Some weekends you plan for months. This one just sort of happened, and it turned out to be one of the best I've had in a long time. I spent it in Halifax with my daughter Gemma, and I'm still smiling about it.

We got in Friday night and did what you do on the east coast in the summer: found a rooftop, ordered a drink, and let the city hum along beneath us.

Saturday: Beach Meadows and Liverpool

Saturday we drove out to Beach Meadows and Liverpool, and the beach was beautiful in that glorious, wide-open weather you don't always get out there. Long stretch of sand, the water doing its thing, not many people around.

Here's the thing, though. Gem and I stood on that same beach back in 2012, and the weather was terrible. Grey, misty, cold. And somehow we didn't care one bit. We ran around like it was the finest day of the year. Standing there again this weekend, all sun and blue sky, we both got quiet for a second remembering it.

And here's us on that same beach back in 2012, when the weather was doing everything it could to chase us off and we just didn't listen.

Saturday night was RENT!

Gem's partner Dorian is in the ensemble, and I am telling you, I could NOT look away from them the whole show. The leads are good, don't get me wrong. But the amount of the show that's carried by the ensemble is outstanding. On top of all the dancing and the singing and the STAIR CLIMBING on that set, they're also hauling in props, moving set pieces, and pulling off these incredibly fast transitions. It never stops.

This was my first time at the Neptune Theatre in Halifax, and I can't wait to come back.

A slower Sunday

We took Sunday down a notch. Kites everywhere over the hill, a whole sky full of them, and a proper poke around the neighbourhood, including a stop at Luke's.

An island to ourselves

Gem and I also took a day to explore McNabs Island. A quick boat taxi over from the Dartmouth side and the hustle and bustle of the Halifax waterfront just drifts away behind you. The place was deserted. We had great trails, an old military installation that Gem rightly called very Chernobyl-ish, and some beautiful, cool little beaches. It genuinely felt like we had the whole island to ourselves.

Proud

We finished up back on the waterfront with a bowl of chowder and a cold beer in the sun, and I sat there feeling about as content as I get.

I'm ultra proud of Gem and Dorian for how they've established themselves on the east coast and built a real home out there. You spend a weekend like this, in their city, on their beaches, watching Dorian own a stage, and it hits you: they've made something good here. Can't wait to come back.