Mini Vacation: Day 1

I have a 5 day weekend and ambitious plans to make the most of every moment of those 5 days! It's rare to have this much time to do anything at home. Ususally if I have this much time, I'll go to the Valley, or to the cottage. This time, however, I'm determined to tick off a bunch of things on my To Do List.

So far I'm off to a good start. 1. Spend day with Little. Check.

Once a month we get together for an extended visit. This usually gives us time to something a bit more involved that our weekly visits won't allow. Today we went to the Multicultural Festival at Alderney Landing. It was my first time going and, from what I could tell, it was very well attended! We were there for about 2 hours wandering around, checking out the Kids Pavilion, the exhibits and the performances. Sensing we were on the verge of a melt-down, it became necessary to distract a slightly disinterested 9 year-old with food.`So after all that, we went to the food tent to see what was to be had. We sampled a spring roll and a shrimp skewer (on sugar cane) from the Vietnamese vendor; then had BBQ'ed chicken wraps from the Turkish vendor, and finished off with a blueberry bubble tea (this was a first for the Little).

Ironically, the best part of the day was after we left the Multicultural Festival. We spent a couple hours on the grass along the Dartmouth Waterfront, playing tag, playing clapping games, and climbing anything that could be climbed; then took the ferry back to the Halifax waterfront and enjoyed a relatively quiet meander along the boardwalk. It struck me today just how fantastic Halifax is, and especially how wonderful our boardwalk is for kids (with a fantastic play ground, the giant wave to climb, and all the performance spaces for buskers). It's a fun space to hang out.

A panorama of the Halifax Waterfront, taken from the Dartmouth waterfront.
Far left is Georges Island and the far right is the MacDonald Bridge.

So I'm home now, and the end of the day is nigh, but there's one last thing to tick off my To Do List : 2. Start the Kimono shawl. This is a knitting project I've wanted to start for awhile, and I now have all the tools:

The yarn, the needles and the book!

I'm going to start this Kimono Shawl by Cheryl Oberle, as soon as I click save on this post. I'll be using this gorgeous Fleece Artist wool (I forget what it is - cashmere + mohair, perhaps) that I picked up on sale at the Gaspereau Valley Fibres yard sale a month ago. This should make a good cottage vacation project.....and will undoubtedly be a WIP (Work in Progress) for quite awhile!

Now, on to Day 2 ...