Day 7: Charlottetown to Halifax

Well, here I am in New Scotland and I'm at the midway point of my trip. I'm starting to feel a little worn down. I'm going to try turning in early tonight.

First, I went to see Charlottetown and I visited two historic sites in particular: the Hall of Founders and Province House. Although the weather was crummy with light showers I actually welcomed the respite from the sun -- my skin is starting to suffer a little bit from the past week. No sunburn yet though.

The Hall of Founders was basically a multimedia self-guided museum which presented the history of confederation right up until Nunavut. The format was a hybrid of a documentary and a mock news show. Although it was campy and cheesy in some places it kept me interested and it reminded me how little I remember from my Gr. 7, 8, and 9 History classes!

Province House (pictured below) is the legislature building for PEI and it was also the building where the Fathers of Confederation met. This is the more serious counterpoint to Hall of Founders where you can watch a 17 minute documentary and tour the inside of the building. The long green table was the exact same table and in the exact same room where everybody met. Two facts about Confederation which I never knew: 1) Nothing was ever signed at the Charlottetown meeting ("Gentleman's Agreement" to meet again in one month) and 2) The meeting was originally supposed to be about maritime unity and Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec) weren't even invited -- they crashed the party!

Then it was off to Nova Scotia via the Wood Islands ferry. Although it would have been $10 cheaper to drive back across Confed bridge it would have added an extra 100 km of driving distance. Plus, the ferry ride wasn't that long (1 hr. 15 min) and I welcomed a break from driving. I shot this parting picture of PEI:
Next I drove straight to Halifax and checked into Gerard Res at Dal. It was 4 pm and since most of the museums close at 5 pm I decided to have dinner first and then check out the other sites which were still open.

To all you ex-Kingstonians out there -- I ate at Curry Village. I had completely forgotten that they had a Halifax restaurant and I couldn't resist. Afterwards, I went a nice stroll around downtown. First to the Public Gardens which I think was the first Victorian-style park built in Canada.

Next, I walked to the harbourfront to check out the historic properties (which have been converted into a tourist trap) and the rest of downtown:

Once again I'm not going to get the full Halifax experience. However, I've been to Halifax before and I'm actually going to come back in a few months for a wedding so I'll have more opportunities to check out the sites I will miss. It's the non-big city sites in my trip that I want to focus my time on.

Tomorrow: Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay, and Lunenberg