Day 22: Halifax Rest Day

Day 22: Halifax, Canada

July 4, 2016

Miles:0 (its a rest day!)

Happy Fourth of July!  Spending the Fourth here in Canada is not the same as spending it back home in the USA.  I miss the celebrations and why we celebrate.

I got up before 9am but everybody else was still sleeping.  Apparently, Andy, Jen and Ben enjoyed their visit to the Bier Garten last night too much to allow for an early morning wakeup.   Here is a shot from last night at the beer garden:

Why there wasn't an early start to the morning (photo credit: Andy)

Jen wandered up to our room around 10am and her knock on the door awoke Di, so now at least three of us were up.

Jen at the window overlooking Halifax Harbour

Jen woke Ben and Andy by calling them from our room and soon we were walking through the streets of Halifax looking for the ideal place to eat breakfast.  Eventually, we realized our wandering was aimless and Jen performed an internet search to locate a worthy breakfast provider.  She decided upon Black Sheep restaurant so we now walked with aim.

When aimlessly wandering a Monday morning Halfix street

The results of walking with aim

The Black Sheep gave us an awesome breakfast.  We have yet to have anything less than a stellar meal while the kids where with us.  I hope that is not another thing we are going to miss in addition to their absence.

Andy's breakfast (photo credit: Andy)

We brought a small American flag with us as we walked to breakfast.  The waiter at the Black Sheep told us all his customers that morning had been Americans.  "And they all carried a small American flag with them!", he said while pointing to ours.  "Really?", we said.  "No", he replied, "you are the only ones."  We love Canadian humor (sorry, humour).

On our walk back from the restaurant, Di gave money to a mendicant and received a "God bless America!" in return.  Di said she was amazed that the woman could tell we were Americans.  Andy then showed her a picture of what she looks like from the back to explain the mystery.  Unbeknownst to Di, one of us had stuck the small flag into the top of her backpack, thereby making her nationality much less a mystery than might be supposed.

Di proclaims her nationality (photo credit: Andy)

Andy and Ben in awe of the enormous jackhammer

Me doing my best Winston impersonation (photo credit: Jen)

We had walked back to the car and it was now time for the kids to go.

Ben's bike up on the car

Jen smartly get others to put her bike on the car

One last picture before they go

And they are off

Di and I greatly enjoyed having Andy, Jen and Ben with us for these last three and a half days.  Everything we did just seemed like a lot more fun simply because we were all together.  A parent gets to enjoy events two ways: as they participate in the event itself and as they see their children enjoy the event.  Parents never truly stop marveling at how their children experience the world.

After the kids left, Di and I didn't know what to do so we decided to do nothing.  We went back to the hotel room and lounged for a bit.  Di did some laundry and then we lounged some more.  Finally, at about 5pm, we decided to head out to find some food.

Di in a town square

We walked for close to two hours before desperation led us to choose Cask Restaurant And Pub.  That's not the real name.  I couldn't remember the real name so I made one up.  The food there was very good (not actually as bad as the made-up name's acronym would suggest).   I can remember what I had: corn chowder and fish and chips.  I can't remember what Di had.  I'm going to zoom in on the picture below to see if I can make it out.

Okay, now I remember.  She had British Bangers.


We headed back to our room after our meal and we called it a day.

Hanging in our room with laundry

Tomorrow Truro.  It is over 60 miles from Halifax, but we have been pretty lazy lately and should be rested enough for a good ride.  I'm sure we'll miss Jen and Ben inspiring us to ride with alacrity and also Andy carrying our bags and bringing us goodies along the way.