Well, back to work tomorrow (ugh) but at least I’ve had a nice long weekend to return from. We’ve had some beautiful summer weather but as per usual in August the season has turned and the temperatures drop very quickly in the evening. I refuse to think of fall yet.
Instead of leaving directly from work the phone call from the camping partner at 3 p.m. instructed me to ‘come on home anyway’ meaning that a) he wouldn’t be responsible if anything were forgotten b) there would be two of us doing the tasks so we wouldn’t be as late as if he were solo c) I would be free to do at least ½ of the tasks as I’d gotten everything ready the night before thinking we were leaving from work. So….I drove ½ hr home, assisted with preparations and then we drove ½ hr. back past work, not leaving until 5:30 p.m. meaning we arrived at the campground 2 hours later. Mind you without the group tenting set up required for our family of six it was much quicker getting organized and supper underway for the two of us. When I suggested it was ’weird’ camping without the kids as it’d been over 25 yrs since we’d gone on our own the camping partner took umbrage with my descriptor and suggested ‘different’ or ‘nice’ as a substitute. By the time darkness fell we couldn’t even manage to stay awake to read - talk about senior campers!
Saturday was a nice day where the fog hung off shore so we headed into Mahone Bay for the Classic Boat Festival. It has been a while since we’d attended and will likely be a while again as we found it had become very commercialized and really just a party for the boaters. There are other things to do though, check it out:
http://www.mahonebay.com/
We did manage to visit some of the shops, markets and displays in Mahone Bay in our best yuppie impersonations. The highlight of the day was a lovely lunch with daughter # 1 and her friend who joined us on the deck of one of the cafes. We had a great supper with all our fresh market produce and had to go for a walk to wear off the excess. The campground is very well set up on the ocean but with separate camp sites separated by wooded areas.
Sunday was a day to pack up and head back leisurely back home along the scenic route through the shore route. This meant taking the LaHave cable ferry across and here is a post outlining why it is a good idea to leave the 100 series highways:
LaHave Ferry: The LaHave cable ferry crosses the river between LaHave and East LaHave every half-hour. A ferry has operated at this location since 1832 and offers a wonderful view of both shores up and down the riverbank. Keep your eyes open for all kinds of sea and shorebirds, including bald eagles and ospreys which are known to nest in the area.
After stopping for a great lunch of fresh from the oven Greek pizza and blueberry cinnamon ro
lls at the LaHave bakery - enjoyed on the deck in the sunshine - it was time to move on. That's the interior view you see to the right - funky. They also have a craft gallery, skateboard factory and shipyard repair. It's been on the go as long as we've been traveling the area for three decades (was a bakery boat along the shore first) and the original hippies are now grandparents of the skateboard creator.We stopped at the Petite Riviere winery after multiple attempts to locate it and picked up a red and a white wine. It’s a beautiful location which would make you think you were in Tuscany with the stucco building on the side of the vineyard bordered with herb gardens. I'm including the link here so you can see for yourself:
http://www.petiterivierewines.ca/
By the time we'd arrived home and I’d made a start on the laundry and the shore captain headed over the wharf it was as if we’d never been away. How easy it is to slip into the domestic routine eh? But we were surprised by a message from daughter # 2 saying she and her friend were down at the friend’s cottage for the holiday weekend so they dropped over for supper. What a nice surprise!
Today was filled with more domestic chores, a visit from one of my summer neighbours to discuss vacation planning, dragging all the frozen food up over the hill to the deepfreeze, cleaning the fridge freezer and a service call for the refrigerator, with now what feels like carpal tunnel from four hours of staining the underpinnings of the deck mister is creating. There’s still the second half of the creation and all the planks to stain. Sigh.
So tomorrow is a trip to the district facility as it was supposed to be an orientation day but… that’s been cancelled as there was a small group however I’d made plans to go for other causes and now am committed. The picking up of the laptop will make the trip worthwhile though. I'm already scheming about stories I'll be able to write on that little number.
