From Charlottetown it was an hour and a half drive to the Eastern Shore of P.E.I. to catch the ferry. We arrived about an hour early at the Wood Isle terminal so we drove to the light house on the hill. It is located in a park complete with a playhouse sized fishing village for the kids to play in. A whole mini village, docks and all. We walked around a bit but did not spend a lot of time because it was COLD. About 45 with a stiff wind blowing.

I had ridden a ferry or two as a kid, but this was my first time to actually drive onto one. The Spirit of Northumberland is a mid sized ship and carries 35-40 cars and around 120 passengers. It works just like the bridge in that you only pay when leaving the Island and costs just $4 more than the bridge. The fun of a ferry, plus the miles saved on this leg of the journey made it a great idea. The crossing to Nova Scotia is about 12 miles and takes around 55 minutes. It was a perfect time to relax and enjoy.

After we docked in Caribou, Nova Scotia we still had about two hours left to drive to get to Halifax. Right away we could see it was much more urban than the VERY rural Prince Edward Island. Still by the standards around here it could still be considered absolute wilderness most of the journey.

Halifax is a very modern, thriving city of over a million, if you count the whole metro area. It boasts a deep harbor with a beautiful skyline. Once again we had a harbor view hotel. The city is built on a very steep hill rising from the docks and high atop sits an old stone fortress. The Fort is appropriately named the Citadel. It is still in use by a military school and they have a very impressive changing of the guard ceremony reflecting the full Scottish heritage of the area.
From all over the downtown area you could hear the lonely sounds of bagpipes drifting through the air.It was a quick 10 minute passenger ferry ride from our hotel to downtown across the harbor. The boat runs every 30 minutes so we rode it daily. The dockland area is great with both tourist shops and working business side by side. The whole downtown is very nice and close in. Easy to site see on foot as long as you parallel the water front. But the roads seem to go straight-up if you venture past the second block.

Kristie and I climbed the very steep hills to the fort and were rewarded with a birds-eye view of the whole city. San Francisco has nothing on these steep streets.