Travelog for: Lysander

Hello all! I am Lysander, the lobster. I can not wait to start my travels around the world, but for now I am on holiday/vacation with my mum in the United States. Normally I live in the United Kingdom - or Scotland to be exact. On the east coast, by the seaside. I'm currently looking for someone to host me in August, so if you would like to, could you pm my mum?

Thank you!

Lysander xxx

Today was officially the most exciting day in my short life - I started my globe spanning adventure. Off I go to Canada. I sure am excited. Will I have many adventures? Who knows? I can't wait to find out!

So until I get to Canada, adios!

Lysander xxx

Hello again!

Guess what! I arrived in Canada today!



I was feeling very cramped in my envelope so the second it opened I reached out to stretch my claws and... OOPS!



I felt something squishy! My eyes were not adjusted to the light yet so I couldn't see what it was!



What a weird welcoming! My new host Ren told me not to worry about it. She seems to be pretty normal at least! She took me to her house where I met a wild TV named Rosalva. She's staying with Ren right now.



I told her and Ren all about the part of Scotland that I am from. They both thought that it was very interesting!



While I was showing off my puffin poster the phone rang!



Ren said that it was a couple that wanted to come and see the house (It's for sale right now) and she would have to take her mother's dogs away so they wouldn't bother anybody. She told me I could come too so I said good bye to Rosalva and hopped back into the car.



I wonder where we are going! How exciting!

-Lysander

We drove to Bedford which is the nearest town to where my host lives. (It was about a 15 minute drive.) This is where Ren will be moving at the end of August.

I smelled something familiar that I hadn't smelled in a while



Salt water!



This is called the Bedford Basin. 



The Atlantic ocean is out that way. In the distance you can see one of the bridges that connects Halifax and Dartmouth, the biggest cities around here. (Darmouth is on the side with the smoke stacks) Ren says she'll definitely take me to Halifax one day.



There was a nice path along the water to follow





There was a great big anchor statue.



And some reading!





I spent the afternoon stretched out on a post enjoying myself. This is so much better than being squished in an envelope!



Bye for now!

-Lysander 

Hello again!
This past week has been a bit slow for me, my host was feeling quite sick and then the weather didn't want to cooperate with my travel plans.



It didn't look like the sun was coming back any time soon so Ren and I made a trip out today anyway.



We decided to go to the big Titanic grave site in Halifax. It was pouring rain when we arrived! It's a good thing that I am a lobster and don't mind getting wet!



Here's the sign!



Almost there! Here's some info about it:









There are the gravestones!



We went up and down the rows and took pictures of all the larger ones.

















This one was the biggest:





A lot of the stones have no names on them because the bodies could not be identified.





This man was a steward and a personal secretary of J Bruce Ismay. Ismay is the man that owned the Titanic and the guy that supposedly pressured the captain to go faster. (At least in the movies)



Speaking of the movies...

There are always flowers at this grave. I wonder why...



The "J" is believed to stand for James or Joseph and not Jack, but you never know right?



Some other graves were decorated too:



This one is particularly sad. Children have left their toys here for this woman's children.



This is the stone for her youngest child. He was only identified in 2002. The crew of the recovery ship that found him payed for a fancy burial.



The stones were placed in a curved shape that resembles the front of a boat. It's kind of hard to tell from my pictures though.





Well, time to go dry off! Bye for now!

-Lysander

The weather was finally decent here today! Unfortunately though Ren had to stay home and do some writing so I decided to go exploring outside on my own!



In behind Ren's house there is a dark forest. It looked a little spooky, but I decided to go explore anyway!



Once I got inside it looked less dark and more... green!



So much of the ground was covered in moss! It made me feel a little like I was in a fairy tale!



There was also lots of interesting mushrooms!



I decided that I would go in even deeper.



Suddenly the ground in front of me disappeared!



I was on the edge of a giant rock wall!



I leaned forward to get a better look and... OH OH!



HELP! I'M FALLING!!!!



Just in time I was able to grab on to some twigs!



But they were starting to break! I screamed out for help but who was around to hear me?



Then I heard some scuffling noises and a masked face peeked out at me from up above. "Please help me!"



He turned around and disappeared. My Toy Voyage had only started! It couldn't end like this! But then the creature came back! He was making it's way to the big tree trunk.



Yes! He made it!



Oh No!



ACK! I'm slipping!



"Hurry, climb on this!" The creature finally said something as he held out a stronger stick for me.



I made it! But now what?



Then the creature jumped really high in the air! What was he doing?



He landed on the other side of the stick hard and...



I went flying up!



Whoa!



I landed back up on top of the rock wall! Phew!



I wanted to thank the creature, but when I asked for his name he just muttered something about a monster and ran away!



How strange! I was sure glad to be back up at the top!



I decided that that was enough exploring for one day! Maybe going into the forest by myself was a bad idea! (Especially if there really is a monster!)



Bye for now!

-Lysander

Hello Again!

My host's car had been out of commission lately so I haven't been able to go very far from her house. She had it working today though so we drove into Halifax and visited a place downtown called the Public Gardens. The gardens were established in 1867, the same year that Canada became an independent country.

There are surrounded by a big iron fence. Here I am at the entrance:



This band stand is the main focal point of the gardens. Musicians play here on Sunday afternoons. (And other times too)



There are three lady statues surrounding it.



There are lots of workers around taking care of the gardens. You can just see someone watering the grass in the background here.



I found a swan! She was too busy eating to come over and say hello but I understand. I like eating too!



Here's a better look at her.



There were also lots and lots of pigeons wandering around!



A bridge!



Here's the view from the bridge:



There are two big fountains in the gardens as well. This one was my favourite:



A massive duck pond takes up a big part of the gardens, but there were hardly any ducks here today!



It still enjoyed it and it was very peaceful. I hardly felt like I was downtown at all! You can hardly see the big buildings in the background!



Here's the other fountain:



I think I may want to try my claw at gardening sometime!



I wonder where I will go next?

Take care!

-Lysander

I've gone to visit another graveyard here (There sure are a lot of them around!) This one is the oldest in the city, it's called the Old Burial grounds and it's located in downtown Halifax.



The entrance is marked by a giant lion monument.



The trees block out some of the sun and it gives the place a very eerie feel.




Lots of the writing on the stones is really hard to make out. It leaves some of this people's stories to be up to your imagination. What's this? Someone was murdered?



Here is one of the older stones.



The skull with wings on top was a popular image back then.



In later years the skull changed to an angel head like this on this one:
(The light was really working against me trying to take pictures, sorry!)



Here is one of the later stones:



And some more information about it:



I wonder if this place is haunted... Hmmm


Bye for now!

-Lysander

Here are some of the buildings I saw while visiting Halifax:

Saint Mary's Cathedral Basilica:



It was too big to get it all in one shot!



Here's the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia:



And a random picture of the street. There is such a variety of different buildings in this area!



The harbour is visible from many of the streets.



Here is City Hall:



And right across from it is St. Paul's Church, the oldest building in the city. (It was built in 1750)



From here you can also see the Old Town Clock. It began keeping time in 1803.

 

It sure has gotten windy around here! My host tells me that what's left of Hurricane Bill will be blowing through tonight! Just when the weather had gotten nice and sunny too!

Bye for now!

-Lysander

Today I accomplished one of my life missions!

I met a real lobster!



Unfortunately my new friend was on death row. =( He broke into a lobster trap and got caught. (All us lobsters know that this is a capital offence)



I comforted him a little bit but he was being very brave.



Then it was time for him to go back into his bag so we said our good byes.



Perhaps we will meet again in another lifetime.



Rest in Peace!

-Lysander

Hello!

Today another TV came to visit! It's TobiHH who is visiting from Germany.



I'm really happy because we get along great!



It's too stormy out right now to go out on any adventures, but I'm happy to swap travel stories with TobiHH until the rain lets up!



Bye for now!

-Lysander

Hello!
Things have been very busy around here! My host's cousin came to visit and we all spent a lot of time driving around with her.

The first place we visited was a tiny fishing town called Peggy's Cove.  It's most famous for its lighthouse.



The rocks here are very smooth from being hit by the waves so many times.



They are also very slippery!



The wind was blowing so hard it kept blowing my claws back!



We arrived very early in the morning but there was already a lot of tourists there.



Here you can see some of the town.



It's so foggy here! These lighthouse things sure come in handy!



Bye for now!

-Lysander

After we went to Peggy's Cove we went to visit Lawrencetown Beach. This beach is famous around here for surfing and as a hangout for young people.



But the wind was blowing SO hard and no one was in the water! I don't blame them!



It was still very pretty and worth the trip!



Hopefully the next beach that we visit will be nicer!

-Lysander

Hi again!

Next my host took us all on a little road trip to the neighbouring province of New Brunswick. We stopped in a city called Saint John because it has a nature park that Ren and her cousin had been to before and loved.

Here I am at the entrance:



All of that grass behind the flags is part of a big marsh in the park. There are pathways all through it but we didn't go on those today.

We were much more drawn to the beach!



It was much better beach weather than the last time!



Once we were done at the beach we hopped back into the car and drove up that hill into the forest.



Look what I saw on the way!



A wild fox! So cool!



Then we started walking on a trail that weaved in and out of the forest to show off different lookout points.



Here is a forest part of the trail. It was still so pretty!



I used these binoculars to look at the big ship.



Here are some of the other lookout spots:







The sun was setting so we didn't get to see all of the park but I sure loved the parts that I did see! I'm so glad we stopped there!

Bye for now!

-Lysander

Hello!

TobiHH and I went with Ren and her cousin to visit the cottage where they spent some of their summer vacations growing up. Unfortunately the weather was terrible so we mostly hid out inside.

Here I am on the porch.



And here you can see the lake.



We ran down to the water really quick to take a picture. This is where a little stream joins the lake.



After that is was time to drive back to Nova Scotia and say good bye to Ren's cousin =(

Until later,

-Lysander