Summer 2022 Adventures List

I probably say this every time but I can't believe we are into another season already and now half way through 2022. A few years ago, I started doing these summer fun lists to look forward to doing stuff during the hottest months of the year and have created lists for the other seasons too. Fall has always been my favourite season with summer being my least, so having some direction is good for me. Things have changed over the last couple of years and I have a different job now as well so it is not as easy for me to check things off but I am going to try really hard to complete as many things as I can this summer. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram for more current updates of my adventures at @adventuresofansgirl. 

Mural on building beside McKelvie's restaurant
Taken June 9, 2022

Summer 2022 (Jun 13-Sep 7)

Visit a new to me bakery

Have a wiener roast

Search for murals in your city

Eat from a food truck

Take a photography class

Road trip for my birthday

Go on a picnic

Check out a national park

No screen day 

Hike a new trail

Play board games I did as a child

Visit the immigration museum

Touch a waterfall

Do an random act of kindness

Walk on a red beach

OnTree Fun & Adventure Park 

Read a new book

Go to Georges Island

Have a yard sale

Put together a summer photo album

Road trip with my grandmother

One thing I had on my spring adventure list was to do a road trip with my grandmother and a couple weeks ago, we made that happen. As you know I have been doing lots of travelling around Nova Scotia the last number of years and I have told my grandparents about all the trips I've done so my grandmother asked me if I would take her on one of my next road trips. I've been to the south shore a few times but we decided to go because there was still things I wanted to see. 

As I posted earlier in the week, my grandmother came down to Halifax on the bus and we spent the afternoon in the city. You can see that post here. The next day, we woke up around 7:30 in the morning and headed south on the 103 highway. We had originally booked a puffin tour that left from Peggy's Cove for this morning but the company emailed me a couple nights before to say they had to cancel because of mechanical issues. The puffin tour was the one thing we both really wanted to do but we licked our wounds and were able to visit Carter's Beach instead. This beach is past Liverpool and has been called Nova Scotia's Caribbean paradise. It has beautiful white sand and pretty clear blue water on a nice day but the downside is the water is not warm. It was well worth the 2 hour drive there even though we only spent half an hour looking around. On our way up we did a detour to the community of Hubbards which was pretty too. 

After the beach, we went back to Liverpool for lunch and to check out the Fort Point Lighthouse. You can go inside this lighthouse and even upstairs to see the lamp that powered the light back then. There is a little museum on the main floor and you can hear from the keepers in a video that plays on the second floor. Then we continued on to Lunenburg where we checked into our bed and breakfast, unpacked and had a nap before going back out for the evening. For supper, we went to The Dockside where I got mussels - can't go to a fishing town without getting seafood.

 

The Bluenose II (which was made in Luneneburg and is on our dime) was in port so we were able to go on the deck to check it out. It is a very nice vessel and the crew seemed to be happy that they are able to open the decks again after a two year absence. 

On Saturday, my grandmother and I had reservations for the Lunenburg Walking Tour which I have done before. The site said it would be an hour long but the tour ended up being 2 hours long though it was still great to walk around and learn about the history of the town so we finished just before noon. We were planning on going to the fisheries museum but I wanted to go to Mahone Bay still and I still had two hours of driving before I would get home so we just went straight to the bay. We ate at the Mug & Anchor Restaurant in Mahone Bay then walked around for a bit before stopping at an ice cream shack. 

Afternoon in Halifax

Considering I live in Dartmouth, I actually spend quite a bit of time in Halifax and travelling around the city as a whole but the other week my grandmother came down from the Annapolis Valley and spent a few days with me so we could do some exploring. The first afternoon we spent walking around downtown Halifax so I thought I would do a post about what we did and share some other things you can do in the area.

If you live in the city and want to visit the valley or the other way around but don't have a car, you can take the Maritime Bus for pretty cheap but it is a longer trip. She took the bus from Kentville to Dartmouth in the morning and I picked her up at the stop to start our vacation. Our first stop was lunch at Portland Street Creperie, which as the name suggests serves crepes but they also have a couple of other things on their menu like caesar salad and a soup & sandwich combo. I always get the ham & swiss crepe with garlic aioli instead of the spicy dijon they put on it normally and my grandmother got the eat your veggies crepe. 

Next, we took the bus from Dartmouth to the Public Gardens across the bridge in downtown Halifax. It's really nice to have a Victorian era garden in our downtown core and of course with it being spring, there were lots of new flowers around. There is also a few ponds on the property, a bandstand plus a little visitor centre/cafe. During the summer you can watch movies outside every Friday and they also have weekly concerts. 

As we walked down the hill from the gardens to the waterfront, it started to rain so we didn't explore the boardwalk for as long as I would have liked but I did show her some of the new(-ish) things. We found refuge from the rain at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic which I haven't been to for a few years. This museum has exhibits on the sinking of the Titanic as well as the Halifax Explosion and lots of information on sailing and navy. There is also a Mikmaq exhibit now which we didn't check out but I will make sure to next time I visit. 

We finished our day with supper at McKelvie's with my mom. I had the seafood sampler which was good. It had bacon wrapped scallops, a fish cake and a few shrimp on the plate. I also had some focaccia cheese loaf as the sampler is an appetizer as well and not really enough food by itself. 

After dinner we went back to my place for the night. Check back soon for my little recap of the two days we spent on the South Shore. 

Burger Bash 2022

This isn't on my spring adventure list because I wasn't sure they were going to do it but I was able to try a couple of the special burgers that restaurants had during The Coast's Burger Bash 2022. This event is normally a week long (I have written about Burger Week in previous years) but the organizers decided to extend it to 10 days. I liked that it was longer but it still didn't help me get to any more restaurants. 

I was only able to try two burgers because I had just started my job and it was a busy time for my mom as well so we didn't get a chance to get together. 

The first stop I made was to Krave Burger to eat their Smoking Goat burger. It was okay, I don't like goat cheese so it wasn't my favourite but it was still good. Krave Burger now has a restaurant in Woodside as well (Dartmouth side) where the A&W used to be and their sister company, Vero Pizzeria is also in the same building so this is the one I visited. The Smoking Goat is a seared beef patty, topped with peppercorn goat cheese, applewood smoked bacon, grilled onions & roasted garlic mayo on a toasted bun. I'll give it a 5/10. 

The other one I got (with my mom this time - we did takeout) was the Pork-quoi Pas burger from Stillwell. This restaurant is on Barrington St but it was a bit confusing because Stillwell actually has three different areas in downtown. The burger was described as 'osprey's roost beef and bacon patty, house double smoked maple pepper bacon, American cheese, confit garlic, burger sauce on a Martin's potato roll.' Even with eating it like 10/15 minutes after we picked it up, it was still warm and really good. I'll give it a 8.5/10. 

Doing Some New Adventures

I can't believe it's already June. I wanted to write more blog posts but I haven't gotten out as much as I wanted to because I started a new job and I'm still in school so I thought I would do a recap of what I have done. Since I shared my spring adventure list, I have been able to complete a few things. 

Check out a new beach
On May 12, we had a super hot sunny day (it was 27 degrees Celsius downtown) and I was off from work with nothing else to do so I on a whim around lunchtime decided to go to a drive-thru then head to the beach. With thousands of kilometres of shoreline in Nova Scotia, the province has quite a few beaches and I have been to a handful. During this day, I drove across the bridge towards Sambro and visited Crystal Crescent Beach which I had never been to before. It is a very nice beach and quite long so even though there was lots of people it wasn't crowded. The main parking lot had not been opened yet so people parked along the side of the street so I almost didn't stay. It was about a kilometre walk to the beach from where I parked so I didn't go more than 10 feet away from the stairs down before I set up my chair. I spent a couple hours reading and people watching and just enjoying the sun. I did put my hand in the water which is very cold, but was great to be outside. I can see why it is a popular beach. 

Eat a strawberry shortcake
Normally, I don't like strawberry shortcake so I was hesitant to try one that my cousin made last year but I really liked it so it was nice to have it again this year. The strawberry shortcake I am used to uses tea biscuits, strawberries in juice and whipped cream. I just eat the strawberries in juice but my cousin made an actual cake for her dessert which she brought to our Easter dinner.  It was really yummy. I gotta say, my cousin is a good baker. 

Wake up early for a sunrise
On Saturday, I woke up early in hopes of seeing the sun rise. I drove out to Duncans Cove because it was suggested as one of the best places in Halifax to see the morning sun but I had never been there before so once my directions ended I had no idea where to park. It was still pitch black pretty much and I was alone so I decided to not spend anytime exploring the unknown and went back downtown instead. I ended up at Point Pleasant Park and once I got there, I wasn't sure I actually would catch the sun rise because it was very foggy but I did see a few minutes of it. Most of the time was watching a container ship coming into port. Check out the video on my Instagram for the full thing but below is a picture that I captured.

Photograph the cherry blossoms
This was kind of a hard one to check off because, at least here in Nova Scotia, there really is only about a week in the spring that the blossoms are out. The cherry trees that we have in Dartmouth, I drive by them often and when I saw them back in April being empty I thought I had missed them but they come out in May. Park Avenue (which is by the Dartmouth Commons) has a line of cherry trees that blossom and seems to be the best place to see the pink flowers in the city. Next year I will have to try and get a video of tt but I did take a few pictures which you can see in the photography tab above.