Maritimes - Day 23

Our second full day in Halifax started with a walk to a nearby church and then a trip back down to the ferry terminal, which Sandra discovered had a touch tank full of sea creatures.  After washing our hands with a foot pump water fountain, we went into a small shack that contained three tanks full of star fish, crabs, anemones, snails, shrimp, clams and probably some other things I've forgotten.  Bradley absolutely loved it and Jonathan was also pretty interested.  They spent a long time holding the animals, peppering the worker with questions and learning lots about the marine life in the North Atlantic.  When he was done, Bradley's fingers were wrinkled up from being in the water so much.

Of course, the older two boys were only mildly interested, and it was a small shack with other kids that wanted to see things, so I took them outside, where we looked over the Dartmouth marina and across the harbour to the Canadian naval ships docked at CFB Halifax.  We could see four frigates, what might have been a supply ship and a coastal defence ship.  After leaving the touch tank, I dropped Sandra and the kids off at the house and then went out for lunch with a friend here in Halifax.

After that, we tried to get back across to Halifax to continue exploring, but ran into problems, as we could not find any parking in downtown Dartmouth.  We ended up in a sketchy area near the terminal and rail yard and took the ferry across the harbour again.  We wanted to go to Georges Island, which is in the middle of the harbour, but the last ferry to the island left at 3:20pm, and we ended up on the 3:00pm ferry from Dartmouth to Halifax.  We arrived at Halifax at about 3:10pm, got to the ticket office at 3:15pm and just managed to get on the ferry.

Georges Island was used to defend the harbour and had extensive tunnels built in it to house the guns and to bring ammunition to the guns.  You could take a guided tour through the tunnels, as they didn't want people getting lost in the maze.  Once through the tunnels, we took a quick look around the top of the island, learned a lot about what WWI soldiers ate from a guide and then took the ferry back to the harbour.

It was then time for supper at a local family seafood restaurant, where Sandra had Digby scallops, a quick walk and shopping trip, and some ice cream to finish off our day.  Then the ferry back to Dartmouth and back to the house.