Life in a Small Town: July 2020

Well! I haven't participated in this in quite some time. Joyce is back at the Wednesday Hodgepodge! She gives us some questions to answer, then invites us to link up with other bloggers to see what we have in common with each other.

1. The sweetness of summer...where have you found it recently? If you're in the Southern hemisphere, feel free to tell us about the sweetness you're finding in winter.

Kicking back, nowhere to be, and eating melons!

2. Take your sweet time, sweet tooth, home sweet home, short but sweet, the sweet smell of success, sweet talk...choose a sweet idiom and tell us how it fits your life currently?

"Take your sweet time". It's summer!

3. Sweet as honey, sweet as sugar, or sweet as pie, which phrase do you use when a sweet phrase is called for? What's the last sweet treat you indulged in?

Sweet as honey. I may have snuck a cookie (just one, though!) after lunch one day. For the past month, I've been trying to eat like I know I should to keep my sugar in check.

4. First thing that comes to mind when you hear the word fidget?

Those crazy fidget spinners that were so popular a few years ago!

5. Share with us one of your favorite childhood travel memories.

We would travel to Texas every other year to see family. One year, my dad had this idea to save money on the way down and camp. It would have been great except that there was a horrendous rain that night and the campground flooded. So, we packed up and got back on the road. It was kind of scary (especially when my mom drove!) but nice to get to my aunt's house ahead of schedule.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It's so good to get back into the Hodgepodge! Just in time for school to start back up...teachers go back in a week and the kids come back (staggered for the first week) the week after. I know this is very controversial, but I'm looking forward to seeing my students in school & getting back to a regular routine. Am I scared or nervous? No, not a bit!

A "bonus" random:

I've been slowly (veeerrrry slowly!) recapping our vacation from 2019 to the Canadian Maritimes. To check it out, click on the "NH & Canadian Maritimes" tab at the top of this page. I hope to have several more entries soon so I can start on an adventure we hope to have in 2021!

After a couple of days in St. Martins, it was time for us to move on to Prince Edward Island (PEI). On our way, we had to stop at Hopewell Rocks for one more walk on the ocean floor. We timed it just about right at low tide. It was raining off and on when we got there; I put on my rain boots and it wasn't a problem at all. We actually arrived around 10:00 (I think it was!) so it wasn't very crowded. When we left, though, people were starting to come in.

Our first glimpse of the ocean floor at Hopewell Rocks.

Another selfie from the ocean floor

Parts are roped off due to erosion of the rocks

Every corner you turn you see something spectacular!

The rocks in the next 2 pictures were pretty cool. It's amazing how the rocks just fell where they are due to the erosion.

"Flower Pots" everywhere!

We talked about stopping in Moncton to test out Magnetic Hill but then decided to just go on over the bridge to PEI. It sounds cool: when you put your car in neutral, it appears to travel up the hill. A novelty, for sure, but we didn't think it was worth our time to do it.

More empty promises!

We drove over a long bridge to Prince Edward Island. The crazy thing is that you don't have to pay anything to get to the Island, but you do have to pay to leave.

Our first order of business was setting up camp. CH found the perfect campground for us. We were right across from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The only reason we weren't in a spot right on the Gulf was because of bank swallows nesting.

Camp was set up just in time...we had some sprinkles right after we finished.

Ready for some bank swallow pictures? They are a tad blurry because they are quick little birds! I basically just pointed my camera and held the button down. I checked the pictures later; I figured I'd get at least one in one of the shots! (You may have to click on the picture to really see it!)

So many nests and this wasn't even 1/3 of them!

The campground had a nice little beach area. I took a walk just at sunset. It was overcast but no beach trip is complete without a sunset picture!

I thought this shell was really cool...it looked like it had a snowflake etched into it.

The big attraction that I wanted to see: Anne of Green Gables House.

Anne!

It was so cool to walk through the Haunted Wood Trail and hear the little girls and their moms talk about the book while they were walking along.

At the end of our time there we had a snack of Beaver Tails (which were delicious!) and Raspberry Cordial.

I read about PEI Dirt Shirts online and thought it would be cool to go by and see what the hype is all about.

These shirts are actually washed in PEI red dirt! The owners' son was running the place when we were there.

On our way back to the campground we took a little drive and ended up seeing this:

Not quite Hopewell Rocks, but it was a nice surprise! I wish we had more time on PEI, but we had a reservation at an Airbnb to keep in Nova Scotia. We loaded up the next morning and headed toward the ferry for another Canadian Province.