Last year we decided to head over to Lunenburg the day after the wedding but Mother Nature decided it would be a nice day for a drenching downpour that lasted for hours.
This time though we actually managed to walk around it in sunshine. It's a Unesco World Heritage Site and if you're ever in that part of Nova Scotia go see it. It was picked as a World Heritage Site because of it being "the best surviving example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America" according to the Unesco website about it. Ok enough of that - on to our day.
We made sure we got an early start this time because of running out of time on Tuesday when we tried to get over there. We were worried about the weather as it was really foggy on the highway out there but it did make for some brooding pictures when we stopped at Mahone Bay once we moved over to the Lighthouse route.
What would pictures from Mahone Bay be without one of at least of their 3 famous waterfront churches. This one is St. James Anglican.
On our way back to Halifax we stopped again and got some of all 3 from across the inlet.

Just about 11 kilometres further down the road and we were in Lunenburg and the the fog was gone! Yeah it was sunny (well at least in town)! We definitely lucked out.
The first stop we made was at the boatyard where they are re-fitting the Bluenose II. She was really showing the ravages of time and so it was decided to re-build (re-fit) her using the same plans they used for her and the original Bluenose. The Bluenose is so famous in Canada that she is on our dime (10 cent piece).
There's 3 marvelous webcams of the rebuild - a bow, stern and top view.
We stopped on the way back from the boatyard to get a couple of pictures of the boats and some of the fishing industry buildings.
From there we were off to find a parking spot where we could walk around parts of town. The funny thing is we found the same spot we had last year. :) Part way up a hill so it wouldn't be too bad walking back to the car. While J had been driving, my sister & I had been conversing via Blackberry pins and she gave me a list of possible restaurants for lunch. Too bad the one that sounded the best isn't open for lunch. (: But we did have fun walking around and checking them all out while getting pictures of the very picturesque buildings.
The restaurant that unfortunately wasn't open for lunch.
The backside view of the buildings one street in from the harbour - in other words they've got fantastic harbour views and most of them are restaurants or inns. :)
The horses really must love those hills!
As we walked back from the Old Fish Factory (the restaurant we had lunch in) along the waterfront we came across a beautiful black granite monument to all the boats and men from the county who had not returned from the sea. It's inscribed with all their names by the year they went missing. There's a lot of families where it looked like 4 or more were lost in one year. It's called the Fishermen's Memorial and is in the shape of a compass rose.
I asked my sister if they had ever golfed at the course across the harbour and her response - you have to be a mountain goat. :) Funny I thought their club was pretty hilly.
We came across a couple of these benches just where we were parked and thought they were rather unique looking.
On the way back down the Lighthouse route, we stopped in at Amos Pewter in Mahone Bay and finally this year our Christmas Tree will have a topper! We bought a pewter angel for it and some of the collectible ornaments that were from before my sister and her family started giving them to us.
J couldn't resist taking some pictures of the view of Mahone Bay from the Amos Pewter building.
We had thought about going to Chester to check out a store there my sister had mentioned but thought it was getting late enough in the afternoon that instead we'd get back on the highway and head back to the house. Had to laugh - we debated on what exit to take - the rotary or the one where the highway basically ends. After problems in the rotary the other day with some drivers not yielding to cars in the rotary we decided on the other one - WRONG! Talk about bumper to bumper and dead slow. You can't win. :) With all that though we managed to get back to the house at practically the same time as my sister and T who'd been out buying lobsters for dinner on their way home.
After getting them put in the fridge the 4 of us were off again (good thing we'd forgotten about Chester) to buy the rest of the groceries for that night, Canada Day and Saturday morning. They showed us some bits of Halifax we hadn't managed to see yet and their previous house that they had rented. Land in downtown Halifax is pretty rare for developing and it had just sold to a developer for an astounding amount of money.
One regret from the day - no pictures of the lobsters or dinner. Guess that will just have to wait for another time.