Had a very nice and relaxing weekend in Halifax. We were down for Jay and Aimée’s wedding. That went super-well and we had a very nice evening. The next day was a special treat: sailing in the harbour on the Mar.

Halifax harbour is the second largest harbour in the world (behind Sydney) and a highly attractive one it’s true. As such, there are quite a few harbour cruises one can take, and on a variety of vessels too. As far as I’m concerned, though, sail’s the thing and we couldn’t have had a finer ship for a cruise.

I was particularly impressed by the captain’s manner with the children on board. They all got to steer the ship, but it was the crew’s warm and friendly manner that really made the day for them.

Here’s some photos from the trip. It’s hard to take pictures of a boat from on the boat, so I opted for vertical shots instead.

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 › NovaScotia     2005-09-07 00:10   ...2 comments

Spurred on by the unprecedented interest in La Cave in recent comments I will reveal what we discovered during our recent trip. First, let me simply lay out the facts as we discovered them:

1. There now a restaurant called La Cave located on Spring Garden Rd. down near the public gardens. Jen informs me that it is in one of those ‘deadly’ locations that seem to have as much turnover as an apple fritter factory. The sign outside says ‘La Cave: Fine cheesecake blah blah blah since 19-eighty somethingororother’
2. When we walked up the half-flight of stairs from street level to look in we discovered that La Cave is now apparently a large room with tables and chairs in it and a cheesecake fridge at the back. No winecellars here.
3. We decide to look elsewhere for food, and walk down Spring Garden. We walk by the old Blowers St location. It is padlocked.
4. Outside the old location there is a sign reading at the top Re-Opening Soon… The Cavern Wine Bar and Bistro. And at the bottom All the great cheesecake and ambience you loved or some such.
5. In the middle of this sign there is a clipping posted from the Coast. (The text of the clipping is online — scroll down about 2/3 of the page to ‘Best Place for a First Date’ or search for ‘cave’). The clipping, physically located between the raves for the resurrection of the old location, advertises the move to the new location.

So those are all the facts. La Cave has moved to a soulless graveyard for restaurants. The old location says ‘re-opening soon’ with a new name, but a posted review for the moved old place. Very confusing.

My hypotheses:

• The owner of the restaurant wanted a second location. He ‘moves’ the restaurant to a location on Spring Garden in the main restaurant district. He ‘closes’ the old place for renovations, then ‘re-opens’ the old place under a new name but with all the same feel. Presto. Two locations.
• The owner stupidly slew the golden goose by moving his restaurant. A new entrepreneur realizing that La Cave was the location is trying to grab the market by re-opening an indistinguishable inheritor to La Cave on the orignal premise.

In any case, Jen now believes something is fishy and is refusing to consider going to either location until things are made clear.

 › NovaScotia     2005-01-23 13:03   ...0 comments

Here’s the third and final installment of photos from our recent trip to Jen’s parents’ beach house on the coast of Nova Scotia.

These pics were all taken on their property on Bell’s Point in Port Mouton. They have a lovely pond, as well as a rock beach.

Sea weed on the beach

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 › NovaScotia     2004-05-31 21:33   ...0 comments

This trip was certainly full of photo opportunities. On Sunday we went to Summerville beach, and I took some more photos there. There’s also a pic taken in a local provincial park and a teaser of their property.

There are another few pictures to follow. So stay tuned for installment number 3.

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 › NovaScotia     2004-05-27 12:19   ...0 comments

Jen and I had a great weekend at her parents’ beach house on the south shore of Nova Scotia. I flew down after work on Friday and we went directly to their newly constructed house in Port Mouton (pronounced Port Muh-TOON). The names are flying fast and furious, but they seem to be leaning towards Twin Ponds Beach House; this owing to its placement alongside a little pond, and also alongside the very big pond.

I’ll be posting some more pictures soon, but here’s a few that I took on Saturday when we went out for a walk along a nearby beach.

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 › NovaScotia     2004-05-25 09:32   ...0 comments

We’re in Halifax, and things are a mite snowy. Environment Canada is calling the conditions a weather bomb.

A severe winter storm has hit, and Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have declared provincial states of emergency. Winds are gusting to 100 km/h, and we’ve had upwards of 70 cm of snow at this time. Everything was cancelled today, and most everything will likely still be closed tomorrow.

Still, it’s nothing that we can’t handle here in Canada… it’s only snow. Plows are working where they can, and everyone is pretty much holed up at home. With high-speed internet working fine, Dan did a full day of work, and Tony and Heather have been able to access their files from the university.

Late this afternoon, Jen and I went out (in snowsuits) for a walk. I took a few photos which people may be interested in. Click below for the full set.

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 › NovaScotia     2004-02-19 19:08   ...3 comments