Port Hood, Cape Breton July/Aug 2008.

Some pictures, notes about our family vacation this year.

We departed Ottawa on the Saturday; we had decided to split the drive doing 8 hours each day, so we were on the road around 8:30AM on our way to Grand Falls, New Brunswick.
We had suspected that Paige would be our troubled traveller, and boy had we underestimated. By 1,000,000,000%. Oh, I don't think we were in Montreal already thinking that this was a bad idea. But on we went. Thank goodness Peyton & Leah were good...

We arrived in Grand Falls just after dinner, and the kids were fidgety, tired, full of energy - ya, fun times. A quick dip in the indoor pool and we ordered in Pizza, then came a HUGE test...the twins have not slept outside their cribs yet, and we were putting them in a queen bed. It was ugly, and that's all I will say. Eventually, everyone got to sleep, but as I tried to fall asleep myself that night, I couldn't help but think that it was another 8 hours to the cottage on Sunday, or 8 hours to return to the luxury of home.

Sunday morning we were up and on the road for about 6:30. And everyone was miserable. And right about HERE is where I will insert a lovely video of the way Paige behaved for about 80% of the ride - but the house is a bit unorganized right now, and I can't find my little canon camera that has this video... check back, though - it's worth it.
Getting on the road early was good though - we pulled into Antigonish early PM, and found a nice shady spot on the StFX grounds to have a picnic...



A couple of hours later, we MADE it! And it was hot and sunny! We arrived around 5PM, and literally dropped our bags, threw on our swim suits and ran to the beach - if there's something we know about east coast weather, it's that you take advantage of the nice periods of weather.

The little darlings experiencing the Atlantic for their first time, while their big sister commences this "great sea shell collection adventure." She just had to have each and every one she saw!





And so began our lovely week, where we had sunshine and beach time every single day!

On Monday morning, we took the kids down to Murphy's Point to see the fishing boats. My comfort level was...well, zero here. Too much potential for the ever-so-active children to fall into the water, so we snapped some pictures, looked at some boats, debated about whether the red thing was a balloon or a buoy (it was a buoy) then walked back to the cottage.




Back to the beach that afternoon, then we came up with the strategy of bathing the kids outdoors, thus leaving the mounds of sand OUTside. Leah and Paige strongly opposed this idea...as you can clearly see:



I'm happy to write (THRILLED to write) that the sleeping got better - we didn't change our strategy at all; we'd planned for the three girls to share the back bedroom with the two single beds, and by the second day they were settled in relatively fine, and we even managed to get them to nap during the day:



And how cute is this...fast asleep at night:


On Tuesday, Rich and De arrived! They actually left Ottawa before us, but stopped in Quebec city and PEI before joining us. The kids were thrilled, and we were happy for the break. Seriously!

Wednesday morning we meandered down to the new camp site down by the arena - the kids had noticed the little play ground.





We five:


Eric & Anne and the kids came to visit us at lunch time on Wednesday - Anne grew up about 40 mins away from Port Hood and they go back out east every summer without fail. We all hit the beach together and Peyton loved playing with little girls closer to her age - Augusta & Kenzie.

That evening, De and I attempted to capture a sunset down at the beach, but alas, those clouds always got in the way. Oh well. Seagulls were kinda neat.



On Thursday, De and I drove up to the Cabot Trail - not the whole trail, but we drove into Cheticamp. She's a semi-prof, highly talented photagrapher, so we took our time and stopped a bit along the way: these are *my* pics, by the way - and while I am not semi-professional, I have been published :)






Later, more beach time:






The kids were like fish and spent almost 100% of their time at the beach in the water. So much for the sand toys :)








Friday night, we hit the horse races:




Saturday was the last day there. The Parade of Chestico Days was happening. This year was extra special, as the whole town...scratch that - the whole ISLAND and maybe province is routing for Mitch MacDonald to be the next Canadian Idol. Mitch comes from a seriously talented family in Port Hood, and the town SCREAMS pride for this young man. As I write this now, he's in the bottom two, so I suppose this week we'll find out if he is indeed crowned. But all week there were rumours that he'd be there for the parade, so the place was PACKED! Of course, because of scheduling issues he couldn't make it out, so instead it was a rally held in his honor (which apparently made it to tv as a 5 second clip - ha!)

Anyway, pictures from the parade, rally and our last beach day will come very soon!

Cape Breton (aka Heaven on Earth)

So Paul's parents own this lovely cottage in Port Hood, Cape Breton. The story goes that each year they'd drive Erin out to school in Antigonish in September, and after dropping her off they'd vacation in Cape Breton. One year, they heard of a cottage that was possibly going to be listed for sale - and well, they saw it and fell in love. The rest is history? Well, sort of, but not quite.

Retired as they were, they were fortunate enough to spend the entire summer season out east - June through September...for upwards of 10 years. Or more.

I met and started dating Paul in November/December of 2000 - and the cottage was ALL I heard about ALL the time.

I vacationed in Cape Cod as a child, but honestly don't remember it too much - I remember the beach and the salty taste of the water; the "too much fish" on the menus and the lack of white vinegar (seriously, fish and chips and vinegar with no vinegar??) and well, I distinctly remember Provence town (mom! that woman has a 5 o'clock shadow!) But seeing a spot as a child is appreciated at a very different level than seeing it as an adult.

So in late July of 2001 I went out to Cape Breton and like my inlaws did, fell in love. Of course, the weather was stellar that year, and we had great company in Chantal, Colin and Rich - but I was awestruck by the beauty of the island, and the sincerety of the people.

The following summer we went again.

And the summer after, newly pregnant with Missy P we went out again (but first detoured to Halifax on a visit, with Tanya and her insignificant other.)

We skipped Peyton's first year, but returned when she was 18 months old in the summer of 2005. Two weeks this time, but unfortunately, the first week, well, sucked. Weather was not great, Peyton was super active and still very much in that "what's this and how would it feel in my mouth" stage. And worse yet, she became quite ill - double ear infection, we discovered after driving to the community hospital at 2:00AM; we feared that it was worse, but an emergency chest x-ray outruled the suspected pnemonia. Ya, no fun. The second week was much better though; her infection cleared, the sun came out, my mom flew out to join us all (Paul's parent's included) and all was good. Paul and I suspected I was pregnant during this time; of course, we had no idea what was in store for us. Ha.

So Leah & Paige came in the spring of 2006. We couldn't make it out east that year. I don't remember anything that we did that summer. Good thing I have the blog :)

Paul's parents told us in late 2006 (I believe) that they were listing the cottage for sale. As much as they loved the location (despite the 16 hr+ drive) and they had very fond memories, I think the place lost some of it's appeal. The land around was being developed, some of their summer friends were not consistently returning, our family was growing (and Erin & Peter were about to head down that path too) and they were starting to plan to spend a great deal of time away in the winter months too - so that all added up to: it's time to sell.

So it was listed, and we didn't make any plans to go in 2007. In fact, we thought we weren't going to ever go back - with three small kids? But towards the end of last year, there was a definitive regret. Paul's parents were kind enough to leave an open offer to us to return, but we just didn't think we'd be able to do it and keep our sanity. But once our window of opportunity came and went, we thought - why not? And so was born the idea of attempting to bring out the family in the summer of 2008, if the cottage had not yet sold.

It's September now, so we've gone and come back, and while the trip there and back wasn't easy, Paul & I are so happy we did it! And while we sincerely hope - for the sake of Paul's parents - that the place does find it's buyer, if it hasn't sold by next July, you'll find the 5 of us down at the life guard beach in lovely little Port Hood, enjoying the Idle Tyme.

Brutal

It's been so long since I've updated that I forgot my username AND password.

Shame on me.

Apparently, I'm busy.

So here's some recent pictures to look at :)

Ice Cream is good.

Kite Flying.