Rest Day - Halifax

Rest day in Halifax, Nova Scotia

Busy day, busy day. Over 12 hours of being downtown.

Let's try to get some order in this entry.

Oh, but first 1. Mario, thanks. 2. Brenda-Lee, it's pedaling, not peddling. My peddling days are over. 3. jnicole, you're welcome. I must say I'm surprised, and honoured that you appear to be reading my entries fairly quick. merci.

bien, ca commence mal mon recit bien organise.

Ok. Touristy stuff that I saw: Keiths Brewery (with it's theatrical/entertaining tour), Brewery Market, Casino Nova Scotia (I lost my 40 bucks at the black jack table – I didn't have my good luck buddy with me, le “beau” Matthieu”), Cathedral Church of All Saints, Old Burying Ground, Halifax Citadel (the outskirts, as it was closed after 5 pm) and it's Naval clock, Halifax Metro Centre (where the Mooseheads play), Halifax Public Gardens (nice, peaceful, and lovely), Maritime Museum of the Atlantic (Titanic exposition, Halifax Explosion expo, and various stuff there), Old Town Clock, Pier 21 museum, St. Mary's Basilica, Tall Ships Quay, and a bit of the Jazz festival. I even went to the laundromat to do a load. Oh, and I walked around a bit.

Food. Had a quick bite to eat at the Cabin Coffee (I think it's called that) – take-out, as I wanted to drink a beer somewhere remote with the meal. Eventually, I ate at the Lower Deck (Privateer's roasted red pepper and caramelized onion dip with warm pita wedges, French Fry wedges with pesto mayo) with a Keith's Traditional Lager. For supper, I wanted sushi, since I dot think I can get good sushi in NFLD. But, when I got there, it was closed. Ate supper at the Economical Shoe Shop (weird name). Spring rolls with a spicy Thai sauce, followed by their Bouillabaise (with shrimp, mussels, and scallops, i a rose sauce seasoned with fresh herbs and spices). I had the Propeller IPA with the meal. For desert, they had cheese-cakes (chocolate mint, strawberry, or chocolate). I actually skipped out on that. Imagine that. During supper, there were these annoying 22 year old celebrating one of their birthdays. They were quite loud, very annoying. Yelling quite often like "Ya, give it up for Stacey (whatever the b-day girl's name was). Hi five!" One girl was especially loud. I really wanted to shove something in her mouth to shut her up. Maybe the styloid process of the ulna would of been a good start. It is know as the "soyez bonne" technique.

Now, on to the beer. It's an amazing thing when you sample a new beer and you are blown away by it. It happened today. I was surprised, and giddy. Keith's Traditional Lager is only brewed (and sold, I believe) here. But, it's not that crap I'm talking about. But, let's start in order.

Keith's brewery tour – sampled the beer mentioned above, then their red. Nothing special, just hype.

Afterwards, as I told the girl at Garrison's Micro-Brewery: “I just went to the Keith's Brewery tour, now I want some real beer”. Samples came quickly, with a smile. Raspberry Wheat, Tall Ships Amber Ale, Irish Red, Nut Brown, and the Unfiltered Imperial Pale Ale (6.9 %). Holy shit, that last one was amazing. Strong, bold, very hoppy taste, and something that I couldn't put my finger on, but my taste buds were going crazy. So was I. Eventually, the cutie behind the bar told me – white grapefruit. Damn, that was (is) amazing. I hope that when Joel and Carole go to Cape Breton, they can do a detour to Halifax to buy me a few Growlers of that stuff. Plus, Joel would be able to sample some good beer. Once you go good beer, you try not to go back (something like that). Sacrament, c'etait bon. Big Al, you gotta be here. You to Hardcore Dave. I wonder if that ruined it for the rest of the other beers to be sampled today. So good, I had another IPA (not India, but Imperial, just thought I should re-iterate that). I bought the Jalepeno beer (bottle) to take out, as they didn't have it on tap. I would have to find a spot to drink it in public, as it's not a bar there (license to sample, but not to serve beer). After the Keith's tour, and this, I was almost having a spin-on. Not bad for 2 pm. It might be a long day...

Propeller Micro-Breweryr. They make their own pops there too (like Garrison's). The beers: hmmm, I didn't write the names down. Ok, I remember they had a IPA, a nut brown, an amber, a red, and I think a cream ale. Damn. What was I thinking? I should check to see if I took some pictures. Maybe I should find it on the Internet later on. But, that takes time. Eventually.

(Top ten reasons to procrastinate: 1. )

Rogue's Roost Brewery. Good stuff, clean and crisp, but nothing spectacular. I would definitely drink that stuff anytime. Beers: Weizen (German style), Czech Pilsner (with imported Czech hops), they didn't have the Cream Ale (as stated on the taste-test page), IPA, Raspberry Wheat, Brown Ale, Red Ale, and an Amber (or Pale Ale?). I am going by memory, but it's in the on-line picture album.

Finally, Granite Pub. They had 6, I believe. Now, you know I am getting lazy, as I just took the picture of them. So, hold on, I'll go look at the pics to get the names. Best Bitter, Real Bitter Special, IPA, Ringwood Ale, Keefe's Irish Stout, and the Peculiar.

So, that was it. Busy day. Sampled many things. Didn't get sushi.

On the road again tomorrow. I just fixed a flat tonight – when I brought the bike in the preivous night, I realized it was flat. It deflated sometime between getting in, and bringing it in the house. I think I found out why – the tire is basically toast. That makes sense, the other one konked out at 4000 km. When I hit Dartmouth tomorrow (via the ferry, as it's 2 bucks, and supposedly nice), I'll hit 9000 km. Let's see if it's the cause of the last few days of flats.

It is now 1:30 am, I am now all packed, the blog is up to date (and the pics too), and I have to get up in 5 hours at the same time as Ian. I wonder if I'll take a nap somewhere tomorrow. It's maybe a 200 k day, so that should be interesting. Oh, I'll get to see my name in print tomorrow... Stay tuned.

Rock on,
p2

(seems like the beer writings took up half the entry. I'm laughing as i write this).
The old game of guessing which town in Quebec started with St/Ste – it was a bad joke. Just pointing out that 80 % of the towns start with a St/Ste. But, I found it funny. Hell, I'll laugh at almost anything (much easier to live that way).

New game – how many kms will I end up doing? The winner gets to go riding with me (I'll bring a pizza for the road, and a beer or two).

Do I do Cape Breton clockwise or counter-clockwise? It's tricky to go to Glendale, then the Cabot Trail, then head to North Sydney, while trying not to back-track or do the same road twice. But, I think I figured it out. Any suggestions?

p