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Our weekend was dominated by Tall Ships 2004. About 40 ships were in port [pictures] to celebrate the start of Congrès Mondial Acadien which this year is also part of Acadie 400, the 400th anniversary of the first French settlement at Port Royal.
On Friday, Katy took Margaret and Kathleen, the two girls she is babysitting for the summer, as well as David and Emily, over to see the ships (James was at a basketball camp).
On Saturday morning Ann and James went while Emily and I took Katy to her riding lesson. They went on Cuauhtémoc [pictures], Pride of Baltimore [pictures] and Picton Castle, with short stops in between for ice cream and other snacks. I caught the ferry over after lunch and met them at the ferry terminal. We went on USCG Eagle and Tenacious [pictures] and then James tried his hand at a number of sports set up to promote local Olympic athletes. He used a canoeing trainer and a kayaking trainer, tried fencing, went on a balance beam, and tried wheelchair basketball. We arrived home in time for dinner and a short rest before going back down to the Dartmouth waterfront to watch the Natal Day fireworks.
On Monday morning James and I went back to the Halifax waterfront to take a trip on Theodore Too, the life size version of Theodore Tugboat, the star of the kids TV show that was made here in Halifax. James' godmother Jenny had given him a coupon for for the trip for his birthday present. As we drove over it was pouring rain so we took heavy raingear, but it had stopped by the time we got on board and by the end of the trip it was bright and sunny. The trip lasted about an hour and went up past all the tall ships, around George's Island and back to the wharf. James got to sit in the captain's chair for a few minutes. He had a discussion with the captain about who had the right of way in the harbour; James thought that the ferries always had the right of way but the captain said that that was not strictly true but that they usually let them have it anyway.
After the trip we took the Woodside ferry back to Dartmouth and we set up camp for the Parade of Sail with Ann and Emily at the Nova Scotia Hospital. There is a large grassy slope which runs down between the hospital and the harbour and allows a great view of the ships as they head up the harbour before turning, passing the reviewing stand, and heading out to sea. The parade didn't seem quite as well organized this year as it was in 2000. There were large gaps between some ships and others seemed to be crowded together. There were also fewer of the larger class A ships. The American Coast Guard ship, Eagle, left the dock with all the others but then just headed straight out to sea. I suspect that it had something to do with the security alert in the States, but no-one seems to know the real reason. After the Parade of Sail we went to a barbecue at Kim, Toni and Will's in Halifax.
July 2004 Archive
September 2004 Archive
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