In early June 2024 we took the opportunity to travel to Halifax to take in the first SailGP race in Canada with our friends Dave and Janet. After a quick Porter flight, we picked up our rental car and drove to Hall’s Harbour for a lunch at the Lobster Pound restaurant before heading to the amazing Benjamin Bridge vineyard for a tasting with a charcuterie plate with local ingredients and a tour with our delightful and informative guide. We then travelled to Halifax to check in at the wonderful The Prince George Hotel before heading to a delicious dinner at the Obaldee Wine Bar.

On Saturday morning, we walked around downtown Halifax before having lunch at Bar Stillwell with a former colleague Carson and his wife. We then joined the very long line to enter the SailGP viewing area on what proved to be a rather cool and windy day. The wait was well worth it to join an enthusiastic crowd with front row viewing for the 4 very exciting afternoon fleet races. That evening the four of us went for a delicious dinner at Fawn.

On Sunday morning we visited the Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower on our way to Almonak for a tasty brunch. Since we did not have tickets for the SailGP viewing area, we opted to head to the harbour where we visited the Halifax Seaport’s Farmer’s Market, the Pier 21 Canadian Museum of Immigration and our friend Janet’s local art expert before finding a spot to watch the afternoon races. Conditions were even windier than Saturday and quickly turned very rainy so we opted to head back to the warm comfort of the hotel (and hotel bar!) after taking in a couple of the races. We were happy to stay in at the hotel and have a great dinner at its Gio restaurant.

On Monday morning, we opted to forgoe our original brunch plan in favour of heading to Peggy’s Cove and Mahone Bay where we had lunch and shopped at Amos Pewter. We then made a whistle stop in Lunenburg before returning to the Halifax airport for what proved to be a very long wait for our flight back to Ottawa.