Day 2: Halifax - August 13, 2015

August 13th: The next morning, no card, no car and I called to see when our card would be in,  Wells Fargo said it had not shipped out and would be at least another two days.  Now we were starting to stress out.  To relax, we took a nice long walk out to the big park at the end of the peninsula.  The park was awesome, once a fort with remnants of battlements and ammunition storage. Great old cannons. Halifax was quite the seaport in its day.

On a side note, we had shipped a package containing some camping gear along with the very important bike trailer via UPS nearly two weeks prior with an arrival date of the 11th.  We had been tracking the package, and it was held up in Customs.  We called UPS several times and they assured us that the package would be in Baddeck by no later than Friday the 14th.  On The 13th we called again, and after signing some  paperwork we had previously been told they did not need,  they again assured us the package would be in Baddeck by the 14th, however now instead of a 15 dollar tax fee we owed them 130 dollars-go figure.  

After our walk through an amazing park with lots of history, we went back to the hotel.  Back at the hotel on  a whim  I stopped by the Dollar Car Rental (in our hotel lobby which Heidi and I both missed and walked for about an hour looking for previously.  The ladies were very nice and understood our problem, however they had no cars and did not accept debit.  The manager mentioned that she had a friend at Hertz down the street and offered to see if she could help me out, she made a call, and I had little hope. Friends are a good thing, the ladies conspired and eventually she explained to me that a couple of cars would be available only online in a few minutes and only for late in the afternoon.  I ran up to the room, and booked the car through Hertz online.  Then we cancelled the original car in hopes someone could use it.  

Once we picked up the car we took off and drove straight to Lunenburg, a quaint seaside town just south of Halifax, with the famous colorful homes and churches.  The town was awesome, we had a nice seafood dinner on the waterfront, and then explored nearby areas like Blue Rocks to try and get some nice photos.  We returned to our hotel later that evening.  Driving around Nova Scotia is not as bad as many places I have been, but Halifax is congested and the traffic was a bit irksome.  I expected Halifax to be a much smaller town, but it is a thriving port city, and I have been schooled.

One of many old cannons around the Peninsula Park that protected the shipping into and out of Halifax.  This park was wonderful, and they even allow dogs off leash.  Cool.

This is the old fortress, sans roof and guns.  The old style tower was built in 1757 and protected the area for a couple of hundred years, even serving as an ammunition depo during the wars. 

Here is the old (and I believe no longer used) grain storage facility in the Industrial port for Halifax.  I wonder how long until some engineer and architect convert this to some very strange waterfront and nearly bomb proof condos?

Halifax water front on a sunny day.

Lunenburg, wonderful old town (and world Heritage Site) with way more churches than liquor stores.

Dinner in Lunenburg with a first course of local brews.  Some were good, some were better.  All were enjoyed.

Blue Rocks, the waitress at our dinner suggested to go here for photos, here is a good one, but we agree, it was a worthy spot to make photos.

Heidi hiked out on the rocks to get this photo while I searched in vain for my glasses, sure I lost them in a panic.  Heidi later picked them up from the center counsel, duh, maybe the beer is better then I thought.