A Week in the Canadian Maritimes

View of Halifax and the harbor from the Citadel

Leave it to me to get my first tan in years not in Florida or Italy, but in Canada.

Of course, I use "tan" comparatively. I'm still pretty ghostly. But compared to my usual Caspar-like pallor, I look pretty brown. Or red, if you look at my ankles -- the one place I obviously forgot to use sunblock.

Tan or no tan, burn or no burn, we're back from our week in Canada: 3 nights in Halifax, Nova Scotia, followed by 4 nights near Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. It was the most relaxing vacation I've ever taken, and the first one I can remember in a long time in which I came home and my feet didn't hurt.

I wasn't up for planning an intricate two-week jaunt, and I wasn't sure my 5-month pregnant body could take the hustle and bustle of our normal vacation anyway. So instead we chose a destination I'd long wanted to see ever since reading "Anne of Green Gables" as a child: Prince Edward Island. Paul had a hankering to see Halifax, and since it's only a 4-hour drive away, we tacked that on to the trip, too.

Since the Maritime provinces of Canada (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick) are only a two-hour nonstop flight away, these passport stamps were the easiest I've ever acquired. (In fact, I was very excited to get them -- we've never gotten stamps any time we've driven across the Canadian border.)

The weather was beautiful: temperatures in the 70s and perhaps low to mid-80s for a day or two, with no humidity. A few nights it was even cold enough to need pants and long sleeves -- a far cry from the weather we left in New York. It rained exactly one day, and that was the one we drove from Halifax to Prince Edward Island and had no outdoor plans. Perfect.

Over the next few weeks you'll see several blog posts regarding the vacation, perhaps interspersed with posts about whatever else is happening here at home in the meantime.

Halifax Town Clock