Berailed

Not in that order.

The theme for today was "lucking out."

First, I lucked out on the weather. Both of my days in Halifax were hot and sunny.

I have rather unusual taste in men. Brad Pitt types don't do it for me. I confess, I have a thing for ginger boys. So it pained me to miss The Pink Round Wonder Jesse Litsch hurling for the Blue Jays today.

As luck would have it, he crapped the mound today and they lost to the Yankees. Not the type of game I mind missing. I, on the other hand, had a fabulous day at the Halifax Highland Games in Dartmouth, surrounded by a plethora of gingers in kilts.

Prior to that, in the morning, I made a stop at the Atlantic Jazz Festival. How could I not? The main tent was located on the same block on which I was staying, and there was a free concert. I'm not a huge jazz fan, but as mentioned, it was my lucky day. I love anything involving loud percussion, and the band was a Brazilian percussion group called Samba Nova. I use the term "Brazilian" loosely: it appeared that only their director was actually Brazilian. They are an open group consisting mostly of non-musucians. I wasn't expecting much, but I was beyond impressed! They were very tight for being non-pros, and I guess it helps that that style of music is fairly forgiving to minor mistakes. A decent crowd of us took up the maestro's invitation to go dance.

(video)

So it was after that that I wandered downtown along the boardwalk to the ferry terminal, to get to The Dart Side. Samba Nova was so good, I didn't want to leave in the middle of their set. I was pretty sure I was going to be late for the pipe band competitions, which I had read were scheduled for 1:00 pm. The venue was at the top of quite a hill. I think it was 2:15 as I was breathlessly wandering in. Luck was on my side again: the bands weren't on until 3:00. As mentioned, I had a fabulous time. I watched the dance competition from the beer tent, then the band competition. I met a nice fellow from Scotland and a couple who came all the way from California just to see the games.

There was an excellent band in the tent:

All of the sudden, after taking that picture, I had one of those moments like the guy in the car commercial. A perfect moment. I thought to myself, "Holy crap! I'm sitting in Nova Scotia, listening to local music, enjoying an East Coast beer I can't get back home. Is this really happening?"

Mission accomplished!

That was exactly what I wanted out of this trip.

Later that evening, I grabbed some groceries for the train ride home, then had a nightcap at Rogue's Roost, another brewpub. Their IPA was really nice - very much like what I brew at home.That gave me a confidence boost: my homebrew is about as good as that of a pro! I also tried their raspberry weizen. I'm not usually a weizen fan, but this was really nice. I loved the strong raspberry character. I brewed up a strawberry ale a while back, and though it was good beer, it was basically a huge waste of strawberries. No fruitiness at all.

I really wish I had a few more days. Halifax is beautiful. What I really like about it is the lack of the usual tourist-trap atmosphere like Niagara Falls or the big cities. Everywhere I went, I met some tourists, but it felt like we were there because we knew an inside secret. It was with a heavy heart that I packed up to head home.