Visiting the Maritimes with the Parents! First stop: Halifax

For the first time since the COVID Pandemic hit, I am travelling in October! This time with Papa and Mama Minion! With Canada’s numbers looking pretty stable through the summer, the idea of travelling domestically became a real possibility. With a lucrative Westjet Companion fare offer, securing tickets for the three of us to the East Coast affordably made a lot of sense. In addition, years ago I was in college and my parents took the Sister there and its been a trip I’ve wanted to do ever since.  (All the better that its just the three of us and I can send her photos of our food and fun while she is the one at home this time!)

Getting to Halifax (The Lounges)

Unfortunately there are no direct flights to the East Coast. So we would need to make a short stop in Calgary before boarding an onward flight to Halifax. However, this also gives me a chance to introduce the parents to the world of airport lounges. Our first stop is the Plaza Premium lounge at Vancouver International Airport. While not the “fanciest” of lounges the parents were impressed nonetheless, especially by the free food and drink! In no time they were settled in and enjoying the more relaxed environment of waiting for your flight to begin boarding. Soon enough, its time for us to board our flight to Calgary. It’s a short one hour uneventful flight, but significant in that its the first plane any of us have been on in 2021!

In Calgary we get to spend a little time in WestJet’s flagship lounge, the Elevation lounge. Even for me I am a bit excited as I’ve heard good things about this lounge and so check it out we did! It’s a fairly large space with a great dine on demand menu and drink selection. It also has plenty of space for travellers of all shapes and sizes and I’d go so far as to call it one of the best in Canada!

After spending some time relaxing in the Elevation lounge, it was time for us to board our overnight flight to Halifax. After settling in, the three of us do our best to catch as much sleep as we can knowing that the next morning we have a full day ahead of us. I think I manage to catch a few hours of sleep and soon wake up to a brightening morning on the East Coast.

Halifax Waterfront

Because our Halifax in hotel wasn’t ready for our morning arrival, we ended up leaving our bags and venturing around Halifax. After a short walk we arrive at the waterfront which is a lovely well developed area.  There is kilometers of waterfront to walk, full of shops, cool art, restaurants and places to sit and take in the view. It also didn’t hurt that this morning is a beautiful sunny day and we get to see it in all its beauty! As far as first impressions go, this one isn’t half bad!!

We continue to stroll along the water stopping to take pictures. We also ducked into different buildings and stores to see what interesting things they have on offer. The one thing that is a bit of a bummer is that because this is now the middle of October, some stores were closed for the season. So I have to imagine that this place is probably THE place to be in the summer time. With all the patios and food stands open and likely live music all over It would be cool to see!

 

Black Sheep

After a few hours of walking we decide to head to Black Sheep. This is a restaurant that is recommended by the hotel and some blogs I’d read. The restaurant itself is pretty busy, but thankfully we are able to get seats pretty quickly! We order some brunch items and a few appetizers to share. Everything is very tasty and we devour most of the food! One notable item was this squid ink mayo that they serve with the fries. It doesn’t taste too different than regular mayo. However it is a bit of an experience to dip your fry into this black sauce and eat it!

Evening Stroll

After brunch, I get a call from the hotel that our room is ready for check in. We walk back to our hotel and settle in. The toll of the red eye flight starts to take effect. Before we know it we’re all snoring in the room and nap for a few hours.

Once we all start stirring again its early evening. We set out in search of our first of many seafood meals. We don’t have any specific restaurant in mind, but after our initial walk along the water we know there are some great options. After some walking, we stumble upon a small area with some restaurants with some great patios. We go through some of the menus and eventually settle on one called The Bicycle Thief.

The Bicycle Thief

The Bicycle Thief is a cool waterside restaurant with a good selection of seafood on the menu. Obviously there’s a theme of bicycles, which makes for interesting decoration choices! We settle down with a nice bottle of wine and have our first seafood meal of the trip. I have a seafood pasta, Mama minion has fish and risotto and papa minion gets the surf and turf combo. All three  meals taste great and it gives us great hope for future opportunities to stuff our faces.

After dinner, we leisurely make our way back to our hotel to wash up and settle in. We have another long day of exploring tomorrow. With some broken sleep in the past 24 hours and full bellies, we are hopeful for good rest tonight.

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