Month: June 2016

We spent last evening exploring the campground. Lots more people arrive now that it is the weekend and the public schools are out for the summer. We made some new friends and stayed out really late having fun.

B and I love the huge chair and the awesome playground.

The rec hall has a game I am really good at. It is a ring on a string that is attached to the ceiling and you have to swing it and try to get it to hook on a hook on the wall. I got it 5 times!

We wandered until sundown and then headed back to read more of Anne of Green Gables because we get to Prince Edward Island in August. The campground has a great swimming area that we hope to get into in the morning.

Today we started at a very large and crowded farmers market. We bought some berries, peas and bread. Mom got some Thai food too.

The Thai food came with a fork. A wooden fork. I wouldn’t let Mom use it because I thought it was cool. I kept it and will name it Fork-ee.

I am getting really good at sorting all of the trash here. The campground has bays of cans all labeled with what goes where. They really take it serious here.

The campground had a slip and slide this afternoon and I only did it once. I didn’t slide far because it didn’t have enough soap. Apparently later it had a LOT of soap! They also played a movie and B and I went and say some of that when Mom thought we were at the playground. It is quiet and safe and we are having fun exploring while Mom tidied up the motorhome.

We spent a while at the river beach during mid tide. We caught all sorts of snails, crabs and shrimps. I was teaching everyone about them. The girls flocked to me!

They had a yellow jumping dock too. I loved flying off on it.

We planned a campfire with s’mores and the bread we learned about in one of the Xplorer books. We got all ready and Mom was just about to go set up the wood and light the fire when a staff member came by and said its a no go. Apparently there is a fire ban effective last evening. They didn’t know about it until today. They were kind enough to take our wood back (we bought it from them) and refund our money. So we bought some Jiffy Pop and made that inside while watching Harry Potter and relaxing.

 

Tomorrow we move on to a new campground for a few nights in Amherst, Nova Scotia. We will be exploring the fossil cliffs.

 

Before the opera last night we were wandering town and ran into Henry again. He recognized us and sat and let us pet him for a while. Mom said he looks like storm but skinnier.

 

We checked out the tides before we headed into the theater for the evening.

This morning we were off to a late start after a late evening. We hiked 4 trails totaling about 6km. They were a bit shorter. There are only 9 trails in the park and 3 were too long to hike or required more gears like our water bags. It was fine as we really enjoyed the trails we did.

People were trout fishing along the river. We hiked along waving to them all until we got to Mill’s Falls. It was a cool wide waterfall.

We learned a lot about lichens. This is lung lichen.

I have no clue what this was but it looked neat.

We drove out to Eel Weir and saw the mi’mawq eel traps. They used to catch and smoke eel for food.

We had a great time learning about the changing, nomadic lifestyle. We worked on our books near the lake in the shade.

We hiked through an old farmland and saw a really old apple tree.

Some of the other trees were creepy. I was pretending that it was sucking me in.

Back at the motorhome we played outside for a while and made some new friends. We did some laundry and played at the playground too.

I pointed out all the tombstones to Mom that are behind our site. I am doing everything possible to avoid catching up my journal! EVERYTHING!

 

 

Visiting Port Royal was very fun and memorable. It was very empty when we arrived and we thought it may be closed. Suddenly the staff (dressed in period costumes) emerged from everywhere. We learned at Port Royal was used as a fun trading post and was established by Champlain. Even though the post lasted only 8 years before it was seized and burned it left a lasting make. Beaver pelts were a popular fur as well as wolf, moose, fox and deer.

We got to touch and feel all the pelts in the drying room.

There was a creepy wine cellar. The average person at the fort drank 3 liters of wine a day! No joke! How’d they ever get things done?

This fort that stands here today is a reconstruction based on some extremely detailed drawings and descriptions by Champlain himself. This room was the rope room. They made hemp rope. When the rope would wear it produced fibers that were used to caulk ships!

I was fascinated with all the beaver felt hats.

The loft where the workers slept was huge and resembled the inside of a ship. B and I enjoyed trying out the cots on the floor. They were straw type mattresses and terribly uncomfy for me, B loved them.

I fired fake cannons at the wigwam out back until i realized they were friend and not foe.

We learned from a great guide how they made shingles for the roof and also how they cut the long boards you can see over his head.

After the demonstration on the shingles we were each given one as a souvenir. I have named it shingle-ee and it is sleeping in my bed with me.

We also learned how the structures were built without nails. There are wooden pegs holding everything together and the structure could be disassembled and rebuilt in a new location if necessary.

These re the saw horses used for the long boards. The saw is proper against the front leg.

We earned another XPlorer dog tag and headed to the towns Historical Gardens. The gardens are rated #1 in Canada! We spent a long time wandering the paths. We saw plats we never knew existed or never though you could grow in Canada.

I loved the rose gardens.

I smelled everyone I could!

I didn’t smell this one because the bees were really buzzing on it.

As we walked we explored some of the dikes that replaced from the Acadian farmers. They were lowland people and build dikes to keep out the salt water. When he tides went out these wooden shoots would open and take the freshwater with them. They would close and not allow the saltwater to flow back. After rain and snowfalls this made the land free of salt and able to be farmed!

Yet again, more of my silly faces.

Last night after dinner Mom took us to an OPERA! It was Gilbert and Sullivans The Mikado presented as a concerto opera. That means that they didn’t have costumes and had a smaller crew. It was amazing and funny. I really enjoyed it a lot and asked when we could attend more programs like that. We sat in the 2nd row but wish we were a bit further back as we could only see noses of the performers sometimes.

This town is amazing. We feel like locals already. People are coming up to us that recognize us from around town as we are visiting. The owners of the campground we are at were attending the show as well and came over and talked for a while. Everyone seemed impressed that two kids attended the show. We were the only kids there. The theater is small and seats about 200 and was only half full. We learned that typically it is a locals thing and very few tourists take the time to attend.

 

Last evening we went on a lantern guided graveyard tour. Mom insisted it was a historical tour and not a ghost tour so we were okay with going. I was fascinated by the lantern (made in Tennessee). My hand stayed warm on the cool evening. We had rain earlier and were worried the tour would be canceled. We were told rain or shine so we went.

The guide was amazing. He is the founder of the tours and past president of the historical society. He really knew a lot about the area and history. Mom was very impressed that he knew days, tomb inscriptions, stories of the town.

The tour was not scary and in fact there were many funny moments. I stuck close to Mom just in case. We walked through the graveyard between head and foot stones and learned about the history. We saw the oldest gravestone in Nova Scotia.

We learned a story of a man who’s wife died at age 37 and then second wife at age 37. People has large families, this one 21 kids! We learned bout the significance of the carvings on the tombstones.

I was all ears when they talked bout cleaning and preserving the stones. Some of them looked like tables! They even had pedestal legs like tables. As we walked a lightning storm get closer and closer. I got nervous and insisted that if we see lighting and hear thunder there is NO reason we should be walking a graveyard amongst all the trees while we are on a hill!  The guide hurried things along and we got back to Fort Anne visitors center just as the skies started to open! We made it to the car without getting too soaked. Mom said the drive back to the campground (a whole 3km) was white knuckle. She couldn’t see the lines on the road the rain was so hard.

Today we wandered downtown Annapolis Royal. We saw a lighthouse that looked identical to the one at Cape Enrage near Fundy. We learned that it is int he process of being restored for the towns 150th anniversary next year. We took another tour. This time it was a historic walking tour of downtown. Amazingly it was the same guide! He does have such a passion for the town.

Before the tour we killed some time at the boardwalk looking at the water level to compare to high tide later this evening. The wind was strong and I kept jumping into the air and seeing if it would carry me away. No luck!

Mr. Alan taught about the native people, the Mi’kmaq. We learned that the Acadians and the Mi’kmaq peacefully shared the land but the French and British were the ones causing all the troubles!

We enjoyed the cool breeze and we learned about the significance of the buildings and about a fire started by a young man who wanted to know how fast the fire department would arrive in 1922. The fire destroyed half the city.

 

 

 

We departed halifax in the morning and stopped on the way to Annapolis Royal at the Grand Pre National Historic Site.  We watched a video and learned about the Acadia people (with were French neutral) were forced from their homeland. The area of Nova Scotia (New Scotland) was greatly fought over for years. This area is the homeland with many things rebuilt after it was burned to the ground by the British.

The place is magical almost. I said it looked like Narnia! The trees were huge, the gardens were beautiful and the sun was shining.

Behind me you can see some of the fields that were created when they built the dikes. The dikes allowed the land to be used for farming. Many of the dikes built in the 1700 and 1800s are still standing today!

See what i mean about the huge trees. This one was 4 people around. Around we measured was 5.

We had a great time learning about the history of Grand Pre’. We loaded back up in the motorhome and Mom drive us to the campground in Annapolis. B helped Mom unhitch the car and park the motorhome. He is helping out a lot when Dad is out of town for work meetings. We explored the campground and found a cool playground and a near pier out on the water. They also have chickens. One of the chickens had escaped and we went and told the staff. The staff is so kind here. They also have a male and female bunny. They have 5 babies. So far we have only seen two and boy are they adorable!

We visited the ONLY tidal generated power station in North America. The 50 foot tidal flux allows for some power potential. Sadly, it is too hard on most of the turbines and one propeller another place installed was shredded to pieces after 3 tide fluxes!

Next we went to Fort Anne. It was another fort like the Citadel in Halifax. This one was attacked 13 times and changed hands several times. This is important land and historically was fought over often.

I tried on some period clothing and played with some native drums.

We explored the property and loved the Black Hole. Well, I didn’t love it. I was scared that Mom was going to close the door and lock us in! It was once a power magazine but it was too humid and damp so it was turned into a dungeon of sorts.

We had to, as part of the XPlorer program, search the graveyard for angles, animals, scary things and a grave that looked like a table. Tonight we will go back for a lantern tour after dark! SPOOKY!

We wrapped up the stop at the real powder magazine. It is the oldest standing structure that is part of Parcs Canada. It was built in 1708!