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. 

Spring Blossoms

The official start of Spring is in a few days and I'm not sure how it is that time already. While I don't use the actual dates of the seasons for my fun lists, I thought I would share this now. Last year, I wanted to get out more and it's the same for 2022 as well. The coronavirus restrictions that we have had in Nova Scotia are supposedly going to be lifted next week so I'm hoping that this will allow more opportunities to do things I want to do. 

Spring 2022 (Mar 6-Jun 7)

Read a new book
Wake up early for a sunrise
Search for murals in your city
Have ice cream with cousins
Do zip-lining and a ropes course
Try two new recipes
Eat strawberry shortcake
Check out a new beach
Play glow in the dark mini-golf
Walk in a 5k event
Spring cleaning
Hike on the Kentville trails
Grill outside
Road trip with my grandmother
Eat at three new restaurants
Complete 2 Conqueror challenges
Photograph the cherry blossoms
Visit the immigration museum
Yard sale day
Have a no screen time day

I'm going to try to write more blog posts this year so keep checking back for updates on this list as I complete the activities. Hope you all can enjoy the season. 

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.