Maritimes - Summer 2008
July 5 - 25, 2008
Day 1 - July 5: Grand Falls & Bear Island
We headed out on our Maritime vacation just before midnight on the Friday hoping that we'd get a good bit of driving done while the kids were sleeping. We didn't count on how excited Sam would be about this night driving adventure and she was chatting non-stop even while we were stuck in traffic for about an hour around 2am due to contruction on the bridge in Montreal. We also didn't count on the car breaking down on our very first day... more delays while we got the power steering belt replaced. We decided to have a late picnic lunch in Grand Falls and stretched our legs while doing a couple of earthcaches as well as regular caches. Of course with all the delays we only got to our destination campsite quite late in the day... and sure enough, it was full. A bit of a disappointment since all day we'd been hyping up Mactaquac campground (Samantha thought the name was hilarious)... lesson learned. So we ended up heading back a bit and camping at a private campsite, Bear Island. We're not much for the private campgrounds with pools and games rooms and campers that are like mini cottages all parked next to one another but thankfully we ended up in a field at the end of the campground all by ourselves. Christopher didn't quite grasp the idea of going to sleep in the tent and finally we decided we were tired enough that we'd just go to bed at the same time as the kids. It was a bit of a rocky start to our vacation and the night in the tent with Christopher wasn't too restful either!
At around 8am, Samantha finally falls asleep...
...while Christopher is now wide awake!
Time for a Big Stop breakfast!
Christopher thinks 6 teeth are enough for some diabolical ribs.
Why is Rubby driving with the power steering belt in his hands?!
Christopher decides it's a great time for a snack of fishies.
Earthcache number 1: Grand Falls. Featured are 2 falls in the same area that were created by 2 different processes... one by water flowing over drop created by a fault line; the other by softer rock being eroded away and creating a drop.
Sam finds a regular cache too.
The bridge with another viewing platform.
Another view of the bridge.
The falls are looking pretty spectacular today.
Sam spots another cache.
Rubby contemplates a potential perch... ;-)
The cachers head off to their next destination.
Further down the river we come to Earthcache number 2... wells in the rocks.
Lots of stairs!
Strawberries!
Samantha and Rubby check out one of the 'wells' and try to guess its depth.
The rock cliffs are amazing.
Panoramic view of the river.
[ click here to view a larger view of this panorama photo ]
We've dubbed the rocks with the white lines 'silly string rocks'.
Samantha and Rubby found a puddle to play ploumps in.
The cliffs are all layers of rocks.
A harebell manages to grow among the rocks.
One last photo before its time to get back in the car.
Our campsite at Bear Island...
not very sheltered so we were thankful not to have any neighbours!
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