What I did on my summer vacation

I just finished up a great summer vacation. We had friends visiting from Australia, and we did loads of great things. First of all, we had lots of nice dinners at our house, and, I got to do my pseudo-Martha entertaining thing. The picture above is Martin and I out on our deck during one of our little soirees. It's a bit blurry, but I love the lanterns and fairy lights in the background.
After a couple of nights at home, we were off to Cape Breton, which is one of the most beautiful places I know. It's about 5 hours north of Halifax, and I would highly recommend going, if you ever get a chance. There is a drive called the Cabot Trail, which takes at least two days to explore properly. It's a very twist-y, turn-y coastal road with fantastic scenery. This a view from the Skyline trail, one of the many walks along the drive. There are a few more photos over on my flickr and I hope to add more soon. We stayed at a cute little cottage and some of us even managed a swim in the chilly water. And, we ate lots and lots of seafood. Yum.
Finally, it was back to Halifax, for another day of expoloring the city with our friends. Although we see the sights of our city every day, seeing it from the point of view of our guests was fun. It was like discovering the place all over again. For example, the picture of the buildings above was taken by my friend Zena (and yes, she is a warrior princess!). I really love how she has captured something new and fresh in these buildings I see all the time. Another highlight of the holiday was finally seeing my brother play the drums in his band. I am ashamed to say that although he's been with the band for about a year now, this is the first time I've seen them play, and I really enjoyed it. They've got a cool kind of techno-rock sound that was great live.
Anyhow, to sum up, the best part of the holiday was having my friends here. We had a lot of fun, and I will miss them, but I'm not too sad - I'm already planning our next trip!