Best Holiday Ever!

What a vacation! Our week at the Green Bay cottage was fantastic. So relaxing. We took LOTS of photos, so pull up a comfortable chair. I took the B&W ones, and Ali took the colour ones. I spent most of today adjusting the colour, but for some reason when you put them on the web it changes. Aargh. You'll get the idea, though. Here's the cottage we stayed in: the "Bonnie Dune".


There were some nice wild flowers in a coffee urn on the table when we arrived. Check out Flatbear. He'll make a reappearance later.


Our friends Charles & Kelly weren't there for the first few nights, but we had a nice woodstove to keep us company while we played Yahtzee and cribbage.



Monday was grey and a little rainy, but we walked down to the crossroads to meet up with Matt & Laura, who were in town from Toronto for a few days. There was plenty of nice scenery along the road.





NOT a Constable painting, believe it or not, but an actual photograph.

Matt & Laura showed up right on schedule and we all went into LaHave for some lunch at the bakery, followed by a walk through the Risser's Beach conservation area.




It was way too short a visit. We were all pretty bummed to have to part ways so soon.

The next day Charles & Kelly and their two little girls, Ava & Molly, arrived. We all went for a walk down the road to one of the many little beaches along the shore. For some reason neither Ali nor I got any decent shots of Kelly. I think she's got some pretty advanced camera-avoidance techniques going on.








They left again the next day to visit a friend, and Ali & I made a trip to Risser's Beach for some swimming in the surf. We'd been loaned a couple of bicycles by the super nice couple that owns the cottages. They only had one gear each, and it was a pretty high one, but we didn't mind standing up on the pedals.




That night we took a walk fairly far along the shoreline while the sun went down. It was gorgeous. Oh yeah, and that was one of the numerous after-dinner-ice-cream-cone-from-the-canteen nights.






I did a lot of this over the week, too. I actually read two entire books while there — unheard of for me. I don't know when's the last time I took less than three months to finish something. Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go was full of tightly controlled secrets like only his books are. Thanks for the recommendation, Mom & Papa. And Stephen King's On Writing was way more enjoyable than I had dare hoped. He's full of great advice, that guy. If only the samples of his own fiction he uses made you feel like the advice might lead somewhere worthwhile, it would be a really great book. I enjoyed the heck out of it, though.


Another day, we went for an even longer walk, with bikes, along the same shore. The path seemed to go on forever.



After awhile, we stopped for a snack and Alison had an impromptu photo shoot with Flatbear. The agency was not exaggerating: he IS an excellent model.









Further on, we found a patch of flowers just like the ones in the coffee urn, which had started to wilt, and picked a nice bunch for our dinner table.



The walk that night only went as far as the canteen for some more of their delicious ice cream, but the sunset was beautiful.


And then the next day, we got up in time to see an equally, if not more, beautiful sunrise.




After breakfast, we went for a fairly long ride to this little museum on the LaHave Islands that we always visit when we're in the area. It was a great day for it, and on the way back we rode along Crescent Beach. It's a kilometre-long, flat, white beach with sand that's hard-packed enough that people drive and bicycle on it.




Our friends came back just after lunch that day, and we went for another walk with Charles and Ava. She really liked climbing on the rocks, and didn't want to stop, even though we were going to the beach. We finally persuaded her and ended up building a pretty nice sand castle with her at Risser's (not pictured here).



Just before we left, Molly became semi-fascinated with Alison's shoes, for some reason.


Luckily, we got back just in time to see my sister Erika and her husband Mike and son Bennett. Spent a quality day with those three and their friends Davio and Julia, all of whom had been here on vacation for a week and were leaving the next day.







What a cutie that Bennett is. He had us eating out of his hand.

We'll actually be getting some more photos back later from our last beach visit, but that oughta hold you for now. I've pretty much spent all day getting these on this stinkin' thing. I guess I'm making up for a week with no modern technology. But now I'm off to sleep in my own bed. G'night!

- Andrew

P.S. Happy birthday, Granny Gwen!