Nova Scotia | Halifax + Brier Island

As author Tsh Oxenreider says, 

"This world is huge; it is majestic; it is worth exploring just for the sake of knowing it."

This summer has been one for the books, and I'm so grateful. I know future life seasons won't allow for this much up-and-go traveling, so I'm thankful Brice and I have had the opportunity to do that during this one. We both wanted to do a trip "just us" before the school year started up again, and we were passively searching different places to visit. We wanted to go somewhere neither of us have been before, and we wanted to go somewhere that was different. Different meaning a place we probably wouldn't choose to go down the road, yet somewhere that wasn't across the world--because well, money. After perusing travel blogs online I stumbled across Nova Scotia, Canada. After looking into it, it seemed perfect. NS has things for both of us. Countless lakes, beautiful beaches, north atlantic ocean, classic harbor towns, hiking and camping.. it seemed ideal. After a few conversations, we both jumped on board, found a cheap airbnb, and booked out flights. Five weeks later we found ourselves in Nova Scotia looking at each other laughing and saying, "Did we really just do that? Are we actually here?"

We took tons of photos and packed so much into six days, so I'm breaking this trip into a few posts. First up: Halifax + Brier Island! 

We got in late Wednesday and found our airbnb. It was positioned perfectly in the back of an ocean cove on the water, with a dock and canoe right out back. It was small and had a deck with a gorgeous view of the cove and was just what we needed for the week. Our wifi was crazy spotty and not too great, which was actually pretty amazing to truly feel unplugged and away for six days. We need that more than we realize for sure.

The next day we headed off to Halifax, the capital city of Nova Scotia. We went to the Titanic Exhibit there which was crazy interesting and being a Titanic fanatic myself, I loved it. I didn't take many photos, except for this one of a small handmade replica of the Titanic. They had replica creations of countless famous ships all over the museum and I was amazed at their intricacy. According to the story, all of the survivors were taken to New York, and all of the passengers who died during the sinking were sent to Halifax, so that's where most victims of the tragedy are buried. It was pretty dark and eerie, but so fascinating. 

After the exhibit, we ate some delicious lunch at headed to see a famous historical fort in Halifax that apparently has the best view of the harbor because it's so elevated. It was interesting, but I think Brice enjoyed the war history much more than I did.. :)

That evening, we went to Alexander Keith's Brewery in Halifax and did a tour. It was so fun, and the guides were entertaining and so talented (clearly professional actresses/singers). & the beer was good, too!

Thursday was a packed day in Halifax. Friday was a little slower, as we drove a majority of the day. We went to Brier Island, which took two ferries to get to, to check something off my bucket list--WHALE WATCHING! We went on a small zodiac boat that held around 10-15 people. This was Brice and I's highlight of the trip. It's amazing to see something that is so incredibly big be so majestic in the water. We had really good luck and saw a lot of humpback whales. The first few we saw were pretty shy, but the last had a young one that was showing off. :)