After a wonderful visit with my mom and dad in northern New Brunswick, we pointed our car south, marvelled at the fact there was a pandemic-related random selection border checkpoint on the way into Nova Scotia, and a few hours later arrived in a city that means a great deal to both of us.

Halifax. Home sweet home.

This part of our Atlantic Canadian tour was about visiting family and also taking a couple of days to reconnect with some of our favourite things.

In the case of one of our first days in Halifax, we combined those two things while spending a day with our niece and nephew and re-exploring the downtown. First, we stopped at the Public Gardens fully in bloom on a gorgeous August morning.

Then a visit with the kids to the central library where they explored the shelves and checked out some books. I really miss this place – it was like a second living room for both my wife and me. We lived about two blocks away and the comfy chairs on the upper floors facing Spring Garden Road was a place I’d read, write and occasionally do some work. It was where I put in a lot of the preparation for my interviews that landed me in Saskatchewan.

Our favourite downtown burger joint, Krave Burger, was a hit with the kids for lunch before we continued exploring our old stomping grounds together.

A large part of this visit to Halifax was hanging out with my wife’s family in ways that we used to do when we lived in the city. We spent part of an evening taking in my nephew’s soccer practice….

… and we spent a lot of time just hanging out at their house catching up. It was also where I made a new friend – their dog Rosey and I hit it off. Good dog!

What would a trip to Halifax be without some seafood? On our first night back, a patio near the waterfront was the backdrop for us to split a seafood tower and a couple orders of fresh mussels. My smile says it all – happy to be back in my element in a city I love.

By timing, we got to relive a well loved tradition. My wife’s birthday fell during our Halifax stay so like in the old days we headed to the Bicycle Thief for a blow out meal. Seafood pasta was an easy choice for me as I tried to catch up on more than a year of pandemic-limiting seafood intake.

In what felt like a much safer pandemic environment in Nova Scotia than what we were accustomed to in Saskatchewan, this was our first meal inside a restaurant in about a year. Combined with my wife’s birthday that called for Champagne to kick off the festivities!

A post-dinner walk along the waterfront reminded me of old times where I’d take this view for granted. It was good to be home again, even if only for a week.

In our remaining time in the city, we squeezed in a few more favourites. For my celiac-suffering wife, a feed of gluten-free fish and chips and clams at Evans Seafood in the Dartmouth ferry terminal.

And in the same location, I opted for a lobster roll and a pint from a waterfront beer garden.

Not only delicious food, but a million dollar view of the harbour and Halifax just beyond.

No trip to Halifax is complete without a visit to the Stillwell Beergarden downtown. I arrived just as their doors opened one morning for a quick beer – a delicious Boxing Rock Brewing Perfect Pint.

And finally, on the morning we left Halifax to continue our visit by returning to New Brunswick, I grabbed a coffee and found a bench on top of Citadel Hill to enjoy the quiet of the city and the view from up here. I’ve missed a lot since moving away…. family, the old haunts, and this view, among a lot more. It was nice to reunite with so much after the longest period of being away from Halifax in my life.