Halifax, Nova Scotia

This morning after quite an interesting night of large swells, gale force winds and rain we pulled into Halifax to the accompaniment of a bagpipe and drum and an actually quite nice day although chilly. We had a late tour today so we did the laundry in the morning and frequently during breakfast I would run upstairs and check the laundry. I ordered cream of wheat, French bread and one hard boiled egg for breakfast and I ended up with cream of wheat, French bread, French toast and two boiled eggs. The eggs we get on this cruise are different that eggs I get in California. The yolk is much more yellow and tastes much more eggy. So now I have a hard boiled egg in my room refrigerator.

At noon we met with our tour group for Lobsters and Lighthouses. We toured the harbor of Halifax which is absolutely lovely – she said it was the second largest natural port in the world – today our lecturer said that’s not so. But it is certainly lovely.

While we were out boating around we found a school of about 30 Atlantic dolphins which was super fun. I’m sure we got a ton of pictures of them after they had just submerged. Such is our luck. There were also gigantic seagulls and cormorants which reminded me of Japan although these were wild and didn’t have a string around their neck. They said there were a lot of seals but we didn’t see any.

We got some lovely Fall pictures of some million dollar homes and really nice parks and recreational areas. The guide told us an interesting story about the largest explosion in the world other than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During World War II there was a Canadian ship which was in the Halifax Harbor and there was a French munitions ship which came in too late to get into the harbor as the local custom was to raise a net so that enemy ships couldn’t approach during the night. The munitions ships were supposed to fly a red flag indicating munitions. So the French ship decided to lower the red flag because they were afraid that the locals would mistake them for an enemy ship. When they dropped the net for them to come into Halifax Harbor in the morning someone forgot to raise the red flag. The day was very foggy. The Canadian ship was behind a tug boat and became very impatient and decided to pull around the tug boat but unfortunately they did not see the French ship (the Mont Blanc) until too late and the Mont Blanc did not have its red flag. So the two ships collided and unfortunately the Canadian ship threw their ship into reverse and so that resulted in lots of scraping and sparks so the crew of the Mont Blanc abandoned ship and were running through the town of Halifax shouting for the residents to abandon the town because the French sailors knew what was on the ship but unfortunately the people in the town did not understand French, there was no red flag and there was an interesting looking ship fire in the harbor so they all went down to the coast to see – unfortunately for them the explosion leveled the entire town of Halifax and the neighboring town of Dartmouth and in fact the blast was so severe that they felt it on PEI which is a 3 hour drive from here. Or 4.5 hours if you listen to our guide from yesterday. We’re getting a lot of conflicting information.

Also, apparently Halifax was closest to the Titanic when it sank and two ships from here went to pick up bodies and there were so many of them that the ships were forever known as the Death Ships because they picked up so many bodies. Also apparently they filmed a lot of Titanic here – and they told us James Cameron picked a name at random from the graveyard of Titanic dead and he picked one man named J. Dawson (which was actually James Dawson) but Cameron named his character Jack Dawson (Leonardo di Caprio). After the movie a horde of young girls descended on Halifax leaving flowers, notes, presents, etc. on J. Dawson’s grave even though it’s not the same guy. I’m sure he didn’t mind the attention. They filmed the scene where Rose (Kate Winslet) dropped the necklace into the ocean in Halifax Harbor on a Canadian Coast Guard vessel.

So then we went to Murphy’s and had a lobster lunch which was delicious. Then we came back and won trivia again! And also last night I won $60 playing bingo which Tom says does not even cover my bingo card purchases. Boo. Anyway – tonight we go to the U.S. – tomorrow Bar Harbor, Maine and more lobster. The captain just announced rough seas tonight. Great. And also we had all aboard at 5 PM so that we could leave at 5:30 – it’s 6:15 and we’re just now pulling away from the dock. But on the bright side the clock goes back an hour tonight.