August 19-25, 2025 Hunkered Down for Hurricane Erin

 August 19-25, 2025  Tourists in Mahone Bay, Lunenburg, and Halifax

Mahone Bay: This has been a wonderful area to wait out hurricane Erin and allowing time for the seas to subside before continuing on along Nova Scotia.   While Mahone Bay is a small town it has a reputation for its historical homes, the three churches on the bay, shipbuilding heritage, artsy tourist gift shops, restaurants and even a brewery.  

Another cute house in Mahone Bay showing off the "Lunenburg Bump"

Thursday evening we decided to go listen to some live music and grab a beverage at the Mug and Anchor Pub.  Music was a local band who professed to play country and blue grass.  Let's just say all we ever heard was the blue grass portion and not a single tune we knew.   However, the evening was not a total bust.  As we were looking around the tables a couple people caught our attention.  Is that Jack? Is that Marty? Is that Laird? Is that Craig? Conferred with Martha and agreed - Yes.  For those in the know - they are some of the primary treasure hunters on the History Channel TV show Curse of Oak Island.    The island is only a few miles north of us further up Mahone Bay.  Hate to admit the number of hours we've wasted watching that show uncover an old shard of pottery or another metal spike. Now starting its11th year.  The saying around here is that "More money has been spent ON Oak Island than anyone will ever get OUT of it". 

A capture from Martha's spy cam of Jack (bald head), Craig (white hair),
 and Laird  (baseball cap facing camera) from the Curse of Oak Island show.

Friday evening had live music at the Saltbox Brewery. Decent beers although nothing extraordinary.  Music was provided by two older men singing sea shanty's.  I thought it was pretty entertaining - certainly not your usual live music.  Discovered Famous Town Pie Shop and had to stop there two days in a row for their meat pies.  Small nothing fancy place in the front room of a house off Main Street but good golly was it delicious.  Pastry crust was to die for - all buttery and flaky.    Dinner reservations one night based on a recommendation at Mateus Bistro.  Seafood for us - haddock and halibut - both delicious.  Storm passed by far enough offshore, so we had nothing but a few blustery days in the bay.  Offshore is much different with significant waves which will continue for a few more days. 

Winds around 100 mph as it passed by.
We saw gusts into the 30's

Waves were a bigger concern.
Near shore 16' and well over 45' near the eye

Lunenburg:  Thursday we opted to go explore Lunenburg. Had a fun 10-minute taxi ride with a local character who also came and picked us up afterwards. It's a bigger town than Mahone Bay and founded a bit earlier in 1753.  It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered the best example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America retaining its original layout and appearance of the 1800's.

Residential street in Lunenburg.  Note the "bump" on the yellow house

Lots of well maintained and interesting shops in town

Many of the German immigrant settlers to Mahone Bay originally came through Lunenburg when England was trying to populate the area after claiming it in the Treaty of Paris.   Immigrants were offered a year's worth of food, land and some basic tools if they immigrated, providing they were Protestant and claimed loyalty to the crown.  Farming, fishing and eventually shipbuilding all helped the town grow.  Today it's a nice tourist spot.  The town faces the waterfront and proceeds uphill.  Many of the old fish plants have been repurposed with the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic the most noteworthy.  Worth the time we spent there.  Also got to see the wooden ship Bluenose II.  It's an exact replica of the original which was built in Lunenburg in 1921. A gaff rigged schooner used for fishing and racing. She was famous for having won the International Fisheries Cup multiple times in the 1920's and 30's.  She was being used as a lowly island freighter in 1947 when she wrecked and sank off Haiti.  Bluenose II was built in 1963 and completely rebuilt in 2010.  She now does tourist cruises and serves as an ambassador ship for Nova Scotia sailing to multiple ports.  Luckily she was in Lunenburg and returning with the morning tourist run for our picture taking. 

The Bluenose II returning to port with a catch of tourists

I don't believe her decks looked this nice during her fishing days

 

Martha made a new friend while walking the docks

Final stop today was to St. John's Anglican Church established in 1753 and the second oldest protestant church in Canada. The original church was expanded several times with the current design dating to 1892.  It is done in the Carpenter Gothic style where many features typically done in stone, such as the framing arches, are actually made of wood.  The church had a massive fire in 2001 which consumed roughly half the building and contents.  Enough remained that when it was rebuilt it was able to maintain its historic status.   A noteworthy feature is the blue sky and stars above the chancel.  Originally thought to be contain randomly placed stars, scientific research determined that they actually show the appearance of the night sky in Lunenburg on December 24, 1 BCE.  The first Christmas. 

St. Johns Church. 

The blue ceilinged chancel and Carpenter Gothic styling. 

The Fishermans Window - a favorite with locals for obvious reasons

Halifax.  A bit more of an ordeal getting to Halifax. It's a big city with more to see and do, so decided to take the local intertown bus over and stay a night.  After 3 months of navy showers, we're looking forward to taking a long hot shower!   First impression - it is a big city.  Nova Scotia has a population just over 1,000,000 people and almost half live in the Halifax metro area.  It was the first major town  formed by the British after securing New France in the Treaty of Paris due to its strategic location in an easily fortified, deep water, ice free, year round harbour.  Makes sense it also became the capital. Over 140 cruise ships visit annually, and we had a different one each day of our visit.  They crowd the boardwalk, museums, and restaurants.   Good for local business - not so much for us. Just added to the hustle and bustle feel of things we've been away from for awhile.  Halifax was built on the side of a hill with The Citadel at the top.  This is the fifth iteration of the fort and Parks Canada runs a very good interpretive facility. Interesting feature on the property is the old town clock.  Prince Edward - the Commander in Chief of the British Military was preparing to return to England and made a parting gift to the city - a clock on the hill overlooking town to ensure the city's military forces were always punctual. The clockworks were produced by the House of Vulliamy, a famous family of royal clockmakers based in London, and are still intact and in use today. 

Cannon firings every day at noon.  Masts at the signal station
for notifying the other four forts of dangers.

Impressive star shaped fortification included a dry moat

The town clock just below the Citadel and overlooking town and harbour

Size of the barracks attests to the number of soldiers stationed here 

Working our way downhill we stopped at the Grand Parade with the city hall building at one end and St Paul's Anglican Church at the other.  St. Paul's is the oldest building in Halifax dating to 1750 and the oldest existing Anglican church in Canada.  Next block down and we got a tour of Providence House - home to the Nova Scotia Assembly.  Canada's oldest house of government. It's a fantastically maintained 3-story sandstone example of Palladian architecture.  

City Hall

St. Paul's Anglican 

Providence House

Chamber room.  NS politicians are almost exclusively
 from one party - Progressive Conservativism

Worked our way down to sea level and spent the afternoon walking along the waterfront boardwalk and fighting our way amongst the cruise ship tourists.  Made it to the Canada Immigration Museum which is sort of their Ellis Island.   Received over 1,000,000 immigrants through this facility. Unfortunately, too late in the day for a tour, so stopped at Garrisons Brewery instead.  This is one of Halifax's oldest craft breweries so only natural we should try a flight.  Heavily IPA focused but tasty.  

Statue of Samual Cunard on the Halifax waterfront. He was a native and started
his shipping empire from this port. Saw the potential for steam powered
 vessels and had the first sailing ship with steam power built in Halifax.

Clock Tower at night from our hotel room

Great nights rest at Prince George Hotel once we climbed our way back up the hill.  Room had a nice view of The Citadel and the Clock Tower above us. Breakfast on day 2 was a stop at Le French Fix Patisserie for croissants and coffee. Probably the best croissant I've had on the trip!  Then to the waterfront.  We split up for the day with Martha heading to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and me to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.  First rainy day in eons so perfect for museums.   Martha found the Maud Lewis (1903-1970) exhibit most interesting. She had birth defects and severe rheumatoid arthritis but is considered one of Canada's most beloved folk artists. She sold small paintings and cards from her tiny house to passing tourists in the 40's, 50's and 60's. Most surfaces in her house were painted, and the entire structure is now preserved inside the art museum.  

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

 A typical picture recalling scenes from her childhood. 
Most were smaller to accommodate her limited mobility due to arthritis

She and her husband lived in this simple house from marriage until death

Preserved painted surfaces on the inside of the house

The Maritime Museum had a Titanic display but short of elbowing your way in past the cruise ship tourists it was impossible to see it.  So spent time looking at their small boat collection, massive collection of large scale models of ships, and what I found most interesting - their display regarding what is called "The Halifax Explosion".  During WWI Halifax was a major staging ground for convoys headed to Europe.  On the morning of December 6, 1917 the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, collided with the Norwegian relief effort vessel SS Imo in the harbour. The Mont-Blanc caught fire, drifted to Pier 6, and exploded devastating Halifax. Roughly 2000 people were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured.  The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time until the atomic bomb.  Nearly all structures within a 1-1/2 mile radius were obliterated. A pressure wave snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels (including Imo, which was washed ashore by the ensuing tsunami), and scattered fragments of Mont-Blanc for miles.  Major relief efforts arrived from Boston and to this day Halifax sends them a Nova Scotia tree at Christmas in appreciation of their efforts. 

The number, scale and detailing of the ship models they have is amazing. This one was originally the Lusitania, but after sinking it was modified to the Mauretania - her sister ship

This lens was removed from a lighthouse we had passed and taken pictures
 of several days ago. See if you can spot it in our previous post

Cheap tourist attraction is taking the ferry across the harbour from Halifax to Dartmouth. Just $3 and you get a transfer ticket to come back free.  Unfortunately, not much over there  but we got a nice view of the Halifax waterfront and skyline. 

Halifax to Dartmouth ferry