It's a good country — a work in progress

Halifax harbour — I'm not exaggerating — is probably one of the most beautiful harbours in the world. It's the second largest natural harbour in the world — it's ice-free and deep — and ships from all over the world come and go to its container piers. It's a busy working harbour but some days, you can catch it at peace, like this — taken from the immigration museum, Pier 21. That's George's Island, which is just across from downtown Halifax:

But there's a recreational side to the harbour too. Today was Canada Day so the harbour-side looked mostly like this:

And this:

And this:

This is a photo of a much-loved sculpture called The Wave. There's a little stone plaque right in front of it that says, "For your safety, please don't climb on The Wave." You can see that sign works. I suppose it protects the Port from lawsuits.

We also saw a couple of luxury yachts, mysterious and anonymous. When we see a yacht like that, we always say, knowingly, "It must be John Travolta." I'm not sure why except that I think he did come here in his yacht one time, many years ago, and so we just keep saying it.

Canada Day is a much bigger holiday than it used to be — like Hallowe'en, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's day — like any day that can be exploited and used as an excuse to manufacture more "stuff." I saw so many maple leaf banners, T-shirts, baseball caps, balloons, jackets — all, no doubt, manufactured in China and sent over to help us celebrate our national holiday.

I'm happy — and grateful — to be Canadian and I know this is one of the best countries in the world. It's good to live in a country where most people feel safe. I've read a lot of sentimental bordering on maudlin things about our country today though. I can't do that — as I can't about almost anything. I'm just not the gushy type and besides that, I tend to analyze too much.

We still have many improvements to make in our country.

But. . .it was Canada Day and, as we almost always do, we joined many many thousands of our fellow citizens on the waterfront. I even wore a pretty red blouse:

Most years, we have dinner on the deck at Salty's Restaurant. Not this year as Salty's has continued to advertise in The Chronicle Herald although the journalists and editors have been on strike there for almost six months. It's a bitter strike being driven by the management which is trying to bust the union and is putting out a pathetic newspaper with "replacement" (scab) labour. No Salty's this year.

We went to the deck at Murphy's.

We had a leisurely dinner, starting with mussels, moving on to fish and chips, bbq chicken and all the trimmings.

Over dessert, we watched the sun go down and the sky darken.

And then there were fireworks!

We didn't take any photos of the fireworks because we really weren't well-situated for that. We could see them well though. Besides, Dan loves fireworks and if he'd been photographing, he wouldn't have been able to enjoy them fully.

So that was our day. I hope you had a good day too.