Anna in Canada - Day 2 and 3

Tues, Aug 13

After revisiting the road to Ministers Island this morning at low tide, when we were able to drive across the ocean floor, we went to downtown St. Andrews and made reservations for a "whale watch cruise".

Road to Ministers Island - Low Tide and High Tide

We had already made reservations for a tall ship cruise at 4:30 PM, but the weather indicated that we would be better off taking an early afternoon cruise on a boat with an enclosed cabin, so we cancelled the tall ship cruise and went on a powered catamaran with a cabin.

It has been cool all day, and this afternoon on the cruise it got very foggy.  It ended up that most of our 3 hour cruise was in the fog, but we still got to see several whales.

Tomorrow we start heading South by taking two ferry rides and plan to end up on Campobello Island.

(Hijacked again!)

HEEEEYY!!! Peoples! I'm baaacck! So it was not just a trip to Ministers Island it was a drive across the rocky ocean floor. As we were driving we saw quite a few people digging up something so Mimi just got out and asked "may I ask what you are digging?" The man said that he was digging clams so we got to hear all about the kinds of clams here. He was digging in a bunch of rocks like I mean seriously how do you tell a clam from a rock? They all look exactly the same!!!

Digging Clams on the road to Ministers Island.  He was staying at the same RV park that we are, so we took him some brownies tonight.

Then we went to cancel one whale watch cruise and get on another one. That turned out to be the best choice because we saw 3 whales for quite a while over 30 dolphins, 2 eagles some other birds a jellyfish :( and a tuna. As we were coming in we passed the boat that we would have been on and I say those people looked really cold and miserable. That boat ride was cold!!! But when we all layered some more a snuggled up we were better.

Yes, it's called Seal Island, but there is no island at high tide

We were dressed for the whale watching trip

We saw several whales

According to that paragraph way up there I guess we will start heading south by taking two ferries!!! Imagine Mimi and Papa's RV on a ferry!!! I know great imaginations!

The lobster girl

The lighthouse at St Andrews in the fog

The sailing ship we were supposed to go out on - in the fog - in the cold

Wed, Aug 14

(My blog is still being hijacked by a 12 year old, very imaginative young lady)

So today was pretty cool. We got up early and I showered. Yep... SHOWERED during the day! (I hate doing that) I was just way to tired to do it last night so yep I SHOWERED! We all got ready and were almost to the point of leaving when Mimi and I realized that we had not gotten any rocks from this part of the bay of Fundy, so since it was low tide we went ahead and got some, yep, just walked down at low tide and came up with pieces of the ocean floor. Pretty Cool!

Then we hit the road for a short 1 hour drive to the first ferry. Before getting on the ferry we detached the CRV so that we could get on the ferry without dragging too much. Turns out we should have detached the hitch too because it dragged a little bit but it was OK in the end. While on the ferry we passed by three dolphins playing and got to see them for a while. FUN!

A happy Papa!

The motorhome travels across the Bay of Fundy

So we got off the ferry (again scraping the tow bar) and started to head to the next ferry, just a short drive across Deer Island. We stopped to attach the CRV again and Papa and I decided to go into a little shop to ask for directions. I saw the ice cream they had there and ran right back to the RV. I yelled in “they have soft served vanilla ice cream cones!” that was all it took to get Mimi and I heading back over to the shop. With Papa's wallet!

When we got the ice cream we started to talk to the lady there about where to get the best live lobster. Apparently the only place to go was down this windy hilly road, apparently the road was the best on the whole island. Well their island must have REALLY bad roads because there was lots of potholes and rocks spraying the car the whole time. Good thing we detached the car yet again and left the motorhome at the top of the hill!

Supper!!!!!! I was not thrilled having live lobster... like can't we buy it already cooked?!?

The place to get the lobsters turned out to be a lobster pound... where they ship all the live lobster for the Kroger grocery stores. We got 2 huge lobsters for Mimi and papa and flash frozen lobster meat for me, I did not have it in me to tear the lobster apart. :)

We then took the RV and CRV to the ferry loading place separately because it would be too much work to attach and reattach the CRV. While we were waiting to load we took the hitch off the RV which proved to be a very good decision. When we got on the ferry everyone was able to get out of their cars! Also the ferry place where the captain sits did this super cool thing. Look at the pics below!

The ferry was actually a barge that was pushed across the Bay of Fundy by a tug boat that is attached to the barge and swings around to reverse and steer

We kinda took up most of the ferry.

So while we were on the ferry we saw a few dolphins and a whale!!! we were very excited to see the whale and the views were great! When we were getting off of the ferry the people were really nice and saved us for last so they could move the ferry up a little more so the back of the RV did not drag as much.

Are we going to get off the ferry on this?

The ramp felt like it was about the same width as the motorhome

We were finally on Campobello Island! We went about five minutes down the road to our RV park. 

One of the coolest signs for an RV park

We were so excited to see that all of the spaces available were absolutely fabulous! We picked a nice long one in the woods away from everyone else. After settling in we explored the island a little which did not take long... it was only 11 kilometers long! There is a real cool lighthouse at the end of the island and at low tide, you can walk to it. It was high tide, so we could not, but we did see a boat come through the channel that you can walk across at low tide.

If we had been here at low tide, we would have been able to walk across the inlet to the light house

When we came back we started a fire and just hung out at the campsite. Around five we finally decided it was about time for dinner. So we had Papa cook the lobsters following Mimi's very articulate instructions, from outside beside the fire. The lobster was AMAZING!! I mean like realllllly good. I split one with Mimi, and Papa ate one all by himself but ate every last piece he could off of his plate. IT WAS GOOD.

I'm not real sure about this!

I think I can!

Yes, I can!

We then went back to the fire and Mimi turned out to be the queen of making campfires! She had that fire going at least 3 feet high and it was very warm for all of us. Papa even took the liberty of hanging up the swing for ME!

The campfire was terrific!

We all sat around the fire and made some s'mores and had a blast. Then Papa and I decided to take a bike ride around the property and found a tether ball in the playground area. You know what that means! It was on! Papa and I played quite a few games but it turned out Papa being taller had quite a few advantages. I'll just stop at that!

We came back and sat around the fire for a little while longer. Then we came in and did some more of our latch hooking. That's all for today, tomorrow will be a big one yet again.... We will be home sweet home in the USA!

Thurs, Aug 15

We start the day in Canada and end the day in the USA.

We got an early start and went to President Roosevelt's summer home on Campabello.  This a beautifully preserved home that the President's family owned and they used as a summer "cottage" - with 18 bedrooms.

Ok this is Anna again... see how weird my head looks? Well the camera was on the auto thingy sitting on the fence. So right before it took the picture PAPA said to get my head in the light and tilted it to that weird angle so just to let the record show... it was not me!!!

We turned right and headed back to the good ole US of A!

Annnnnnna In CANADA!!! BTW- this blog is written by the amazing... ANNNNNNNNNNNA!!! Day 1

Mon, Aug 12

The Blog has been hijacked by a 12 year old girl!!

Okay... just so you know that heading up there ^^^ is Papa's "special format" he says he wants to keep it consistent... I know sooooooo complex! And that thing about being hijacked... he was like Anna wanna help with the blog and I'm like I wanna do it all by myself! So I did.

K, so now I shall tell you all about what we did today and just so you know if you did not read the full title because you are reading this on your small iphone screen this is a blog special for you written just by me... Annnnnnnna! I hope you are reading this in the right voice, loud exciting and stretching out all the words that I would really stretch out!

Okay so this morning was kinda rough... PAPA woke me up early, like 7 (by the way, if you are reading this right you would have said PAPA in an accusing tone and made 7 sound like this crazy alien thing) So I just jumped into Mimi and Papa's bed and went back to sleep while they packed up the RV (I know I am this totally helpful and amazing granddaughter) Now you will never believe this... guess why we were moving out at 7 (again make 7 sound alien) come on mom and dad guess take a chance! I'm watching you to see if you guess!!! OK... I'll just tell you cause I'm just that awesome, so Jill and Tony were getting builder/ repair people to come and do something to level out their house or something like that. So they pull in at 7 in the morning and are like MOVE in their tough and gruff builder like voices. So Mimi and Papa started packing up the RV while I slept... GO MEEEE! When it was time to go we all said our sappy goodbyes (well at least I think "sappy" is the right word, I don't rreeeaally know what it means :))

I know I am rocking the sweatshirt look!

So we eat a breakfast on the road (that is the picture right above) and get going.After breakfast I do some more cross stitch and then I go back to sleep Mom Dad at least you know I'm getting enough rest! :) I really think this blog needs to get emoticons! We get some gas and go to a grocery store before crossing the border because everything is soooo expensive over there. (I'm talking about Canada) Then I make my final phone calls for the next few days cause they charge you like a zillion bucks to do it in Canada. So there was this huge river with a bridge over it and papa said once we cross this river we would be in Canada so I was doing my last few texts over that river, then dad tells me that I can text in Canada and I'm just like "yayayayayayayayaayayayayay!"

Anna enter Canada.  Anna is excited

So finally we get into Canada and I'm in the RV screaming and yelling "oh ma goooossshhh! I'm in CANADA!!!! it was kinda a big deal.... In the visitors center we got like a million brochures and I'm in there dancing like a crazy person. I mean seriously do you see that crazy person expression on my face!

After hitting the visitors center we drove to the St. Andrews RV place that we are staying at, we were driving a hundred! When we got there the water looked normal and every thing was like well....wet. So we drove (in the small car) over to where there would later supposedly be a road on the ocean floor that we could drive on to get to Minister's island. Well it was all water like deep and it was coooolllddd!

High Tide

Low Tide

High Tide

Low Tide

You can tell that it got cooler by the clothes that I'm wearing!

After getting lots of sea shells we went downtown to explore the shops, they were all soooo cute! yes Evan cute! After hitting all of those stores we went and had dinner- Mimi had some seafood chowder, I had haddock and Paps had lobster. I tried both of their meals and they were pretty good, but Papa tearing apart that lobster was pretty gross, although I did very much enjoy seeing him in a bib, like imagine Papa in a bib, go ahead and add a bonnet and passifier to... you can't help but smile and you know it. Go ahead, smile!

Once we finished we went up and paid... they had these blue candies which we happily took a few and popped them in our mouths, they tasted GROSS! So I spit mine out in a trash can and when you looked in you saw twelve other blue candies on top at least!

So we walked around a little while longer and hit a candy store... I got a bag and put one of each candy in it (yes mom you can mix the candy here and it only cost $2.54) We then went and made reservations for a whale watching trip on this huge sail boat... you'll probably hear about it in the next blog update.

 Then we went back to where you could drive across the ocean floor and you could see the road going probably halfway across... Mimi and I gathered some more sea shells and when we looked up the road stretched all the way across it was like MINDBLOWING! (you should be doing the mindblown thing with you hands and head now if you know what I'm talking about.)

Going to Minister's Island - No Way!!

I AM FREEZING!!!

Now we are back in the RV just chilling and I'm writing the best edition yet of the blog, but don't tell that to Papa!

Our RV is parked right next to the Bay of Fundy

BTW that is me eating my huge bag of CANDY!!!

Goodnight peoples!
Love,
Anna

Anna comes to Maine

Sat, Aug 10

Today is the big day.  Anna arrives!

We got up at 4:30 AM this morning to drive to Boston (a 4 hour drive) to meet Anna.  This is her first "solo" flight on an airliner, so we are in constant contact with Mom and Dad as she leaves Raleigh, and immediately on her arrival in Boston.

Anna gets off the airplane after her first "solo"

And arrives at the gate to be greeted by Mimi and Papa

It'g going to be great to have her with us for the next couple of weeks as we go back into Canada, travel the coast of Maine, and maybe more.  Who knows?

Anna takes on New Hampshire

The drive down to Boston was rather pleasant this morning.  We actually arrived at the airport before Anna left Raleigh.  However, it took about as much time for us to get gate passes so we could meet Anna at the gate as it took Anna to fly from Raleigh to Boston.  It reminds me again of why flying today is not much fun.

And I am again reminded why I do not like big cities.  We had actually planned to pick up Anna and spend the afternoon at some attraction in Boston.  But it only took the drive through Boston to the airport to convince me that there was no way that I was going to spend all afternoon trying to find one museum.  So we headed back toward Maine.

Again, I was reminded why I never want to get near a big city.  It took 2 states for the traffic to finally smooth out.  It was all the way from Boston, through New Hampshire, and 20 miles into Maine before we were able to drive normal highway speeds.  We were going from zero to sixty to zero to twenty to zero to fifty, etc. for the first two hours.  I think there are entirely too many people!  With too many cars!

We're really excited to have Anna with us, and we've already changed our plans for our excursions twice.  It's no telling what we'll end up doing!

Anna falls right in with the routine of watching the sunset from the "camp"

Sun, Aug 11

It sure is a lot of fun having Anna join us.

Anna and Mimi are in to latch hook rugs and cross stitch

Anna is helping Papa on the roof of the motorhome

This morning we took the kayaks out on the lake for a couple hours.  Anna enjoyed getting out of the kayak and climbing the boulders in and around the lake.  We were able to get real close to the loons and watch the mother feeding her baby.

The loons did not seem to mind us coming into their territory

Anna conquers another boulder

Anna worked very hard to get Papa out of his kayak and onto the rocks so she was thrilled when he finally came up with her!

This afternoon we took a hike up to 2nd Pond (yes that's what it is called).  This is the water supply for the area and is a beautiful secluded lake.  Jill's father, Ed, use to run the water system for the area and Jill had been up to the lake many times as a youngster and knew all about the area and what's happened here in the past.  It made for a fun afternoon.

Blue berries and moss we collected on the afternoon hike

At beautiful 2nd Pond

Tonight we had a fun evening with Tony and Jill at the "big camp".  We've really enjoyed being able to stay here on this beautiful lake for the past week.  It is one of the most beautiful settings we've ever stayed in.

They talk different here