We woke to a rainy morning and had a relaxing leisurely breakfast with Jon and Linda.  Our escort and guide for the day was Jon and we decided to go to the Halifax Citadel, an historic military landmark built by the British Army.

The army had the task to defend the port of Halifax which at the time was a very significant harbour on the east coast.

Like a lot of the attractions across Canada the young men and women in uniform are university students.

I am sure it gives them a patriotic perspective which they will carry with them for quite a while.

Construction was everywhere we went.

We later drove around Halifax and came across this very historic building; Pier 21, the Canadian Museum of Immigration.

This immigration building was the site where our soldiers last set foot on Canadian soil and headed off to war in Europe. Many of them gave their all.

Province House is where the Nova Scotia legislative assembly, known officially as the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, has met every year since 1819, making it the longest serving legislative building in Canada. The building is Canada’s oldest house of government.

Peggy’s Cove

Our early Sunday morning departure from Fredericton to Halifax has us looking forward to a very pleasant flight in clear skies.

The flying school at Frederiction is very active with a fleet of Diamond DA 20 aircraft and Piper Seminoles. They operate 24/7 training future pilots for an airline in China. The students are housed, study and fly right at the Fredericton airport.

Their maintenance hangar was very busy working on the training fleet. With such a busy schedule the shop works every day.

After takeoff it was a climb to 11,500 feet to take advantage of a tailwind of about 30 knots.

We flew across the Bay of Fundy where they have the highest tides in the world. At the head of the bay the height of the tide can reach over 50 feet; incredible!

Off to the left it was possible to see the end of the bay and easily see the red soil so prevalent in this part of the east coast.

The controllers on our way to Halifax International Airport were very efficient and had us overfly the airport to land on Runway 32. The crossing runway would have been our preference, however there was construction once again that impacted our arrival.

We cleared the runway north of the terminal and had to taxi a very long way to the FBO at the very south end of the airport.

After about a ten minute taxi we made it to Gateway Aviation FBO at the far end of the airport quite some distance from the main terminal. What a great FBO. The had cold water and very cold ice cream to welcome us to Halifax.

This was an upscale FBO catering to aircraft from Pipers and Cessnas to executive jets. Real good service too but their fees reflected the services provided. No problem, we were in good hands.

We planned to spend a few days in Halifax to take a bit of a break and visit with my nephew, Jon and his wife Linda.

I phoned Jon and the line man gave him directions to the FBO. The FBO is quite a ways south of the main terminal and I wouldn’t have had a clue on how to get there. A short time later, the Arrow was fueled , parked and tied down, and Jon was there to take us on our way.

It was another sunny summer morning for our visit to the legislature building. Our tour guide kindly offered to be our photographer.

The Legislative Assembly of the elected Members. Like other provinces, the photo of the Queen Elizabeth is proudly displayed.

Here is a view of the Lower House from the gallery with our tour guide.

The Canada Flag along with the New Brunswick  Provincial Flag are proudly displayed in a prominent location.

The old Senate Chamber is now a meeting room and is much less decorated than the Lower House.

I found this round desk to be very interesting and I am sure it would be especially interesting if you are a cabinet maker. The desk was in the Senate and was the official signing location of various high level government documents. At the time, there were twelve Senators who would each be required to sign the document. They sat at this table and each had a separate locked drawer for their personal items. Rather than pass the documents from one Senator to the other, the table was design and built to rotate!

What a great idea. King Arthur would be very pleased indeed.

We came across the Canada 150 sign near the Soldier’s Barracks in downtown Fredericton. Many such signs are all across Canada in the major cities.

We had a wonderful visit to the old city of Quebec and now it was time for the taxi to take us to the airport and plan for our flight to Fredericton. Thunderstorms were still in the Quebec area so our departure  from was delayed until mid-day to allow nature to run its course. The Arrow had a real good washing then the sun came out for the drying cycle.

We finally got underway and were flying in good visual conditions with smooth air between the now distant thunderstorms that were still along our route but moving south-eastward.

Continued deviations to the north of track kept us well away from those nasties with our actual track over 30 nautical miles left of our planned direct routing. Climbing higher above the scattered clouds to 11,500 feet allowed us to better see where the thunderstorms were and the StormScope displayed the lightning activity way off in the distance.

The StormScope helps occasionally in British Columbia but once you are east of the Rocky Mountains there’s often weather systems with lots of thunderstorms and lightning so the StormScope really helps in making strategic decisions to avoid that mean weather. 

Cruising at 11,500 feet we picked up a 45 knot tailwind to speed us along the way with ground speeds approaching 200 knots.

Fredericton had received their fair share of the weather activity, however by the time we arrived all had passed by and the skies were wide open.

The Citadel is a very historic site and very important to the early formation of Canada.

Our hotel was only a couple of blocks from our hotel.

The Citadel is the Official residence of the Governor General of Canada and home of the Royal 22nd Regiment of the Canadian Army. They are the only army unit in Canada that is bilingual.

Changing of the Guard

Inspecting the troups

changing of the Guard and their mascot, the Goat

Quebec City is our sixth stop at a provincial capital visiting the provincial legislature buildings. Now we are more than half way there in our quest to visit all ten provincial capitals. We have been welcomed by a Provincial Minister in Regina and a Special Assistant to a Minister in Winnipeg and had photos with those folks, sometimes on the steps of the building and sometimes inside the building, with our Canada Flag.

 This beautiful city is very easy to enjoy the old charm of Europe. We stayed in a real nice quaint boutique hotel only a short walk through the old city gates to the provincial legislature buildings.

As we had found in Victoria, there was some construction on the legislature building so we were not able to go right up to the steps at the front entrance.  Our Canada Flag photo was taken outside the construction fencing. The work should be completed for next year’s tourist season.

In Quebec, the provincial legislature building is called the Parliament Building of Quebec and houses the National Assembly of Quebec.

We walked around to the west side of the building to the entrance that was open for public access. Like the other legislature buildings, security screening is in place prior to entrance, much like airport security.

The folks at security were very pleasant and I mentioned our trip across the country and the photo ops with our Canada Flag at the other legislature buildings. I had been carrying the flag in a “flag bag” (sometimes known as a “Man Purse” or “Murse”) and motioned to the security of my intention to take a photo of the Canada Flag inside the building in the legislature chamber. We were informed very emphatically that we were not allowed to display our Canada Flag inside the building nor to photograph the Canada Flag inside the building. The discussion seemed to be less positive as it had been at first.

A guided tour was offered, however we decided we could see as much of the building as we wanted in our own time.

There was a Quebec provincial flag but no Canada Flag.

The National Assembly had a Crucifix on the wall behind the seat of the Speaker. 

The only Canada Flag that we saw in the building was in the Senate Chamber.

Our observations of the Canada Flag and the crucifix causes one to reflect on the meaning of “Canadian” and the structure of government including separation of “church and state”.

Quebec is another big province so this leg was all within Quebec.

There were thunderstorms in the area and along our planned route so our departure was delayed to allow them to move on. We stayed low along the Saint Lawrence River and could see the many farm fields that were long and narrow, initially laid out that way to give each farmer access to the river.

The airport at Quebec is one big construction site. The main runway is closed for maintenance and repair. For overnight parking we taxied to AVJet, an upscale FBO with excellent service.

By chance we met up with two men who are flying a Robinson R44 helicopter around the world. We had previously met them a couple of months ago on the other side of the continent. We were parked at customs at the Bellingham, Washington airport and the landed and were parked next to us. We shared stories of what they were doing and what we planned to do but never guessed that we would meet up again at an airport many, many miles away.

Quebec City is a very special place in Canada. Some of the buildings are well over 400 years old. We enjoyed our dinner in one such place.

The evening was nice and warm but the sky was overcast and quite ominous so we went for a walk around the city knowing that we might get a little wet and have to take shelter. 

By now the sun was down starting to cool, however, seeing the silhouette Samuel de Champlain assured us that he was still watching over the city and the “New Lands” and all was well.

Sure enough, the rain came and we thought it would be a good time to stroll through the Chateau Frontenac. 

The hotel has an interesting elevated wine cellar at the main floor restaurant. I’m sure there is a much larger wine cellar a few floors below.

I was wondering if soon we might see a little person riding a tricycle.

The years are going by faster now and we find it even more  important than ever to hold on to family moments. Valerie wanted to visit with her Aunt Marie Paul in Montreal so me made a special effort to meet with her at her seniors residence.  She has a very nice appartment overlooking the Montreal River and she said she was very comfortable and well looked after at this facility. As can be expected at her aunt’s age, there are some medical issues the she is facing but still she is sharp and witty as ever. We were able to have a meal together and discuss the family members of the past, our family in the present, and the new generation of family members on the way.

Special family visit with Valerie’s Aunt Marie Paul.

Air Cadets at St. Hubert Airport

We found there are many way to celebrate Canada 150 and at ChronoAviation, St. Hubert Airport, Montreal, Quebec, they had painted one of their Beech 1900 aircraft with a special Canada 150 paint scheme. I think the paint job looks quite nice.

Today we left Brantford and continued our journey eastward to Cornwall. Toronto Terminal kept us low at 2000 feet then were switched to City Centre Tower.

Due to traffic departing westbound  we were asked to remain north of the CN Tower and descend to 1500 feet. That routing gave us a view of the observation deck as we flew past the CN Tower. It must have given the folks on the observation deck a bit of a surprise.

We continued along the north shore of Lake Ontario past Oshawa and Trenton then along the St. Lawrence River to Cornwall. Approaching Cornwall the radio communications were now bilingual, for eastern Ontario and Quebec.

Cornwall Aviation seemed quite busy with three Piper Seminoles coming and going on a regular basis. Hoping to check the weather on my iPad through their WiFi access, I asked for their password and was informed “No –  we do not give out the password”. That was different and certainly not normal for flying schools or FBOs these days. Not very encouraging customer service. I have received much better customer service and attitude at all other operators visited on the journey across Canada.

We were able to meet up with Barry Franklin at the Cornwall airport. Barry was an Air Cadet in the 1960’s and obtained his pilot licence on a Flying Scholarship as did I. He is also a very active member of COPA for many years.

Cornwall to St. Hubert was a short flight and a quick taxi to Air Richelieu for fuel and parking. The flying school is training the Air Cadets this summer and we met with them and had a photo with the Arrow. It was nice to meet with enthusiastic young men, some we hope will be in the aviation industry for years to come.