I haven’t been into a train station for a long time – so when we were in Halifax and staying at the Westin Hotel which is just next to the VIA Rail – I thought we should at least stop in and check it out. You can’t missed the train station as it is at the end of Barrington Street – to be exact it is in Hollis Street.
It would be nice to take a train ride up to Montreal or even to Niagara Falls.
The inside of the train station.
It’s places like the Clay Cafe that make me wished we lived in Halifax instead of a small town – places like Clay Cafe located at Quinpool Road is a place that anyone of any ages can go to. Be it bonding with mother/father with their kids – or girlfriends and boyfriends wanting to show their artwork in a special way.
With more than 300 pottery shapes to choose from and some friendly staff to help you out – you will like this casual setting – where you can paint away for just $5 – $60 depending on the design. It’s not entirely cheap – but it’s a great way to spend an afternoon doing something nice for yourself or someone. I really do like this Clay Cafe and wished I could bring this franchise to our small town.
In all our trip up the city – we’ve never gone closed to the public garden – we’ve heard a lot about it – but we’ve never been there. This trip up to the city – the kid wanted to go to a playground – so we went for a walk after parking the car.
The Halifax Public Garden’s gate reminds me of the Botanical Garden back home. A lot of restoration work was put into this garden after it was hit by Hurricane Juan.
Inside the Public Garden – a gazebo – lots of gardeners worked in this garden voluntarily. We didn’t stay for long as the bugs were in full force that afternoon. But i do plan to visit another time soon.
Friends also say tht when we go for vacation – we women are the ones who loved shopping but how untrue it is because whenever we go on vacation – the spouse is always walking around the mall looking for xbox deals from electronic stores. And shopping from coast to coast in Canada – one can find one of the best deals for your xbox games and gadets from one store or another. When it comes to electronics I find that shopping in Canada is a lot more cheaper than in the States – and even though our loonie is stronger – their games are still a little higher than us. But you will noticed that in different parts of Canada – you can get different deals – so if you are like us looking out for deals all the time - you have to be patient and shop everywhere you are vacationing in.
Canadians shopped a lot across the border – mainly because it’s cheaper to by just about anything – even though the loonie is stronger than the current US currency. The finance minister a few days ago – just said that he was irritated by it – perhaps if they didn’t charge so much taxes – Canadians will stay home and shop home – and with coupons like lowe’s coupons i too would drive across the border to get tools for my in – laws for Christmas. The variety is a lot more across the border as well – so you can really blame us for taking advantage of such good deals right? We don’t get the kind of coupons they do in the United States – if you look at some of the grocery coupons some housewives had collected – you will be amazed how much savings one can get – in fact – there are a few who would even show you how to use the coupons. Inspired by the coupon news one year – I try to search for as much coupons before going across the border to shop.
So if you don’t have anywhere to go yet – for the Labor day holidays – try taking advantage of VIA Rail network as all Canadian destinations are on sale! 50% off the regular adult fair for both the Economy and Business classes. But you have to book before August 31st 2011. From Toronto to Montreal is only $69! great prices! hurry ! hurry!
Everyone wants to go away for the Labor Day weekend – because it’s the last week before the kids goes back to school. Some people go camping which is by far the easiest – but for people like me – I want to be up in the city and doing some last minute shopping for the kid – and her going back to school gear. But a check around – you will know that most hotel are either fully booked or they are going for very expensive rate on the Labor day weekend.
So what do one do? well – the other alternative is to have a huge bbq – with friends and family and enjoy a lazy weekend. That is not a bad idea either. Some other suggestions will be to check out Expedia.com – for they have some sale on for Labor Day to Paris – up to 50% and of course – Las Vegas if you are in United States would be a wonderful place to be – rooms starting from $44.00. I checked locally for Halifax but nothing less than $125. So I guess we are going to be staying for a BBQ.
I don’t know if I want to live in an airport for 80 days and 80 nights – even with $50 a day for food and snacks but the winner of the Live @ YVR contest – Jaegar Mah will be doing just that. He will be staying that the Fairmont Hotel in the airport in Vancouver and have the inside scoop as well as get to use and see anything he wants inside the airport – they probably even let him use the usb barcode scanner at the Duty Free shop if he wanted to try a day’s work at that department. But it would be fun when he is done is project – because he gets $15K in cash and he might just be hired by some local radio station then.
We were planning to go to PEI this summer – and had to postpone our plans because the kid got ill – but I had accidentally came across the newest hotel in PEI – thru’ a magazine I found at the local grocery store and decided to check it out. The rates I meant – and it was very expensive! a check on the website state that it is a boutique hotel – and usually boutique hotels are small and personable therefore they charge a little bit more. But we are still booking the hotel – to try it out – and check it out – after all what good am I to be called an ex-hotelier and not check out new hotels right? this is what we called a site inspection. Plus we can always meet up with our dear life insurance agent turned friend and discuss our term life insurance over a cup of coffee and some pastry in the hotel. The hotel is located in Charlottetown and it even have a bigger pool. So more on the Holman Grand hotel after I come back from our mini 1 week vacation.
So if you owned a summer house in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia – you are pretty much screwed. Today we had a customer from Massachusetts and he told us that he had to drive another 10 hrs thru’ Digby to get to his summer house here. He wasn’t happy at all. The NDP government still insist that without the ferry – our economy is still as good – but we all know it’s not true. I don’t know what is wrong with the NDP government or what their problem is – but if you are thinking of coming to Canada – via Portland – well you can forget it. The link for United States citizens to visit Canada – and vice versa is broken – how can this not damage our economy – even the American who was in our store today wasn’t happy at all.
