Day 7 - Just a snippet

This is just a quick note to those of you who may actually be checking this blog. As you have just noticed, many posts have just been added. We are driving to Sydney, detoured to the docks of North Sydney and found a Best Western with free wireless internet. So naturally we took advantage of it and are currently sitting in the parking lot around the backside of the hotel "borrowing" their internet. We will make a full post about today's events later.

Day 6 - Baddeck

10/19/07

Late start and day trip to Baddeck

Well we got up this morning to have breakfast with another US couple that was leaving. They have actually purchased land on the other side of the lake and are in the process of building the basement level. So they have driven from Pennsylvania twice this year to check on its progress so far. The husband, Peter, isn’t a breakfast person, but we chatted with Tracy, the wife, while we had eggs and toast. Thankfully, Marina the owner of the place brews strong coffee. It’s about time we got some of that. I definitely miss my freshly ground bean coffee. Tracy and Peter left around 9am and should arrive in Maine tonight. After that, we went back downstairs to our room.

Ken got on here and started typing, to catch up from the previous days that had been left behind. Meanwhile, I got back into bed and watched television. We only have two channels here, and one was playing children’s shows. So, Regis & Kelly it was followed by the View. After a while, Ken had caught up on his portion and it was my turn. So we swapped places. I sat on the loveseat at the end of the bed and Ken got into bed. He in turn began to snore. Just as I was finishing, he jolted pretty hard and woke himself up. By this time it was around 11am and we figured we had better get moving.

Our original plan was to drive up to Baddeck, check it out, then continue on to Sydney. Well, we never made it past Baddeck. We got there right around lunchtime and found this place we had heard about called the Yello Cello. Ken got a half sub sandwich and I got a small 8’ pizza. Both were terrific. Oh, and it served Unsweetened iced tea. That’s been another thing… not only is the coffee in Nova Scotia like water, all the iced tea is sweetened. Needless to say, I’ve had more Coke in the last 5 days than I’ve had in years. This is also due to the fact that there isn’t any Dr. Pepper around either. Back on subject though. After we had lunch we drove down to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.

By the lack of cars in the parking lot, we feared that it was closed like so many other things have been. But, fortunately enough, they were open…and really cheap for a museum. We made a pit stop by the bathroom before beginning and saw a pay phone that took credit cards. So, I made a phone call to the parental units just to touch base. Mom had her eye surgery today, but was already home and doing fine. I only stayed on the phone for a couple of minutes, because I have no idea what the charge is. Anyway, we strolled through the museum reading everything there was about Alexander G. Bell. We even learned a few new things. We never knew that Alexander Graham Bell created the first, most primitive, air conditioner. Also, on a funnier note, he played around with genetics and created a multi-nippled sheep. For some reason he thought that you could tell by the number of nipples a sheep had if they were going to produce twins. So for 30 years he messed around with breeding sheep. He finally admitted that there was no correlation. We got to see what was left of the original hydrofoil (HD-4) as well as a reproduction.

When we finished at the museum, we drove back into “downtown” Baddeck. It’s very small and there’s not much there, especially on the off-season. We hit a couple of little shops and then drove around the neighborhoods. We saw everything from new development to old houses, some even for sale. It’s actually quite stunning from the top of the hill looking out at the lake.

We then finally drove back down the hill and stopped at the Lynwood Inn for dinner. The décor on the inside is quite elegant, with very out-of-place paper napkins. The food was odd, but not bad. I had this seafood thing, which was shrimp, salmon, haddock and sautéed mushrooms in a creamy dill sauce all baked under a layer of mozzarella. The dill was very strong and didn’t match well with the fish. Ken had the Atlantic Salmon in some kind of white wine and egg sauce. Neither of us were impressed with anything more than the apple crisp we had for dessert. After dinner, we headed back to the B&B, where Ken blogged for yesterday while I visited with Marina. Once he finished, he handed it over to me to do today’s so we will be fully caught up.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and windy, so we will most likely spend the day lounging around. But we haven’t had one of those types of days since we’ve been here. So I think it is well deserved. Also, we found a brochure for two more whale watching companies that are supposed to still be running. We are going to call tomorrow and see if we can’t fit that in on Sunday. For now, I say goodnight.

Day 5 - Dartnouth to Cape Breton

10/18/07

Left Dartmouth and Tour to Cape Breton

Woke up as usual around 8am and went down for breakfast. Had two fellows traveling from Quebec and were heading back today after spending a lot of time in Cape Breton area where we will be going today. Of course they spoke very little English so breakfast was a bit silent. Thank goodness CNN was on the TV so I could be interested in that. Breakfast was pancakes, sausage and fruit. Amazing thing the Pakistan Prime Minister is back in her country after being in self imposed exile since 1999. So we left about 11am and the weather has been perfect. Packing up wasn’t all that hard, getting down the narrow stairs into the car was another story. We paid Trevor for our stay in cash since they don’t accept plastic, reserved our room for the 22^nd, the day before we fly out, and we were on our way.

We headed NE out of Dartmouth on 107 and angled down to highway 7 (Marine Drive) which is like lighthouse route highway 3 just north of Halifax instead of south. It’s really windy and winding but the view is amazing seeing the Atlantic Ocean on the right side and the hairpin turns and such around the inlets, harbors and the occasional bridge over a stream or river. With the fall colors in full change right now the route was on fire with colors. From green, orange, reds, purples against the blue and white sky and the brilliant sun light, the view was amazing and beautiful.

When we started out on the drive we were on the hunt for a place called the Lobster Shack. Well we saw signs for it and we found it. It’s attached to a B&B. But it closed on Oct 15^th for the season and will not be open until May 1^st. So we couldn’t go there and instead we drove down the road to another restaurant called “Dufferin something”. Had a really good seafood chowder and fish and chips. Included with the meal was an amazing red cabbage coleslaw and awesome homemade tarter sauce. Their coffee wasn’t all that good but they provided real cream so it ended up being decent coffee. That’s one thing we have noticed up here is any restaurant that you go to and ask for coffee they give you some kind of weak watered down muddy water rather than the good strong coffee we like. We thought that was odd since this province has a strong fisherman influence which you would think would want strong coffee.

So got back on the road and after only a little bit we realized we needed some drinks and stopped at this shack on the side of the road called “Travel Stop” for drinks and maybe a little dessert. The couple that ran the place are named Jeurgen and Gail and they are an older couple probably in their late 60’s early 70’s and surprisingly enough they run a camp area, the food shack and live on the hill behind it and they run a web design company. Really surprised me due to their age that web design would be even included in their list of skills but sure enough I have their email and website address. So we sat there and talked with them and one of their friends named Diane for close to an hour. At some point we talked about having the USB GPS with the laptop and they asked us if we could get them the latitude and longitude of the location. Easy enough to do as it took me a whole two minutes to get the laptop out of the car and bring up the GPS signal. They also apparently own about 50 acres near their house which is their Armageddon land they will live off of if the world goes to hell in a hand basket. So they are also survivalists. Strange and interesting people you meet along the way.

So back on the road we went driving for a while long down highway 7 all the way to Antigonish which houses a small university. Picture a Colorado ski town and that’s basically what you get with Antigonish. I don’t know if there were any slopes nearby but it certainly had that kind of feeling to it. The next stretch of road was rather uneventful. Highway 104 is like any major highway until you hit a certain location directly between the mainland of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. Cape Breton is considered part of Nova Scotia and it was an island until they built a causeway connecting the mainland to the island. Before the mid 1950’s you had to take a ferry across from Mulgrave on the mainland to Point Tupper on Cape Breton. Now there is a rather large amount of rocks creating a solid land causeway connecting the two pieces of land. When the weather is bad a policeman escorts single vehicles across the causeway one at a time. Sometimes it fully closed if it’s really bad because the waves wash over the road when it gets really stormy. The road itself is just two lanes with a bit of a shoulder and huge boulders on either side in groups dropping into the Strait of Canso. The strait separates St. Georges Bay from Chedabucto Bay. Once you cross the causeway 104 becomes highway 105 and the whole 104/105 route is actually part of the Trans-Canadian Highway.

Onward through Cape Breton Island the weather or at least the temperature, the number of trees and the color of leaves were noticeably different. It’s amazing land and everyone moves slower here. It’s much like really small towns in Texas but even slower and the scenery and temperature is much better here. Andrea had looked up a nice inexpensive B&B in the Doers and Dreamers Nova Scotia guide called Celtic Mist which is located in Aberdeen right on this HUGE lake called Bras d’Or Lake. If you look at a map of Cape Breton it’s a massive amount of water and it’s so smooth considering.

So we finally got the B&B and rang the door bell hoping they had a vacancy. Lucky they did, the owner is a nice older lady named Marina and runs the place seemingly by herself and is actually selling the property for around $450,000. We got the bedroom with a King size bed and a private bath for less than $90 which is an awesome price. It doesn’t have broadband or wireless internet so we will have to wait till we get back to Dartmouth to update things. We ended up eating at a local diner which was very local and wasn’t all that good really but food is food and it had that well enough. The view of the lake at night is amazing and the view in the morning will be even better.

Day 4 - Halifax again

10/17/07

Halifax Public Gardens, Your Father’s Mustache and Lower Deck

Today was our last day to spend time in Halifax. This time, instead of taking the ferry across, we drove across the MacDonald Bridge into Halifax. We navigated through downtown and up Spring Garden road to the Public Gardens. The Public Gardens consist of 17 acres that’s on a 99 year lease from England. The cost is 1 dollar every 99 years, and they just renewed that lease a couple of years ago. There is a gazebo where concerts and such are held. There is also a large pond filled with ducks. Now, these ducks don’t migrate. They stay here year round…mainly because they are fed so well. There are signs everywhere asking not to feed the ducks, but that doesn’t stop the tourists. These are some of the fattest ducks I’ve ever seen. If you walk up to the edge of the pond and stand there, they come swimming over and climb out to get food from you. They practically stalk people. They are pretty noisy, chattering at each other to get out of the way so they can get some food too. The gardens reminded us of Central Park because it’s this large plot of landscaped land in the downtown area of a pretty major city. The gardeners were out preparing the lawns and planting the new bulbs for next year. There are so many different types of trees, flowers, and bushes that it’s almost unreal. But I must say, they are absolutely beautiful.

After spending a little more than an hour in the gardens, we decided to head back to Your Father’s Moustache for lunch. I was still on the quest for a lobster dinner, and we knew that this place had the best prices in town. The question was, did they have any lobster. So we walked down a block or so and went in. We stopped at the bar and asked if our waitress from a few nights ago (Karen) was working. No, she was off. Okay…then the most important question came. Do you have any lobster?? Well, they were unsure, so they went and asked the kitchen. Yes. WooHoo!! My day had been made. After four days I was finally going to get to eat my lobster.

Now, here comes what you (the readers) will find as probably the funniest story you hear from out trip. We all know that I have some “food quirks”. So out comes our lobsters. Yes, I knew that they would be intact. But for some reason it never really dawned on me that they would still have their long feelers and eyes. So after a minute, I start to dig in. Of course I go for the claws first. The cooks at this restaurant were kind enough to cut the lobster in all the right places so it was easier to get into. After the claws and front legs, I went for the rest of the legs. I had to pull and twist pretty hard to get them off, at which time I actually apologized to the dead lobster for doing so. Ken harassed me pretty hard about that one. Ok, so now we’re down to the body and tail. Lobsters are different from crawfish in the sense that you can not each the meat too close to the actual head because it can be toxic. So you pull the tail off which pulls out pretty much all the meat you can eat from the body. Now, in doing so, you get some of the nasty stuff with it. So I grossed out just a little, and Ken just tells me to scrape it off and continue. I start to scrape off the “stuff” and suddenly this little red hunk comes off and hits my plate. When it hit my plate it broke apart. Suddenly I realized that I had a girl and these were the eggs. So now I have little lobster eggs all over my plate and remaining lobster meat. I was sufficiently disgusted, and declared myself finished. Thankfully these things don’t bother Ken, so he took the rest of my lobster and gave me his tail. Even though his tail was clean, it was still difficult for me to continue eating, but I had wanted it so bad, that I finished it. At the end of our meal, I decided that one lobster dinner was enough for me. Now I think I’ll stick to lobster rolls and chowder…or maybe just fish and chips.

After lunch, we walked down to this little gift store called Jenifer’s, bought a few things, and walked back to the car. We decided to go back to the B&B for the rest of the afternoon and wait until it was free to park at the landings. Around 7pm, we headed back down to Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, rode the ferry back to Halifax, and headed towards a local pub we had heard so much about. It took a little bit to find it, but we did. It’s called the Lower Deck. We got there shortly before 8, so we missed the dinner rush, but the bar rush hadn’t begun. We ordered dinner and a Keith’s Red Ale each. Ken had a burger (the Lower Decker) that rivals Harvey Washbanger’s and I had a Portobello cap burger. Great food. Then we just sat at the bar, drinking our Keith’s Reds and chatting with the bartenders. People started to trickle in slowly at first, then they were coming in as groups. There was a band playing tonight. They are called McGinty and have been playing at the Lower Deck for over 20 years. It’s 3 guys playing a variety of instruments, from bass guitar to mandolin. They played some cover songs as well as alot of classic Irish songs. They took a break after about an hour and Ken went and chatted with one of the band members. We were able to stay through part of their second set, but we had to catch the ferry back to Dartmouth at 11:15pm. So just as we were gathering our things, the band members noticed we were about to leave. Well, they told the bar that we had just gotten married and were on our honeymoon and played a love song for us. It was pretty awesome. Never the less, we had to go right after the song and ended up running down the ramp to catch the ferry.

Back at the B&B, Ken laid down and I started to load the pictures from my camera. Ken snored so loud all night, that I barely got any sleep. I forgot the rule….I have to fall asleep first. Oh well. We had a blast and are tiring ourselves out every day.

Day 3 - Lunenburg and Peggy's Cove

Lunenburg and Peggy’s Cove

The day started as it has these last couple. We woke up and went to breakfast. Today breakfast was French Toast. Trevor’s wife Shawna came home last night at some point and was there in the morning. She kind of reminds me of Joan Cusack for some reason. Today is our day to drive south to Lunenburg and then back up the Lighthouse Route to Peggy’s Cove and back to Dartmouth. Though as we got on our way I found out that the little GPS unit combined with Microsoft Street Map program didn’t want to work. I had no idea at the time that not having a wireless connection to update one little thing would prevent the GPS tracking from working. So Andrea did her best to navigate us there and back just using the straight map function, which she did rather well.

Lunenburg

We drove down highway 103 which is a major two to four lane highway with a speed limit around 90 to 110 kph. Not a bad ride at all. We exited on to 324 and drove into the sleepy fishing town of Lunenburg. There wasn’t much there, but the buildings were very pretty. The Bluenose II is docked there but it sails on occasion and it wasn’t there this time. The Bluenose II is a very famous sailing ship which is actually on the back of the Canadian 10 cent piece. The original Bluenose was the fastest sailing ship in the North Atlantic for many years and was unbeaten until it was lost. We walked through or at least looked into the Fishing Museum that was there. Just a little bit of history on fishing in the area. There were a few tourist gift shops and the such but nothing overly crowded. We ended up eating at “Grand Banker” while we were there. I had a seafood chowder which had some haddock, mussels, clams and something else along with the usual potato and cream sauce. Not bad if you don’t mind the fishy taste. We wanted to go on the ship tours they had but we had just missed them if they were even operating at all. We realized quite quickly that we had arrived in Nova Scotia just a bit too late for all the tours and whale watching and such. Some of which we missed by a mere couple of days. Alot of restaurants and tourist tours are closed by October 1^st so if we come back and visit we will have to show up in September instead of October.

Peggy’s Cove

We left Lunenburg on highway 3 which is also called Lighthouse Route. It basically follows the ocean all the way up the coast. Think of Highway 1 in California and you have the basic jist but without the huge cliffs and more like ocean front property instead. We followed that winding road all the way to Peggy’s Cove which is something out of a storybook or a movie. The houses were these two story boxes built on slopping land that had nothing on it but rocks and gravel. The wind buffets the houses from the Atlantic ocean nonstop and I can’t imagine the place in the winter time with the Sou’wester storms.

We visited the world famous Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse which is one of the world’s most photographed lighthouses. It’s easy to see why. Consider its treacherous location and how violent the ocean is churning below it, this lighthouse must have saved quite a few ships from crashing against the rocks. We wanted some lobster but at the prices there it was outrageous. So we got some crab cakes and lobster chowder instead as a snack and got back on the road. Finally reaching 103 again we drove into town and by the time we got back we were hungry again. That’s when I saw it…

Hamachi Grill and Sushi House

Here in Halifax greater area in Nova Scotia there is a huge diversity of cultural foods. Your normal American fare, local fare, Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Indian and I’m sure others we didn’t see. Well on the way back to the B&B I saw this Hamachi Grill and Sushi place. It looked like some kind of chain restaurant and I was curious to see what sushi was like here. So I convinced Andrea to actually give it a shot and she gave in. So we step into this place and immediately peg it as a Japanese modern décor. Streamlined, base colors, neat little details like frosted glass with cherry blossoms patterned into the frost. A painting of a cherry blossom tree on the wall that continued onto the ceiling with it upper branches giving you the illusion of the tree flowing over you. There was a bar in the middle of the room, oval in shape that housed the sushi chefs. There was a boat channel on the bar so that people could pick and choose their sushi during happy hour. I compare it to Haiku in town and its atmosphere is better and less flashy and more sophisticated. I ordered the assorted sushi platter and Andrea ordered the lobster roll and the soft shell crab roll. Everything we had was very good and in my opinion better than Haiku. The seafood in the area is so fresh that any you find in the area was probably caught that morning or at very least in the last 12-24 hours and kept on ice. So that has something to do with the taste of the sushi. The miso soup was about the same. The salad was different and used a daikon mayo dressing instead of a sesame seed vinaigrette. So I was very pleasantly surprised by Hamachi and if you run across one I suggest stopping by and getting a roll or two.

We finally got back to the B&B and after a bit of lounging and uploading pictures we crashed hard.

Day 2 - Halifax Local Area

This blog post is from Andrea. Looks like we may be sharing the blogging duties. :)

This morning we woke up early and instantly smelled the breakfast from downstairs. We got ready and went downstairs. The other couple that is staying here is also from Texas. So, we had a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, home fries, and fresh fruit, all the while chatting with this couple from Dallas.

Ken Note: The other couple from Plano, TX was already down there. They are an African/American couple that have a stronger foreign accent. Can’t remember their names as they were native names. The guy is a Computer Science major from UTA and works for Nokia developing programs for smart phones. She is an Electrical Engineer working for PraxAir or something like that. They create gases for distribution such as Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen for hospitals and industries, Zynon for LCD and other things. They are a very cool couple. Gave them a coupon I happen to have for a discount on a Halifax City Tour and they may be joining us on that tour.

After deciding that we weren’t really going to get to go back to bed, we got ready for the day. We left the B&B and headed for downtown Dartmouth. We got to a public pay parking lot and realized that we didn’t have the proper change to pay with. So we followed the signs to the change machine. Then we realized that we didn’t even have the right bills to make change. Ha. So back in the car and to a bank. Ken quickly got change and we went back. We parked and got on the ferry to cross over to Halifax. And so the day began.

First on the list was a double-decker bus tour of Halifax. We went up and down and back and forth and saw almost all of downtown Halifax. We stopped and got out at the Citadel and at the Fairview Cemetery (this is where most of the victims from the Titanic are buried). We learned all kinds of interesting things about the city. For instance, the town clock was built and assembled in England and then shipped over. It has roman numerals on its faces (with a clock facing all four cardinal directions), but the number 4 is IIII instead of IV. Also, the clock that faces the Citadel is significantly smaller than the other three. The tour lasted three hours and then we were dropped off at the Alexander Keith Brewery. The Alexander Keith Brewery is the oldest brewery in Canada. They do their tour in period clothing with 1860’s set up and songs. And I will add that the beer is actually good.

We finally finished all of our tours for the day and decided to look for that lobster dinner. The tour bus driver had given us a few suggestions, so we headed over to “Your Father’s Mustache”. Let me add something here…there are four directions in Halifax: towards the water (east), up the hill (west), and your typical north and south. Well, “up the hill” is an understatement. It’s more like up the mountain. Anyways, after a treacherous hike and stopping a few strangers, we found it. Oh, and they were sold out of lobster. But the food was good and the service was better. So we stuffed ourselves with dinner, drinks and dessert for less than what we’d pay for it at home. Walking back down the hill, we stopped at a Starbucks and got some coffee.

We hitched the ferry back to the car, drove back to the B&B, and now we’re just sitting in bed watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” while downloading all of our pics for the day. Oh, and we decided to extend our stay in Halifax so we can get down to Peggy’s Cove and see more of the little things in Halifax.

Day 1 - DFW to Halifax

Finally got around to posting some things. Couldn't get an internet connection with my laptop because the built in wireless on this laptop is apparently crap. So I had to go out and buy a D-Link USB Wireless adapter because they don't make Wireless card adapters 16 pin for a mini card slot which is what this laptop has. Oh well, at least it works now. So here is our first day.

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The day started before the sun had even begin to break the horizon. 5:30am was the time that Jim woke us both up. After a bit of disorientation we packed up everything we had brought with us up to Springtown except a few clothing articles we wore in the wedding. Around 6:40am we got on the road to the airport only once going back to get something I forgot. Got to the airport without any issue and checked in. Andrea’s Dad watched us go through security. I had purchased for this trip a special security wallet that holds your passport, ID, Credit Cards and all that. It has some metallic lining to it to prevent people from stealing your identity from the microchip in the new passports. I had forgotten about that so of course I set off the metal detector. I sent through the x-ray machine an assortment of items before I just gave up and they had to screen me with that metal detecting wand and pat me down. The wand really liked my ass as it kept going off when it hit my wallet in my back pocket. So now I know to now also send my wallet through with my belongings and not leave it in my pocket.

Andrea and I were wearing our special bride and groom t-shirts that Briana the Maid of Honor had made for us. On the front of these red shirts it has embroidered on the front bride or groom and on the back is the personalized unique crest that Briana helped make for us. So everyone that saw us first saw that we were twinkies and next saw we were newlyweds. It helped out a little bit as people were generally nicer to us. The planes were both regional jets. Both small with only two seats an aisle and then two more seats. Maybe 25 rows total including first class. They were rather small seats and perhaps if I was under six feet in height and less than 180 lbs I might feel comfortable in them but I’m not and hence it was a rather scrunched 1 hour 45min flight from DFW to Chicago and then after a short layover from Chicago to Halifax in about 2 hours 15min. Second flight really sucked because the air kept going out in our area so the temperature was uncomfortably warm and some decaying bowel of a dude was sitting in front of us and was ripping the most disgusting decayed farts that would hit us once every 10 min or so. Thanks to a tactically angled airflow jet and my shirt I was able to survive the gaseous flatulent terrorism that ensued on that flight (i.e. someone kept farting).

We chit-chatted with the customs official lady and after a lengthy discussing about what is cool to see in Nova Scotia she waved us through and we never had anyone look at our checked luggage. Picked up the rental car with Hertz and since USAA coverage extends to rental car partnered with USAA I didn’t bother getting the additional insurance, which may or may not bite me in the ass. I asked the girl behind the counter what selections they had in full size. Pontiac Grand Prix, Ford Fusion and a Dodge Charger. Well we took the biggest and baddest of the three and went with the Charger. It’s a pretty comfortable car inside. Plenty of room for me and any passenger. Lots of horsepower. A pretty sweet car. The directions we got from google maps was pretty good in getting us to the Bed and Breakfast we reserved for our first two nights in the province. Though it was at first rather difficult to think in the terms of kilometers instead of miles. All speed limit signs and distance markers are in kilometers. 100 to 110 kph is apparently the fastest speeds on the highway while in small towns the speed drops to 50kph. And their street signs and highway information signs suck. They are all the exact same looking regardless of what they are telling you and they are very hard to read with small letters. Sharp eyes are needed if you expect to figure out where you are going.

The Bed and Breakfast is called the Do Duck Inn. It’s pretty much a three story house in Dartmouth that the basement is the family residence the first landing is the common area and dinning area and the top floor are the inn rooms. They upgraded us to the suite for free because of either another couple that came before us or because they know it’s our honeymoon. It’s not bad with it’s own private bath with shower and Jacuzzi tub and king size bed and couch. We asked Trevor the owner of the B&B where a good place to eat was. He gave directions to a pub turned restaurant called Jamieson’s Irish House & Grill.

Jamieson's had a very very long list of Scotch and Whiskeys to choose from as well as respectable list of beers and ales. Andrea got a Jamieson’s Special Dark Ale while I partook of their Irish Pale Ale. Both were very good. We ordered a Pork Tenderloin with apricot stuffing and apple sauce and the Jamieson’s special Stuffed Chicken with mushroom / whiskey cream sauce. Both served with awesome mash potatoes and steamed vegetables. We were very impressed with the tenderness of both meats and it was simply delicious. We capped the dinner off with their Jamieson’s Bread Pudding with Irish Mist custard, raisins, cinnamon and a bit of vanilla. Not as good as Square One’s bread pudding but not bad. So in all our first real meal in Nova Scotia was pretty kick ass. Excellent start. Now we are back in our room at the B&B. Andrea is taking advantage of the Jacuzzi tub while I write this. We are wiped out from all the traveling and activies of the past few days so its about time for me to take a shower and for us to sleep like the dead until breakfast is served. Tomorrow we get to take a tour of Halifax on an open air double decker bus and then a tour of the Alexander Keith's Brewery. Should be lots of fun!