Canada Day: A Day-Long Family Party in Halifax

Each year on Canada Day, our first stop is the free Pancake Breakfast in Dartmouth. There are enough pancakes for 1500 people and they are given first-come, first-served. The breakfast runs from 8-9am.

Everyone is given 2 big pancakes. The pancakes are all cooked by volunteers. You also get a juice box and/or a coffee or tea. Syrup is available, but no butter or other toppings. There are several picnic tables in the area to sit at.

The whole thing is free, and volunteer driven, but it is a lot of fun. We went the past two years. The first year the weather was beautiful and we sat out in the sunshine. Last year it poured rain, so we had to huddle in a tent. (The beer tent set up for concerts during the evening). It was still lots of fun. This year, we were back to beautiful weather.

The food is nothing spectacular, but it is quite good considering the vast quantity of pancakes they have to make. Also, it's great when it is a nice day.

We usually manage to grab an extra juice box on the way out, to drink later in the day. (Only if there are lots left and the pancake line-up is gone).

My kids love pancakes, so to them this is heaven. A pancake-picnic as it were, what could be better.

We usually get there around 8:15, so the first rush of a line-up is gone through. This year, we didn't arrive until about 8:45 and there was still a huge line-up. When we were there for only a few minutes, the mayor of the Halifax Regional Municpality came by giving out candy and Canada Day wishes. We got in the line and got our pancakes a few minutes after 9:00.

This was the first year you needed a ticket to get served. The tickets were free at the gate. They needed to have an idea of how many people were coming through. They were still giving out tickets when we had finished eating, so naturally, we went back for seconds. Because it was quite late at this point (around 9:15) there weren't many more people coming, so the lineup was about 4 people long.

There is always music playing which is interupted every few minutes so that the DJ can thank the sponsors and remind everyone of all the other festivities that will be going on the rest of the day. A small inconvenience for free food. This year, there was no DJ, just the music.

We are usually quite full by the time we leave. However, this is only our first free activity of the day. Normally we try to catch more pancakes on the Halifax side of the harbour, but seconds here really filled us up for a while.

The Canada Day celebrations start a little early out in these parts. Canada Day is always on July 1. The Kick-Off party is a couple days early, this year on June 29 from 6 to 9pm.

The Kick-Off party is a small family festival that takes place in the parking lot of the Cole Harbour Recreation Centre. When you arrive there is a table where volunteers are handing out free paper Canadian Flags and free Canada Flag lapel pins.

There is a BBQ (hot dogs, veggie dogs available on request) with drinks (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and bottled water) for the whole family.

They always have a bouncy house for the kids. The bouncy house they have had the last couple of years has been a nice friendly castle, which is great because some of the more elaborate bouncers are scary for my four-year-old. There was a bit of a line-up, but the kid got to go through twice. She had to wait about 4 turns (they only let 6 kids on at a time).

There were also games for slightly older kids. They had a hula-hoop contest. There were only about 8 hoops, so the kids took turns. They ran about 4 contests and the winners of each contest won a small prize.

Then there was a limbo contest. This was a very informal contest where everyone who participated won a sticker. (Even the four-year-old who refused to go under the stick more than twice).

There was also a face-painting table and another table where kids could colour in a picture of a Mountie on a horse.

There was rock music playing throughout most of the event, which was turned down for Chuckles the Clown to do a magic show. Chuckles also made balloon animals during the rest of the party.

The music was turned down again around 7:45 for the singing of O Canada. After the national anthem, we all had cake. There were 2 large sheet cakes, so there was plenty to go around, and even get seconds.

The whole event is free, so it is a great value. The kids have a blast. The people running all the stands are staff of the Halifax Recreation Department and in many cases they are the same people who teach the classes for the kids, so that is fun for the kids too.

The only problem with the event is lack of parking space. Since the even takes place in the parking lot, you need to park along the street or across the street at another recreation centre building. Cole Harbour Road is a very busy street and there are no close crosswalks, so it is a bit of a problem.

Citadel HIll is a large Historic Site on the grounds of the old Citadel, which protected Halifax. On Canada Day, there is free admission. (The normal price is $27.20 for a family or $10.90 for an adult, $5.45 youths)

We made the trek up the steep hill. There were about 6 flights of stairs to climb. Luckily we had a helper to carry the stroller up. Otherwise, we would have had to walk around to the other side of the hill and pushed the stroller up the car driveway.

The citadel as it currently stands had been around since 1856, although there were 3 earlier citadels on the same location. There are models of the earlier versions in one of the museums.

There is a large Army Museum on the second floor. Don't try to bring a stroller up (on Canada Day at least). It's too crowded and the elevator tried to hold me hostage. You need a key to operate the elevator, which I didn't realize until I was in it and the door shut. I was there with the baby in the stroller and had a very hard time getting the door open from the inside. We decided not to bother with the museum this year.

Mom and the two big kids did some exploring of the site. I had been here the past 2 years and decided I didn't need to see the museums again this year.

There was a concert playing from 10:30-11:30 which you can hear from all over the citadel. There are also bagpipes playing at the same time in a different area. A bit useless because they overlap, but whatever.

The kids enjoyed seeing the reenactors in soldiers costumes, but the 4-year-old was scared of the Beaver Mascot of parks Canada on the way in.

At 11:30 they have the official Canada Day flag raising. Then they sing O Canada. Then, comes the free cake. There were 4 sheet cakes, but several hundred people. Since we'd been here before we were cleverly staking out the place where the cakes are set up (just outside the Army Museum staircase), so we didn't have to wait in the line for too long.

While we were eating, there was a 21 gun salute for Canada Day, which was of course fired by cannon. The first year we went here it was rather startling because we were in the museum with the models when the guns were fired. It was really loud inside the citadel!

After the cake, there was a mass exodus of people and we actually had to stand in line to leave. The reason was that not only was everything over inside the citadel, but the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo Parade was about to begin just outside.

Note: Although you are inside the citadel, you are actually outside most of the time. Sunscreen is recommended. Also, bring your own water .. it's over $2 a bottle at the snack bar.

The Tattoo Parade is a great way for families to get a small taste of the Tattoo without the expense of tickets. Obviously the Tattoo is much more exciting than the short parade, but even that would be too much to sit through with a baby.

The Tattoo is an international military display, featuring bands, acrobats, and military displays from countries all over the world. It is held annually at the Halifax Metro Centre and it is truly a spectacle.

The Parade only had about 10 participating groups, which made it nice and short. Perfect for watching on a nice day with the kids.

The parade route starts right across from Citadel Hill so there was a great crowd to watch the beginning. It turned right at the corner and made a loop, coming back past the same spot it started and fininshing at the Halifax Metro Centre. This is really convenient because it times well for leaving the festivities at the Citadel (which end around 12pm).

The parade started at 12:30. By the time we got out of the citadel and down to a good watching spot we had missed the first few bands. When the parade ended we started walking towards the Natural History Museum and realized the parade was coming right back to us. So we watched it again.

The first entry was the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, dressed in their full uniforms. There were several military marching bands represented. There were pipe and drum bands, marching bands, etc.

The non-band entries included an army presentation float, where soldiers had to run around and perform drills on the back of a truck. There was also an acrobat group. The mayor rode on the back of a convertible, and the tattoo volunteers marched by.

It was a very hot day so we were happy that we found a spot in the shade to watch the parade the first time. The side of Citadel hill was a great vantage point because even the little ones could see everything that was going on.

The Official Parade Route is:
Form up at Royal Artillery Park
East on Sackville St
South on Brunswick St
West on Spring Garden Rd
North on South Park St
North on Brunswick St
East on Duke St. (End at Metro Centre).

Even though we watched the parade twice, we still walked up to the Museum by about 1pm.

Tickets for the actual Tattoo run from about $20 to $50, which is more that I would want to spend with little kids, but the show is really quite something for older kids and adults, and well worth the price. The show runs for about a week, with over 2,000 performers from around the world.

There are other 'sneak preview' type shows around Halifax, at the Public Gardens etc, which are generally also free. Again, you don't get the full effect, but with a family, it's probably the better option.

The Natural History Museum is a great place to come with kids any time, but we especially like it when it's free. The museum opens up on Canada Day for the whole day, and it's a nice respite from the weather (either heat or rain).

The museum has an annual butterfly tent which is up and running by Canada Day. You go through a double entry to get into the tent to see the butterflies up close. If you are very still, a butterfly might even land on you. There are dozens of different breeds of butterflies in the tent.

This year, there was also an exhibit on "Norther Jaws: Sharks of Canada" that the kids liked. They particularly liked the model shark head that you could climb into.

The other temporary display that was open when we were there was the Bug Zone. There were many different kids of bugs, mostly butterflies.

The Bug Zone was also a hit with my kids. The 8-year-old and my mother both tried a mealy worm as cooked up by Chef Bug-ar-dee in the museum. Eww.

Permanent displays that are always amusing include the live bees (the bees have a hive in the museum that they enter and exit through a tube to the outdoors), the display case of animal dung, (luckily it is not fresh), and Gus the Turtle. Gus is 84 years old and has been living at the museum for 50 years. There are also displays about the earth, ocean life, live reptiles, etc.

There is lots of room to get the stroller through the museum, even when its crowded. There is a ramp to get to the upper level (which is only a couple of steps up). You do need to come in through a side entrance to get in though. Luckily, the wheelchair/stroller entrance is adjacent to the parking lot, so it is usually not a problem.

The problem this year is that the parking lot is currently under construction. There is a large sign saying that parking is available at the QEII Health Sciences Centre across the road, but you have to go around to the Robie Street Side to get to it. That is about a 2 block walk. (There is closer parking at meters, but they do have time limits).

Normal summer rates are $3 for kids (6-17), and $5 for adults or $15 per family. In the winter months, the price is less ($9 per family). Normal hours are 9:30-5 (5:30 in the summer). They are also open late on Wednesday (until 8pm) and it's free to get in after 5.

You can also get a Nova Scotia Museum pass for $75 per family that is good at 27 different museums in Nova Scotia (many in the Halifax area).