The Mini-Moon...Part One

So we decided to chill in Hallyfax for two nights, just for a bit of fun between the stress of moving and the stress of the rest of our lives. I'm really glad we did, cuz we've had a really nice time. We've called it the mini-moon, since there was no time for a real honeymooon.

Yesterday started with breakfast at Cora's....mmmmmmm, Cora's.

If you've never been to or heard of Cora's, it's a smallish Canadian chain of breakfast and lunch restaurants, started in Montreal in 1987. The first one only held 29 people, but by 1991 had already served a million! (this is all off the placemat). One of the unique features of Cora's are these arty fruit piles you can get. See, you get this big pile of fruit and they make it look really cool. My breakfast in the photo there doesn't even come close. Still, the fruit was really tasty, as I believe it's the first fruit I've had in a few weeks!

After breakfast we hit a knitty shop in the area. I didn't get a photo, but Mark was nice and patient with me as I went around and pet all the skeins and talked to them and asked them if they would like to come home with me. Unfortunately, they were all snobbish and told me that they were too expensive to be brought home by me, so I bought some less uppity items and we were off.

Next stop was the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

It's the builing in the background with the blue sign with the white flags.
It's March Break out here right now so there were kids everywhere, but it wasn't overwhelming, so we checked it out. They had pirated themed exhibits, which were pretty cool. We got pirate tattoos with the price of admission!

This was one exhibit I was pretty interested in though...
Not in the Leo DiCapprio/Kate Winslet kind of way, but for the fact that despite all of the Hollywoodization of the event, it really did happen and not all that far from here.

Maritime history has always facinated me, as do shipwrecks for some odd reason. Maybe it has to do with folklore and the mythology of hauntings etc. In any case, from way back when, the story of the Titanic has had me hooked.

These exhibits give a very personal viewpoint of how Halifax and Nova Scotia were involved in the recovery and burial of those lost at sea.

A deck chair from the ship.

A poster advertising the return voyage of Titanic from New York. Ooops!

For these prices, I still would've taken a chance.

This exhibit I thought was super interesting. Some people involved in the recovery would take items that they found, such as table legs or other wooden objects and then make something else out of them, such as a rolling pin or a cribbage board. They would then keep these retooled items as keepsakes or rememberances and hand them down for generations. Very interesting.

I love this photo, and here's why. I really just caught Mark in the middle of a sentence. He was reading something off of the museum guide, but it looks as though I'm really enjoying the museum tour and Mark is really not!

Though we saw lots of cool stuff at the museum, the exhibit that effected us the most was the Halifax explosion exhibit. It wasn't terribly big, but really quite sad. These poor people had no warning at all. It is termed the largest man made explosion prior to the atomic age.

This was the dress of a little girl who survived the explosion. She grew up and raised a family of her own and passed away in 1997. She was wearing this dress, one that her mother had made for her, the day of the explosion. It still bears blood and soot stains.


After the musuem, we toddled back in the direction of the hotel and poked our noses into the Alexander Keiths Brewery. Didn't take the tour, thought we'd save that for some lucky group of visitors.

I see this post is taking on quite a life of it's own. I'll adjourn here for now and pick it up later to finish off the mini-moon tour. Until later!