Touring Halifax Harbor

After a relaxing morning at the hostel, we headed for the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, only a few blocks from our hostel on the waterfront.

This was an interesting museum, and well worth our money. It went through the history of the boats that came into the Halifax harbor, and through a lot of historical events surrounding the harbor. Interesting, and educational. We realized we missed out on a lot of Canadian history during our school years, as none of us learned about the Halifax disaster of 1917 until today. It was then that two ships collided (one French and one Norweigan). Unfortunately, one of the ships was carrying explosives (remember this was in the time of World War I), causing a huge explosion when the collision occurred. This resulted in the entire Halifax harbor burning up, and thousands of people being killed. Hmmm, I would say that should have been included in our Canadian history lessons!


At 12:45 pm, we decided to take a tour of Old Halifax and the harbor, and the funnest tour we could find was 'Harbour Hopper' -- a Lark V. The Lark V was originally a military vehicle built for the U.S. during the Vietnam War era (1963-1970). They were used to transport cargo and soldiers from supply ships onto the beaches and jungles of Vietnam, and were designed as a boat capable of being driven on land. It is currently the most stable amphibious vehicle ever built.
The tour lasted an hour and took us through the streets of Halifax, the Citadel, the Royal Gardens, many churches, and other interesting sights. We had a great commentator who made the drive intersting and funny.
Then, we splashed right into the Halifax harbor for the water portion of our tour. We saw the yacht that the owner of Tim Hortons owns, and learned that the Halifax harbor is one of the busiest in Canada, as it is a central spot for ships around the world to stop. We saw a glass-paned highrisewhose cooling system was actually pipes going up and around the building. These pipes actually pumped water from the harbor through them, and then back into the harbor acting as an airconditioning unit for the building! We saw the navy ships/terminal, where our cousin Michael is a navy engineer.
And, of course, dear old Theodore Tugboat, whom many of us grew up watching.
We ended our afternoon on the harbor enjoying good old "Beaver Tail", and scallops. Deon said he'd have a bite, but didn't want more than that (of the 'beaver tails'). He tried a piece, and then ended up buying 2 more...they were that good.