Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Things of note.. today


firstly..

look at what's coming to the iPhone/ touch...
YES! This game (and the slightly more awesome counterpart Cross Country Canada) was a big part of me getting into computers. I cannot wait!



And on a rather sad note. Craft magazine is the latest victim of the economic downturn. Hopefully the website and blog will live on.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A short post on Christmas

oh hai!
so i've been a busy bee trying to get updated on all the stuff that has gone on the past year. It's been fun finding all my pictures, uploading them and writing little bits of the trip. I've done this all because I received the nicest loveliest camera for Christmas and it's inspired me to take more pictures. So I will have more to share.. I just want to get caught up a little before that.
that's all

Lunenburg


Lunenburg - Bluenose II, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

Lunenburg is where the battery in my camera died.. I managed to get these shots done and then "borrowed" my sisters camera for the rest of the trip.
Lunenburg was a Germanic settlement and all the churches around town attest to it. We did a fair bit of walking and exploring around this UNESCO world heritage site.. making the necessary stops at the Bluenose II and the Maritime Museum. More pictures and posts from the trip will happen in March when my sister comes to town with her pictures.
so I'll leave you with these.



Lunenburg - Lennox Inn, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

Mary and I got really excited about staying in this Inn - the oldest continuously operating Inn in Canada and the most original eighteenth century Inn in North America. Our parents were not as impressed with the lack of central heating.


Monday, February 2, 2009

Peggy's Cove

We rented a car in Halifax and drove down the coast to Peggy's Cove. If we paid any attention to the guide books we would have gotten there earlier. This small, very small town, bursts with tourists! It's like a tiny Tofino with the same amount of tourists.The lighthouse is totally accessible which is cool and it's also a post office!


I wish I had gotten a shot on the bog of all the erratics (perched boulders) that were left by the glaciers retreat and melt. The whole area was like a moon-scape.




Peggy's Cove - Bouys, originally uploaded by girl from finito.


Peggy's Cove - Warning, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

and finally... Tofino need some of these

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Halifax (round 1)

Our trip through the maritimes began and ended with Halifax.
We spent a few days when we first arrived going to the Maritime museum, pier 21 and to the citadel.
I had my first proper lobster dinner in Halifax.. and I must say fresh lobster is really very good. Almost as good as crab.


In the harbour we ran into this guy... do you remember Theodore Tugboat? I do, what I didn't know was that it was set and made in halifax! This was a harbor cruise boat but we also saw the original set and characters in the Maritime Museum


Up by the citadel... we had to walk a little ways to find it.. but there it was.. a very important street

The Train

From Quebec we went east to the Maritimes. Can you believe none of us had been there? The train ride was really relaxing and awesome actually.
We opted for the excellent "Easterly class" which included meals, sleeper cars, a park car and tour guides and naturalists.. well worth it.

OK, I'm going to geek out a little. I just found this really interesting.
These are some of the salt marshes of the Bay of Fundy. The Acadians settled here and constructed dykes with system of one way valves called aboiteaux, that allowed fresh water from the marsh to drain out but preventing salt water from entering. But here is the really cool part.. on the opposite side of the track (the area I didn't take a picture of) there was all these tall thin poles.. Radio towers! the salt in the ground made for excellent conduction and amplification .. This is the site of the Radio Canada International broadcasting! cool.

Quebec City - Day Two

The second day we took to go to the Citadel and the Plains of Abraham. I had no clue that they would be so integrated within the city.

The day started with a tour of the Citadel home of the Van Doo's. With Canada being at war in Afghanistan we had all heard of the Van Doo regiment what we didn't know was that Van Doo is a anglophone pronunciation of the regiment number Vent Deux (22). From the citadels top wall you could see all of the plains of Abraham as well as the St. Laurence and the city.



The rest of the day we wandered though the Plains of Abraham. Most (ALL) Canadians should know about the battle(s) fought here and really everyone should visit them. It was one of the most memorable places of the whole trip. Seeing the spot where Wolfe received his mortal wound, imagining what the battle must have been like. The plains are rightly now a national park, but did you know that the plains of Abraham were named that because a guy named Abraham rented them to pasture his animals?
I would have never guessed!