Today was down to the Halifax waterfront, where we we checked out the HMCS Sackville, of which Papa (my grandfather) is a trustee, and headed into the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
Neither Ali nor I had ever been to that museum before, so it was fun to finally see what goes on in there. However, it soon became apparent that they should rename it the Maritime Museum of Atlantic Death. You won't find anything about cute sea creatures, marine ecology, or the fishing life in there. It's pretty much all bloody naval battles, shipwrecks, and disasters. The 1:300 scale models of navy ships, hand crafted by a group of unpaid old guys who work there almost every day (!) were very impressive, but the guns and swords and shoes of juvenile Titanic victims started making Ali and me feel a little queasy. Then, when we got to the large section covering the Halifax Explosion, a couple of exhibits was all we could take before we both broke into tears and had to get out of there. Making Ali cry is like shooting fish in a barrel, but in my own defense, let me just say that the second exhibit was all about the telegraph operator who heroically saved a trainload of people from coming into Halifax minutes before the explosion (you've probably seen the Canadian Heritage Moment on TV) and they had transcribed his morse code message in large bold letters on a vertical board: "Munitions ships on fire. Halt train. Goodbye, boys." While Mom and Papa watched the film about the explosion, we decided the Sable Island exhibit would be a good distraction, what with its interestingly isolated, tiny population and those beautiful horses. But of course when we got to it we saw that the title was "Sable Island — Graveyard of the Atlantic" and it was all about the many shipwrecks that have happened there. It was pretty funny, I had to admit.
Included in the ticket price was admission onto an old scientific research ship called the Acadia. That was pretty cool, as I'd often admired that ship when walking down by the water. It's straight out of a Tintin comic. While we were exploring her lower deck the Citadel cannon went off (at 12:36, for some strange reason?), surprising all of us.
Then there was a delicious seafood lunch at McKelvie's (actually, Papa had a chicken sandwich),
after which Mom, Ali, and I walked down to Pier 21 to see the giant cruise ship, The Queen Mary II, which had recently docked there.
I guess Ali must have taken all the pics, as she's not in any of them. While in the area, we picked up supplies at the nearby grocery store for the picnic which we'll have tomorrow at Clam Harbour Beach. 0% chance of rain, supposedly, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.
- Andrew
4 comments:
It's so weird and wonderful to see pictures of Mom & Papa enjoying themselves with you when I just saw them 2 days ago!! I just love blogs!
Looks like a really great time!
Just that morse code message made me cry, I don't know how you managed the rest of it!
Dana
Sounds like you guys are having a great time. That museum is very cool, but I remember thinking that's why I don't like being on a boat a lot of the time. Jason
Strange hearing all this from Mom on the telephone then getting the "other" version on the blog.
Gotta get ours up and running.
DoD
Can't wait to hear all the stories in person from Mom and Poppa. Glad you guys are having such a good time. Is Clam Harbour where we made poor Nikki run off the edge of the sand into the water? I think it's where they have the sandcastle contest too isnt' it? Hope the weather held out for you.
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