Greetings from Nova Scotia

It is our fourth morning in Halifax and I must say we are having a great time. While I've been able to download and read emails at the hotel, I have been unable to send any messages, so don't fret if you aren't hearing from me!!!

Anyway, we spent Friday poking around downtown Halifax.

They have a lovely boardwalk with all kinds of cool shops, restaurants and such. We had lunch at a nice little seafood place and Mark got chatting with the guy receiving their daily shipment of lobsters. It was very interesting - and one of the things we learned was that the season for lobsters ended about a month ago, so the lobsters they were getting each day now were coming from a holding tank. Turns out lobsters can live in a holding tank - with no food - for up to a year and a half. I figure it must be a miserable existence, so I'm trying very hard to put as many lobsters as I can out of their misery while we are out here. I'm such a humanitarian!!

We then walked up (and up and up) to the Halifax Citadel National Historical site. The Citadel used to be the fort that defended the country during the early days of settlement in Canada - and all the way up until WWII. Fascinating place and we really enjoyed walking around and learning all about it. The history in this area is very rich and interesting.

That evening I did my 'Tails of the Trail" presentation, which was well attended and seemed to be well received.

Saturday was the Nationals and I had a great time judging the unofficial and Sweeps classes.

Awarding Best in Sled Dog Sweeps

There were some lovely dogs shown to me and I had some hard decisions in some of the classes.

If you haven't heard by now, the Specialty itself was very exciting for us. Judged by Vince Buoniello it went to Tucoldturain's Duramax owned and bred by Jackie Wepruk and Rick Austin. What makes that so exciting for Mark and I is that Duramax is out of NorthWapiti's Super Grover and NorthWapiti's Skadi (littermate to Kara) - well, that and that Jackie and Rick are good friends and we are THRILLED for them!!! I think my cheer from ringside when Mr. Buoniello pointed at Jackie and Duramax bordered on a shriek!!!

Several of the other dogs doing well at the Specialty went back to a number of our dogs too - many through Brenda Potter's Freya (another sister to Kara) - so it really was special day in the show ring for us, even though we weren't actually showing!

I think my only really disappointment for the day was that former NW resident Eeek was at the show, but was whisked back home before I got a chance to give him a hug. It was at least nice to see him though.

When I called home Saturday, my heart skipped a beat when Colleen told me Kara had had to be taken to the vet that morning (She thoughtfully hadn't phoned earlier, as everything was under control and she didn't want to worry me before my judging). Luckily, she couldn't have been in better hands then Colleen's and all is now well. She had something like an abscess from a wound that looked suspiciously like a bite from one of her children - but to begin with, it came up so fast that there was concern it was a reaction to a bee sting or some such thing.

Colleen tells me she was even shaving bits off of a Denta stix and sprinkling them on Kara's food to get her to eat it for awhile, but all is pretty much settled down now. Phew!! (BTW - the folks here gave me a spectacular portrait of Kara as a 'thank you gift' for judging, so she is staring at me in the hotel room as I type. It is just lovely - although large and we aren't sure how we are going to get it home!!)

Yesterday we headed up to Peggy's Cove and Mahone Bay for the day. Beautiful!!!

For lunch I set aside my humanitarian campaign for lobsters (no fear, I took that up again for dinner) and dined on Salt Cod Hash with baked beans and green tomato chow. Very interesting and quite good. Mark couldn't be convinced though.

Peggy's Cove. Very enchanting - reminded me alot of Nome.

THE lighthouse at Peggy's Cove

Mahone Bay

Mahone Bay - Very quaint!

Today we are heading up to Cape Breton. Not sure where we will end up, so don't know if you will be hearing from me until I get home again, but rest assured - we are having a great time!

As usual, they are more pictures of our adventures on our Picasa site - http://picasaweb.google.com/northwapiti

I am having a bit of issue with my big camera and it needs to go in for a professional cleaning when we get home (even with years of experience doing this for others when I worked at the camera shop I'm unable to deal with this issue) so until then, you might see a few spots and dots floating around in skies and such!

Anyway, all for this morning!

Karen