The Teddy Bears' Picnic

     Well, not really teddy bears, just the Sackville Ward. (Does anyone remember the old Teddy Bears' Picnic song?) It was a beautiful day and the contingency plans weren't needed. There was enough of a breeze that 75 felt comfortable, almost cool.

     Instead of going up the canyon like we're used to at home, we all met up at a park by one of the hundreds (really--hundreds!) of lakes in the area. We think it was within the ward boundaries--there are dozens of lakes within the ward boundaries.

     We took the turn off and drove up the road. At one point we came to this delightful, old, one-lane bridge with an awesome view (below) off to the side. And this wasn't even the lake we were heading to.





The road wound around and finally it became gravel with several side roads. After traveling for a couple of miles and seeing no signs, we wondered if we were going to the right place until we saw the glint of cars through the trees. There was a huge parking lot full of cars. Several groups were taking advantage of the beautiful weather, and the park was big enough to accommodate everyone, including the Halifax Water Department party.

Some of the younger people played volleyball while the older ones visited

Different groups put Slip-n-Slides on this hill. The water had to be hauled from the lake, but they put soap in the water that make it slipperier. 

Two of our favorite people were in charge of the grills. Owen Darling, a new convert last fall, is on the left with the blue ball cap. Bradly Johnson, our former bishop, is behind the grill on the right. Both are great guys and we love them.























We could just barely see the lake through the trees, so we decided to take a closer look.

Elder Holbrook thought he saw some sand so we walked over to it. Yup, a small beach (all of it can be seen in these two pictures), with a lifeguard.

 The Water Department group put up a bounce house and didn't seem to mind if kids from other picnics wandered in. At least none of our kids got kicked out. They must have decided we were all customers, so they didn't mind sharing!

A beautiful day, spent in a gorgeous setting, visiting with friends. What a great way to spend a Saturday! Definitely a day to enjoy on our mission journey.

Grandkids, Round 3 Part II

     After exploring beautiful Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail, Jeff and Becca and family returned to Halifax and spent a few days exploring our neck of the woods.

Low tide

     Friday we headed to Brier Island where some of the best whale watching is. We stopped on the way to check out the levels at low tide in Margaretsville. We'd been there before for a few minutes with Stan and Melanie. This time we did a tide comparison. We took pictures on Friday on our way . . .

. . . and another on the way home on Saturday. At low tide the water was out past the end of the pier. At medium high tide one of the boats was out setting traps. High tide came after dark so we didn't wait around for that.

     We had to take two ferries to get all the way down Digby Neck to Tiverton and across Long Island and then to Brier Island. Papa said it was his first time on a ferry, and Jacob was pleased to have beat Grandpa at doing something (they'd just been on a ferry between PEI and Cape Breton the week before, so it was no big deal to him--he told Papa not to worry).

     Once we got to the Brier Island Lodge (not as majestic as the name sounds), we got settled in and then went to check out the seal colony on the other side of the small island. Supposedly it was a short, nice 10-minute walk. It was more like at 30+-minute hike through some gorgeous scenery. Apparently we'd just missed seeing them all over the rocks because the tide had come in and they were out feeding.

On the way to see the seal colony

     Jeff had seen a sign advertising a breakfast at the fire station. It took a little sleuthing, but we finally found it (the locals appeared to know exactly where to go--it was a busy place). They put on an impressive breakfast at a very reasonable price, something that couldn't be said for our other meals on the island.

Hard at work

     We went back to seal cove again and saw a few seals, but the tide was out again.
     Then it was time to get on the boat that would take us out where we might possibly see some whales. Becca had researched things and found a highly recommended company, Brier Island Whale Watching. When we talked to people at breakfast about it, they all said it was the BEST of the whale watching groups.

     In their literature they said that while they can't guarantee whale sightings, they would do their best and stay out as long as possible in hopes that we'd see some. They even gave the rather nebulous promise that if no whales were sighted, at the discretion of the captain, we would be given a return pass--which doesn't do us much good if we can't go back another day, so we had high hopes.

     Although we all had jackets, we appreciated the fleece blankets they had on board for our use. It was overcast and pretty cool out on the water.

     The Bay of Fundy is one of the best places for whale watching because the dramatic tides stir up the food the whales like to eat.

     It didn't take long before we started seeing whales. Lots of whales. Literally, tons of whales! Many of them swam close to the boat. They get to know the sound of the engines of various boats and know there's nothing to fear from the familiar ones, but if a new boat comes into the waters, they steer clear until they learn it's not a threat.

We mostly saw Humpback whales

On its side, waving a pectoral fin

You don't want to be downwind from a spouting whale--they have terrible breath!

This whale came up about 40 feet from the boat

Three traveling together

Waving goodbye before heading down deep to feed

     It was an AWESOME tour. As soon as we got off the boat, it was a mad dash to get to the ferry. If you miss the ferry, you have to wait an hour for the next one. They're timed so that you can get across the middle island to the next ferry if you don't stop along the way.

     On the way home we stopped to eat. Eliza got a kitty cat pizza.
   
     Sunday morning they headed home. That was the last of several weeks of visitors. The Johnsons (Mom, Scott, and Mary Jane) came in May, Stan and family arrived the last day of June, Brad and family came the end of July, and Jeff and family arrived a few days later. We've loved, loved, loved having visitors and it made up for those we didn't get in Siberia.

Prince Edward Island

     Jeff, Becca, and kids came to visit. We surprised them at the airport. Sister Holbrook tried to snap a picture as Liza ran to Papa, but she wasn't fast enough--Liza was solidly hugging him before the shutter closed. We've been so excited to see each of the families as they've come, and they've been excited to see us. This time we had especially looked forward to meeting Benson, our newest grandchild, but he was rather blasé  about the two old people who were fawning all over him.

One happy little girl

Everyone was excited to see Papa!

     The next day they explored Halifax a little and then we headed up to Prince Edward Island (PEI), making our stop at the Nova Scotia border along the way where we got our traditional picture before heading across the bridge and on to the beautiful island. Elder Holbrook had arranged for a rental house in Charlottetown through Airbnb--a wonderful find! Not only was it cheaper than a hotel would have been, we could enjoy the large living room, dining room, and kitchen with 4 bedrooms together.

     Becca has been a big fan of Anne of Green Gables and had planned to see several sights from the book. She was a great tour guide because of her knowledge. (Our introduction to Anne "with an e" was when we borrowed the DVDs from Melanie and watched the movies just before we left home and then again when we listened to the audiobook on our drive across country.)

Benson, Becca, and Emily relaxing in chairs in front of a
hotel used in the Anne of Green Gables movie

Then on to Green Gables Heritage Place (a National Park)

Maybe it should have been called Anne of Dark Green Gables :)

We met Anne in the barn--cute and bubbly

     We learned lots about Lucy Maud Montgomery. She wrote many other books, but Anne of Green Gables was by far the most popular, even though it was rejected by several publishing houses at first.

     The kids had fun climbing in and around the buggy and wanted us to pull them around the yard.

Emily, Jacob, and Eliza

     Saturday night some of us went to the play of Anne of Green Gables. It was WONDERFUL! It's the longest running annual play in the world, meaning season after season. After the play we walked across the street and stood in a long line to get the Cows ice cream many people had rightfully raved about.

     Sunday they headed to the ferry that took them to Cape Breton (which they said was gorgeous) and we headed home.

      The Lord has blessed us with such a beautiful world, and we're loving the opportunity to see even more than we imagined we would!



     More next week . . .

Grandkids, Round 2

     Brad, Heather and the girls spent a couple of days exploring, and by the weekend we were more than ready to spend time with these darling girls.

     Heather had booked us on the Harbour Hopper tour, an amphibious, open air bus/boat. Our tour guide was delightful and regaled us with all sorts of stories about Halifax.

Awesome views of the harbour from Citadel Hill

     One of the first things we did was go to the top of Citadel Hill. (We'd been inside the fort with Stan and Melanie, but didn't take in much of the view.)


     One of the things our tour guide told us is the difference between a basilica and a cathedral. She said when the Pope blesses a basilica, it becomes a cathedral.

The Halifax Cathedral

   When we went into the water, one of the first sights we saw was the naval fleet docked in Halifax. There were many ships of various sizes--and our tour guide could tell us about all of them!

We got to see the waterfront . . . from the water

And Georges Island with the lighthouse we like

     All too soon the tour was over and we headed for the Maritime Museum.

Maggie loved being the captain    

This was during the Busker Festival, where there were a lot of street performers (Buskers). We saw this just outside the window of the museum. It must have been fascinating--even Theodore Too wanted to watch what was going on.

We spent time along the boardwalk, including the Farmers Market again. Along one of the wharves there were some carnival rides. Ella (9), Maggie (7), and Hadley (5) wanted to try the inflatable wipeout ride. They each stood on a little platform inside a large circle inflated with air. Two arms went around, one high, one low. The kids were supposed to duck under the high one and jump over the low one. They all seemed to be able to duck when the high arm swept by, but Hadley seemed surprised Each. Time. she saw the low arm coming at her. We were laughing so hard we didn't get any pictures (Heather did, but we didn't think to ask her to share the pictures).

     Sunday afternoon we sadly said our goodbyes as they headed over to PEI. We love the time we spent with them and that they came all this way to see us so we could spend some time with them. Families. Aren't they great?!

A Little Break

     After all the plans were made for their trip, Brad found out he had to be at the hospital on Monday for the accreditation team that was rescheduled. Plans were quickly made for Sister Holbrook to leave the office (with President Pratt's permission, of course) for a few days and fly to Portland, Maine, on Monday to meet Heather and the girls and help with luggage and car rental and crowd control (yes, four girls under ten are considered a crowd). Elder Holbrook stayed behind and kept the office running.

     Mother Nature had other ideas. Their flight from Baltimore to Portland got canceled because of weather in Maine, but Southwest got them to Boston, a two-hour drive from Portland. The problem was that their luggage didn't make it to Boston, so they had no car seats. Fortunately Heather found a bus that would take them to Portland for a reasonable fee. As it ended up, there were no weather problems in Portland. Heather has no idea why the flight was canceled.

     Sister Holbrook got to Newark, where she was delayed because of lack of a flight crew, mechanical problems, and then one of the most awesome lightning storms she's ever seen. The rain was so intense it looked like it was snowing instead of raining, and of course, the airport was shut down. After standing in line for three hours, she was finally told there were no seats left on any flights into Portland until the next evening, and by then Heather and the girls were going to be in Canada, meeting up with Brad in St. John. They finally booked her on a flight straight back to Halifax two days later and begrudgingly gave her a hotel room for the night. The upside is the hotel room ended up being a suite with a huge hot tub, comfortable sitting room, and king bed. The downside was she spent more time in the Newark Airport than she did at the hotel! There was another upside: after spending nearly two hours on the phone, she managed to get a flight to Portland the next morning, where Heather met her with the rental car and luggage already taken care of.

     Tuesday was Hadley's 5th birthday. Heather had a full day planned, including renting a golf cart and driving around Peak's Island. It was a lot of fun.

     They drove across the border and immediately lost an hour (Atlantic Canada is an hour ahead of Maine), so they got to the hotel quite late and it was nearly midnight before the girls settled into bed. The hotel was magic--when they woke up on Wednesday morning, Daddy was sleeping in one of the beds!

     The area around the Bay of Fundy is gorgeous. They ended up at Hopewell Rocks, where the tides are very dramatic. It was interesting to see the area they played on when they first arrived was soon under water.

Beach toys aren't as much fun on rocks

The beach is fairly rocky with mud instead of sand 

Soon after low tide

     And then turn to the right a little and look up to see this:

Grandma, Myla, and Hadley, chillin'

After a couple of hours they went up to the pavilion and got ice cream. Myla almost wore as much as she ate. Too bad there wasn't a dog nearby to clean up after her--it would have had a feast!

     Scroll up and see all the people walking around. That's all covered and these kayakers have taken their place. There were probably about 3 dozen people in kayaks. And there are still two more hours before high tide, when the water gets to the top of the black part of the rocks!

     There can be a difference of up to 46 feet from low to high tide in a little over 6 hours. The highest tides are during a full moon, so the difference wasn't quite that much while they were there, but it was still awesome!

     One more stop. This is one of our favorite stops--the inland lighthouse at the information centre at the border from New Brunswick to Nova Scotia. Every time we've gone past it, we've always stopped to take pictures.

     Then it was on to see Papa!


     More next week when Papa is in tow!




     We are thankful for the effort our kids put into keeping family ties strong.