Halifax & Peggy's Cove with Joe and Charlene

Joe and Charlene with us at lunch

Today began several years ago during our last visit to Halifax when we made friends with our tour guide Joe McSweeney.  We've stayed in touch with him and when we booked this cruise we let him know we'd be back and wanted to say hello. Well, Joe didn't want to just say hello, he wanted to spend the day with us on a personal tour of Halifax. Happily we accepted and arranged to meet him and his wife, Charlene this morning as we got off the ship. They were waiting with big smiles and hugs and our day began!

I'd first of all like to thank the Lord God Almighty for a beautiful day.  We were greeted with clear skies and cool temperatures.  It was a great beginning.

Our first stop of the day was the Halifax Public Gardens, a beautifully maintained garden in the middle of the city with fountains, a stream, bandstand, and statues. Our next stop was the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where 121 victims of the Titanic are buried.  There are four rows of grave markers.  Some are unknown. Others were identified at the time and some identified later at which time their names were engraved on the marble headstones.

One of the Titanic crew....he maintained his post

We then stopped at the Citadel, a British fortress, which overlooks the city of Halifax. It offers a great view of the city from a high viewpoint.  We continued off through the city and headed to lunch and Peggy's Cove.  Lunch was at the Rhubarb, a restaurant near Peggy's Cove.  Joe had a reservation and everyone there knew him! He and I had fish and chips, MA had a salad and mini-pizza and Charlene had muscles.  Everything was excellent.

After lunch we piled back into their car stopping at the memorial to Swiss Air Flight 111 which crashed off the Halifax coast on September 2, 1998, killing all aboard. It is said that when the locals heard the tremendous noise of the crash, they all rushed to their boats to search for survivors.  This was a particularly poignant moment for MA who in her heart is still a flight attendant!

Bag-Piper at the Lighthouse (making a buck)

We continued on our personally guided tour to Peggy's Cove.  Joe drove us almost all the way to the lighthouse and we agreed to meet him at the visitor center down the hill.  Mary Alice and I had about 45 minutes to take it all in. This little fishing village is a photographer's heaven.  There are so many photo ops.  I hope you enjoy the photos I've attached.

We found Joe and Charlene as agreed and continued on our way stopping at a local house whose owner had painted a mural of Peggy's Cove that covers the entire front facade of the house!

Joe drove us by a small park in Halifax and pointed out a memorial to American soldiers and sailors captured during the War of 1812 and who died while in captivity.  These soldiers and sailors are still honored on Memorial Day.

It was time to return to the ship and say our good byes.  What a great day we had with Joe and Charlene. We invited them to Texas and hope they'll take us up on that! They're the kind of folks you would like to have for your next door neighbors!

Titanic Cemetery

 Photos of Peggy's Cove: