An Empty Nest...again....

Well here we are.. empty nesters once again. Both kiddos are back at school - Laura for her final year of her first degree and Mark has returned to life as a student with another 2.5 years of study ahead. It was great to get away for a few days and help Laura get settled back in to her cute little apartment. She commented on Thursday morning that this was her LAST "first day of school" so we thought that warranted a photo. Here she is on her FIRST first day of school 17 years ago, starting kindergarten, and her LAST first day of school (hopefully) as she heads to campus. She has grown a bit, don'cha think?! While she had her first two days of classes, I had a little time to myself in the city, doing some errands and shopping, and on Friday I spent the day with my friend Karen Henry.
We had lots of laughs over lunch and after some shopping we meandered "down the coast" past CFB Shearwater and Eastern Passage, and on to Crystal Crescent Beach and Lawrencetown Beach. This was all new territory to me and I was wishing we had more time to explore. Although it was a rather grey and windy afternoon, we just had to do the barefoot walk on the beach, even though it was September and the water was far from warm. A few rogue waves got us a little wetter than we had intended... (Note to self - put an old towel in the car trunk! It would be useful for sandy feet or wet bums on seats...) As we walked along letting the waves wash over our feet and scrunching the sand between our toes, I was thinking - HOW can summer be over?? HOW can it be September already!! It doesn't seem possible - summer seemed to vanish into thin air... it went WAY too fast... Thanks for a great day Karen! I hope your pants have dried out.. lol
Saturday was the last day for Laura and I, as I was heading home on Sunday. So we did some of our favourite things - Saturday morning Market (a family tradition) being first on the list. Halifax has a
wonderful new market space on the waterfront, next door to Pier 21, with many wonderful vendors of  farm fresh produce, prepared foods, nursery stock, wines, artisans' crafts and more. You can check out the Halifax Seaport Farmers' Market here - it is open most days with the number of vendors varying daily, Saturday being the "biggest" day. Then we had fun wandering the waterfront and of course we HAD to have a Cow's icecream... I love watching the activity on the harbour - the ferries, the Harbour Hopper, Theodore Tugboat, the schooners and the gulls... and I
LOVE watching for reflections on the water. We were surprised to see a new installation on the harbourfront- a large RED 1812 sculpture, right behind Cows. The reflection of  red on the water was too hard to resist - I had to do it even though we were on the "wrong" side of the numerals... and I cannot resist the gulls either - they are always amusing....
We had a great day taking in all the sights...but THIS is the sight we were MOST excited to see - the
Celtic Thunder trucks at the Metro Centre. We had been waiting for this day for months now- for Celtic Thunder was coming to Halifax! And now we knew they had arrived!!  Woohoooo! You see, we both love celtic music and what's not to love about Celtic Thunder??!! Great music.. handsome Irish lads... When Laura did her internship last May/June at Metro Publishing, one of her last assignments was to interview, by phone, a member of Celtic Thunder re. their Sept. concert, for publication in HALIFAX magazine.

Her very last day at Metro Publishing began with a phone chat with Neil Byrne of Celtic Thunder. Needless to say, she was rather excited, especially when he sang her her most fav Irish song, Galway Girl!! They have stayed in contact since then and she promised him a copy of the magazine with
said article. So we were pumped, to say the least. We couldn't resist stealing a photo beside one of the trucks... can you see Laura's big grin??! The show was fantastic, we had good seats and although we were not able to meet Neil after, as we had hoped, it didn't lessen our enjoyment of the evening. He did get the magazine she left for him, and emailed her the next day to say how pleased they were with what she wrote. This was their 3rd show of a 65 gig tour in North America which ends in early December in LA. Then they head to Australia in January to tour there. What a life! I'm glad we saw them at the beginning of their tour- while they are "still fresh"! lol If they are coming to a city near you - treat yourself to a ticket and see them. You won't regret it. You can see their tour schedule here.

Peace,
Linda

Daughters are special... especially mine.