Colour!

On the way to work every morning, I pass this awesome blue house with these gorgeous peonies in front. This morning (as usual) it was raining. I actually don't mind the rain because it makes colors more vibrant. Anyway, I took a picture:

I wish the picture wasn't quite as dark, because the colors are much more brilliant and not nearly as subdued as this. But now I'm thinking that I kinda like the way it looks and may want them for wedding colours. Chris won't like the pink thing too much, but we'll call it rasberry? What do my future bridesmaids (and others) think? Something along these lines:

The Bay of Fundy

So much catching up to do. First I'll blog about the Bay of Fundy trip my parents, brother, and fiance and I did 2 weekends ago. We'll see how bored I get by the end of this and see how much else I get blogged about.

The night that Chris came in, my brother, dad, and him went on the Keith's Brewery Tour. I'd already been and my mother didn't want to go, so we just hung around outside and took pictures.

These are like those Cow Parade things. Tech has a bunch of Buzzes and UGA has a bunch of bulldogs (boo). Jacksonville has jaguars everywhere and Buffalo has well... buffalos! So, Nova Scotia would not be complete without lobsters. There's also dolphin versions on the pier.

We ate at a place called Opa! which is a phenomenal Greek restaurant. If you're in town you really need to try it. Everyone really enjoyed their meals. If you don't like lemon, stay away from the oven roasted potatoes and just order the rice instead.
I happened to see someone walk in with a Georgia Law sweatshirt on it. There's only one person that could be! There's another UGA Law student that was supposed to be in town working for the Public Prosecutors (the Crown). I walked on over and introduced myself to him. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to remain in the country because he doesn't have a work visa. Ridiculous, I know! Technically we're not really working, we're just observing. But the cranky gaurd said that either he was working and needed a work visa or was studying for school and needed a student visa. Too bad we're not doing either. We're "researching" for a paper and not for class credit. If he had said he was just vacationing for the summer, he would have been fine. Oh well...

Okay. So Bay of Fundy trip with Ryan. First we went to this little cove across from Cape Split. Cape Split is a rocky cliff that has split away from the main land because of the tides in the Bay of Fundy. Fundy has the highest tides in the world, something like 50 feet or so. And it's really evident when the tides are moving in and out even if you're only in the same spot for 10 minutes. It's almost as if every wave brings the tide in or out by about a foot. During the tidal periods, 115 billion metric tonnes of water flow in and out of the bay.

People here make their living off of fishing. It's particularly difficult in this area since you have to time the tides in order for there to be enough water to make it in and out. When the Bay is at low tide, the boats rest along the bottom of the Bay (still moored) waiting for the tide to come back in again.

High Tide


Low Tide

I have a few great waterfall pictures from the beach we were at, but I forgot to upload them. I'm at work now, so I'll upload them when I get home. Forgive! Here are a few others of the shore.

We took a short trip over to Hall's Harbour, which is another cute little fishing town. There wasn't much there, but there were some amazing pictures of the bay. Again, have those on the computer at home and will upload those when I get home. Here's one of a little craft store:
That's my dad and my brother. this little shed just sold little paintings and ceramics that local Hall's Harbour artists make. Chris bought this cute little blue ceramic pig. He has a thing with pigs.

We then went to go eat at Blomidon Provincial Park in this nice picnic area. Ryan made sure we had a spectacular lunch overlooking the red cliffs. He even climbed over the fence onto this steep slope in order to get some pictures of the cliffs for my dad. What a good guide! On the way we stopped overlooking the valley. It was breathtaking.

Next, we sped (literally) over to Gaspereau Vineyards in order to go on a wine tasting tour. It was awesome and beautiful! The wine here is fabulous, but they really only sell it in a few places around the area. They also make icewine. Icewine (one word. Ice Wine is force produced) is made when there are 3 consecutive nights of -8 degree celsius weather, or a hard freeze. The grapes are then harvested immediately and pressed while the grapes are still frozen. It's very expensive since the grapes produce much less juice this way. It's amazing though. There's a high sugar content in the juice from this process, so it's very sweet. If you get your hands on some, you should try it. But make sure it's icewine and not Ice Wine to ensure that it is real.



My mom was obsessed with taking pictures of lupins and also Anglican chuches (she has pictures of her in front of Anglican churches from all over). So poor Ryan kept hearing about it. But he's an awesome guide, and got excited for my mother and would point out Anglican churches and lupins every time we passed them and even stopped for her.

Don't be fooled. They may be beautiful, but they're weeds. They will literally take over.

That night we went out to the Old Triangle for dinner and went to Cows Ice Cream for dessert.
I've been to a Cows before. I think there may be a few in the US because I'm pretty sure I ate there with my family. I vaguely remember my dad getting ice cream because he loves the stuff and I remember wandering around and looking at all the stuff. I ever remember the layout of that store. I just like the merchandise. I love cows, and this place had the best cow stuff!
Notice the "this is a parody" in the upper right corner :) All their merchandise is a spoof of pop culture something. I'm sure they got sued a few times or something over trademark issues. However, you can rip off logos as long as it's a parody. I guess they put that there so that there wouldn't be any arguments.

I think I may buy this one...

Maybe this too. If you lived in Canada, you always watched Hockey Night in Canada and they had this thing called Coaches Corner. The cow in the ugly suit is Don Cherry who is this totally bizarre former coach/commentator. He's hilarious and completely crazy. =

It's definitely amazing ice cream and was voted the #2 ice cream in the world after some place in Scotland. REALLY good. I had a picture of us with the sign, but deleted by accident. Put that on the list of pictures to add when I get home tonight.

Here's a funny one instead:
My mom, dad, Chris, and my brother went to PEI and apparently had really good lobster. How cute are they??

The long overdue post

I suppose I should get down to it and finally post about the last part of my parent's visit to Halifax. I'm not sure what my reluctance is, but I really need to blog before I forget what happened. Here goes.

I guess this should have been part of the post with Christina, but I forgot :) I just thought they were really cool pictures, so I wanted to put them in this blog somewhere. Since this is the catch-all post, they're gong to go in here. I took my parents on a walk along the pier before walking over to the Bluenose II Restaurant. Up until about the 2nd week of June, there are times when things are super foggy in Halifax. My parents said that when they looked out across the water, they thought it was straight ocean out there. They didn't realize that there's actually another shore not too far away (Dartmouth). Halifax can be quite dreary at times, but it makes for some great pictures. Just look!

Management:

Labor:

Ok, so I admit the following were obviously not taken on the same day, but it's thematic, so go with it.

Overcast morning on the way to work

Sunny afternoon on the way home!

Yay for Robin being around and scouting for me the first week I was here, so I knew the good things to do! The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is open until 8 PM on Tuesdays, so I wanted to go after work. Turns out, it's also free after 5PM! There's an amazing Titanic exhibit. Halifax helped out with the rescue and body recovery since the ship wrecked only about 700 miles off the coast. As a tradition, rescuers will pick up pieces of flotsam and jetsam (also the names of the eels in the Little Mermaid) from the wreckage. In this way, they preserve a little piece of what was left behind and honour those who did not come back up. After many years, all of this was donated to the Museum, so there is an absolutely impressive collection. I didn't take any pictures, but trust me, this one is worth going to.

In other parts of the museum there's a large model ship display. The ships are fairly big, about 5 feet or so across. There's even a little workshop where you can watch the builders making the ships. It's really neat. There's an exhibit on the top floor that shows all about ships in Nova Scotia and shows how they made sails, ropes, figureheads, etc. There's a cool recreation of what the living arrangement on board a ship looked like. The window actually has a picture that moves up and down so it feels like you're on the water. If you look at it too long, it kinda makes you nauseous. There's also a little piece on Nova Scotians who have taken very long single-person sails. It was amazing what some people did and how tiny the ships were.

There's a little bit about the famous Nova Scotian ship, the Bluenose. This place is obsessed with that ship! It's a famous schooner. She was a working fishing ship, and at least once won a competition for largest catch of the season. She was most famous for, however, winning races. For 17 years, no challenger (American or Canadian) could beat her. I guess that's why she was so impressive. She wasn't built to be a racing ship, but a fishing vessel. She was never beaten, but eventually sank off of Haiti. The ship is on the back of the Canadian dime.
There's an exact recreation of her, the Bluenose II, in Lunenberg where the ship was originally from. I'm going to Lunenberg this weekend, so I'll be able to see her in person!

There's a little exhibit on Theodore Tugboat. Theodore was a children's show back in the day, similar to Thomas the Tank Engine, but with tugboats in the Halifax Harbour! They've got all the original models that were used for the show as well as the set.

That's my office! The ugly building. But still, we're on the set!

They have a life-sized version of Theodore in the harbour that you can take rides on. It leaves right from right by my office.

His eyes move and follow you.

So, back to the Titanic. They called in a whole bunch of morticians for dealing with the dead. They developped this system of bagging and nubering the personal effects of the bodies in order to match everything up later. The system really worked and was used during the Halifax Explosion which occurred just a few years later (there's also an exhibit on that which is pretty interesting). They used it up until pretty recently. Because of the careful cataloging of what everyone was wearing, etc., they've been able to identify who almost every person was. All of the unclaimed bodies, which were many, were buried in various cemetaries around Halifax.
A small child was found and they never did identify them. The White Star line paid for headstones for all the victims, but family members could pay to buy upgraded stones. The crew of the ship who pulled this kid out of the water were really affected by him, and chipped him to buy a bigger stone. Kids leave toys next to the tombstome.

Most people believe that President William Henry Harrison died in 1841, just after assuming office to become the shortest presidency in history. Not so. He went down with the Titanic 70 years later and is buried in Halifax.

Proof.

Also, apparantly Jack's body floated up to the surface and was rescued. He was buried in this cemetary (Fairview Lawn).

3rd row down, 5th marker in

So, not really. Jack Dawson is a fictitious character, and this is actually Joseph Dawson, who looks nothing like Leo. Here is his entry in the Irish National Census of 1901. Sorry, folks. It's still pretty neat though, and people do leave things.

Ok that took way longer than I thought. I need to go to bed. Still have to do Bay of Fundy and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. So much to do!

Lunch tastes better when made by the most powerful justice in the province

Today was appreciation day. The Chief and Associate Chief Justices of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals had a picnic for us today for lunch where (get this) they cooked for us.

Chief Justice Kennedy (N.S.S.C.), Chief Justice of Nova Scotia McDonald, Associate Chief Justice Smith, Burgers, Hot Dogs, and Sausages. They all actually have really funny aprons on too.

The little picnic they put together for us was really nice. There was potato, macaroni, caesar, and garden salad, watermelon, CAKE (!!!), chips. They even decorated the space to make it nice with little lawn ornament butterflies and frogs and things. The picnic tables had nice tablecloths and little plastic shovel and pails with chips in it. The main "buffet" table had flowers on it. It was a much more glam event than I expected.

I had a can of coke (although pepsi and other products were available) to give me a taste of Atlanta. Do you know how long it's been since I've even seen a Pepsi product? Wow. By the way, people here call it "pop," not "coke" (See: Atlanta) or "soda" (See: the South).

After the awesome lunch, it was really hard to get back to work. Especially since there was a loud BOOM! right as I was getting re-organized. I looked out my window and this is what I see:
IT WAS SHOOTING OFF CANNONS! I was really excited. My dad then sends me an article about how gun shots were heard in a Halifax neigbourhood. At first I figured it was just these cannons (how awesome would that have been), but then I read the article further and it actually happened in the sketch north-end of Halifax. Halifax is a piratical kind of town, but I guess today just wasn't my day.

Apparently the harbour just didn't want me to work today, since next this appeared out my window:

The pride of the Canadian Navy! Cute, huh? I think it's deisel. It reminded me of my fiance, who's away on his very own submarine, although his is muuuuuuuuuuuuch bigger than this one. His is 2 football fields long. I think this one's about the size of a hockey rink. I guess they're just taking a little cruise around the harbour.

A large part of the Canadian Navy is here in Halifax just up the harbour from where I am. It's rather large. It's also really defensable, so that's why they put the fleet here. In order to access the location by sea, you have to go by several ports (I know for sure one on Point Pleasant and one on McNab's Island). To reach it by land, you have to go by the Citadel. I'll try to make it down there one day and take a picture of large bay, Bedford Basin, where all the ships during the War use to be. It was also at the Narrows leading into the Basin that the world's largest man-made explosion before the atomic bomb occurred, the famous Halifax explosion.

Bedford Basin, 1942, obviously not taken by me

Halifax is one of the largest natural harbours in the world. There's not much that can't go through the Northwest Arm (the main part of the harbour that turns into the Narrows leading into Bedford Basin). To give you an idea of how big it is, this also passed by my window today:

This thing was absolutely massive. You can see to the left of the ship one of the ferries. Look how tiny it is compared to the ship! I wonder if this is how big Chris' sub is. I really have very little conception of how large his submarine is because last time I saw it, it was mostly underwater.

That was my day today! I know I still have to post stuff of what I did the weekend before last with my parents, but it's late and I have to go to bed. I'm going to the Art Museum of Nova Scotia tomorrow after work, so I'll update everyone on that too!

Cheers!

It's raining; it's pouring

Today, it's pouring. It was so hard getting up to go to work today, and it made walking home awful.

I guess I'll take the time to blog about things :) I finally got my new office! You should be jealous, because it's amazing.

Pretty awesome, huh? I even have my own executive bathroom!

View from my window. It's really distracting. There are always lots of sailboats and tall ships and Canadian Navy ships driving by. sigh...

Look at me! My big desk!

Quite a step up from where I was, huh? I got a new assignment yesterday and I'm finally writing memos for someone other than Justice LeBlanc (although I like him a lot). So the first is essentially about the Daubert standard, but I have to find out what that is in Canada. Too bad that I know exactly where to go in US law. I'm pretty sure that Canadian law doesn't use the same evidentiary standard when it comes to expert testimony and the like. It should actually be really interesting to compare it, though. The second one is about a judge's discretion with respect to specific damages. The last one is about what to do with a witness who is clearly not telling the truth, but it not lying (in other words, he honestly believes what he's saying, but what he's saying is unreliable). The other assignment I'm working on with these is about what to do when evidence is lost. That one's giving me grief since counsel for the applicant gave me a terrible brief. It literally says "This case states:" and then block quotes for 5 pages. Then goes "This case notes:" and block quotes for another 3 pages. In each of these block quotes, one line is underlined. I have no earthly idea what their argument is. They say little things, but it's almost like they're taking a big breath without exhaling. I just want to say, "AND???????" I'm hoping that if I just talk about everything I'll answer whatever argument they may try to be making even though I don't know what that argument is.

Last Sunday my parents and I took a day trip to Cape Breton. Let me tell you that this is not the place that you want to go on a day trip. It needs at least 2-3 days. But I had to be at work on Monday, and it was really the only opportunity we were going to have. It was nevertheless a beautiful drive, and I'm glad we went. One day, I'll have to come back and really spend some time up there. Let me tell you that it is just as impressive and wonderful as everyone says. My parents went to PEI later on it the week and said that it was nothing compare to Cape Breton. We didn't make it up to the Highlands, but we did make it onto part of the Cabot Trail and Ceilidh Trail (pronounced kay-lee). The Cabot trail is in my book of 1000 places to see before you die, so yay! The whole area is steeped in celtic tradition, but it's scottish and not irish heritage here. We got a map of craft/artisans/etc. and went looking for quilt makers and the potters, but don't be fooled! All of the people on the map were selling things out of their houses, so it was really intimidating. We mostly drove by the places without going in. When you go into those places, you always feel pressured to buy things, and we didn't want to be forced to buy a $400 quilt! We did go to a place called the Galloping Cow that made syrups and jams and jellies and bought a few things there. They grow everything for their products themselves, bottle it (or whatever you do with jams and jellies) on their property, and sell it a little barn beside their house. Their german shepard, Dash, was super cute.
We asked a local where to eat for lunch, and she said her favorite place was the Mull Cafe in Mabou. It was fantastic! I had this open turkey and gravy sandwich and the best chocolate milk shake i've ever had. Even better than Chick fil-A! We also had some home made apple pie that we devoured. The best part, though, was this dog:

This dog was sleeping by the side of the house/restaurant, and did not move. He looked like a pretty old dog. While we were waiting for our food, I went out to get my camera and I see the dog! He came all the way up from the side of the house, peed on a car right in front of the restaurant, and then walked back around to his spot. It was hilarious. He only got up to pee and walked really far to pee on this car. He was such a disgruntled dog. When we left, he had just finished peeing on another car and was on his way back to his spot.

We then made our way up to the Glenora Distillery which makes single malt whisky. It's at the base of these mountains, and I can't even begin to tell you how beautiful this place is. I think it helped that it was a gorgeous day :) Glenora's was actually in some legal battles with Scotland, more specifically Scotch distillers, who say that their name creates product confusion. Like champagne (which can only be made in Champagne, France to be called that -- otherwise it's just sparkling wine. Unless, of course, you're the Champagne of Beers, which means you hail from Milwaukee), Scotch can only come from Scotland. Scotland is very protective of their Scotch. However, today the Supreme Court of Canada allowed them to register their name. So yay!
This is the stream where the water for the whisky comes from. It's what gives the whisky character. It doesn't ever dry up and is super clean.

They get their barrels from all over. Some come from France, other's come from my favorite Whiskey, Jack Daniels.

Our guide was actually one of the distillers and not a tour guide at all. We just hit the beginning of the season, so their real tour guides weren't there yet. I'm glad we got it from him though. He was endearing and knew his stuff and told us all the good stories. He's the low man on the totem pole, and has to do everything around the place. He is the poor guy that has to clean the Mash Tun. I'm sure that's gross and really hard work and it probably gets pretty hot in there.

He doesn't even get the benefit of it being whisky! At this point it's sugar water and doesn't have any alcohol in it.

Sometimes the gigantic wash backs leak water (a lot of water), and he has to clean that up. In the distilling room there was a poor bird that got stuck in there and he said that he has to clean them up when they die :( He's also the bar tender at the bar/restaurant on the property (there's an inn). Right as we were leaving he said, "well, I have to go paint the kitchen, now." He wasn't kidding. Poor guy. I wonder what everyone else does. He does all the work!

And that was basically all we had time for!