Bay of Fundy

 When we arrived, the tide had been going down again for at least 30 minutes.

 We watched the rocks along the water line and observed how quickly the water was moving down. Pretty fast actually!

 And there was a pile of rocks on the side to climb (feels just like home. :p )

 Back at the campsite Evelyn cooked up some marshmallows.

 We got a fire blazing...payed an exorbitant amount for the park's special kiln dried and bug free wood. On a plus side, it did come with a handy little Firestarter packet.

 Food again. On a table, condiments galore. Yummy!

 Getting close to low tide we went to the beach at Alma again to see how far the water went down. We were flabbergasted!

 In hindsight, we shouldn't have taken off our sandals before heading to the water's edge. After the first bit of sand there were a lot of barnacles to walk through.

 Wow, I think we will have to walk all the way over there!

 Still walking...if the approach to the water wasn't so shallow, that might have saved us a bit of walking (not that we mind after all that driving!)

 Still walking...

 Made it! It's another 20 minutes 'til official low tide though.

 It sure is moist around though, see all the clouds along the hillside? There's a lot of moss growing along the hills!

 Splashing in the waves, waiting for the lowest low point.

 Looking back up to the beach...it looks far away. It is far...took 5 minutes or more to run back after!

 I guess fishing and boating is complicated by the extreme tides! Look how low the boat is at low tide!

 Saturday morning we had a hike planned. It was a nice trail, with the very occasional glimpse at the coast between the trees. Lots moss.

 At the end was water! Not so far to walk to because the tide was almost in again. We hoofed it on the way back, and were amazed by Evelyn and Jennifer's speed in walking and keeping up. Chattering the whole way too, mind you!

 And back one more time at the beach in Alma. Note the pile of rocks? High tide again, with the usual large amount of mist and cloud.

We are packed up and are heading off to our next destination: cottages in PEI.

Destination A, Bay of Fundy

So, we've never tried car camping as a family before. So July 26 we headed out to do something new! Car camping? Well...when you can drive your car (and all your gear) right into the campsite! No canoes, no portaging, nothing! Such luxury!

please excuse my blurry pictures, but that's all I've got!

 We made it from our place to just outside of Quebec into New Brunswick. Camp was set up easily.

 A picnic table was sure handy! We set up our cooking gear (we have a two element cookstove -- wow!) We could pack fresh food, canned and tinned goods!! What a selection we had on our menu! Delicious!

 After a pancake breakfast we hit the road for the Bay of Fundy Provincial Park. Daniel hadn't packed any books to read in the van...but he did lean over and read Jennifer's. He kept telling her to hurry up and turn the page. ;)

 Vroom vroom.

 The sites in New Brunswick are not astounding...but at least their highways have great speed limits!

 Almost there!

 Once in the park I snatched a tide schedule. We arrived very shortly after the high tide, so we headed to the town of Alma (I think) to see the high tide, planning our day so that we could be back at low tide later.

Time to set up camp, check out the playset at the campground and stretch our legs!

Pre trip

 Hanging out at home...

 Had a munchkin over for the morning.

 He probably went home thinking he should always have crowd of people around him full of admiration and offers or toys and play. Why not?

 Someone thought my kitchen was always tidy. This is normal...after prepping a meal it is much worse.

 And packing for our trip and racing out for soccer every evening was a busy last few weeks.

The kids had fun soccer!

contrary mary

My garden was growing quite well.

 And the flower gardens too.

End of June, early July

 Finally, a post!! Wow!

So we went to the optometrist, and these are the results we chose:

We got a flu. Quite late in the year. It was the only one we got all season, so we weren't complaining. Just very weird timing. A flu, in June??

 My hens and chicks flowered. Not very pretty. Wierd looking, actually.

 Peaceful playing...there was a whole story to go with it which I have LONG forgotten. oops.

 Chalk art. Evelyn's self portrait.

 Evelyn's moral suport.

 We had a patriotic moment. Singing the national anthem in a formal manner. I expected the queen to come up the stairs and visit after that. ;)

 Checking out what remains of our flock. 50% survived my neglect and the raccoon's night visit.

I still have moments of fright when I hear the sounds that remind me of the morning when I discovered the results of being careless.

Our rooster is still alive! We were very thankful to have some chickens left. And quite sad too. Heart breaking.

Beach Day

So we made it to Make Wilcox one day instead of our traditional Toronto Island. It's a lot faster to get to but the beach is not as clean. It was a nice hot day and the rain and thunder held off long enough for us to feel it was worth going. The water felt a bit cold for some of us though, and we had to warm up between swims.