Whale Watching

One of our other day trips was a whale watching trip.  We had to take a scenic drive through the country side and take two ferries with our car all the way to Brier Island.  

Waiting for the first ferry.

When we arrived at Brier Island, we were about an hour early for our whale watch. We had packed a lunch and found a real nice spot that overlooked the bay.

Lucas took this picture....

We were the only Americans at our campsite.  However, on this whale watch, almost everyone was from the States.  There was even another set of (six year old boy/girl) twins on the boat.

We saw so many whales...or maybe we only saw a few many many times.  Either way, there was much to see.

My camera died on the trip....but how many pictures of parts of whales did I need?  Right before we headed back to the harbor, two whales jumped up , flipped and crashed back down.  It was absolutely amazing.  Apparently it is called a double breach.  It looked just liked this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdz_hE1MT8

It was pretty amazing to see, and I probably would have missed the beauty of it if I was trying to take a picture of it.

We got back real late, arriving at the campsite after nine.  I cooked up a quick dinner and we ate by the fire.  

Halifax/Peggy's Cove

We took a few day trips off the campsite while in Nova Scotia.  The third day there is was supposed to rain, so we decided that it would be better to do some site seeing in the rain rather than sit in the tent and stare at each other.  

We drove to Halifax and enjoyed a nice lunch down by the harbor.  It is a  pretty happening place as this is near where all the cruise ships come in.  They had a great playground with a huge whale the kids could climb up and slide down.

After lunch it was off to Peggy's Cove.  It's  a cute little fishing town with a famous lighthouse.

There were so many rocks to walk amongst.  It was a little treacherous with the twins at times.

We got back to the campsite only to find rain.  Apparently it rained all day there (it never actually rained in Halifax or Peggy's Cove)  I abandoned the idea of cooking in the rain and we went out for pizza.  

That night it poured....and I mean torrential downpour.  From about 11 pm to 6 am.  The winds picked up after midnight, and apparently reached 55 mph.  It was crazy.  The tent was staked and anchored in the ground, but the sides of the tent were bending in on us and shaking all night long.  The kids slept through the whole thing.  So did Felix except for the times I was so freaked out, I woke him up.  I myself slept maybe two hours.  In the morning, our tent was dry and intact. Many people lost the tops to their tents and a lot of people were drying out their tents the next morning.   A big fan of Coleman camping equipment now!

Hopewell Rocks

Before heading to Nova Scotia, we decided to backtrack about 40 minutes to visit Hopewell Rocks.  Its a rock formation site that is completely drained during low tide and then the water rises dangerously high (if you didn't get out in time, you would drown) as the tide comes in and most of the rock formations are covered.  There is a clock and warning that tells you when to come back up off the rocks to avoid being caught in a dangerous situation.

Since the tides rise so high, we had to walk down a huge scaffolding of stairs to get to the ocean floor.  You can see the floor down below Lucas' shoulder.

And then we got down....Lucas was in amazement of how tall the rocks were.

Its hard to describe, but when the tide rises, most of those rocks would be covered.

See how the green water line is about 10-15 feet ABOVE my head on the rock to the right?  Water goes all the way up there.

Liliana climbed all the way up here by herself and Felix scurried up shortly after.

Its about a 15 min hike down to the water, and after exploring, we hiked back up, had a quick snack and jumped in the car.....off to Nova Scotia!

Norwalk to Moncton

We left around 3:30 am on our first day and headed north.  We made it to Maine just as the sun was rising.  By the afternoon we had crossed the Candian border, and after almost 10 hours in the car, we stopped in Moncton where we stayed the night.  We felt the need to stretch our legs, so we headed downtown, by the waterfront and took in the sites a bit.

We happened upon this skateboarding park by the water.  Want to entertain 4 year olds?  Take them to a skateboard park...they were fascinated!

Sono (South Norwalk) Arts Festival

Every year South Norwalk has an arts festival that lasts all weekend.  Saturday is was a bit wet, but it wasn't actually raining when we went, and it kept the crowds away.

There was a music school there and they let Lucas try out a violin.

They also had an SUV that the kids could paint....anything and anywhere they wanted...pretty funny.

On Sunday the weather was so much nicer.  The kids brought their masks that they made the day before.  

We got stuck waiting for the bridge.  Boats needed to pass.

But we made it time for the puppet parade.  Each kid (and adult) got to choose a puppet or mask and walk in the parade, which was lead by African drummers...it was pretty cool.

That's Felix...

Lucas...

And Liliana, dancing wildly to the beat of the drums.  Hundreds of people were there watching us...Liliana was waving the whole time.

Dinner at the beach

Summer is fading, I can feel it.  The weather is a bit cooler, and all I have to do is blink and school will be starting.  But while its still here, we headed to Compo for dinner with the Lewertoffs.  There were literally hundreds of people there with the same idea.  Kids playing while the sun goes down....and still warm enough!

Thank you notes...

I won't be able to blog for about two weeks, so I want to post all the current material.  Here the twins are writing their thank you notes for Nana.  She was nice enough to bring back Disney dolls and books about Alaska back from their cruise.  I did the same stencil format, but this time they had to trace the whole letter. They did this while I cooked dinner the other night.   It made me realize that this is what life will look like in a few years when they have HW...yikes!

A visit to Aba

Aba is very sick and while Felix is able to see her quite regularly since he is in the city, we don't get down as often.  But in the summertime we have more time, so we have been able to get down to visit more often.  

Lucas wanted to bring his recorder so he could play for her.

He also showed her how to play some of his favorite games on Felix's phone.

Here Liliana is playing the recorder for her.

These visits are nice, but also sad in a way.  However, each time we go, her face seems to light up when she sees the twins.  That enough is worth any amount of sadness.

Sweet Frog

When we were at the pool the other day (when are we not at the pool?) employees from Sweet Frog, a new yogurt shop, were handing out coupons for free frozen yogurt.  I took the twins over yesterday and they had a blast.  It's a self serve place where you can make all different combinations of yogurt.  And they have some crazy toppings (even Lucky Charms!)

BTW, the Frog is Sweet Frog, stands for Fully Rely On God.  Apparently, it is a Christian company. All over the east coast.  Who knew