July 20th, 2012 Halifax, Nova Scotia (Last day)

Woke up Best Western hotel breakfast.  It was terrible bad scrambled eggs fatty sausage no good fruit...

Long drive to Peggy's Cove.  Stunning scenery lovely lighthouse overprice gift shop

A 70 year old man with no stone-carving experience decided one day to carve this monument.  It took him 6 years.  Astonishing that a 70 year old could do such a thing...

GPS had HUGE problems navigating around Halifax.. ...

Lunch at Pita Paradise.  Mike loved his chicken falafel pita Carol thought hers was decent.
Back to Best Western to pack and relax.  Went into Halifax again for souvenirs and to see some more tall ships.

Went to dinner at il Mercato Trattoria.

Bruschetta was good

Grilled veggie salad was awesome!
Penne with sausage and smoked prosciutto in tomato sauce was fantastic!

Fetuccini Alfredo with carmelized onions, mushroom and ragu was also awesome. Possibly Carol's favourite meal.

Finished with pistachio and chocolate peanut butter handmade gelato.  Mmmmm  GELATO!

Last day :(

Woke up at 6am the next day to head to Halifax airport about 20 minutes away.  Came home to the blistering heat of Ontario.


Final small victory!  I got a discount on our car rental.  Makes up for all the frustration.

July 19th, 2012 Halifax, Nova Scotia

Woke up at Antigonish Highland Heart (Shebby's) B&B http://www.bbcanada.com/3241.html.  Had nice breakfast of cheese mushroom tomato omelet with thyme.  On the side was a lovely fruit salad. Probably the best breakfast of our trip.

Drove roughly 2 hours into Halifax.  Checked in to Best Western, Dartmouth.  10 - 15 minutes from downtown Halifax.

Went to lunch at Bramoso Pizza http://www.bramoso.com/.  Had an awesome local salad with field greens, strawberries, slivered almonds, feta, olive oil and balsamic reduction.
We then shared margarita pizza and McAngelo pizza: sausage, mushroom, spinach, fontana and mozzarella cheese.  Both agreed the McAngelo was better.  Lunch was only about $20 too.  5 / 5 stars!

Went to the Alexander Keith's brewery http://www.keiths.ca/.  Was $16 each, and the tour was boring.  Would have been nice to not watch a 20 minute video.  I'm sure the 2+ free beer at the end of the tour would have been better if I did not have to drive.

Stopped in at a picturesque Royal Gardens, the oldest in Canada.  Due to time constraints did not stay long. I would have liked to walk around a bit.

Nice big cathedral we saw on the way.  Was not open to the public.

Went downtown and then to the boardwalk.  The tall ship festival started today, and we were just in time for all the crowds :)

Got to see a real live Theodore the Tugboat.

After much searching and questioning the locals, decided on dinner at McKelvie's.  Nice salad and excellent seafood chowder.  Carol had another great lobster dinner and I chose a huge fish platter with baked lobster, cajun shrimp, scallops, baked herb salmon, veggies, and mashed potato. Carol had Mint Chocolate Chip Ice cream Pie for dessert. It was delicious!  By far the most expensive meal of our trip, but still amazing.  5 / 5 stars!

Went swimming in hotel pool terrible pool, and no hot tub as advertised.  We both wanted a dip in the hot tub after all our travels.

Carol watched more Big Brother :)

July 18th, 2012 Ingonish and Antagonish, Nova Scotia (Cape Breton)

This was our misplaced "free" day :)

Woke up early to go down to the beach again, get some rocks and took some really cool pictures of the tide pushing the creek upstream!

Ate yet another cold breakfast, and then broke camp in Ingonish.


Went to Mary Anns falls quick hike in with a wonderful view.

Went to Ingonish Beach. Here you can swim in the ocean, then a quick walk to a fresh water lake.

Climbed up a steep trail close to fresh water lake for wonderful ocean panorama.

You can see the man-made breakwater across the whole top of the picture.

Had a surprise ferry ride on our way from Ingonish. Our GPS didn't recognize it. It took about two minutes and cost $5.25.
Back to Antigonish to stay at Antigonish Highland Heart (Shebby's) B&B http://www.bbcanada.com/3241.html. Much better stay than the University.

Ate at the new Townhouse restaurant http://antigonishtownhouse.blogspot.ca/. I had tuna nicoise salad very odd similar to a fancy Cobb salad.  The tuna is seared outside and raw inside.

Carol had home-made macaroni and cheese, without the fancy green salsa.

Had snack at Piper's bar hot wings and Clancey's beer (from Moncton, NB) again.

Would have been nice to catch the free Wednesday concert at the park next door but was getting late.