Last Few Days in the Maritimes

With a long drive back to Halifax ahead of us today, our first stop is sticky buns at Kelly’s Bakery again! After, we hop in the car and settle in for the long drive back to Halifax. Originally our plan was to drive south to Saint John. Then take the ferry across to Digby before driving the rest of the way to Halifax. However, with the cost of the ferry being quite high, we decide to drive around the Bay of Fundy instead.

Normally the drive takes around 3-4 hours on the main highways. But since today is just a travel day, we decide to take the long way around and drive along the Nova Scotia coast. This adds an extra hour or two to our trip, but adds some variety too.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs

Along the way is a stop at Joggins Fossil Cliffs. I didn’t know anything about this stop, but its something Papa Minion had researched and insisted we go to. The Joggins Fossil Cliffs is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It exposes layers of rock for a full fossilized record of the Coal Age. Because of the high and powerful tides in the Bay of Fundy, more rock is exposed over time and the potential for new fossil discovery can happen! As is the theme for our trip, the actual centre is closed for the season. However, we did get to wander down to the beach and see the cliffs up close.

Driving back to Halifax (Dartmouth)

I’d like to say that the drive along the coast back to Halifax (Dartmouth) is exciting and eventful, but that would be a lie! In retrospect, we should have gone to the Fossil Cliffs and then turned back to the Highway. It’s nice to drive along the coast, but sadly there aren’t many points of interest to stop at. Ultimately, we made one stop at Tim Horton’s for a late lunch before driving straight for our hotel in Dartmouth.

After checking in and settling at our hotel, we venture out into Dartmouth for dinner. With nothing really on the list to try, we default to comfort food of soupy noodles! Mama Minion selected Pho Hoang Minh. We must have been hungry because I didn’t end up taking any photos! On the way out of the restaurant, we spot a pizza and donair shop a few stores over. This is one of Papa Minion’s guilty pleasures and even though we just had dinner, we pick up a donair for a late night snack. A few hours later back at our hotel, we split both the donair and the remaining Holy Whale beer that we had leftover. With full bellies we settle in for the evening. Tomorrow will be our last full day in Halifax.

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Spending our last full day in Halifax, we first visit the Maritime Museum. It’s something that comes highly recommended in a lot of travel guides, so we figure we should check it out! It’s surprisingly a very well thought out museum. The primary focus is on Canadian maritime history (obviously). There are exhibits with boats from all periods of history. There’s also areas dedicated to significant naval events. I found two exhibits particularly interesting. The first is the exhibit on the Halifax Explosion and the second is that of the Titanic. Sadly both are tragic events, but both exhibits show the significance of this area’s influence on maritime travel during those times. I would highly recommend visiting if you get a chance.

Sapori Italian Street Food

After spending most of the morning at the museum, its time for lunch. Since the museum is right by Sapori (which we visited when we were in Halifax a week ago), we decide to visit again. It’s hard to say no to decent pasta and this time didn’t disappoint either!

Alexander Keith’s brewery

Alexander Keith’s is a very popular beer brand in Canada that was started in Halifax. When the idea of visiting Halifax first popped up, visiting this brewery was one of the top things on my list. Sadly on our first pass through Halifax, we weren’t able to book a tour due to availability. However, on this final day in Halifax, we finally got to tour this iconic spot. Mama Minion not being a big beer person opted to walk along the waterfront and grab a coffee while Papa Minion and I visit the brewery. After checking in, our guide walks us through the beginning and history of the Keith family and brewery. At each point we also get to stop and sample some of their unique beverage offerings!

After going through the production process we are lead into a small pub like area under the brewery where the employees proceed to entertain us with live music and more samples of their famous beers! I’ve been on other brewery tours before, and doing tastings is normal. But having your guides also perform music (quite well I might add) is a pretty unique and cool thing. They do their best to encourage a bit of a festive atmosphere, but it’s hard to do when every party has to be separated due to Covid Safety. I suspect in more normal times this part of the tour is pretty fun to be a part of!

After the tour we link back up with Mama Minion and head back to the hotel to rest a little in the afternoon. Sadly, its also at this time we start to think about packing for our flights back to Vancouver.

The Canteen

For our final dinner in the maritime’s, we wanted to do something nice, but not too over the top. After doing a bit of research, I found The Canteen which is on the Dartmouth side of the water. It’s not too far from our hotel and the food offerings looked pretty good too! We did some oysters and muscles to start and different seafood dishes as our main. I ended up with the seared scallops which were super tasty. We had a great time reminiscing over the different adventures we had over the past two weeks and I really enjoyed the time with the parental minions.

After dinner, we head back to the hotel and finish packing for our return trip home tomorrow. We stay up a little watching TV and relaxing but soon drift off to sleep.

Revenge Trip Failure

I’ve made mention that in some ways this is a “revenge” trip of sorts against The Sister. In the past due to work or school, she’s had the privilege of going on several trips with the Parental Minions without me.  So with this trip, the intention is to usurp her as the parent’s favourite child to travel with. However, before leaving the hotel, when asked, Mama Minion crushed my dreams and declared this to be her second favourite trip with her children! I guess this just means I need to try again!

The Way Home

After checking out of our hotel, we drive to Halifax Stanfield International Airport to return our rental car and check into our flight. The terminal offers some great views of the airplanes and before long we are onboard our flight to Toronto.

The flight is smooth and uneventful, and we land on time in Toronto. We have a four hour layover here and I’m able to get us into the Toronto Plaza Premium Lounge. It’s always nice to treat the parents to an “elevated” airport experience and give them a nicer place to relax and recharge outside of the hustle and bustle of a busy airport terminal.  Soon enough we head to our gate to board our final flight back to Vancouver. One of the reasons for transiting through Toronto is to fly aboard Westjet’s 787 Dreamliner. Generally, domestic flights within Canada are served by narrow body aircraft. But being able to fly on a wide body aircraft provides just a little extra comfort for the four hour flight.

Before long we touch down in Vancouver and thus ends our adventure through Canada’s Maritime provinces. This is the first trip I’ve taken since the Pandemic began that involved air travel. So there was a bit of anxiety and nervousness prior to embarking on this. But for everything to go so smoothly and for me to be able to share this time with my parents is truly a blessing. With the isolation that came with this pandemic, I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I’d like over the past year. Having this time is something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. As I bring the blogging about this trip to a close, I will be doing a final wrap up post next!