More Nova Scotia Vactioning

After our fabulous road trip to Digby and lovely stay in Annapolis Royal, it was time to head back to camp to give Bo his own basketball hoop and get a million kisses and hugs in the process.

And on to a great day trip to a new (at least to us) beach north of Dartmouth on the Atlantic Ocean. Martinique Beach is the longest sand beach in Nova Scotia and it's gorgeous. Not to mention less than an hour from the city!

Waves for surfers,

and just goofing about...a good portion of the beach has lifeguards. (At 14C/57F, the water was too cold for more than my toes, even if the air temperature was quite warm.)

lots of sand for building castles and burying your brother (can you see his head sticking out left of the kid with the shovel?)

The beach seems to go on forever and some stretches had us feeling we were by ourselves which makes it a perfect spot for lovers strolling along hand in hand.

It's also a great place to go bird watching...sandpipers, plovers and more make their nests in the dunes. The sandpipers moved too quickly to take a photo and the plovers are only around in the Spring.

Then back to relax at home before another day trip...this time to Mahone Bay (45 minutes from camp) with Sharron & Boaz for a field trip.

Poppa showing Boaz the boats getting ready for the Classic Boat Festival in Mahone Bay

Tasty grilled cheese sandwich on the terrace of some cute restaurant I forget the name of.

I had the lobster sandwich and seafood chowder- very tasty.

My Honey had the fish & garlicky mashed potatoes(hiding behind the Caesar salad) and Shar had a BLT (obviously not something you can get at camp!).

Natal Day Festival in Halifax includes concerts, parades and fireworks, so we stayed in town. Unfortunately, it rained so...fireworks cancelled and we only managed to get to the music tent on Queen's Landing to hear some excellent Gospel that had everyone hopping.

We did get to dash between the raindrops to have dinner at Cha Baa Thai Restaurant that was the best Thai food I've had...and there were tons of Thai restaurants we've enjoyed in Toronto. My brain is definitely on vacation, because I forgot my camera again. Too bad because the presentation was lovely.

Our dinner: Appetizer: Crispy Fried Noodles - (Mee Grob) - Crispy rice noodles with shrimp, bean sprouts, Chinese chives and lime leaves in a sweet and spicy sauce....so big we took half home; main course: Jasmine rice to sop up the sauces of the Spicy Basil Chicken with long beans,bamboo shoots,eggplant, chilies and basil (I'm drooling even now, 2 days later) and StirFried Massaman Curry Beef that was mild to counter the heat of the chicken ( I wanted to lick the plate).

My experience with most Asian restaurants is that there is usually a little bit of chicken or beef in any dish (more in the title than on the plate, in fact) and lots and lots of veggies, which is fine if you're vegetarian, but then you wouldn't order chicken or beef, would you! I'll stop ranting, but it was just to say that at Cha Baa, there is lots of the main ingredient in the title. And the helpings so plentiful that we had a tasty meal of leftovers the next day!

....It's the last day of Natal Day celebrations before heading back to work. It's supposed to rain, but the sun is shining and the parade starts just around the corner....so we're off...with the camera!