Turning 21 in Canada

Hat-tip to Caitlin DeVos for kicking my booty and making me blog again. I've been neglecting you guys again! I won't write about my whole Halifax trip. I'll just write about my birthday. This post will have lots of pictures, because it was the best birthday ever.

A stack of buddies from CBU were in Halifax for a few days, and we spent the whole day together. Here we are at Cora's, which is an adorable breakfast place with fantastic food. The fresh fruit was phenomenal.

From left to right: Jaime, Becca, Daniel, Stephen, Maggie, Maile.

Our next stop was the Natural History Museum, to visit Sue! For my readers who are not nerdosaurs, Sue is the most complete T-rex skeleton ever found. We honored her with a silly picture. At the museum, we met up with Bini, who is a friend of Maile's from Calgary. She's the girl in the blue-and-black shirt.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around Halifax and shopping. This particular store is called Black Market. It boasts handmade jewelry, clothing, housewares, and more from all over the world at excellent prices. This picture is a meager tribute to how colorful this store is. I bought a pair of earrings for myself and a gift for my mother, and I had to resist buying all the pretty linens!

We enjoyed supper at A Mano, a fabulous Italian restaurant near the water. This is my supper: pizza made with fig confit, arugula, prosciutto, and fresh mozzarella. It was the kind of food that makes you forget you ever had dignity and drool all over the table.

For dessert, I split a dish with Bini that had caramel and chocolate gelato, dulce du leche, and crushed meringues. More drooling followed.

Our final stop was the Old Triangle, an Irish alehouse in downtown Halifax. The time we spent at this pub rivals the Great Big Sea concert in terms of just how much fun we had.

This is the band High Tide, who played live music all night. They sang Nova Scotia folk classics, Great Big Sea covers, popular favorites, and original songs. They were very talented, with an infectious stage presence. They even sang happy birthday to me!

Their music was the backdrop for the dancing that consumed the rest of the night. We were easily the youngest people there, but it didn't stop anyone from having a fantastic time. I never wanted to leave! Just like the Great Big Sea concert, it was a moment of liberty, where nothing matters in the world except for the fun you are having right here, right now.

I leave you with this parting image of Bini and me dancing. Everyone should have a birthday like this in their lives.

Keep reading!

Love,

21-year-old Maggie