Bay of Fundy and Northumberland Shore - May 2016

Our first roadtrip(ish - nothing is ever that far away in Nova Scotia!) of the summer was the bit of Nova Scotia northwest-ish of Truro.  Fossil central if the tourism brochure was anything to go by!


The drive up was punctuated by cute little towns - Great Village caught our attention - nothing like talking yourself up!  Was very cute and most of them had a least two overstuffed second hand shops that Matty had trouble driving past...

We stayed a couple of nights in a cottage just out of Parrsboro, thinking it was a good central place to base ourselves.  It was a very cute little place - 5 beds all squished into one room, with a second building tacked on the end for kitchen and bathroom.  It certainly did the trick tho :) 

We drove up to Joggins Fossil Cliffs and arrived just before opening.  We walked down to the beach and wandered along 'spotting' fossils along the way. it is renown for its fossilized trees which we were not too sure if we saw or not..  When the Visitors Centre opened we joined a walking tour down on the beach which was just brilliant.  In about 5 seconds and a metre or two form the stairs down our guide had pointed out a bunch of interesting fossils and really opened our eyes about what to look for a where!  She did say that the majority of fossils along this coast are flora - mega flora from the Coal age, when the place was a huge lush swamp.  There are remains of coal mines along the beach and cliff which the kids found interesting too!  My favorite (after the trees) was the caterpillar tracks made by huge (creepy) millipede type creatures who roamed around in the mud back then.  All in all a fabulous day!

 We visited the Cape d'Or lighthouse on our way back to the cottage - a nice little walk with gorgeous views.  Think we were all a little tired!

Next day we headed for Parrsboro.  First stop was the Fundy Geological Museum, which was kinda small, but what you would expect for Parrsboro!  We took a walk out to Partridge Island, climbing the hill and checking out the views from the other side.

 As we headed out the next morning we spotted a dsiplay of vintage cars and stopped for a look.  There was an old guy and his wife sitting nearby who explained that he was slowing doing up cars/trains/whatever he could find and every summer he displayed them on this little park area.  The kids had a great time climbing all over everything while Matt talked machinery with the bloke :)

 We drove on looking for a beach on the Northumberland Shore to have our lunch.  First place we tried was Pugwash, because lets face it, who wouldn't want to say they have been to Pugwash!  Truth be known we didn't even get out of the car, and beach spots along the Northumberland Shore proved to be few and far between!!  We drove on and on through Tatamagouche (yeah baby) and finally on till we were nearly in Pictou.  We turned off and drove out to Caribou Island where we thankfully found a beach to play on, with views of Prince Edward Island even :)  It wasn't the greatest beach, but the water was warmish and it had a bit of a boardwalk which the kids always love :)

 

We drove on.  The highlight of the drive to Stellarton was the Pictou Causeway and its 40 odd no stopping signs and the single lonely no parking sign.  Hilarious!  They obviously really really don't want people stopping there....

The Museum of Industry was the next (and last!) stop and was brilliant.  It is huge and full of all sorts of interactive displays.  We had a grand time pulling levers, pulling ropes, pushing buttons and trying our hand at any number of weird and wonderful activities. 

The entire second floor of the building is dedicated to coal mining and documents its history and the dreadful disasters that have befallen the industry in the area.  Very sobering...

 After all that it was a bit of a relief to get home and put our feet up! 

The slide into Spring - March/April 2016

 Matt found a pile of handy pallets (are there any other sort?) to lug home and make into things.  We all helped with the taking apart and the putting together :)

We made a roof rack for the kayaks (stylin!), a stack of planters for the back deck and an out door coffee table!  Is there nothing pallets cannot do!  I think the neighbours were impressed that we actually managed to get some reasonable looking things out of a stack off pallets!

True to form, as we were thinking the winter was done, and looking forward to some warm weather, we had another big snow event.  It was just gorgeous - Very pretty snow!

 Soon enough the snow was gone and it was time to start get back into all that stuff that we do when we can see the ground.  Amelia discovered a little pine in the backyard that had climbing potential, and climbed up and down and up and down, getting sap everywhere.  She was as pleased as punch!







After a bit of casting about we set off for our first Atlantic Canada beach experience.  Crystal Crescent Beach is about half an hour away from Halifax and is just gorgeous.  A bit chilly in April though!!  The kids of course seemed impervious to the cold (at least from the knees down) and we had a wonderful time exploring and hunting out sea glass for Owens collection.

 We dragged the bikes out and started getting our balance back again.  Owen came off training wheels and Alex (and Matt!) got into skids in the gravel in the carpark behind the house :)

 Our second (cold) beach excursion was another seaglass beach - McCormacks Beach - over near the Eastern Passage.  It was a bit cold and miserable so we hurried around, tried to enjoy the sun where we could find shelter from the wind, and found very little glass!

 Our resident squirrel seemed to come back to life around now.  We had seen very little of him over winter but he was now a regular sight out off the back deck.  the kids are still thrilled to see them and they are kinda cute!.

 A Mexican navy tall ship sailed into Halifax in May so we went down to have a look.  Again we were not really prepared for the cold winds, but had a good time checking out all the cool boat stuff and fabulous ropes!  The sheer scale of the masts was hugely impressive.

The team were in Halifax for their working group meetings so one night we went out axe throwing.  Was a awesome experience - not one that I'd do again in a hurry though!  They organised it as a competition between NZ and the Canadians, and while I cant remember who won in the end, a great night was had!

Easter at Butlers Lake - March 2016

 We couldn't think of any better place to spend Easter than up at Butlers Lake, so after a trip to Costco for essentials we were off.    Matt had his essentials ready to go - a 'growler' of beer from Cape Breton  - and put it to good use!
We lounged, read books, ate chips and watched for raccoons.

The dawn of the Easter egg hunt was an exciting one :)  The kids were amped and ready to go.  The eggs were all hidden down by the lake and we had a wonderful time hunting them all down.

Collecting done, we headed inside to check out the loot :)

Very exciting!

What seemed like a whole lot of eggs soon dwindled to three small piles of toys and a tub of easter eggs - including a bunch of marshmallow ones from NZ :)  We spent the rest of the day playing with toys, eating eggs and doing Easter related craft.

 This was eggs wrapped in silk ties  - think we need more practice!

 We braved the cold slightly miserable weather and spent a bit of time exploring around the cottage.  Amelia is so far very underwhelmed by the amount and quality of climbable trees.  She does her best with what she has ;)

All in all it was a fabulous long weekend - very relaxing!  Such a gorgeous spot....