Today was our fifteenth wedding anniversary and it was also Canada Day!  It's a national holiday and there are lots of celebrations.

We started off watching the Tattoo Parade through Halifax.

After having a look in some of these armoured vehicles I cannot imagine how unbearable they must be in the heat of Afghanistan - I wouldn't like to travel in one across Halifax, never mind in somewhere really hot.  There is so little space in them that they are very claustrophobic and basically a just like an oven.

Nathan and Alex:

The Mounties:

Then we went up Citadel hill for the proclamation, 21 gun salute and fly - past.  The noise of the guns was amazing and you could hear them echo around the harbour.

The tour around the USS Wasp had been cancelled.  There were other boats we could see around but by this time it was getting very busy and we had walked miles, so we got some ice cream, walked along the harbour and again and went home. 

Our own wee 'maple leaf':

The Wilsons (the family who are staying with us just now) had offered to babysit as it was our anniversary, but we were happy to stay at home.  We had a grill (again!!), and Canada cake and cookies.  We'd thought about going out to watch some fireworks but in the end we ended up just watching some of the neighbours fireworks from the deck.

Canada cake - Nathan, Alex, Brendan, Caraid & Sophia

Some video from the Canada Day Tattoo Parade: