Halifax

Sorry it has taken me so long to write Dad. The only excuse I have is that I wasn't feeling verbose. Last Thursday we took the ferry from NFLD back to Sydney,NS. We didn't make a reservation because the ferry was so empty the last time we went on it we figured it would be ok to show up. We forgot that it was a holiday weekend. I am happy to say that we squeaked on with no room to spare. We had to move our truck up under a semi trucks' overhang a couple of feet so they could close the doors behind us. We were relieved because we didn't relish the idea of waiting another 2 hours for the next ferry. The crossing was a little rougher than the last time. There were a few people grabbing for the barf bags...glad we aren't prone to seasickness. We stayed in a campground 5 km from the ferry, it was 11:00pm before we got the kids settled into bed.
On Friday we left for Halifax, we had done a lot of driving on Newfoundland and we wanted to find some place to just hang out for a while. We are glad we picked Halifax, there is so much to do. The first day we just vegged out, did laundry and school. On Sunday we went to church and Richard met a girl (Elna Siebring) from Victoria that he grew up with. It was a very friendly church, we stayed and visited for quite a while after. After lunch we decided to spend the afternoon at Peggy's Cove. It was very nice but it was VERY crowded. I had a hard time getting a shot of the lighthouse without people in it. You can see how I managed in the picture with Catherine. We found out after that it was the anniversary of the Swiss Air disaster. The kids had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks. Richard of course was imaging cracked skulls and after letting them roam for about 15 minutes we left. I could have stayed there much longer but it kinda takes the tranquility away when it is so busy.
On Monday we celebrated Rachel's 7th birthday. She chose MacDonalds for lunch and then she wanted to go bowling. The only bowling available was something called Candle Bowling. There are 10 pins and they are very skinny and light wieght. When you hit one it knocks over most of the other ones. I really liked that and Michelle you will be happy to know that I did quite well. All the kids had a great time and Matthew and Rachel beat their older sisters so they were very happy about that. Matthew was so fun to watch. He would go up and swing the ball between his knees then as the ball trickled down the alley he was jumping up and down and cheering the ball on. For dinner that night we were invited to Elna's place. We brought Rachel's birthday cake along and had a delicious meal with cake to follow.
Tuesday we headed downtown to Pier 21. There is where both Richard and my parents landed in Canada and recieved their landed immigrant status. It was interesting to see the displays and hear the stories of other peoples experiences. There was an excellent film chronicling all the years Pier 21 was in use, welcoming war brides and sending soldiers to Europe as well as inspecting the papers of all the immigrants. I was able to go to the research centre and see the passanger lists of the boat my parents were on. So many experiences, so many stories.
Yesterday we headed into Halifax again to see the Maritime Museum. They had displays on all things to do with fishing in the past 200 years. There was an interesting display on the Halifax Explosion. We later headed up to St. Pauls Church and saw a wooden piece of a window frame stuck into the plaster wall of the church. There is also an anchor 2.5 km from the explosion site. As we were in the church one of the pastors got to talking to us and he showed us the tomb of an old bishop under the floor boards as well as the guy who signed the edict expelling the Acadians from Nova Scotia. There is a plaque on the wall in remembrance of a girl who at 12 years of age was married (1775). She had 6 sons and 6 daughters and died when she was 40. He had to point that out when he found that Jenna is 12. There was also a Titanic display at the museum. Halifax was in charge of the salvage operation. All of the unidentified bodies are buried here, including a 2 yr old boy, some 300 bodies.
That's all for now, today we are off to Lunenburg.