Family Vacation 2016....Part 2....Prince Edward Island

From Maine we traveled into New Brunswick and headed toward Prince Edward Island.  We took the Confederation Bridge across into PEI.   This is an 8 mile long bridge and the longest bridge that goes over ice covered waters (think "winter").  Both days that we crossed were rainy and somewhat foggy so I cheated and found this picture online.

We camped at Cavendish National Park which is a very nice campground just a few minutes walk to the beach.  Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we arrived and we enjoyed a beautiful evening watching the sunset on the beach.

 Cavendish Beach

The next morning we went to the Anne of Green Gables Heritage Place.  This was NOT the place where the movie was filmed so the expectation of this was disappointing.  This WAS the area that the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, was raised and this was the setting that inspired her writing of the books.  This place originally belonged to one of her relatives.  

Of course, we had to try some!

We spent the afternoon enjoying the beach.  It was a perfect day!  It was cool enough that this gang who is used to HOT felt like it was too cold to swim.  The water temp felt about the same as the ocean temp is here in June.  This water is the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Playing spike ball

Devan found this rock full of holes and there were baby shrimp hiding in the holes....at least that's what they looked like to us.

Further up the road, there were cliffs along the shore.  We found it amazing that in some places they farm pretty close to those cliffs....in other words, not a lot of marsh or dune areas.

PEI is known for growing potatoes.  We had to take at least one picture of a field with the red dirt. PEI is very rural with lots of farming...mostly potatoes and wheat (or barley maybe?)  With the farming and the water (aka fishing) Lyn said he knows where he would move depending on how the elections turn out....

It was kinda a shock for us Delawarians to realize that their tourist season is not at all like our beach tourist season.  Very peaceful!

Almost forgot......It was at this campground in Cavendish that we were awakened in the middle of the night by this noise outside our camper.  SOMEBODY had left the trash out.....and SOMETHING was in it.  The father of the bunch arose to see what was going on.  He opened the camper door and saw a masked face and as he was trying to shoo it away, another one of the culprits came from the other way and jumped up on our camper step (while Lyn was standing there with the door open!).  After Lyn's reaction, EVERYONE in the camper was awake.   Lyn stepped out of the camper on top of the picnic table with the raccoons still under it feasting on trash.  Taking a hot dog stick he reach under and smacked it; at which time Renae loudly proclaims "Oh he hit it..."  The raccoon snarled and snapped and finally took off for the woods.  By now, the neighbors lights were a testament that they were awake as well. It was the next morning we discovered that they had also gotten into the cup with the 2 sea urchin shells and crushed them.  We had them outside because they were starting to smell a bit rank.  Too bad; they would have made a better souvenir than a raccoon on a hot dog stick!

Family Vacation 2016....Part 1....Maine

For our family vacation this year, we decided to head up to Maine and into Canada.  We pulled our pop up camper and camped for 9 nights at 5 different campgrounds (got a motel the last night).

It wasn't without its moments of stress, but all in all we had a nice time.  The weather wasn't always great but it could have been worse.  The 4 rainiest days were all days that we were traveling most of the day anyway, and the days in between were gorgeous.  There were 4 different areas that we visited so I will attempt to give highlights of each place.

The first day we drove to Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor, Maine, which are located on Mt. Desert Island.  Acadia is one of the highest visited National Parks in the U.S. and it was peak tourist season.  Even so, it is a very nice area and we would love to go back sometime and stay longer.

The morning started out foggy and we couldn't even see the water, but we had high hopes that the fog would burn off and headed toward Sand Beach.  We weren't there to swim but to explore some of the trails that went out to a point beside it.

These 2 points of land made a little cove which was Sand Beach 

(orginal name, huh?)

The waves were mesmerizing to sit and watch as they crashed on the rocks.  The kids had fun looking in crooks and crannies for sea life left behind (the tide was going out).

Renae found a shell from a sea urchin.  

(Which got destroyed later by a raccoon!)

*refer to Prince Edward Island post

They found several sea stars.  This was the biggest.

The water is so clear.  The plants are out of the water, but the sea star is in.

Otter Point area

This is on top of Cadillac Mt. - the highest point on Mt. Desert Island

In the evening we drove down to the touristy town of Bar Harbor. We enjoyed ice cream and walking around the tourist shops.

For us Delawarians who are used to summer tourists, it really didn't seem too crazy.  It probably helped that we were there midweek!

Catching up....

In going through my pics, I see that there are a few things I've missed along the way.  On the way to RBC in May, we stopped at Cooper's Rock in WV for a quick hike.  We never have time to stop and it really is a nice short hike with neat rocks and just minutes off the main road.

The reason we were going to RBC was to witness Ericka graduating with her 1 yr. certificate in Biblical studies.  We also needed to help bring some of her things back and a board member needed to be there to be a part of the grad as well, so Lyn figured this would be a good year for him to take his turn.

We also were able to spend a few days at Rocky Gap State Park in June.  It's near Cumberland, MD and a place where Lyn has memories of going in his childhood/teen yrs.  We strayed off the beaten path and found a hidden spot that he remembered from way back then.  It was a creek cutting through rock and lots of mountain laurel.  Beautiful! 

Never mind that on our way there 2 kids and almost the 3rd stepped off a rock and right over top of a small rattler!

Topsy Turvy

Not trying to make light of a very scary situation......this is how the kids found themselves on the way home from school on May 3rd.  We are praising God for his protecting hand on them!

There were 7 children all under the age of 18 in this van.  The 17 year old driver pulled out in front of an oncoming car....he somehow thought the car was turning.  The oncoming vehicle hit right at the wheel which took the brunt of the crash.  Because they were angling a bit as they crossed the intersection, only the right front of the pickup hit them rather then the whole front end which would have then included the side door.  Renae was sitting by the side door and Devan by the rear wheel.  Things could have been so different!  The truck hit and spun them, and then the van caught an edge and flipped to the side and then onto the roof.  They had their seat belts on.  They all crawled out with only a few scratches and bruises.  Dwight had scratches on his knee and elbow that were bleeding.

The other amazing thing is that the mother of one of the kids was several cars back at the intersection.  She heard the crash and realized that she was going to be sitting for a while.  As she was trying to turn around and go another way, she saw there were kids in the car and realized that one of them was her kid!  We were so thankful that she was there so quickly.

All the windows were busted except the one side door and the front windshield.  They were just leaving the stop sign so they didn't have much of their own momentum and landed not far from the site of impact.  The van landed the opposite way than they were heading.

I think this will make a lasting impression on each one of the kids....and that is a good thing, I think. We are so grateful for God's protection!

March Birthdays

 Darryn & Ericka were home right in between their birthdays.  We had a cake & homemade ice cream party for them.  We did celebrate Dwight's birthday on the 23rd but waited for his cake on this night too.

Happy 16th, Dwight

Happy 19th, Ericka

Happy 21st, Darryn

This pic is a bit blurry but I like the haze effect from all the blown out candles.

Sweet Sixteen - This boy now has his driving permit!

Trying out Darryn's new gift - his own spike ball set

This gang had a roaring game of Dutch Blitz going! 

L to R, Mary Troyer (friend), Ericka, Amanda Hardesty (friend) holding Kayla's baby Riley, Kayla (cousin), Kevin (cousin), Taylor (friend), Krista (friend), and Darryn

Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C.

Since Darryn & Ericka were home for a long weekend over Easter weekend, we decided to go to Washington D.C. on Good Friday.  Darryn brought his friend, Krista, home with him and he wanted to "go do something."  We have never been to see the "famous" cherry blossoms in downtown D.C. and since it happened to be peak season, we decided this was our year.

We drove into the city, found a place to eat lunch, and then did a bunch of walking.  There were people, people everywhere but the blossoms were pretty!

The kids - the Washington Monument is in the opening

The parents

Darryn & Krista

Having fun!

We walked past the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument and ended up at the Air & Space Museum.  It was packed as were the rest of the best museums.  We were so tired from all the walking and the museum was so warm and full that we decided to get tickets to the IMAX movie for a rest.  

Jefferson Memorial

Thomas Jefferson himself

On the walk back to the car, the sun came out a bit.  There are cherry trees completely surrounding the Tidal Basin which connects to the Potomac River.

Glad we were able to take the time to "smell the cherry blossoms."