Days In Our Lives: July 2009

Storm Clouds

The weekend weather was another example of our summer so far this year...the summer that wasn't. Storm after storm like this one rolled through our area. No twisters but heavy rain and lightning and thunder. It made for some interesting photos!

July 26, 2009

July 26th was Mark and Margot's 6th wedding anniversay. We babysat the kids for the weekend from Saturday am to Monday morning. The kids were great! No crying, no upsets. Most of the weedend we were stuck in the house because of the rainy and stormy weather. There was however a brief time between rain showers when Bob got them out for a brief wagon ride. You can see that Chloe likes to be right in the middle of things!

Gaelic Music

This is Pius MacIsaac and unknown fiddle player performing at the Glenora Inn and Distillery at an afternoon ceilidh.

Cape Breton Island Eagles, Whales and Sunset

David and Michellie took us for a drive after supper and showed us a scenic way back to our camper. Along with 2 foxes that I couldn't get pictures of, we saw 4 bald eagles along the river. This one was kind enough to pose for me.

Then he showed us this wonderful view of the ocean. The sea was very calm and we stayed for sunset. While we were waiting, we saw pilot whales coming to the surface. Unfortunately, they were a long way off shore so it is hard to see them but trust me, they were there!

Here you can see a flipper out of the water just into the pink shaded water.

And here you can just see a disturbance on the surface once again in the light blue water.

Notice the beautiful patterns in the water!

A gorgeous sunset marking the end of a brief but wonderful visit with David and Michellie. Thank you!

Cape Breton Island and Cabot Trail

Our campsite at Baddeck

Views along the Cabot Trail to Cheticamp

Nestled at the foot of the Mabou Highlands is the Glenora Inn and Distillery, North America`s only single malt whiskey distillery.

While we were at the Distillery, we ventured into the Inn for a cup of tea and to listen to the daily Ceilidh (a gathering or time). There was a fellow playing the guitar and a young man on the fiddle. They were excellent. David recognized the gentleman in my picture as Pius MacIsaac, a well known local musician.

David and Michelle's Cape Breton Home

Before David took us out to see his property, we went to Mabou to eat at the Red Shoe Pub. This pub is operated by three of the Rankin sisters. Throughout the summer and fall months, the pub offers a daily menu of fine music, including a fiddlers' matinee every Sunday afternoon. While we were there, David noticed Mitch MacDonald at the bar. Mitch was the runner-up in last year's Canadian Idol competition. Apparently Mitch used to babysit Michellie. He came over to our table and David introduced us to him. I even got a hug! Oh yes and the food was absolutely delicious!

The view looking down David's driveway

David and Michelle's house used to be the manse for the Mabou United Church. There is a very good chance that Uncle Lloyd stayed here while on a student rotation. What a coincidence!!

This is the camp that David also owns and that they are presently living in while substantial work is being done on the other house. Cute!

While visiting with David, we stayed in Port Hood at the Sunset Sands RV Park. Not much of a park but we did have electricity, water and sewer hook-ups. The park is run by the town and is right next to the ocean. Not many other campers there so we had a nice quiet night!

This is the view from the campground.

Boat at the dock

Beside the RV park sits the Al MacInnis arena. Anyone who follows hockey will recognize the name Al MacInnis. He played for the St. Louis Blues and earned a Stanley Cup ring with the Calgary Flames. Beside the arena is a huge open area with a bandshell. For those of you who watched Canadian Idol last year, this is the bandshell where multitudes of Port Hooders welcomed home their home town idol, Mitch MacDonald. On the other side of the arena is a brand new outdoor swimming pool which was to be officially opened a couple of days after our departure. Festivities were to include a lobster BBQ and no doubt some down east music!!

I very much enjoyed our short stay on Cape Breton Island. The Ceilidhs are very entertaining and sure to get one's toes tapping. David says that next time, we have to go to the Glencoe Mills Family Square Dance!
The people are so laid back and even shy. The scenery is breath-taking. We only saw about 1/3 of the Cabot Trail. The Margaree Valley and River beg for more exploring. I would love to wet a line in the Margaree. I think we need to re-visit Cape Breton and stay longer. While we are at it, we can visit PEI which we unfortunately did not have time for this year.

Corner Brook-North Codroy -Good Bye to NL

We enjoyed our stay at Grand Codroy RV park so much on the way to St. John's that we decided to stay there again on the way home.

Pretty wild flower along one of the trails

View of the river at the back of our site
We have been in Newfoundland for 15 glorious days. It truly is a land of rock, and trees and water. The weather is changeable for sure and we have had springlike weather, not the summer weather that we are used to in Ontario.
What will I remember of Newfoundland? The colourful houses of St. John's, the St. John's harbour, the fishing villages of Bonavista and Twillingate, the icebergs of Twillingate, the quaint village of Herring Neck, Gros Morne mountains, the salmon streams and the people's friendliness.

The new ferry Atlantic Vision

The 'Rock', as seen from the deck of the ferry
Last views of NFLD as the ferry leaves Port aux Basques

From Gros Morne to Corner Brook, NL

While we were at Gros Morne, the truck started to have transmission problems. It was very sluggish gearing from 1st to 2nd gear. We worried about the monstrous hill that we had to climb to return south again out of the park. We found out that the closest place to have a transmission diagnosed was at Corner Brook. What to do? Do we leave the trailer at the park and drive out with just the truck for repairs? Or do we take our chances and pull the trailer out with a questionable transmission? After considering all the pros and cons, we decided to leave Gros Morne a day early and proceed to Corner Brook with the truck and trailer. We really wanted to spend another day and investigate the Tablelands but there would have been another hill the locals called 'the Struggle' to negotiate.
Well the truck did get up the hill and we reached Corner Brook and the folks there were so good to squeeze us in for a look-see. It turned out to be a couple of sensors that needed replacing. So we were shortly on our way.

Here are some of the views on the way south out of the park.

While investigating Corner Brook, we came upon this store. It was very ironical because early in our vacation, Bob talked about Flotsam and Jetsam, neither of which the other three of us had ever heard of before. Worth a good laugh!

Our home in Corner Brook at the Prince Edward RV park.

Corner Brook

Gros Morne National Park

The road into Gros Morne gave us beautiful scenery but monstrous hills. There is one hill near the southern border of the park that is a very long haul. In fact afterwords the transmission in the truck seemed to be sluggish in going from first to second gear. Not good!

Our KOA campsite at Norris Point

Looking down the road from the front of our site

Cow Parsnip - grows everywhere along the road!

Pitcher Plant - the Provincial flower of NFLD

Bog Laurel

Bakeapple Plant
The above three plants were found along the trail into Western Brook Pond.

After a 3 km trek over boardwalk and trail, we made it to Western Brook Pond, a gigantic glacier-carved fjord with sides 2000 feet high. It made the 6 km round trip walk worthwhile.