Promised Pictures

Man, has it been a busy first week of school! I think it's going well, though, so who cares. It's been a very nice first week, actually, particularly since an angel walked through my doors on the first day - a classroom aide!!!! I could NOT believe it! I knew I was supposed to have one assigned for a student with an IEP, but I totally wasn't thinking the county would have it together enough to have her there the first day, and she is just a dream. Very helpful, nice as can be, and we get along very well. I forsee a wonderful school year ahead! Yay!!!

If Blogger cooperates, I plan to continue telling about our cruise, and catch everyone up on our last shore excursion with a picture post. Here goes nothin' -

Halifax Harbour had bagpipes, a drummer, and a town crier to greet us as we docked.

On our Lighthouses and Lobster tour, the knowledgeable tourguides let us in on a secret - Hillary Swank (I do believe) is filming a movie aboard this ship. Course, it may be the girl that's married to Ben Affleck. I get those two confused. Sorry. It's one of them!

Lighthouse #1

Lighthouse #2 - rumored to be haunted. Canadians apparently love a good ghost story!!

Lighthouse #3 - the island it sits on holds more snakes than you can shake a stick at. Rest assured, I'll never be setting foot on that island!!

The kids on our boat tour were enthralled with the lobster. The tour guide - I swear to goodness - put the lobster to sleep by rubbing it's back. I'll be trying this the next time we cook lobsters here in our kitchen and get a lively one!

The boy found rock-climbing and a moon bounce on the harborwalk when we were finished with our tour/lunch.

He looks refreshed here in front of the town clock, but I was beat - we had just hiked up the hill you see behind him. NOT a small task, let me assure you. The cruise ship is down there, hidden behind those buildings, just to give you an idea of how steep a climb we had to make. You totally can't see the ship!

The Boy LOVES a nice historic fort (maybe it's the big guns?), and the Citadel in Halifax was EXCELLENT. From appearances, the troops never left the place. We have a fort here in the Washington, DC area from about the same time period, and it's a mess from vandals. This one was lovely, and men in kilted uniforms went about their daily military business.

All that hiking up hills and exploring historic forts made us hungry and thirsty. I normally don't drink beer, but when in Rome, ya know. . . I just had to try some for this knitblogger. Along with the fries and gravy, it was a very refreshing snack!

We were very lucky that the Busker's Festival was just starting on our way back to the ship. Here's the opening act - Rudi Macaggi - a lovely tap dancer with a great sense of humor. Not bad on the eyes, either (notice HIS cannons!!)
This guy's name is Peter Rabbit - he was in Bring in Da Noise. . . you know which one I mean!
AWESOME break-dancers, "Ill Abilities". Each one of them has some type of limiting disability, but you'd never know it. They ROCKED!
My personal favorite - Victor Rubilar - a juggler who was so amazing, I put my camera down and forgot to pick it back up!

We also saw The Calypso Tumblers (hilarious), and a crazy-man who ate fire (but I can't remember his name!).

After this, we hightailed it back to the ship, and made it back on board with only 10 minutes to spare! That was cutting it close, but the performers were so great, we couldn't tear ourselves away!

Tomorrow - pictures of the great fiber, yarn, and hardware I got. It's good - I promise!

:O)