call that hostel stay a win. The hostel doubled as a coffee shop/cafe, so Alison and I both got up to read over a cup of coffee before starting the day.
The three of us ran around Halifax for most of the day. There is a large fort on the water there. During World War I, there was a massive explosion in the harbor at Halifax as a French boat and a Norwegian boat collided. One of them was very much laden with ammunition. It exploded. The explosion wiped away several city blocks, killed a whole lot of people, and injured thousands.
The explosion happened behind us in that water.
From the fort, we walked through the public gardens and then pulled all our luggage out into a field to reorganize and repack everything so that it would all make it on the plane back home. We must have looked crazy.
The last stop on the Great Canadian Road Trip was the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum. I am no stranger to aviation museums and displays, but there is always something new to be learned and who doesn't love getting to sit in the cockpit of every plane? There were many displays detailing the physics of flight, a replica of the first plane flown in Canada (shout out to my home state NC for having the first plane flight ever what what!!!), and many posters and displays about famous Canadian aviators. Beyond that room, there was a hanger super full of restored aircraft and cockpits.
Rhys had total control of this aircraft.
We have our game faces on to really fly this thing.
In the hallway between the two big rooms, there was a poster about the role that Halifax played in the aftermath of 9/11. Of all the things that I thought when I heard about 9/11 and have thought since then, I never once thought about all the planes that were diverted from their original destinations that morning. Apparently, a whole lot of them on the East Coast went to Halifax. So many travelers wrote to thank the city that had taken them in on such short notice, housed and fed them at schools and even sometimes in their own homes.
People are good.
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