Halifax has a Lot of Museums: Exploring Nova Scotia with Kids

Travel dates: June 29-July 4, 2018

In retrospect, it’s possible that we stuffed too many museums into our couple of days in Halifax….but I’m sort of of the belief that there’s no such thing as too many museums. But there might be such thing as not enough Public Gardens, though…which is probably the thing I was saddest about running out of time for in Halifax. But which museum would I trade for them?! How can I make that kind of choice?! I cannot. It’s impossible.

I’m throwing the Citadel in in my list of museums so it won’t feel left out. It’s a fort/historic site, but it does have a museum. So here’s a rundown of all the museums we visited in Halifax, plus one historic site, and whatever else I can think of.

A note on museum prices: one of the reasons we spent so much time at Halifax museums is that we didn’t have to pay anything extra to get into them. Our Nova Scotia Museum pass covered the Maritime and Natural History Museums. Our ASTC Passport membership (through our local science museum) got us into the science museum. Our Parks Canada pass was good for the Citadel. And we saved the immigration museum for Canada Day, when all the museums (I think) are free for everyone. So we spent several days in Halifax without spending an extra dime on admissions anywhere. Which was great because we wanted to keep all our Canadian dimes. They have the Bluenose on them, after all, which I’ll talk about in an upcoming post. Also the queen (on the dimes. I have no plans to post about the queen anytime soon I don’t think. Although we are going to England, so who knows?)

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

For some reason, Atlantic Canada is very big on museums having to do with the ocean. And the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a good one! Lots and lots of boats to look at, of course:

But also a talking parrot:

Plenty for kids, including a Theodore Tugboat and exhibit and a number of hands-on areas:

An exhibit about the Titanic, with a replica deck chair to sit in:

A fascinating exhibit about the Halifax Explosion, the most impressive and devastating explosion I’d never heard of:

Off the lobby, away from the main museum area, there’s an area set up like an 1840s ship chandlery….we almost missed this, but it turned out to be one of our favorite parts of the museum:

Halifax Citadel National Historic Site

We went to the Citadel twice, but not so much because it was that amazing (although it was pretty great) as because the first time we went was Canada Day, and we saw pretty much the biggest crowds we saw anywhere in Canada. There were government officials there giving rousing speeches about how great Canada is. They were handing out free cake. Those things draw crowds! It was exciting, but not the best environment for thorough exploration.

So on Canada Day we enjoyed all the ceremonial marching and whatnot:

Stood in line for free cake (and got to the front just before they ran out!)

(Gus did not mean to wear his Declaration of Independence shirt from Monticello on this highly inappropriate day. Sorry, Canada!)

Abe enjoyed the costumed characters (Parka! The Parks Canada mascot)

And we waved around our free Canadian flags (have I mentioned? So. Much. Free. Stuff. on Canada Day)

On our next Citadel visit, we went straight for the visitors center to pick up an Xplorers book for Abe. Sadly, they were out of Xplorers books (in English. We would have been all set if we knew French). But they do have an alternative–the Citadel Adventures book, a comic book that guides kids to go around solving clues to complete a mission and get a prize. It was very nicely done and a lot of fun for everyone. It’s aimed at an older age group (9-15, vs. 6-11 with Xplorers), but Abe managed to follow along with it pretty well with the help of his older brothers. And I love that they have something aimed at older kids, too. It was also a great way for all of us to learn some history about the Citadel that we wouldn’t have learned otherwise. There’s a surprise twist!

Also, they let you borrow this bag with all the important clue solving equipment you’ll need:

This hat is the prize (remember: VERY into dress-up in Nova Scotia):

There are a number of planned events on the schedule every day (at least in season; we finally made it to July when everything happens in Nova Scotia!) We saw a cannon demo, but there were so many people around we couldn’t really see it. But afterwards Abe got his picture taken with the cannon lady. That’s not her official title, I don’t think:

Here we are waiting for the cannon (some of us):

There’s a museum that talks about Halifax’s role in World Wars I and II:

There’s a schoolroom:

And, being a fort, it’s just a fun place for kids (and adults!) to explore:

 

There’s tons more going on that we didn’t get a chance to do. There’s a “Soldier for a Day” program for kids (for an added cost), guided and self-guided tours, a chance to shoot a 19th century rifle (extra charge), and a ghost tour. But we had to move on to the….

Museum of Natural History

We had to go to the Museum of Natural History, because it’s home to a 96 year old gopher tortoise named Gus. He gets to walk around the museum every day, but we weren’t there during his walk time:

Sadly, our Gus was not a huge fan of the museum because he doesn’t like anywhere with taxidermy. Sorry human Gus.

 

The rest of us thought it was a very cool (fairly small) museum, though. Besides dead animals, they had an interesting exhibit on how museum exhibits have evolved over time. This is how they used to look:

And some non-dead animals:

Exhibits on the flora and fauna in the region:

And a cool new exhibit about Sable Island. I didn’t know anything about Sable Island before, but now I know it has wild horses! And that you can get there on a boat:

Also Cat Fest (whatever that is) was coming up soon. We didn’t get to go to Cat Fest, but Ari did want me to take this picture:

Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

Pier 21 is the Canadian equivalent of Ellis Island: over a million immigrants came to Canada through this terminal between 1928 and 1971. The setting is more traditional museum than Ellis Island, though–at Ellis Island you go through and see all the actual rooms where immigrants were processed and learn about what happened in each one. Pier 21 is more your standard museum exhibit space, but a really great one. The Pier 21 Story takes you through what it was like to be an immigrant to Canada, with lots of kid-friendly, hands on activities:

This exhibit showed the differences between traveling 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class; we discovered that Milo’s wacky way of holding a fork that we always make fun of is actually just a very European way of holding a fork.

There’s always dress-up!

Here the kids are becoming Canadian citizens. Not really; you can’t do that at the museum:

The Canadian Immigration Story tells about immigrants and their impact on Canada.

This was a fun activity where kids had to try to decide what to bring and what to leave behind, based on how much they could fit in a suitcase:

We were there on Canada Day, which means there were extra events going on (a singalong of Canadian songs!) and more free stuff! Free cookies!

Free sunglasses!

Free face painting!

I did lose one of the extra batteries from my camera, though, so we probably didn’t come out ahead even with all the free stuff.

Also more characters! Like this, uhh…Immigration Bear:

And Daniel Tiger for some reason:

 

Discovery Centre

Discovery Centre is Halifax’s science museum, with permanent galleries about the ocean, energy, flight, and health, plus a young kid’s area and a space for traveling exhibits. Abe really liked this one.

There was a video game exhibit when we were there, and everyone wanted to spend a disproportionate amount of time there:

But the other parts were great, too! Sometimes it feels like if you’ve seen one kids’ science museum you’ve seen them all, but this one had some interesting stuff we hadn’t seen anywhere else. Plus a giant Gameboy with Tetris. What more could you ask for?

So that completes our exhaustive tour of Halifax museums (not even really exhaustive; we could have gone to MORE museums!) Aside from museums, we spent a good bit of time walking around in Halifax. Observations: Halifax is HILLY. So hilly! I mean, it’s mostly just a big hill going down to the waterfront, but if you find yourself parking up near or at the top of the hill in the morning, don’t forget you have to walk back up it at the end of a long day of museum touring (many, but not all, of the museums are on the waterfront). I didn’t get any good pictures to capture the hilliness, so you’ll just have to take my word for it:

Speaking of the waterfront, it’s a very cool place with lots going on. You should check it out. While we were there, there was some kind of ribfest thing happening, with complementary vegan protesters.

Also, there are pretty buildings:

We only ate out once in Halifax, but it was a fun place: the Old Triangle Irish Alehouse. Abe really liked it because they had individual little compartments to eat in:

And of course we got ice cream, too, at DeeDee’s Ice Cream (they have burritos, too!)

Next up: day trips from Halifax and our Halifax-area campground.

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