So Long Haligonians!

Thursday August 14, 2014

SO LONG HALIGONIANS!

Well, it's our final day in Halifax.  The day dawns chilly and gray.  We are so happy we chose yesterday as our beach day.  The weather's so different today, it could be from another season.  After a little walk around to secure some souvenirs and possibly some giftys, we are hungry for lunch.  Earlier in the day, we lured everyone from the RV and one of my ridiculous breakfasts with the promise of a hearty lunch.  By the time we hike around the impossibly steep streets of the city, the chill wind biting our noses, everyone is quite ready for some comfort food.  And where better to find that than a traditional Irish pub?

Inside, we are greeted with a big smile and a gorgeous Irish lilt.  As we gather around the big old wooden table, Charlie is handed a children's placemat (with a menu printed on it just for the wee folk) and a cup of crayons.  From the look on his face, they might just as well have brought him a high chair and a bib.  He is incredulous.  I share my menu with him before he can mount one of his signature diatribes against our poor waiter.  Sodas are brought in due time and all is forgotten.  The salad I was going to order suddenly seems ridiculous.  So I order this instead:

Fried calamari with french fries and cole slaw...

It is every bit as yummy as it looks.  Mary does order a salad and I pause to admire her self-restraint, but only briefly because, well, look at that picture.

Anyway, after a lunch like this, we can't possibly want dessert...or can we?  Cue demented laugh.  OF COURSE we have dessert.  After all, we will be sitting in the RV for the next five hours and that takes a lot of energy.  There is brownie.  There is chocolate.  There is ice cream.  There is regret.  But not much.

Rob, Mary, Charlie, and Peter

After that, we waddle back to the Breaking Bad car and head back to Dartmouth to begin breaking down the RV for the long ride to our next and last destination before we hit Bethel, ME for a week long celebration of my mother and father-in-law's fiftieth wedding anniversary.  Google Maps, true to form, have us arriving around 5 o'clock.  Real life gets us there closer to 7.  

Check in at Century Farm Campground

This is a stupid angle.  We have a view of the water that's fantastic.

On our way into St. Johns, there's a roadside stand selling lobster rolls and chowdah.  While my clan cowers in the RV (it's raining and chilly) I procure our dinner.  There are two Frenchmen waiting for their food and I pass the time trying to understand what they are saying, but alas, Canadian French is very different from the language I'm used to.  The food takes an inexplicably long time to prepare, considering it's already been cooked and only needs to be bundled for transport.  Two other things offer diversion from the wait:  a precocious little boy and his trucks, which I get a full description of, including the names of the drivers; a collection of 8 track tapes that are for sale.  And yes, there is a Partridge Family one.  I ask the proprietor about them and she says she does have people stopping by occasionally, looking for one.  Maybe for something to do before the key party at the disco?

The food is really tasty, but mine will wait while I mix up a proper martini.  Rob's given up the hard stuff for the trip, and is going in for local beers.  This is why I can fit more of the lobster roll into my tummy:  beer takes up room!

After a bit of cleaning up and arranging our stuff, we head to bed.  Tomorrow we will check out St. Martin's and the Fundy Trail.

The Fundy Trail