Dartmouth, Halifax and Home by Susan L

 
  In all of my travels around mainland Nova Scotia, I was never much more that two hours from Halifax. My last day had plenty of time to fill so I decided to check out the neighbourhood where I had lived from age five to eleven. The GPS lady lead me through an unrecognizable neighbourhood to the house my dad built forty-six years ago.
  Only one of the illicitly gotten birch trees was still standing. The house had been painted cream and green instead of it's original white with black shutters. Or maybe the shutters were yellow...I'm not quite sure about that.
  Yes, the hill is smaller although it is a long, slow slope that would be tough riding a bike up for anyone.
  After cruising around the neighbourhood where the memories of childhood bubbled up, I headed for my old school. Brookhouse Elementary. It, too, stirred many a memory. It hadn't changed except for the security. I'd wondered about taking a tour of the school and had to be buzzed in the front door. No tour because the kids were present. Different times for sure.
  I headed for the Micmac Mall and on the way there crossed the bridge where a family of ducks had held up traffic for a long time as a momma duck tried to get her three wayward children across the road. That memory is as clear as a bell and made me smile.
  When the mall had first opened with fifty stores it was massive! It's even bigger and has the same stores as every other shopping mall.
  After dropping off the car, I was treated to a Nova Scotia fish fry except there wasn't any fried fish because the host had been told to cut back on the amount of food. Well, there was enough lobster, muscles, shrimp, bacon wrapped scallops, pasta and potato salad to feed a small army. The sea food had been picked up that morning right off the boat and was the best I'd ever eaten!
  The next morning, my daughter, her fiancée and I went to downtown Halifax to ride the Harbour Hopper tour. It's a Vietnam war era amphibious vehicle so the tour consisted of driving around town and a short sail along the harbour front.
  There's a lot of construction downtown. New buildings are being built, old ones are being restored. It's a wonderful juxtaposition of old and new. I tried to remember which building my dad had worked in but, like the hill, the one I thought it might have been looked a whole lot smaller. Or maybe it's because there's been many changes to the downtown since I'd last been there.
  We did a bit of shopping then returned home for the afternoon before heading out to the Eastern Shore for a haddock and chips meal. There was a boardwalk near the restaurant so we went for a walk and waited for the sun to go down. It was the perfect end to a perfect holiday.

 
  "Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you."" Lk 10:8-9