Our trip to Nova Scotia

Chronologically, this post should have been done earlier, but we are just getting settled in and getting rested from the trip to Canada. We had 2 weeks in White Point Beach cottages and had a good variety of visitors. We enjoyed good visits with the grandsons, Aiden and Blake. Tarra and Jeff came with the boys for 2 days/nights and then left the boys with us for 2 more nights. We had to go back to Halifax for various appointments for Barb for 1 day. We stayed that night with Matthew and Ange in Halifax while Jeff and Tarra returned to White Point to stay with the boys and we returned for 2 more days with all the family. Thus, virtually all the first week the boys were at White Point. They loved the swimming pool and playing on the beach; of course, they liked the bunnies although most of the latter were not too interested in the rabbit food; I expect it is because in the summer with so many other kids, they are too well fed. Aiden is trying to attract one with only limited success in the photo. However, later he was a bit more successful with another bunny.

In the photos, you can see Aiden with the train sweater that Barb had knitted. That one is actually for Blake as Barb had also knitted one with a backhoe for Aiden. The photo with Blake has him with one of the laughing monkeys that Barb found in Mexico City while we were waiting for 5 hours for our flight to Toronto. Until the batteries run down, I expect that Jeff and Tarra have been driven crazy.

On Saturday after one week, we had to move to a second cottage. That went well as we only had to move a short distance down the street.

Later that day, Emma and Sonya arrived from Middleton in the Annapolis Valley for lunch and a short afternoon visit; Matthew and Ange arrived the same afternoon to spend 2 nights over the weekend. Matt and Ange had both had busy times getting ready for the beginning of their vacations and we were all happy to spend a relaxing time talking, especially about their baby due in January. That, of course, is very exciting for us all. On Monday, we had to go to Halifax again for more appointments. That turned into an adventure. After 2 morning appointments, we had a break until another appointment at 3 p.m. in Dartmouth. To pass the time, we decided to go to Starbucks in the new outlet shopping centre at Dartmouth Crossing to get coffee and to go online. After doing her email, Barb handed the computer to me and said she wanted to drive to the other end of the area (it is very spread out) to one of the stores. Navigating to and in Dartmouth Crossing is not easy as it is very confusing. I was dubious, but she assured me that she would be back by 2:45. To make a long story short, in driving back, Barb took a wrong turn and got on an exit which took her out onto the freeway. She had a very difficult time getting back in and returning to Starbucks. In fact the little over half a kilometer distance took her almost 45 minutes. It ended up making us 30 minutes late for our 3 p.m. Fortunately, Jeff Schlew, an old friend of Barb’s, still fitted us in. However, we were both thoroughly frazzled. Fortunately, we had a quiet night when we returned to White Point.

The next day, Tuesday, our friends Kate and Jack arrived to spend a day and night with us. We enjoyed sharing our experiences since they left Mexico in April, but realized that it would only be 3 months until they returned to Ajijic. They are looking forward to that, although recently the weather in Halifax has been much better than when they first arrived back. On Thursday, Dawn and Gorden arrived to spend a night. In addition to the time and visit at White Point, we were invited to dinner at their newly finished, enlarged house on our way back from White Point at the end of our timeshare on Saturday. Back in Halifax we spent the next 4 nights at Wendy’s house. It worked well. On Sunday with us in the house to look after the dog and cat, Wendy and Greg were able to spend an entire day and night (their 40th wedding aniversary) on their boat in Chester; we saw many of our friends in the Brunch Club for Sunday brunch. In the afternoon, Jess and Dave came down from Shubenacadie for a visit. Dave has been invited to perform at a large folk music festival in Toronto in September. On Monday, we went to Chester to spend several hours with Wendy and Greg sailing around some islands near Chester. It was a perfect day with enough wind to allow us to sail--my first experience of sailing. The next day, we went a short distance farther to Mahone Bay to where Matthew and Ange were in their boat. We had another several hours sailing in perfect weather and Matt let me steer for a while. It was only as we were returning to shore to where our car was that it clouded over and later began to rain. That evening, our last in Nova Scotia, Greg and Wendy had most of their kids and grandkids to their place for hot dogs and hamburgs (the latter were among the best I've ever had and I had 2!).

As you can see, it was a very busy time, but we did get to see all the family and many of our friends in this relatively short 3 weeks.