breakfast is served at 0830, courtesy of david and his apron. david's on the smaller size, shorter than both benjamin and i, but the easy-going presence he commands raises his height a good foot or so. and the apron is good for at least three inches all by itself. he'd set up the room with two goblets of grapefruit halves (we have the house to ourselves this morning), a pitcher of pulpy orange juice, two decanters of bran (what kind of place puts bran in decanters?!), and warm rhubarb muffins. delicious, all of it.
*break*
at this point, the narrative as it exists must end. i stopped writing these over a month ago, and the details have disappeared. to summarize:
- we biked 22 miles by mistake, thanks to st. margaret's trail. mostly straight double track, but we did find a few offshooting offroads. the aftermath of a logging route bordered one. depressing, really. they adore ATVs in that province, they were everywhere.
- we ate fresh nova scotia lobster in hubbards. the restaurant was built of an old-style dance hall, peppered with checkerbox tables and folding chairs. Thirty-five dollars per person bought a salad bar (held in an old dinghy), unlimited fresh steamed mussels, one medium lobster (the edible dissection class), and dessert. it was like the cafeteria at marlboro college, with waiters and lobster. i've never had so much fun eating seafood in my life.
- we did make a (very short) fireworks display, in honor of canada day. i made a valiant attempt at taking pictures, which actually came out pretty well. (they're definitely better in the states.)
- on day four, we went spent a day biking on mcnabb's island, in halifax bay. i had no idea halifax was such an interesting place--reminded me of a much smaller montreal, to be honest. not that we spent much time there--only got out of the car to find out where to catch the island "ferry". run by a compact man in a bright red beard, wraparound sunglasses, and suspenders. we explored two forts, a tea house, a broken lagoon, a beach, an inaccessible lighthouse, and a point with an amazing view of the oil refineries. it was phenomenal. good biking, too.
- the ride back was mostly uneventful, and very, very, very long.