Day 6 - St. Mary's

Wow...not a lot of time to write today. Yesterday was fantastic once again. We drove a short drive from St. Bride's to St. Mary's where Cape St. Mary's Ecologicial Reserve is located. UNBELIEVABLE!! Thousands and thousands of birds sitting on cliffs over the ocean. We did learn that the birds that hatched just yesterday and last wk will be flying to the Gulf of Mexico this fall in October or November. B/c their food supply is now diminished due to the oil spill, they are not expected to return next year. The wildlife officer there had just returned from a month in Louisiana looking over the spill and discussing the effects it will have.

The pics are of Big J trying Moose soup...it was yummy he said...Bird Rock at St. Mary's, our cabins at Celtic Rendizvous last night...looking right out at the ocean! AMAZING!!!! Look at that view!

I'll write more later...much, much to do!

I will attach pics and write more later.

Day 5 - St.Bride's

Wow...so much to write about. The St. Christopher was SO comfortable. I'm appreciating queen beds and good shower heads. I must be getting old now too.

We left Port Au Basques to begin our drive across Newfoundland. We stopped for pickup at Tim Horton's. That's a fabulous restaurant all around up here. They have wonderful, fattening things for breakfast. Cinnamon rolls, doughnuts, biscuits, etc. Unfortunately my crew has only had the doughnuts. But boy, are they good! After changing hands 2 times it was purchased by Dave Thomas of Wendy's.

The first part of Newfoundland was rocky, full of brooks with rocks in them and gorgeous mountains. It is just breathtaking. I do think our boys were very impressed. M's boys have been before but I am sure they loved seeing it again. We passed so many 4 wheeling Newfies along the road. I guess since it was Saturday they were adventuring in the woods. I think we tooted at most of them. They all waved. The people here are so nice. We do stick out with our accents - and I don't even think we sound southern.

We found a Ches' in Gander for lunch. They are known for their fish and chips. It was fried, fried and did I say fried? But, boy was it good. We all really need to exercise about at this point. I'm sure our rears are growing wider. We boogied on = fast. Everything here is in km...we try to convert and then just keep going. Most of the time we flew across Newfoundland, only we were in a car. The roads signs said, "Is this your rush?" It had a pic of a moose being hit by a car. We didn't see any moose but the scenery was awesome. I will attach pics but it is hard to do it justice. Right at the beginning there were the twin peaks/mountains and Table Mountains. They are just gorgeous mountains with rocks and trees. We did see some snow on the highest peaks on our drive. We passed some HUGE lakes. I mean huge! They seemed to go on forever. And the water in them...hard to describe...but almost cobalt blue. They are the most pristine lakes in color I have ever seen. Perfect firs surrounding blue, blue open water. I think we might have seen 1 boat out on them. (certainly no one skiing or wakeboarding) If they do that, it wasn't yesterday. We saw ski areas void of snow and men fly fishing. We tooted at them too. It was a fabulous drive.

Every now and then you would come to a small town. Little siding houses (haven't seen a brick one yet) painted very vibrant colors. You would think you were looking at a postcard. The houses are pink, red, green, blue, yellow, etc. We saw many traditional Salt Houses (certain architecture) with the Atlantic Ocean for their backyard. They are perched on high rocky cliffs jutting out of the Atlantic. You just cannot understand without seeing but we are sending pics. It is amazingly beautiful. How these people live here now and in the past years ago is just impressive. I'm freezing and it is their summer. My youngest saw some boys his age - yes, I know a few were 4 years = honest - riding 4 wheelers along the road. He about had a fit. :) They were the youngest I have ever seen. He kept saying, "see mom...I can do it by myself."

As we drove across Newfoundland we forked off and drove to http://www.birdislandresort/. It is a tiny 2 building "resort" located in St. Bride's, perched high above the atlantic. Check out the link to get the full effect. They boys ran wild since they had been couped up so long. If you check the link you will see a great panoramic shot. Our family and M's family are in the long building closer to the ocean and Mom and Dad are in the one with the front doors under the porch entrance. There are only 2 more rooms occupied where Mom and Dad are. Some BBC TV crews are staying while they film in St. Mary's. Other than that, the season hasn't started yet I suppose. It was cold when we arrived last night. Cold enough for jackets, hats and I'm wishing I had gloves. Right in front of our "cabin" at the "resort" you can walk down an old wooden staircase that is VERY steep and reach the ocean. No sand dunes here. The beach is covered with amazingly smooth rocks and stones. They remind me of the ones you see advertised for hot rock massages. The boys could not stop picking them up to save. They are cool to the touch, smooth and beautiful. Some have layers in them and they are so cool. We are definintely enjoying our visit here. They have a putt-putt course which my J plans to play tomorrow. We thought his golf coach would be impressed since it is right on the Atlantic Ocean. :) I can't say enough about the views here. They have a fireplace, picnic tables and a swingset for the children. It is really awesome! M loves this place and has stayed here before. I told her she really needs to try camping if she enjoys places like this. :) The only bad thing here is the water is brown. Very brown. The man said it is ok to drink and use and it's just the way their city water is. We are just using bottled water instead. ;)

We will play putt putt this morning, walk the beach some more and then head to Bauline East and stay at http://www.celticrendezvouscottages.com/main.asp?page=home. We will be there 4 nights while we visit Petty Harbor, Cape Spear and Cabot Tower. We will also visit family while we are there. Dad is from The Goulds which isn't far from there. Our drive today will be part of the Irish Loop. It should be very scenic. The weather this morning is cold (jackets and hats would be nice) and overcast. We are just lucky it isn't foggy. The man told us sometimes it is so foggy you can't see the ocean. Amazing since the ocean is RIGHT here.

Wish you all could be here in person. It is truly beautiful. After taking 5 days to get here...we are appreciating the views. :)

See you...

Day 4 - Ferry Ride

Our Ferry ride was great! It was a 6 hour ride. The pics above show the action. The weather was perfect and the boat was very empty. The schools here were still in through today so their tourist season is just beginning. M said she had never seen so few people on the boat. We had our area to ourselves which was very nice.

We came to our hotel, the St. Christopher, around 8:00pm and went to eat at a local joint called The Harbor House. It was fantastic. M's oldest, C, tried cod tongues and my little J had fried cod, chips and gravy. The rolls were to die for - homemade and DELICIOUS! I think we all had one. Everything was truly fabulous...even though our bill was $56.00+. Remember, this was a tiny little local restaurant...not fancy at all. Yikes. These boys are getting way to expensive. Tomorrow we will have to do bread and peanut butter. :)

Have a great night. Tomorrow our pics will be of our 10 hour drive across the island of Newfoundland. We can't wait. Oh, it is chilly here tonight. In fact, M's L said he could see his breath and something was wrong with that since it is June! :) It's brrrrrrrrrr cold! Brrrrrrrrr....

Day 4 - Newfoundland Ferry

Hello again! We have had a great day so far. The weather is perfect with blue skies and a nice breeze. We do need jackets but the sun is out. We were praying for no fog and rain. We are all waiting on the ferry to Newfoundland. It is delayed 2 hours at this point. Thankfully the boys are watching The Little Mermaid. (the older ones are really loving that) The drive from Port Hawkesbury to North Sydney, Nova Scotia was great this morning. We drove along a HUGE port/bay/lake the whole way.

Enjoy the pics...

How do you like the name of the 2 little restaurants beside the road? Interesting names...

And how about the Nova Scotia yard art? The pic shows wood carvings of all the Simpsons...great past time.

The line of cars pic is all of us waiting to get on the boat. There will be ~ 200 cars, 18 wheelers, vans and huge campers all on together. Big J even saw a load of steel on an 18 wheeler. We could barely contain him. Maybe we can move here after all. Bye bye 100 degree heat.

Day 3 - Bangor to Port Hawkesbury

Today was an awesome drive. Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are absolutely beautiful! We shared a great laugh when we were on hwy 9 and passed a rest area in Maine. It was a tiny, 6X6 shed that housed a bathroom.

We saw deer today but no moose yet. The landscape was hilly and mountainous mostly in Maine but flatter in New Brunswick. Nova Scotia got hilly and had high rocky moutains with fir trees and lakes everywhere.

We stopped off at Reversal Falls in New Brunswick. The tide from the ocean coming in the Bay of Fundy meets the St. John River, causing a whirlpool effect. It was really cool to see. The weather was rather chilly and drizzling a bit. The tide there rises 28 feet each day. Can you imagine?

We then stopped at Magnetic Hill. This is totally cool and we did it 4 times! You pay $5 per car and go to the bottom of a hill and then put your car in neutral and the car backs UP THE HILL by itself!!!! It was so much fun and we laughed and laughed. We can't tell the secret as to how it works. :) It even works for bikes and scooters.

We arrived at our destination around 8:30pm and found a great, new sub place that just opened yesterday. It was delicious. We actually tried to do KFC but it closed at 8:00pm. It seems most things here close by then. Alrighty then.

Tomorrow is the ferry to Newfoundland. Our boat leaves at 11:30. The ride over will be ~ 5.5 hours. We are very excited and can't wait. We will stay over after getting off the boat and then begin the 10-11 hour drive across Newfoundland early Saturday morning.

Have a great wkend and thanks for checking in on us! A special thanks to the commentors! We love to hear from you guys! The boys like to see who has written us!

Day 2 - Scranton to Bangor

Here we are...another hotel! It seems all we have done today is ride and eat. :) We drove from 7:00 am - 7:15 pm today. However, we had a great stop at a very large CABELA'S - Big J was thrilled! We shopped and looked around while we got a break from riding and then visited a golf store for Little J. All is well and we are having a great time riding, chatting, laughing and riding some more. I know in our van we laugh a good bit at ourselves and people beside us on the road. When we stop and unload we are quite the bunch- only 3 females out of 11. Very interesting...but bathroom stops are quicker that way. Here are some pics from today...enjoy! (they will get much more interesting...with the Newfoundland ones...until then these will have to suffice)

Good thing the Cabela man ran something in the first picture out to us or we would have been one van short...can you tell what it was?

Day 1

Today has been a very exciting and loooonnnnnggggg day! We left at 5:30 am and arrived at our hotel around 6:30pm. Here are some shots of our day.

We had to start off at Cracker Barrel. We then stopped for a quick break and a nice lady came over to point out this lovely bag full of toys someone in our extended group left on the sidewalk. Does anyone recognize it? ;) We had a great laugh over that.

Where do you think we ate lunch? My personal favorite...CHICK-FIL-A! It began to storm once we got inside but it stopped before we left. Great timing.

Just a few quotes of the day....

Around 10:00am Cole asked if it was still the first day. He said he was joking. Scary.

Finally around 6:00pm Cole said, "Are we there yet?" Thankfully we were almost there...13 hours later. Aghhhhhh!

We had a great dinner and some of us are swimming in the indoor pool, some are going to bed (did I mention we are traveling with some old people...)and some are playing poker. No surprise there! This hotel has a game room with a poker table so the boys think they are on the circuit.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to Bangor, Maine. It will be another long day! Today the drive was awesome! We saw rolling hills and beautiful farms.

Thanks for checking on us!

Hi there! Well, we are getting ready to get set and travel! The boys have been waiting for this trip for years and it is about to start. J has to play 18 holes tomorrow, we will then pack and leave early Tuesday morning. We can't wait!!