The Maritimes I: Halifax and the Eastern Shore

 It was my first lobster, of at least six or eight I downed on Dave's and my trip during August 2018 to the Canadian Maritime Provinces.  Nova Scotia is one of the main exporters of lobster to the world, with the finest specimens particularly prized in Japan and China.  I love food, and my very favorite food is lobster.  I was in heaven.

 Dave and I arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at midnight on August 8, 2018.  The next morning we drove southeast, along the rocky coast of Nova Scotia, to visit Lunenburg, a UNESCO Heritage Site. After the English pushed the French out of Nova Scotia during the mid-1700s, they brought in other ethnic groups, such as the Germans who settled Lunenburg.  In the days before fishing crashed on the Great Banks, Lunenburg was a fishing hub, as well as a shipbuilding center for wooden clipper ships.

Lunenburg is a picturesque town, with steep hills leading down to the pier and brightly colored houses on those steep streets.

Lunenburg's Fisheries Museum is one of the highlights of the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.

There were displays on bootlegging during America's Prohibition of the 1920s.  Bootleggers loaded up on liquor at the French island of St. Pierre, where alcohol was legal, and in Canada, where each province set different rules, and smuggled it to Boston, where it was illegal.

The museum had models of the ships that were built in Lunenburg and that crashed on the rocky shoals around its coast.

The "Maritime Provinces" of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland are well-named.  Almost everything about them centers on the sea.

Lunenburg was picturesque, but not as starkly beautiful as we remembered Peggy's Cove being, from our last trip there in 2009.  We stopped by Peggy's Cove on our drive back to Halifax.  It was a foggy afternoon, which set the perfect ambience for this picture perfect fishing village.  Somehow we managed to get photographs that excluded all the tourists!

We attended the 7 p.m. session at the Halifax Temple, one of the very first small temples.  We especially enjoyed talking with the temple workers.  One of them told the story of President Hinckley telling local leaders, when he approved the temple, "The numbers don't make sense to place a temple here in Eastern Canada, but we're giving you one anyway." 

Georgia, as in Tbilisi

 Mike and Heidi have some explaining to do, when they say they took a trip to exotic Georgia.  That is not the Georgia of barbecue, peaches, Coca-Cola, and Delta Airlines, but the Georgia perched in the Caucusus Mountains near the Black Sea.  It is the Georgia of Christian churches dating  back to the 4th century, the birthplace of Stalin, and the home of one of the trendiest cuisines of the Soviet Union.

 On August 5, 2018, Mike and Heidi invited Dave, me, and Camille's family to a Georgian dinner.  The entree was homemade meat dumplings, served with spiced beans and a walnut and greens salad. 

 Mike and Heidi's table is always elegant, with chargers, fancy napkins and placemats, and artistic centerpieces.

They bought, in Georgia, this beautiful, hand-carved wooden serving piece.

 Annie and I helped to roll out the dumplings.

 Mmmm....

Mia is a good sport to try the ethnic foods her Spendlove relatives cook up!

Southern Comfort

 Yum!  Everybody loves barbecue.  On July 29, 2018, the Spendloves and friends gathered for Southern comfort--fresh corn, brisket, and barbecued ribs.

 We invited Daniel and Dalyn Thomas and their family, as well as our neighbor, Carol Garza.  Daniel is a member of our bishopric and David is the Thomas' minister.  I also do legal work for Daniel's shopping center, so I was particularly determined that the food be good and the party fun.  Camille's special assignment was to make sure the Thomases felt at home!

 Camille enjoyed getting to know Dalyn.

Ezra has come a long way since his days of not wanting to eat any of those "dirty animals."  I think he even tried a rib or two.

 Mia is Camille's youngest, but Camille says Mia is already "very organized" with a "strong personality."  A common characteristic of my children and grandchildren is strong personalities!  The opinions fly at family gatherings.

 Dave and his brother, Alan, enjoyed having a quiet minute alone.

 Our first course was the best drink in the state--the apple cider from the Red Barn in Payson.

 Sophia is already a good cook.  She fried onion rings to accompany the cider.

I brought out the red checked table cloths for an all-American meal of barbecued meats with corn on the cob.  Heidi has a very fun hat collection.  Her hats are as distinctive to her as my 350 necklaces are to me!

 We filled two large tables with guests.  The youngsters gathered at the family room table.

Daniel's daughters, Mika, Ember, Maren, and Dagny joined Sophie, Ezra, and Mia.  The Thomases also brought a couple of cousins who were visiting.  The young people were all bright and fun-loving, and they seemed to have a good time together.  I sent the extra corn on the cob home with little Dagny, whose favorite food it is.

Pool Party

Every summer Dave's family gathers at Northcrest Swim Club for dinner, swimming, and lots of talk.  Dave's sister, Janice, will move to Saudi Arabia this fall to join her husband, Mark McGrady, so we particularly enjoyed having Janice with us, along with sons Ben and Joshua and their wives, Brittany and Ashley.  Daniel and his wife Chelsea stopped by later.  Our son Mike especially enjoys Janice and her children, since he got to know them well when he was on a mission in Houston, where they lived.

 Camille is a loyal supporter of family parties.

 David lounged near the pool, talking with sister and brother, nieces and nephews.

 Dave's sister Nancy's family was represented by Jennifer and Jacob.  Nancy was in Ohio visiting daughter Jodi.

 Jared's wife, Melissa, soaked in the pool with her two little boys.

 Dave's brother, Alan, and his wife Shauna, enjoyed the people and the pool.

 Joshua's son, Cohen, inspected the goings-on, and approved.

 Cohen loves his Grandma Janice.

 Camille's Mia is very athletic, whether it's gymnastics, dance, or swimming around Northcrest.

 The best part of the party was having lots of time to talk.

Cohen found a chair just his size.

Making it to Minneapolis

Dave and I learned to love the Midwest when Jonny and Jenny moved to Chicago.  As we drove from UP Michigan back to Minneapolis, on July 24, 2018, to catch our flight home, we savored the classic American charm of the rural areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the ethnic flair of a big, Midwestern city.  This convenience store clerk in northern Wisconsin could have been a pal of Paul Bunyan!

We knew we were off the grid when the roads were labeled with letters, rather than numbers.

Wildflowers were everywhere, in the brief, bright, northern summer.

We passed huge farms with their red barns.

Where better to taste Polish food than Minneapolis, with its large communities of Poles and Germans and Czechs?   I wanted to compare the food I cooked from Polish cookbooks with the real thing.  Unfortunately, this shop was merely a grocery store, without hot food, so we kept searching.

"Will Colombian food do?" David asked, as we searched Trip Advisor for good ethnic restaurants nearby.  Definitely.  Dave and I stopped at Cartagena, Colombia, on our Panama Canal cruise several years ago, and I loved its Latin flair.

We started with hibiscus punch.

Our entree was a delicious collection of spicy beef, beans, sausages, rice, and an avocado.

 Dave took a post-lunch snooze in the car while I wandered through Minneapolis' Museum of Russian Art.  It included gallery after gallery of Russian paintings and crafts.

I especially enjoyed the collection of matrushka dolls from various areas of Russia.  

I also loved the collection of Soviet art.  It glorified the "worker", especially doing manual labor.

These strong, industrious women were Russian heroines.

And, of course, I eagerly noticed the accordion in this painting, now that Heidi plays.  At her accordion recital a few months ago, Heidi played several Russian folk tunes.

Before hurrying to the Minneapolis airport, Dave and I visited Minehaha Park, an oasis near the center of Minneapolis.  On this hot summer day, people lounged around and inside the pool at the base of the rushing waterfall.

We will visit Jonny and Jenny in Iowa in November, and we eagerly anticipate another Midwest adventure!