Canada, Part Two

Alright, now what do you think of when you try to picture Halifax, Nova Scotia? If you were like me you were probably thinking igloos and polar bears, but you may have your own ideas. Turns out their igloos were a bit larger than I had expected.



Channing and I landed in Halifax eeeeeeearly June 2nd. First off, I'd like to say that the Toronto and Halifax airports are leaps and bounds better than the vast majority of US airports I've been in. America, get on the ball. So we landed early, got a rental car, and drove just outside the city of Halifax to Bedford, where Channing's grandparents live. His grandparents are really great people, and we stayed at their condo on the bay (Halifax is on a bay, by the way) for a few days.

While there, we did two very important things: shopping and sightseeing. As you know, there is no shopping on the island. NONE. I'm not one of those girls who's all like, "Oh my GAWD! Let's go shopping!", but even I need to hit the stores when I start seeing holes in my clothes. We had also taken a few orders from some of our friends still marooned on the rock, so we had something of a shopping list to take care of as well. The malls weren't that exciting - same malls as ours, just different, more Canadian-ey stores - but check out the Halifax waterfront:




Halifax has a rich maritime history, being the center of naval operations on the east coast of Canada (see above picture) and a major port for fishing vessels to boot. Like Monterey, one of their main tourist areas is the waterfront, so:



Now I'd like to point out a few things about this picture. First of all, check out that black fleece I'm wearing. With a few notable exceptions, that fleece did not part with my body for the entirety of our trip. It's a fancy jacket I bought through work, featuring wind blocking fleece and an embroidered CAOS logo. However, I'd also like to point out my choice of footwear. Yes, I'm wearing sandals. In Canada. It was actually pretty warm when we got to Nova Scotia - much warmer than it had been in Ontario - so at times I even took the fleece off too! Can you even imagine?

We stopped by the Halifax Maritime Museum, a really nice little museum with exhibits on everything from fishing boats to the many shipwrecks in the area, the sinking and rescue of the Titanic (Halifax ships were the main salvage crews, and all of the dead passengers were buried in the city), as well as Canada's part in WWII. Very neat stuff. Among the exhibits I saw this on a map in one of the halls:



I think I can rest a little easier tonight.

Canada, Part One

Channing and I landed in Toronto after a series of thankfully uneventful flights on Wednesday, May 28th in the early evening. Here you'll see some views from Channing's friend Joe's place, right in the heart of Toronto. Joe let us stay at his place any time we were in the city, so we were always fairly centrally located. The first night we went out for sandwiches and a couple drinks with some friends of Channing's, then fell asleep pretty early.

The next day we drove to Alexandria, a small town right next to the border into Quebec. Channing's friend from the military was getting married on Saturday, so we got there a few days early to help with the preparations. Literally within 10 minutes of arriving and meeting everyone for the first time, I was put to work. This was not just any wedding, folks - there were approximately 330 guests, including 11 bridesmaids and 11 groomsmen (of whom Channing was one). Of course, out of those 330 people, only about 30 were guests of the groom.





Between the rehearsal dinner on Thursday and the wedding on Saturday, Channing and I took a side trip into Montreal on Friday. We caught the train mid-morning and spent about 4 hours in the city before going back to work in Alexandria. Above are some shots of the Alexandria train station (it seemed the only major, umm, ANYTHING in the whole town... and it's not very major at all) as well as the view from the window on the way to Montreal. The last shot is of the outskirts of town with the larger, more modern city in the background.



Montreal is a beautiful city, with an interesting mix of modern buildings and more historic architecture (above is the music building for McGill University). Channing primarily wanted to show me Montreal because he wanted to see me freak out at the fact that everyone speaks French and all the signs are in French and I don't speak French ...Of course, neither does Channing. We managed to navigate our way around without incident, though, owing to the fact that everyone there also speaks English. So much for Channing's culture shock. I wish I had taken a picture of the French stop signs, though, as opposed to the bilingual stop signs you saw at the airports.

Saturday's wedding went off without a hitch. Considering the fact that the bride did EVERYTHING herself, from the food to the decorations to making all logistical arrangements - all for 330 people, no less - everyone was suitably impressed.



On the way back to Toronto from Alexandria we stopped by Kingston, where Channing lived as a teen and while he was in the Canadian Armed Forces. We met up with a good friend of Channing's whose twin brother actually came and stayed with us a while back. We ate at a very nice Indian restaurant then walked around town a bit while we waited for our train into Toronto.



Kingston is a beautiful college/military town surrounded by lakes and forest. The buildings throughout the entire town (at least the central portions) are made of stone, giving the place an almost medieval feeling.



We arrived back in Toronto late that night, around midnight, and got a few hours of sleep before catching an early morning flight to Halifax the next day... Pictures to come in Part Two!

I'm Back!

Well I'm back from Canada and am starting to thaw out (even the Canadians admitted it was unseasonably cold last week). As I came home a few days before Channing, and because he's using my camera for the final leg of the trip, I have no photos to post at this time. He returns Tuesday, so expect a high-bandwidth post sometime around then. Even without the pictures, though, I can tell you that the trip was great. Canada really is a beautiful place, and the people are great too. Above all, I needed some time off The Rock, so it was perfect. Look for another post in a few days and you'll see what I mean!