(Ahhhh room service)
Sunday Dan and I walked down to the harbourfront to take in some of BuskerFest. It just occurred to me that there were a lot of "fests" in Halifax over the weekend... I digress. So yes, buskers, cotton candy, water, lunch on the patio, all very lovely. Dan, Ian, Curtis and Paul then went on to smoke cigars in their favourite little cigar lounge while I ventured out in search of ice cream and souveniers. Neither are lacking in Halifax, that is for sure! Anything you need shaped like a lobster, they've got it.
(Strong buskers!)
(The guys in the cigar lounge)
(Things shaped like lobsters)
That night we went for sushi for dinner which was delicious. I highly recommend deluxe lobster rolls if you ever see them! Dan and the boys then ventured out for another night of "fest"ing. So Monday morning, Dan was a bit.... slow.... and we didn't end up leaving until quite a bit later than we had intended to. Hm. Well at least we're on vacation and have nowhere to rush to! We set off about 1:00 and headed west. We made a small diversion to take another scenic route (Highway 2 in Nova Scotia along the Bay of Fundy, highly highly recommend it!), so we could stop at "That Dutchman's Farm" to pick up Jan's favourite cheese: Dragon's Breath. http://www.denhoek.ca/ I picked up what I think is a 10 lb wheel of garlic gouda that is to die for, along with the prerequisite orders for smelly cheese. The farm itself was pretty outstanding! They had at least 4 peacocks that I could see, cows, sheep, cats... I was in heaven! They also have a little dutch restaurant, but unfortunately we got there a bit late and missed out on lunch. It was a really fun little place though, I'm looking forward to going back again one day and hiking their trails!
(That Dutchman's Farm view over Bay of Fundy)
Further down the road we stopped at a little town bazaar in an old school house. Dan and I each bought hand knit toques (and a pair of matching mittens for me!) for coming home to this chilly Toronto weather ;) Further yet down the road, we were starving and stopped in Five Islands for dinner at a place called Mo's. It's this very cool hostel/internet cafe/restaurant/art gallery that you would never expect to find in a place that doesn't even have a stop sign. (http://www.backpackers.ca/listings.php?cityid=Five%20Islands) I had a bowl of their incredible homemade seafood chowder and Dan and I split one of their bbq chicken pizzas. The pizza was done in a woodburning oven and we agreed it was probably one of the best meals we had on our trip! What a happy surprise!
Round about Fredericton it started to rain. And by rain I mean unleash the ocean vertically while negotiating construction zones. You know how to piss off the Colonel? Tell him it's the end of vacation, so now it's time to drive 20+ hours in the pouring rain and that when you get home, you don't REALLY know what's going to happen to him. The Colonel's revenge? No more windshield wipers. Nope. Just no more. They were working, now they are not. Take THAT! We very slowly crept our way off the highway and into a Home Depot parking lot where we figured we at the very least would have a bathroom that opened at 6am. Dan (still dealing with the ramifications of last night's "fest") fell asleep fairly quickly while I stayed up writing in our travel journel and reading a bit. About an hour later the rain stopped, but sometimes it's best just to listen to the signs and stay put.
Early the next morning we hit the road again with clear sunny skies. We discovered there was a Starbucks just down the street so we grabbed our first chai lattes in a month and hit the road yet again! *If I may interject a little note here, I would like to thank my iPhone and Apple again for this wonderous invention. Not only can my iPhone show me on a map where the heck I am in the middle of seemingly nowhere, it can also tell me where there's a Starbucks within 200km. This amazing little piece of technology saved my butt numerous times with maps, and also kept me connected with the world of Facebook, which we all know is of number one priority ;) *
We drove and drove and drove and then we both thought "man it's getting loud in here", and I thought "There must be a motorcycle passing us..." and then it sounded like we got a flat! Crap!!! Of course we HAVE a spare, but what we DON'T have is a jack. Duh! Well for once fate worked our way and it wasn't a flat, it was our exhaust! It split!!! No WONDER it was getting loud! So Dan played McGyver and cut open a Pepsi can and threw it over the split pipe, holding it in place with a big clamp. We got to Woodstock and visited Crappy Tire where we bought some high heat tape to seal it all shut. And then we read the directions: Apply to cold pipe. Oh. So we drove 17 hours with what sounded like a fleet of Harley Davidson's sitting between us.
When you drive in a scenario like that you get a glimpse of your future. Very apropos considering our upcoming nuptials. Most of our conversations went like this:
Dan: "werlskjfosdihfioeharean?"
Me: "WHAT?????"
Dan: "I SAID WHAT TIME IS IT????"
Me: "10:07!!!!"
Also common was me seeing Dan's lips moving, then me deciding my throat was too sore from screaming "WHAT????" at him, so I'd just nod and smile and go back to watching the traffic. It's like a vision of being 80 together isn't it?
We got into Port Credit about 1:30am. The cats were very happy to see us. We were very happy to get out of the Colonel (no offense Colonel). We were very happy to see our big king size bed. That was one heck of a drive!!!
Tomorrow I will post one last post up here with a few more photos and notes of things I wanted to share. I'm just too tired now to cover them off! Thanks again for all your support, both moral and technical (Tom, Barry, Rob), over the past few months. See you at the wedding!!!!
xoxo
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