September 2nd

Flight delay arghh!!! This delay gets us into Halifax late evening and then rent our car and drive in the dark to Lunenburg at midnight to the Boscawen inn. We have a beautiful room with a turret. There is a awesome breeze coming through the windows and you can smell the sea air.

September 3rd

We start the morning by poking around town. There is a huge sailboat from Jamaica in harbour that is incredible. We wonder what it is doing here? We take a 40-minute tour of the town to get the history and appreciate the architecture. Next, we check out the Ironworks Distillery located in an old marine blacksmith’s shop. We do a little tasting and come out with a little something to haul home!  It is a beautiful afternoon, so we enjoy the desk at the Boscawen Inn and take in the view. We decide to go for a drive and explore other parts of the town. Spectacular view of the harbour from the golf course and there are a lot of B and B’s in very old homes with wrap around veranda and decorative accents. There is a small (it really is not small) cruise ship so we google it to see what the scoop is. It is the Carnival cruise ship owner’s boat. Wow!

 

September 4th
We start heading back towards Halifax today. We take the scenic route by Mahone bay. Absolutely beautiful. We stop at the Swiss Air monument where it commemorates the crash that took place 20 years ago September 2nd. The families had just been there 2 days ago. So sombre. Then it was off to
Peggy’s Cove which is a big tourist sight but still a must see. The waves crashing up on the rocks is so soothing and yet incredibly dangerous. For lunch we partake in a lobster boil. It was soooo delicious.
We continue to Halifax and check into the hotel and then go on a search for fresh oysters. And we find them at McKelvie’s. We meet up with some of our Opimian friends and go for supper at Amano. Delicious food and delicious wines!

September 5th
We start the day with a walk along the boardwalk. There are a lot of people from huge cruise ships but other than that it is a beautiful walk. We head off to the Immigration museum at Pier 21. We do take the time to look up our grandfather’s arrival ships. So cool since they did arrive to Canada together. Then it is another oyster search. This time the oysters are served with scotch in an eye dropper at Sea Smoke. It was good. We climb up the hill towards the citadel. The view is incredible. The citadel is full of history of the world wars and you get to experience a WWI trench. We were very thirsty and tired after that, so we needed to have another snack of oysters at the Little Fish. We meet up with the rest of the Opimian board for supper at Gio. Incredibly beautiful and delicious food.

September 6th
Neil unfortunately has board meetings. For me it is a day of working out and then having lunch with some spouses at Little Fish. Then walking up the Spring Garden Road to the Public gardens which are incredibly beautiful with a full variety of flowers and plants. We cap off the afternoon sipping wine on the 8th floor deck of the hotel. Tonight, we have another incredible supper at The Press Gang located in one of Halifax’s oldest stone structures.


September 7th
Today is all about wine touring. First stop is L’Acadie Vineyards on the Gasperau valley and over the hill is the Bay of Fundy. It is an organic vineyard that specializes in sparkling wines. Soils are shist, sandstone, clay, and loam from glacier deposits. They say it is like Bordeaux terroir. Main grape is L’Acadie blanc which is a hybrid crossing of Cascade and Seyve-Villard. This year they had a frost on June 3rd and then lost 80% of the first growth. 2nd growth was good. We do a tasting of a variety of sparkling wines. Next was Luckett Vineyards for lunch and a tasting. Lunch and tasting were delicious and then we get a little tour and talk from Pete Luckett. He is a character! We remember him from Pete’s Fruitique on CBC. And WTH, there is a British phone box in the middle of the vineyard! Off to Domaine du Grand Pre. Peter, a swiss guy gives us an incredible talk while doing a tasting on hill with an incredible view. This is a beautiful place! We finish off at Avondale Sky winery. The tasting room is an old church that was moved from Walton from down river? CBC has a video of this. Back to Halifax and out for supper at Five fisherman with some of the board.

September 8th
Another day of board meetings for Neil. For me it is low key – a workout, lunch and shopping with Brenda. Then it is off to the hospitality room and out for supper at The Bicycle Gang. Good atmosphere, food and wines.

September 9th
We fly home today, so we dart out for one last feed of fresh oysters at the Bicycle Gang. Then off to the airport. We need to come back and explore more of Nova Scotia. It is an incredibly beautiful place in Canada!

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