Well folks, I am back from my trip and feeling like a million bucks! For those interested in seeing pictures I have launched a new photoblog since TextAmerica has been a big letdown. Now you may see my pictures here: Dreaming in Blue. Thanks to si for pointing out that Blogger has started this, and to K-Dogg for his input on the matter (and for being the guinea pig). I still have some fine tuning to do, but the pics are ready for your viewing pleasure! Remember to click on the pictures to get the larger images; the pics are clearer and brighter.

What a trip.... it started off a little rocky but thankfully improved. Not 10 minutes after my arrival I got a call from my sponsee; she was having a crisis of monumental proportions and things were going very, very badly. I asked if she wanted me to fly home, she said no but I knew she wanted me to. I was worried and freaking out. Things were tense for the next 24 hours as I had to excuse myself from my hosts and friend (I travelled with my friend and stayed we stayed with her parents) to call my sponsee and check up on her. Finally, things calmed down a bit and I was able to relax.

From there things were just fantastic. The weather couldn't have been better as my friend and I explored Halifax. Halifax has a rich and long history, including having the notorious title of being the location of the largest explosion ever before the A-bomb (two ships collided in the harbour, one loaded with ammunitions, chemicals and TNT). 2,000 people were killed with another 9,000 injured (1917). It is also the spot where many of the rescues for the Titanic survivours were launched.

Needless to say it is a city that has an ongoing love affair with boats, fishing, the ocean and it's naval history. There are still old forts that can be seen from it's days of serving the allied forces in the wars, including the Citadel overlooking Halifax harbour.

I also got the chance to take in smaller towns along the way including Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, and Peggy's Cove (the most popular attraction of Nova Scotia). It was beautiful and relaxing to visit all these sleepy little towns tucked away in the trees and rocks.

My friend and I also took a boat tour of the Halifax Harbour which takes you through the area and out into the Atlantic Ocean a bit. We nearly froze our asses off. That there is a COLD wind coming off that ocean. And of course we caught a big wave up the side of our heads. That gave us a great laugh. :-) After that we moved to the lower deck of the boat to warm up.

I could drone on and on and bore you guys to death, but I won't. If you're interested you can look at the links and go see my pictures. One thing I did enjoy about the trip? Unplugging from the news. In fact it was nearly impossible to find out about anything that was going on in the world because the local newspaper doesn't much bother with larger world issues. It wasn't until my last morning there that I finally saw something in the paper about Israel. Felt good to get away from it all......