Canada 2022: Halifax

This summer, we spent two and a half weeks visiting Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and it was the most delightful trip! When we were brainstorming trip ideas, Gene wanted to visit museums, I wanted to spend time in nature, Will voted for a road trip and Henry just wanted to get out of the heat of Texas -- Canada met all our requirements!

The cats are always curious whenever we get out our suitcases.

We had an easy travel day but got in to Halifax very late on June 28. Fortunately, our first stop of the trip was the Halifax Citadel, located across the street from our hotel. 

Halifax was founded in 1749 and the current citadel was completed in 1856.

Bagpipes!

Old Town Clock

After visiting the Citadel, we had lunch and headed down to the water. We found this beautiful mural on the side of a building.  

We visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

and then toured the Sackville.  

Our final stop of the day was the beautiful Central Library. 

Check out the Escher-like staircases! It was stunning.

Our second day in Canada was Canada Day, and we visited the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.

The museum was fascinating and we learned so much -- and the boys played a rousing game of chess!

After lunch, we visited the Government House, which is the official residence of the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia.

Next, we visited the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

The highlight was the Maud Lewis folk art display. This is the tiny house she and her husband lived in!

After a rest at the hotel, we got ice cream and then visited the public gardens.  

It was a gorgeous day and the park was full of Canadians celebrating the holiday.  

Gene walked down to the waterfront to see the fireworks display, but it wasn't very impressive. He did snap a phot of the Canadian flag against the night sky, though!

On day three, we woke up early because we had to swap out our rental car -- the original one had a slowly leaking tire. We turned in the original car, and then headed to the waterfront to take the ferry to Georges Island.  

While we waited for the ferry, Gene found a boat called the "Silva."

Reading and waiting.

Georges Island is in the middle of Halifax Harbor and was part of the Halifax Defence Complex for years. Parts of the fort remain and it is now just a tourist spot during the summer months.

Just as we were leaving the island, clouds started rolling in. Once the ferry docked, we dashed up the hill to grab our new rental car and then we were heading out of Halifax, on our way to Lunenburg. We stopped at Peggy's Cove, a charming village with the most-photographed lighthouse in all of Nova Scotia.

It was drizzling while we were there, which meant the crowds weren't too bad at the lighthouse.

Peggy's Cove Lighthouse

Henry really wanted to visit a Tim Horton's on our trip, so we found one (of many) as we left Peggy's Cove and got coffee and doughnuts for an afternoon snack.  

We settled in to our Airbnb and walked around Lunenburg. View of the Bluenose from at dinner.

We didn't take many photos of food, but we had some really incredible seafood on this trip! Gene's first lobster of the vacation.

Up next: more adventures in Lunenburg!

New Mexico Road Trip 2021: Part 2

On the third day of our road trip, we left Texas and made it to New Mexico. One of the neatest parts of this trip was watching how the landscape slowly changed. Texas is big and beautiful!

Day 3:

It had been 102 degrees when we arrived in Amarillo, but a cold front came in overnight and the temperatures dropped 50 degrees. It was cold and very windy when we left Amarillo and went to Cadillac Ranch. We didn't paint the Cadillacs, but it was a fun, quick stop on our way out of town.

We stopped on the side of the road to take some pictures because the Panhandle landscape was just so beautiful.

And then we made it to New Mexico! Our big outing was to Capulin Volcano National Monument, which is an extinct cinder cone volcano in northeastern New Mexico.

The fog was very dense, even at the base of the volcano, and just got denser the further up we went, but at least it wasn't hot. It had been 95 degrees the day before.

We stopped to get a new National Parks pass and picked up some other goodies, like this sweatshirt that Henry lived in for the rest of our vacation!

We had stopped at a grocery store before we even left Texas, so we had a picnic lunch at the park. It was so cold that we had to dig out our winter coats!

And then we hiked the one-mile Lava Flow Trail at the base of the volcano. It was so foggy!

After the short hike, we drove up the volcano (which was pretty scary because of the fog) to hike the one-mile Crater Rim Trail. Once we got to the top, Will decided to stay in the car, but the rest of us hiked around the rim.

Later in the summer, clusters of ladybugs gather at the top of the volcano, but we only saw one ladybug when we were there.

The fog was intense! We literally couldn't see anything.

At one point, Henry laid down in the middle of the trail, unwilling to go on!

But he made it, and about 2/3 of the way through, the skies cleared up and we had beautiful views of the valley and down into the crater.

So much happier!

Crater views

After the volcano, we stopped in Cimarron for a coffee/ice cream break at Hiker's Coffe Co.  

One more hour in the car, and we made it to our cabin in Angel Fire!

Dinner at a local pizza place that specialized in Detroit-style pizza.

Day 4:

We had the best view from our cabin, overlooking a meadow. This is the sight that greeted me each morning.  

We were all up early because we had gained an hour. The birds were also awake and singing by 5am. We decided to hike the nearby Oeste Vista Trail, which was supposed to be about 2 1/2 miles but was more like 4 miles, with about 600 feet of elevation gain.

It was a really beautiful trail, and we got such an early start that we didn't encounter many people.

After our hike, we came home for lunch and some downtime. Gene did some sketching on the back porch.

We must've been full of energy, because we decided to do another quick hike, just one mile around Monte Verde Lake.

We saw geese and their babies, who were not happy because some teenagers were chasing them on the trail.

New Mexico is really beautiful!

It was a long day with lots of physical activity, so Henry crashed on the recliner when we got back home.

We don't love going out to dinner on vacation and would much rather come home and whip up a quick meal, and that's exactly what we did for most of our trip. This was a chicken pesto pasta with aspargus.

And we ended our day with some relaxing time in the hot tub. 

Angel Fire was exactly what we wanted for this trip -- cooler weather with lots of time in the great outdoors.