Fall & Winter 2021

Well, somehow it's early March and that means Spring is right around the corner. Since I don't follow the exact dates for my seasonal lists, my winter fun list ended on the 5th so I thought I would share what I was able to do and also recap the fall one as well. 

It was a pretty good fall in 2021, I did quite a bit and the restrictions in Nova Scotia were lessened a bit so I was able to get back to my favourite hobby; cheering on the Halifax Mooseheads hockey team. Below is my list.

Fall 2021 (Sep. 20-Nov. 20)
Visit a pumpkin patch
✔ Get back to cheering on the Mooseheads
Search for murals in your city
✔ Have a Hallowe'en movie night 

✔ Try a new restaurant 
Wake up early for a sunrise
✔ Pick apples in an orchard - went to Noggins Farm with my best friend and her kids, we also went through the corn maze there
Make a pot of chilli
✔ Navigate a corn maze
✔ Decorate for fall
Go on a scenic drive
✔ Valley Harvest Marathon
Burn a fall scented candle
✔ Spend Thanksgiving with family - such a nice weekend; I did a 5K around Wolfville than my aunt cooked a delicious roast supper on Saturday and on Sunday we had a turkey dinner for 11 people
Take photos of fall foliage
✔ Participate in Halifax Burger Week - I ended up only getting to like two restaurants this time
Read a new book
✔ Enjoy chocolatey mint cookies
Go for a hike

Winter was a bit different but still good even though restrictions returned in the province and changed my plans for a trip I wanted to take in March. 

Winter 2021 (Nov. 21-Mar. 5)
✔ Sip on hot chocolate
Bake some cookies
✔ Go on a snowy city walk

Attend a tree lighting ceremony
✔ Wear matching holiday pyjamas
Have a game night
✔ Check out a Christmas festival - my mom and I spent a Wednesday night exploring the lights at the Evergreen Festival. It was a bit more open than in 2020 so we were able to do the market part as well 
Do a random act of kindness
✔ Take cousins to a Mooseheads game
Read a new book
✔ Make goals for 2022
Go ice skating
✔ See a play at Neptune - we saw Alice in Pantoland which was a spoof on Alice in Wonderland and it was really good, they even used some local jokes/areas in the play and did a rendition of a Classified song (who is a rapper from Enfield, NS)
✔ Watch holiday movies - saw all my favourites and added a couple more DVD's to my collection. I'll try to share my favourites when the season comes around again
Have a no screen time day
✔ Decorate apartment for Christmas
Try two new recipes
✔ Look at Christmas lights in neighbourhood - my mom and I drove all over the place, up into Clayton Park, downtown Halifax and Eastern Passage/Cole Harbour area - some houses had impressive displays 

Thanks again for following along. I hope these lists give you guys ideas on what to do during the different seasons. I have some fun stuff planned for 2022 and really hope that it all works out so I can share even more blog posts this year. 

Don't forget to get a behind the scenes look at what adventures I'm up to follow me on Instagram at @adventuresofansgirl 

Hot and Rainy Summer

Once again, the season did not go how I thought it was going to go and I was not able to do some of the things I really wanted to do on my summer fun list but it was still better than in the spring. 

I spent quite a bit of time in the valley to visit with family and the summer weather was either heat wave or rain it seemed. With the relaxing of more of the restrictions, I was able to see my best friend a couple of times as she has been in New Brunswick and couldn't easily come home for a while. She and her family invited me camping one weekend which was good. My cousin who moved to Nova Scotia from Ontario spent a lot of time with me which I'm very thankful for. Not only did she go on a weekend getaway for my birthday but we went mini golfing and she put together a couple of bookcases. 

Below is my completed list for summer

Summer 2021 (Jun 14-Sep 19)
✔ Have a bonfire & s'mores

Nature themed scavenger hunt
✔ Birthday weekend trip
Watch the sunrise
✔ Check out a new beach - mom and I visited Martinique Beach which had even more surfers than I've ever seen at Lawrencetown
Sleep under the stars
✔ Visit a National Historic Site 
Take a bike ride
✔ Play miniature golf - visited Mastadon Ridge, more than just the mini golf course there but was nice to be outside 
Ice cream with cousins
✔ Do an in-person 5k race
Hike 3 new trails
✔ Eat some Digby scallops
✔ See what's new in the city - walked around downtown Halifax for a bit with my cousin, lots of new art and buildings
OnTree Fun & Adventure Park
✔ Go to the movies 
Travel the south shore again
✔ Visit a waterfall
✔ Have a yard sale - wanted to have this last May but the pandemic messed that up, nice to get rid of some stuff we didn't need anymore 
Make a summer photo album

First In-Person Race in 2 Years

In August, my mom and I did another weekend road trip because I had an in-person 5k race to do. I checked a few things off my summer fun list on this trip which is why I put them on the list. The race was the Annapolis Royal 5K which is as the name suggests in Annapolis Royal, a small town on the southwestern part of the province. It's about a 2 hour drive from Dartmouth so since the race was early Sunday morning, we made a weekend out of it. 

On the Saturday (August 21), we drove up in the morning and went a bit past Annapolis to a town called Digby. We had been to that end of the province before but only drove through it to get from point A and B so I wanted to actually tour the town. The first time we went a few years ago, we went for a walk on the Balancing Rock Trail which is on Long Island and is over three hours away from Dartmouth. To get to Long Island you have to take a short ferry ride from the main land and there is a restaurant before you get on the ferry. You can also get on a whale watching tour from there. We decided to take the extra half hour drive this trip to East Ferry and eat at the restaurant because they have a very delicious scallop roll (pictured) that my mom had the first time we visited and wanted to go again. It is seared buttered scallops on a grilled hot dog bun. I ended up having the haddock burger which had a lot of haddock on it that I actually had to use a knife and fork to eat it.

Before we went to East Ferry, we had visited a little village called Bear River and checked out the multiple art galleries that are there. It was nice visiting a new place that we had never been to before and it was a little bit on a whim as we hadn't planned to. We did some exploring in Digby, checked out a couple of lighthouses and had a nice walk on the boardwalk downtown. Supper was at a place called The Crow's Nest which was okay, I'm not sure what the hype is about it but I was able to check off a summer bucket list item in having Digby scallops. We spent the night at a B&B in Granville Ferry named the Seafaring Maiden Bed and Breakfast as it was pretty close to Annapolis Royal. 

Sunday morning I did the 5k race. Was a really nice walk and it took me longer than I wanted to but I crossed the finish line. I liked it so much that I would like to do it next year again. I got out okay but before I hit the 1km mark I had fallen to the very back of the pack. Between the 3 and 4km marks, the course was an out and back and one lady saw me all alone and asked if she could walk with me to finish the race which was nice. My official time was 1 hour 3 minutes and 8 seconds. We finished the weekend by visiting the Port Royal National Historic Site. 

Birthday Weekend Road Trip

I couldn't think of a more clever title :) 

Last month was my birthday. Normally, I do a dinner with my grandparents and parents, however there was a lot of stuff going on with them this summer so I decided not to do the normal and go on a trip instead. My cousin Julianne came along with me which was nice because I think if she didn't, I would not have done some of the things we ended up doing. I had been to Truro (which is in the Bay of Fundy region) and to Joggin's Fossil Cliffs (near the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border) but had not been to the areas in between on that side of the province so this is where we decided to go. 

She lives in the valley and I am in the city so she slept at my place on Friday night so we could get an early start. We were off by 7 a.m.and our first stop was a place called Hurricane Heidi's Cafe which is in Brookfield, about a 50 minutes drive from Dartmouth. It's a small cafe meaning there is not much seating and it is a popular spot so when we arrived, there was no space for us. We did take out but that did effect what we ordered. This was not the first time I have gone to this cafe before last month; when mom and I are going that way we make a point of stoping in. The owner of the cafe is Heidi Cooke and she is a motocross racer and when I was younger I used to watch her and her brother race in Moncton and in their hometown as well so I wanted to support her. 

Then we drove to Economy to check out the Cliffs of Fundy Welcome Centre to see if we could find anymore information on what to do in the area but it was more of a museum sort of. Through thousands of years of erosion, archaeologist have found interesting rocks and fossils so they have those displayed and some history of how it all happened at this welcome centre. We had mentioned that we wanted to go to Economy Falls while we were there so they gave us directions, follow these not the ones Google gives you to get to it. Google's directions make you have to go in a C and it is very rough where the other ones are a straight line basically. Half way through our drive to the falls we actually debated if we should keep going because it was so bumpy but I have wanted to go to these falls for a number of years so we kept going. The trail really isn't that long, according to my Fitbit watch it was just over 3km there and back but I did not realize that you had to go down stairs to get to the bottom of the waterfall. Again, I had second thoughts about continuing but we said I would regret it if we didn't go down. The waterfall was worth all that trouble and we were able to take a break before going back up to our car. 

We continued on to Parrsboro where we went to the Fundy Geological Museum (more for children), Five Islands Lighthouse and the Parrsboro Lighthouse. For supper, we ate at a restaurant called Granny's Seafood Restaurant and I had a bacon cheeseburger, it was pretty good. We spent the night at the Sunshine Inn which was cute. It had a lake that you could use as well as a giant chess board and fire pit on their property, we didn't do any of that but it was cool to see. 

The next day, we woke up and had breakfast at the inn then drove to Truro for a walk through Victoria Park. This park has a couple of waterfalls so we went to see those. The first time I had been to the park, it was during the winter so everything was very icy and not flowing too well and I wanted to see it again. Had quite a break here and we ended up coming to Jacob's Ladder on our way back to the parking lot. Jacob's Ladder is a 196-step staircase so I had been trying to avoid it but either way, we had to walk up many stairs. We also went to Masstown Market for ice cream before heading home. 

All in all it was a good weekend, nice to get away for a bit and spend some time when my cousin. 

Go to the movies

I normally don't put 'go to the movies' on my seasonal fun/bucket lists but since I haven't been to a theatre for a long time because of COVID, I thought I would this summer. The movie theatres here in Nova Scotia opened back up again last week and on Sunday I decided to take the day to watch a couple of films. 

Photo - IMDb

It's been raining here the last number of days on and off so what better time to go to the movies. I have been a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise for about 10 years now and I rewatched the whole saga a few weeks ago in anticipation of the 9th film coming out. F9 was the first one I went to see yesterday, it was action packed! I won't give anything away but the franchise has certainly moved from the car races to the main characters showing off their muscles. I can see why they have such a large budget as well because there are a lot of vehicles that get ruined, even more in this film. 

After the movie ended, it was supper time so I decided to eat at Boston Pizza since it was close and I was going to another showing in the evening. I ordered their chicken club sandwich which was pretty good, a little spicy for me but I struggle with heat both in food and the weather. 

The second film I went to was the movie adaption of the Broadway musical 'In the Heights'. It was good as well but I have a hard time watching musicals, especially when it's songs made up to sing talking parts. I would recommend this film though. 

Photo - IMDb

Some thoughts I had about going to the theatre during a pandemic and Nova Scotia trying to open up; wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It could be because I went on a Sunday afternoon and evening but they weren't very busy. You can still get your tickets at the concession stands and the self serve kiosks, however all the films now need a reserved seat so if you want a specific spot in the auditorium or guarantee that it won't be sold out, book your tickets online in advance. They can only sit so many in each auditorium because of social distancing right now and I did see one couple who were told that the movie they wanted to see was sold out when they got to the theatre. Just like other indoor places, you have to wear your mask unless you are eating or drinking. I didn't clue in while I was there but my shoes didn't stick to the floor either so they are clearly cleaning a lot more than they were pre-pandemic. 

Summer bucket list: Go to the movies - CHECK July 4, 2021

Summer 2021 list

Summer officially begins in one week and as such, I have come up with another seasonal list of activities I would like to do over the next few months. I've transferred some that were on my spring list as I didn't get as much done from that one as I wanted to. We are currently in Phase 1 here in Nova Scotia of the reopening plan and there has been talk that the second phase could start in a couple of days, which would be great. 

Summer 2021 (June 14-September 19)
Have a bonfire & s'mores
Nature themed scavenger hunt
Watch the sun rise
See what's new in the city
Visit a National Historic Site
Take a bike ride
Play miniature golf
Ice cream with cousins
Do an in-person 5K race
Hike 3 new trails
Eat some Digby scallops
Birthday weekend road trip
Sleep under the stars
Check out a new beach
OnTree Fun & Adventure Park
Go to the movies
Travel the south shore again
Visit a waterfall
Have a yard sale
Make a summer photo album

I will update this post after the season is over and let you know how I did. Keep checking back the next few months too as I will make individual posts for some of the activities once I complete them. 

Not a Packed Spring

Can I just say COVID sucks?! 

Spring is almost over which is crazy to know that we are already in the sixth month of 2021. Back in February when I posted my seasonal fun list, I said that I would update this blog about what I completed on the list. I'm disappointed to say that I wasn't able to put a check mark next to as many of them as I wanted to because Nova Scotia went into lockdown once again in late April before starting it's reopening phases at the beginning of June. The government didn't want us to leave our communities so I was unable to get up to the valley or see my family during this time like I was hoping to. I have moved some of the activities I wanted to do to my summer list instead. 

So here is the update

Visit OnTree Fun & Adventure Park
Spring cleaning

✔ Try sugar-on-snow - click here for my post about our visit Sugar Moon Farm 
Have a yard-sale

Eat strawberry shortcake
Read a new book
Watch the sunrise
✔ Shop at a farmer's market - just ended up buying some treats from the Cake Lady which were good but it felt weird to just look at each table given the current circumstances
Play mini-golf
Hang memorabilia in apartment
Grill outside
✔ Visit a waterfall 

Cheer on Team Canada during the Women's Worlds
Eat at 3 new restaurants
Try two new recipes
Have some ice cream with my cousins
Do a nature themed scavenger hunt
✔ Walk in a 5K event - I did the Sole Sisters 5K race virtually and walked it in 1:07:42 which I was disappointed in but I hadn't walked five kilometres all year yet
Spend the day at the zoo