Last Day in Halifax...

Today was the day to complete a few touristy things while here. We decided this morning to go on a whale watching charter. We got down to the harbour early enough to get a parking space and get our ticket for the excursion with time to spare. So we took a look for any close caches and of course there was one within 100 metres! So off we went. Since it was still early the harbour was very quiet, this was an easy grab. Unfortunately, no picture as we had to lean over the water and didn't want to risk dropping anything in the water!

Finding the cache was the up side of our morning. The whale watching tour was mostly a bust. NO whales! :(  The morning was overcast and the boat ride was very cold. There were lots of nice sights to see from the boat and the guides were informative, but not seeing a whale seemed to make the trip last forever.

After the excursion we toured a local glass blowing factory and bought some amazing local made items. So beautiful! Then it was a quick bite to eat before meeting up with my brother for some more site seeing.

We met him at the Halifax Citadel. An amazing historical site, and amazing views of the city! As I was touring the grounds and viewing the exhibits, I was amazed at how much of the history I knew, but realized how much I had forgotten over the years. There were extra exhibits honouring the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. So much history crammed into this space, it was well worth the admission price! Also included in the price of admission was a geocache, right on the grounds. Totally fun to find it inside the park. No picture of the cache, but one of the bagpiper that started playing just after we found it and one of my brother and I sitting at the cache location.

By the time we were finished it was almost dinner time. We made a few pit stops at local stores and then stopped at Montana's for dinner. After stuffing ourselves full, we decided to see if there were some easy caches nearby to finish off our day. of course there were! In the same plaza there was an easy multi. Then we realized that there was a Web Cam cache right in downtown Halifax! So off we went. It was so cool to get this cache type! I was able to use my phone to find the cache, and to snap the photo of us in the intersection!

In total, today we managed to find 11 caches! Not what we had planned at all but glad to get my little brother hooked!

Tomorrow on to PEI!

Geocaching in Nova Scotia..

Today we slept in just a little (I am now fighting a cold), had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel and were off on a caching adventure with my brother and his girlfriend in tow. They had heard of Geocaching but had never been before. Well today we definitely showed them the ropes.
The first cache of the day was to be the historic first cache in Canada, located near Chester just a short distance from Halifax. An interesting approach to GZ, as you had to park on the side of the road on an off ramp, and it was about 60 metres into the bush. A nice little walk into GZ, where we found the following rock formations, which hid the cache.

Glad that we were able to stop here and have this cache part of our 366 day streak!

The next cache that we visited I didn`t get a picture. The ground was very uneven and soft. I ended up falling on my butt. Note to self ... remember to bring the walking stick out of the van! 

At this point we made the decision to head to Peggy`s Cove and pick up some cache`s along the way. The sights were amazing! Here`s a photo at a quick park and grab.

And another...

Then after visiting this cache we made a non caching pit stop at a local quilt store called the Teddy Bear Shoppe. It wasn`t on the to do list but since it was on our way...Elaine the quilts in this place were totally amazing and almost all hand quilted by local ladies. I snapped this one picture...

I know it`s hard to see, but it was all hand quilted!!

Then it was on to Peggy`s Cove. By this time the rain was coming down even harder and my head cold was kicking into over drive! This place was busy!! But totally beautiful! We stopped for lunch while the rain was failing, and snapped a few photos`s after.

Then we began the journey back to Halifax, enjoying the scenery and picking up a few caches along the way.

Everything was so green! In total we managed to pick up 11 caches today, not so bad considering the weather and the very curvy roads around the shore of Peggy`s Cove.

Tomorrow, more sight seeing!!

What a difference a day makes....

Day two of our road trip began very early, at least for me. We were up and checked out of the hotel by 6am! But we were on a mission to get to Halifax around dinner time and we didn't want to waste time sleeping.

We thought it might be interesting to try to get a cache in each of the three provinces today and we were able to accomplish or goal.

Our first cache was at the Quebec visitors centre just as we were leaving Quebec. It was an easy grab in the picnic area of the rest stop.



Then it was back on the road. Yesterday I struggled with the boredom in the car. C said I should enjoy the scenery. Well yesterday I'd seen enough trees and they all looked the same. But today was totally different. The views through Eastern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were amazing!

The view from the car.

The worlds longest covered bridge. This stop was the highlight of the day! Totally amazing!

There was a cache here buy we couldn't find it. :(

More views taken from the car.

This was our cache in New Brunswick. It was at the historical Kings Landing rest stop.

Then we plowed on until we reached Nova Scotia and stopped at the first visitors centre in Amhyrst. We picked up a quick park and grab cache here, just a small micro so no picture. Instead I just took a photo of the welcome sign.

Two hours later we were at our hotel! Quick refresh and off to visit my little brother! It's been several years since we've seen each other and the next few days should be fun.

Well that's it for tonight! The journey continues tomorrow.......









The Count Down Begins....

With only 11 days until we complete our year long journey to cache on every day of the year we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! We cold not have picked a better year to embark on this journey.
With very few exceptions, the weather has been fantastic! Even though a few snow storms threatened, they never did materialize. Yes there were some very cold days, some rainy days and most recently the hot and humid days, over all the weather Gods looked kindly upon our task.

So how to we end this journey? And we have decided to take a road trip east. Those of you that know us well, know that this direction was not our original plan. Back in January, we had high ideals of heading to Idaho to complete a series of caches that form a fighter jet! Sounded way cool, but we couldn't fit it into our schedule. Then it was a road trip through the US.  A very busy driving schedule that would have seen us cross through at least 5 states in about 8 days. That was the plan up until just two weeks ago. Then someone finally started participating in the decision process and suggested a trip to Nova Scotia. The idea actually sounded good, a chance to visit my baby brother who lives there and visit parts of the country I have never been to.
The road trip will bring us back into Ontario before we hit the 366th day, but I will do my best to blog about the last 10 days of this incredible adventure. (Elaine, I can see you rolling your eyes!)

This morning we left Brampton just around 6:30am and before we even hit Mississauga, we were stuck behind an accident. Gotta love city traffic. After getting by the accident, traffic seemed to move smoothly. A friend told us about the Big Apple just outside of Coburg and we made a quick pit stop here, hoping to get one of their famous turnovers. It was too early, and I had to settle for an apple fritter instead. However, there was a cache not too far away, and we decided to go for it and pick up one of the TB's.

Then it was back on the road. We drove for another two plus hours stopping for lunch at one of the service centres that had an amazing picnic area (which also included a cache).

Here's PapaGomes reaching for the cache, even in the middle of the day, this little forest area was buzzing with mosquito's.

Back to the road...this time I got to drive!! However, that didn't last long. MG is a terrible passenger and couldn't stand being in that seat for too long.

There is a lot of construction on the roads in Quebec, we missed an exit and had to do a turn around. A perfect opportunity to pick up an urban cache. Since neither of us can understand anything more then basic French, we chose an easy 1-1 cache. It was nothing really special, and the log book was soaked so we couldn't sign. :(

Then back to the road..with MG back in the drivers seat. And we drove and drove and we drove...I was getting so bored I began texting anyone who would respond! Thanks to N, E and C for keeping me entertained during the afternoon.

We managed to push through and drive until just after 5pm. We are stopped in a small town called Montmagny in Quebec. Tomorrow it's on to Halifax!

Good Night