our day in Halifax

we only had a single day in Halifax but we got really lucky on the weather- bright blue sky and warm temperatures made it possible for us to sit outside for a drink in the late afternoon.  During the day we visited both the Pier 21 Museum of Immigration and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

The Pier 21 Museum is the Canadian version of Ellis Island (minus the trauma most went through at Ellis Island) and the Atlantic Museum is where the Titanic artifacts and the exhibits on the Halifax Explosion reside.

each drawer of this trunk told a segment of the story of the Jewish immigrant from Shanghai-

displays of activities for kids on the ships that brought them-

the most interesting exhibits of the Pier 21 museum were the filmed interviews with immigrants who got to tell their own stories in their words...many of them very moving -

we had lunch at a thoroughly forgettable pub between the two museums- and went on to the Maritime Museum- we were greeted by Merlin, the museum mascot, a Rainbow Macaw (identified in the museum as a parrot) along with a description of pirates and parrots of folklore...

Our first stop was the Titanic exhibit- which had a film and some artifacts and a memorial to those who lost their lives in the disaster -

these menus were not from the Titanic but from the same cruise lines-

a photo of the interior of the Titanic will look very familiar to anyone who saw the movie - apparently the sets painstakingly reproduced the actual Titanic -

Cunard was born in Halifax and got his start their before moving to England-

Miscellaneous ship items in a different display-

 a nice collection of mastheads-

another exhibit featured items from the war of 1812 - four different perspectives...

our final stop was the exhibit and film on the Halifax Explosion- more acreage destroyed than the Chicago Fire yet much less well known...

and of course - as with pretty much everywhere- you can exit through the gift shop....

and on the way stop and bid farewell to the local celebrity - Merlin (who has his own webcam site- http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/special/merlin-live-stream.html)

our evening meal was already posted (the Gio meal) and so we had only to figure out how to get all the dirty clothes into the suitcases and head off to the airport in the morning for our flight home to Chicago.  We arrived by late afternoon and by Saturday evening were mostly caught up with the work (except the blog posts which are now complete - only a week later despite a busy social calendar...!!!) So we have a lot on our calendar coming up with dinners and theater tickets and concerts and company from out of town and overseas... stay tuned- will be updating regularly until we head off to Italy the first week in October...

The blog will be four years old October 22nd and I am still having a blast doing it- while I don't seem to have many official followers - over 2300 posts were viewed last month and I am about 250 views away from 40,000 post views... who knew it would be that popular? LOL... thanks for following along... I promise to keep writing if you are willing to keep reading!