I spent the day in more 'relaxing' activities. Although I did walk the full length of the Harbourfront Boardwalk at least twice. I did some souvenir shopping, actually, most of my shopping. Early in the day I stopped at the Four Winds Charter office and booked myself onto a Whale Watch tour for the evening.
Then I strolled to the HMCS Sackville and took a self-guided tour. It is the last reamaining vessel of the Wartime Canadian Naval Corvette (circa 1944) which defended the North Atlantic waters and escorted missions to and from Europe during WWII. It is the official National Canadian Naval Memorial. It is operated as a Naval Museum by a non-profit organisation. I was told that it is getting too expensive to keep it in repairs & maintenance and may have to be taken out of the water soon. Yes, it is kept in the Halifax harbour at Sackville Landing. For more details http://www.hmcssackville-cnmt.ns.ca/ . I was touring around for quite a long time. It occurred to me that my Uncle Valmore Leblanc (deceased) could have served on one of the Corvettes during his naval service. It gave the ship a different feel for me to think of it. I got lots of photos which will get loaded onto this blog soon (I hope).
I returned to the residence to take a much needed nap and have some supper before heading back down to the harbour to hop onto the Whale Watch tour. No whale sightings but there were several seals. The sunset was stunning though and it was nice to get on on the water again. Breathing that fresh sea air was good for my soul. I really miss the ocean. I was back to my room by 9:30 and after a shower I fell into bed with my book and read myself to sleep.
Enough for tonight. Speaking of sleep I need some now... desperately.
After Doris dropped me off I had to get ready for my evening dive. I collected together all my dive gear and put it in my mesh dive bag.
I went to a nearby restaurant, Cafe Chianti, across the street from the Westin Nova Scotian Hotel. I had a mid-afternoon supper of salmon and salad followed by a decadent ginger slice with ginger ice cream.
Back to my room to change into diving duds and grab my bag. I hustled down the street to catch the bus to Torpedo Rays SCUBA Adventure(http://www.torpedorays.com/). One bus got me there in about 20-25 minutes. My gear bag must have weighed at least 40 pounds. A very difficult and awkward carry. The girl at the dive shop, Michelle, helped me get rental gear together: a filled tank, two-piece 7mm wet suit, hood, 3-finger mits and weights. Weights... I'm used to diving with about 6-8 pounds but with all this neoprene (14mm on my core and thighs) Michelle advised 34 pounds. Also, I had forgotten how difficult it is to get into 7mm of neoprene. I was sweating profusely from the exersion of squeezing my body into the suit. I was regretting lugging my own wetsuits (full 3mm and 5mm core warmer) with me too. Once I got my gear together and paid the rental fee I waited. John, the dive master, was my ride to the boat.
We arrived at the boat and everyone else was already onboard and gearing up. Argh!! I was going to have to boogie if I was to catch up. So as the boat cast-off, I started squeezing into the neoprene 'sausage casing' on a bouncing boat. The group seemed like a nice, friendly bunch. One of the guys had a novelty hood with 'Batman' ears and symbol. Quite funny. We arrived at the site with me still trying to get all my gear on, so I would be last in. I got talking to Angela, another single diver on the boat, and she offered to buddy-up. Great, I hate having to buddy with the dive master/leader. We talked while I got my gear set up and she seemed like a good competent diver. Just learned last year but has been diving regularly and often. This would be my first cold water dive since 1994 and the coldest water I'd ever been in. Yes I was slightly nervous about the temperature. Surface temp was 14 deg C and bottom temp about 11 deg C. Although, as I found out later, the 14 was fairly consistent to depth with a minor thermalcline on the descent. Anyway, I was concerned that I might over-breath due to the cold. Well, correction, I was huffing and puffing before getting into the water just from getting geared up into all that neoprene and 34 pounds of lead filling my BCD pockets and belt. When I rolled off the gunnels of the boat the cold water actually was a welcome relief from the heat built up inside my suit. But I did over-breath for a couple of minutes until I was able to recover from the waddle-shuffle to get from the stern to starboard-bow of the boat with what felt like half a ton of gear on.
Once I met up with my buddy, Angela, at the mooring rope we started our descent. Hell, I sunk like a rock. So much so that I had to hold the rope to slow myself so I could equalize. I didn't want to put any more air in the BCD in case I had to bleed it off. Once on the bottom I had to waste a lot of my precious air filling my BCD just to keep off the bottom. But I still kept sinking. Argh! Could have used 6-10 pounds less... easily.
The water was nowhere near as cold as I expected and I was quite comfortable most of the time. John had suggested I leave the camera behind because it was my first time dealing with so much gear. I regretted that the minute I saw the dive site.It was an interesting dive. The wreck was the SS Daniel Steinmann which was a schooner rigged iron ship that sank 3 April 1884. It ran aground at low tide in bad weather after going off course due to a mistaken identification of the light. It went down at Sambro just off Sambro Harbour south of Halifax. More info at http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Wrecks/daniels1884.html. The Sambro Lighthouse is the oldest standing and operating lighthouse in the Western Hemisphere. (http://www.nslps.com/lights/lighthouse_page_01.asp?ID=355)
There were lots of broken bottles everywhere. I was told that the ship had a cargo of booze or champagne (depending on who I was talking to) and that nothing was salvaged. The iron plates cover the bottom and where we were moored was right at the bow which is still intact. There were loads of sea anemones , sea urchines (Echinoidea), fish (several types, some were similar species to those I saw in the Caribbean) and starfish. I saw a huge starfish (12-16 inches across) nestled between two 3/4inch thick sheets of iron from the wreck and it was surrounded by little baby starship that were about 2 inches across. I wanted so much to have my camera!!
The dive ended when I started to feel the chill and my air was down to 1000psi. That was the limit set by John. We had been down only 18 minutes. I hate having to end a dive so soon but it couldn't be helped. Climbing back onto the boat was a real pain because all we could hand up were fins. The climb was a good 4-5 feet up a ladder, fully loaded. And we had to breath canned air because of the rough water. I used another 400psi getting out of the water. Now I know why we had to have so much air left.
Getting out of the gear and packed up was much quicker. I asked around to anyone heading towards downtown Halifax for a ride and Angela offered. Nice car... an Audi. It was about 20-25 minute drive back and we chatted like friends all the way back. So an excellent evening all around. BTW: half the divers, including Angela, were diving dry (drysuit) and I think that's the best way to go. They found it so much more comfortable.
It took me over an hour to rinse all my gear off in the shower and take a shower & wash my hair. By the time I was done it was about 10:30 and I was totally wiped. The day had started at 6:00am and I had not stopped all day. I fell into bed and when I tried to read a bit before lights out I only lasted about 2 minutes. For the next 5 1/2 hours I was a dead body but I woke up at 4:30 and wasn't able to get back to sleep. Over-tired.
I forgot... my first evening in Halifax I did go out for a beer between unpacking and bedtime. I remembered from my last trip in 1994 that there were a few nice pubs on Argyle Street so headed there. It was only a ten minute walk. I found a place called the Economy Shoe Company. Inside any of three doors, each to a different pub/restaurant, is an interconnected group of pubs, bars, lounges and restaurants. In the back of one is an atrium with a huge glass wall extending vertically to about 20-25 feet. During the day it turns the whole back section into a greenhouse. Lovely in winter I hear. As you continue through and down there are more restaurant and bar areas. This would become my favourite place to go for drinks in the evenings.
Did I mention before? VIA Rail gave everyone on that train a "late train credit" of 50% of the cost of their ticket. For me that meant I got back 500 points plus a cash credit for the Ottawa to Montreal trip. I will use that cash credit for a visit to Sara in Montreal in a few weeks.
Day 2 in Halifax, the 16th, started slowly. After a shower and getting dressed I went out in search of a place to have breakfast. After about 45 minutes I found Cora's and stopped in there. I had a huge brunch so that I could keep going through to supper. I then headed to the train station to find out about the credit, went to the Atlantic Super Store (Nova Scotia's version of the Loblaws Super Store) where I bought lots of groceries. After dropping my groceries I took a walk to the Computer Lab in the tallest building in Halifax, Fairfax Hall (Dal U residence), where the free internet access was. Checked and answered e-mail and did some searches for the diving, checked out the online buddy list for Torpedo Rays SCUBA Adventures and called one of the dive masters on it. He gave me tons of great advice for diving around the area. A really nice guy. All before starting my day as a tourist.
I booked myself on a dive for Wednesday evening. Walked down to the Harbourfront Boardwalk and started looking around. The Bluenose II had just arrived in the harbour that morning and there was a notice about ticket sales for taking a harbour tour aboard. I made notes. When I was in the tourist info office later I asked how early to be on line and was told 7:30am or earlier. The plan was to be there at 7:15 the next morning. They were doing 4 tours: 9:30am and 1:00pm on Wednesday and Thursday. So I spent the rest of Tuesday just touring around the Harbourfront area, shopping, enjoying the scenery and chatting with people I met here and there. I ate supper at the University in my kitchen area and freshened up before going out for a beer. I was exhausted with an early, busy day planned for Wednesday so it was one beer and 'home' to bed.
Day 3, the 17th. Out of bed and in the shower by 6:00am. A quick, substantial breakfast and a fast 20 minute boogie to line up for Bluenose II ticket. I got there at 7:20am and already there were 8 people ahead of me in line. But no worries, there were 35 tickets up for grabs and the people ahead of me were buying 13. During the 45 minute wait for the booth to open I got talking to lots of nice people in line including a nice lady , my age, who is travelling solo, a young couple on their honeymoon and a couple about my age on vacation. After we got our ticket we had to wait until 9:15 so I went to the Perks down the road and got a Chai Tea then did a bit of shopping. Bought a pair of sunglasses that would be better for being on a boat. My others are loose fitting (fall off easily) and not dark enough for being on the water on a sunny day.
We cast off from the dock precisely at 9:35 after a brief "History of the Bluenose II" and an explanation about the main sail. A couple of days previous it had "blown out" and been destroyed. This sail is 4150 sq. ft of heavyweight sail canvass and when it blew out it 'exploded', very loudly ("it sounded like a canon exploding on deck") and tore to shreds. Much of the cloth ended up in the water and irretrievable. So somewhere out at sea are shreds of the main sail of Bluenose II. We were told the replacement will cost $50-60,000. What it meant in practical terms... we were going on a motor-sail tour. For those of you unfamiliar with sailing and schooner rigging in general here is my amateurish explanation. The main sail is just that... on a windy day you can get a good sail with it alone. The next largest sail it the foresail on the foremast directly 'in front of' the main sail and mast. It is 1495 sq. ft. It and every other sail on the boat are designed to add surface area to the main sail in order to 'catch more wind'. So without that 4150 sq.ft. on a boat the size of Bluenose II there is not enough canvass in the right place to push it. On top of this severe disadvantage there was not much wind. So the motors ran most of the trip with the foresail, jumbo (fore staysail) and the jib hoisted. There is an excellent photo of the schooner with all but one sail hoisted on their website. It shows the importance of the mailsail very graphically. The engines were cut for about 20 minutes and the sails did loft out a little though they certainly did not fill. But as much as I would have loved a good sail on Bluenose II I was thrilled just to be out on the water and on her deck. Watching the deck crew at work hand-hauling those gigantic heavy sails and handling the heavy black ropes on such a beautifully historic schooner was mesmerizing to say the least. The crew is a well oiled machine working in perfectly coordinated unison. I was very impressed. For detailed info on Bluenose II visit the website at http://www.bluenose2.ns.ca/
We returned to dock right on time at 11:30. I waved my goodbyes to the people I had met, thnked the crew as I set foot ashore *sniff* and tottled off to meet Jane's sister Doris. Ah, yes. On Tuesday I had spoken with Jane who was visiting her sister in Halifax before heading to Boston. She had suggested to me that her sister could give me good advise about places to stay for my last night. The University closes to visitors after the 19th because the students start coming into town (50,000 students decend on Halifax each academic year). So I decided to use my saved funds to stay somplace extra special for my last night. I had wanted to stay at the Nova Scotian (now owned by Weston Hotels) but the price was outrageously high for a single. I spoke with Doris and she was going to check on a few places for me. Well, she did much more than that. I expected to meet her for lunch and go over some names and maybe go on my own to check them out. But Doris had other plans. She met me after her meeting in town and drove me around to 2 B&B possibilities. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding about the night I needed the room for and as it turned out the 2 places we went did not have anything available for the Saturday night. The second one was quite nice with a jacuzzi tub in every room and I liked the lady who owned it... originally from the southern states. Doris dropped me off and we went our seperate ways. She also tried some contacts at the Radisson and was able to get me a room at a reduced price and called me about it a couple of days later but before I heard from her I had booked a room at the Halliburton House Boutique Hotel. I did talk to her and her husband Terry again before I left. Lovely people they are. It was a very lucky thing that I met Jane.
Well that is it for tonight. I must get my laundry out of the dryer and get to bed.
The train was 4 hours and 43 minutes late getting to Halifax. Jane and I exchanged contact information and agreed to get together next time she's in Ottawa. We really hit it off. We said a hurried goodbye and went our seperate ways. She was visiting her sister for an overnight before going to Boston on business.
Instead of having time to get groceries and do a quick walk about I just had time to gather up my luggage and lug it over to Dalhousie University's Sussex Campus (DalTech) Which is only a 5 minute walk (10 minutes when dragging luggage) up Barrington from the train station. I had booked a room in the O'Brien Hall residence. It was quite comfy. The rooms and shared bathrooms are kept clean, The bed was comfy. The furniture was brand new. There were 2 common kitchens so I could save some money on meals by getting groceries and eating breakfasts and a few other meals in. It was only $38.76 (taxes incl.) per night. I fell into bed early after unpacking and settling in and was sound asleep before 11:00pm. That was Monday night.
Before I forget... I met lots of folks on the train who were unaware of the ViaPreference plan. So I want everyone to know about this. There is no cost to jooin. Get a membership card before you travel by train. You get one point for every dollar you spend on train travel. There are 3 levels and for awhile I was at Priveledge (second) level where I collected 1 1/2 points for every dollar I spent on train travel. You have to keep your travel up each year to maintain the higher levels so I'm now back down to basic. But I had lots of points and have had many train trips free and a couple of upgrades thatnks to the points. For instance, I cashed in 2000 points for the Montreal to Halifax return portion of my trip. After receiving a late train credit the trip that would normally have cost about $600 only cost me 1500 points. I got seat sales for the Ottawa to Montreal return trip so it only cost me $62.06 (taxes incl.) and I will get a late train credit on a portion of it too. So never travel by train without first getting a VIA Preference card.
OK, I'm falling asleep now so I'm going to have to continue later. Good Night.
My trip to Halifax was so full of fun activities that I did not have time to update the BLOG. Sorry to anyone who was looking for promised updates.
The train brought me back home Monday afternoon but it has been a little busy this week too. It was a great trip. The train left Ottawa and arrived in Montreal as scheduled and the trip was largely uneventful. Upon arrival in Montreal I had plenty of time so I went in search of food to take on the train to Halifax and got a spot on line. While in the lineup a conversation began with a couple of people who had come up on the train from Toronto. They were very concerned about getting on the same train as an extremely obnoxious child with useless mother and granny. This became a concern of mine too.
The woman behind me in line, Jane, and I decided to join forces and find the quietest seats we could. Ha! There we were surrounded by people who appeared to be adults who would quietly snooze all night. Were we ever wrong.
We initially became suspicious of the prospects for a good train ride while in the station... waiting in line for 75 minutes PAST the expected departure time. After finally being granted admission to the train there was a further delay while they brought additional cars to accommodate about 200 late arrivals... all exchange students heading East. We found out after arriving in Halifax that the delay was due to a gas leak near the rail lines somewhere east of Montreal. The end result was 4 hours and 47 minutes late arrival in Halifax.
Oh, it doesn't end there. Jane and I found ourselves surrounded by the noisiest, yappiest, rudest people on the train. The b*t*h sitting in front had 4 teenagers with her. She looked like a recently retired cheap stripper/biker b*t*h and she talked like one. She and her kids were all heavy smokers so everytime the train stopped they were on the platform 'power smoking' 2-3 cigs each. They smelled like disgusting filth. Yuch! The ex-stripper, as Jane and I came to call her, had a voice like an old miner... al rasp and gurgle. And she felt a need to talk loud enough for people 3 cars along to hear her. The kids weren't much better. One (the younger boy of about 13) was across the aisle from me and kept shouting over for his mother's and sister's attention until I finally told him to "shut the f*** up" if he didn't want to get them all tossed off the train. That happened about 1/1:30am. Jane was up and down the aisle telling kids with CD & MP3 players to turn down the volume. And that was how the entire night went.
Back to work for now. More about Halifax and the activities later.
WooHoo! I'm travelling again. AND on the train. I love travel by train. It is so stress free and handy. Only the Ottawa station is awkward to get to because it's not in the city's centre like every other train station in the country... in the world. Leave it up to this city's administrators to fly in the face of centuries of knowledgeable train station planning.
Anyway, once out of Ottawa it is so easy to travel by train... downtown to downtown. I'll be leaving tomorrow afternoon to take the train to Montreal and after a short one hour wait I get on the train to Halifax. I cashed in a bunch of my VIA Preference points and got the Montreal to Halifax and back portion of the trip for free (except that I had to use up my points). The round trip to and from Montreal ended up costing only $62.06 because I was able to get seat sales. The journey from Montreal to Halifax takes about 16 hours overnight. I haven't got a berth but that's fine... the price is right. I've slept sitting up on trains several times over the years and I know enough to take my sleeping mask and ear plugs.
I booked a private room at Dalhousie University Sexton Campus in O'Brien Hall residence for less than $39 per night. And it's right downtown in the midst of all the action. And only 1 1/2 blocks from the train station. Only glitch is I have to find a place to stay for the night of the 20th because they close down to the traveling public after the 19th in order to get ready for the incoming students. When I get there I'll see what's available. I might treat myself to a nice B&B for my last night of vacation. After all, I have to sleep sitting up all the way back to Montreal again.
With all these great deals I had enough money to go out and get myself a Core Warmer wetsuit so that I can go diving in the Atlantic Ocean while in Halifax. I've written to a couple of dive shops, including the famous Torpedo Rays SCUBA Adventure dive shop in Dartmouth, looking for dive trips. TRSA does Wednesday evening cheap dives for $30 but I want to get out on a boat dive for an entire day trip and two tank dive. I'm taking one suitcase just for dive gear and the fins are in the other bag.
I'm also taking my BeautiControl SPA kit with me. The idea is to do several SPAs while I'm there with the emphasis on recruiting as many new consultants as I can. There are none in Halifax right now so I hope to get the area started. If I can get 15 recruits, either direct or downline, BeautiControl will fly a trainer out to conduct a BeautiU training day. Otherwise we'll have to arrange for telephone & email training instead. Wish me luck. I already have the desire and drive.
Well all the packing is done except for those last few sundry items that have to wait until tomorrow. So now I'm off to bed. I'll try to update the Travel Blog a few times while I'm away... just like the old days when I travelled further afield. Good Night All...
Well, I now know that I'm no longer deathly allergic to bee venim. Yesterday while biking home, very fast to get home before the storms hit, a bee flew in behind my sunglasses. I frantically tried to get the glasses off but was not fast enough. Just as I pulled the glasses away from my face I felt the stinger. I stopped my bike, got out a mirror to take a closer look and there it was a big lump growing just below my eye. The last time I got stung I ended up in the hospital so for years, until about 12 or 14 years ago, I carried an anakit (which consisted of a hypodermic, epinephrine and diphenhydramine) but got tired of spending the money each year for a new one. I haven't been again until yesterday. I called a friend who was very kind and came to get me and my bike and take me to the hospital... just in case. No anaphylaxis but I did swell up, my face went numb (like when the dentist freezes you) and a few minutes later I was extremely sleepy. There were irregularly sharp, stabbing pains at the site of the stinger and down the side of my face and into my neck. The nurse who saw me at the hospital warned me that there would be a 4 hour wait so after about an hour had passed after the sting I decided to go home and take a couple of diphenhydramine. At the hospital my BP was 148/80 which is quite high for me but under the circumstances not out of the ordinary. If I was going to have an anaphylactic reaction it would have happened within 5-20 minutes so I felt out of danger. The same friend picked me up again, we stopped at a drug store to get pills (just in case I didn't have any) and she dropped me and the bike off at home. I took another pill a couple of hours later and went to sleep. I slept for about 9 hours. Was late for work today and had to leave early.
Now I still have the lump and stretched skin under my eye and it is still a little tender. And I feel a bit 'hungover' from the diphenhydramine but otherwise I survived quite well. So, now I know... no need to panic if I ever get stung again. Thanks to Michele for being there when I needed her help.
I have two more volunteer shifts, Thursday and Friday nights, for ChamberFest. The vlounteer appreciation BBQ is this Sunday afternoon but I've not decided whether or not I'll go. I'll be going to the party on the 25th which is for a specific group of volunteers that Gaye and Bob worked with. That is, I'll be there if I'm not on vacation.
Bed time now. Good Night all.