Your city is amazing!

[SaskOttaLoo]

Hi Haligonians,

I wanted to quickly write having just returned from an amazing one-week vacation in and around Halifax. You have an amazing city! If I wait too long to write this I never will, so will keep it short.

The amount to do there was really surprising - we decided to cancel our trip to CBI and instead stay in and around Halifax. The boardwalk blew us away - perfect for both kids and adults. Great to see that it seemed like a meeting place that drew people in. Also inspiring that a Haligonian explained it was not at all similar when he was a kid. Halifax generally felt like such a livable place.

Also loved the various local foods (East Coast bagels and garlic fingers are great). Gio and a few spots in Lunenberg were highlights. One surprise was how difficult it was for us to put our hands on some good smoked salmon. The local breakfast spots didn't serve it and we eventually had to go to the Atlantic Superstore for some very mediocre frozen stuff - I had imagined it would be a lot more widespread. So maybe there's an opportunity for a local entrepreneur to start doing some fish smoking!

Finally, the trip to Wolfville to visit vineyards was a particular highlight. Luckett Vineyards and Lightfoot & Wolfville were my two favourites, and in general the quality of wine was really, really good. The prices for local wine both at the vineyards & in restaurants was surprisingly affordable, and NS should really be getting attention for more than its sparkling whites.

Anyway, all to say that from the vantage point of someone who has lived in SK, ON, QB and the US, I really don't think there's enough recognition of what a great spot NS is. We had been in Martha's Vineyard the week prior, and of the two NS was our preference. We are definitely planning on returning, hopefully next summer, and I'll be spreading the word in the meantime. This may be a bit overboard, but we are also planning to move back to Canada in a few years, and Mtl had always been at the top of our list. But who knows? The place really grew on us!