Porters in Canada! or, "The Great August Adventure", Act IV

Look!  Porters in Canada!

As I sit in my own house, enjoying the relative quiet of early morning Monday, I feel as though this little family of four just emerged on the other side of a marathon.  An August adventure relay-marathon, if you will.  Or, perhaps more accurately, we just completed the final act of an epic four-act play: one that was set simultaneously in the far reaches of the country, and culminated in a last hurrah back at home.  Juniper blogged last week about the kids' New Brunswick adventure, which I think we can accurately dub Act I.  Today, I'll skip ahead, and offer Act IV: "Porters in Canada!" If we can get it together, Clark and I will respectively post acts II and III later this week: ("Vancouver Adventure" and "Arctic Adventure").

Juniper, Helen, Linden and Eli, all grown up

So, for context: a little over two years ago, we said goodbye to our many dear friends and happy life in Woods Hole (Cape Cod, Massachusetts), to head back to Canada. Before we left, however, I started dropping hints that we would LOVE visitors up north.  This summer, some of our best friends took us up on the offer - Kellie, Ben, Helen and Eli made one very epic 3-day road trip from Falmouth, MA, to Dartmouth NS.  

All's well in Eli's world, as long as there is a fleet of Hot Wheels at the ready

It was, in many respects, a huge undertaking: not only was this the first time ever visiting Canada for 3/4 of the Porters (Ben had been when he was a kid), it was also their first family road-tripping vacation.  Plus, timing was starting to look hairy - when we had originally planned this adventure, Clark was supposed to have been back from the Arctic for over a week. As it turned out, however, the kids and I made it back to Nova Scotia two days before the Porters arrived, and Clark literally flew in at 11:30pm the night before they got here.  Whew!

Two gorgeous girls

 Though they were only here for three nights (two full days), I have to say it was pretty much a perfect visit.  It felt like it went by in a flash, I  think three nights was just the right of time for the kids (Helen and Eli are almost-7 and 3, respectively) -- especially with all the car travel on either end. The four kids got along famously (which was, of course, not a given - 2+ years is a whole lot of time apart when you're that young), and played happily pretty much the whole time. Juniper and Helen, in particular, were besties almost immediately.

Windy day walk, with books in hand.  

Considering the fact that the Porters (understandably) had no desire to spend any more time in the car than necessary, our adventures were pretty much exclusively in and around Dartmouth and Halifax.  The library, the Discovery Centre, the ferry, the waterfront... all the highlights (from our perspective, anyway).  Then, when the kids went to bed, the grown-ups got to chat, watch movies, and drink local micro-brews (and in Ben's case, keep careful notes on said beer). It was SUCH a treat.  We were incredibly honoured that they actually made the journey -- we've already started cooking up plans for the next adventure!  Here are some photos:

Yup.  We offer some raucous adventuring. But... seeing as Kellie is a librarian, I think this was right up everyone's alley.  Plus, the new Halifax Library is really something to behold.

Eli honestly had some internal homing mechanism, that led him straight to the truck books.  Ben obliged and made his way through them.

Though it looks as though Ben and Winston Churchill are having a staring contest, this is actually Ben (an avid birder) examining some local pigeons with his ever-present binoculars (while simultaneously piggy-backing Eli).  Good thing: Churchill would have won that staring contest, hands down.

The girls narrowly escape being this T-Rex's lunch-time snack

Is there anything more exciting than the Bernoulli Effect in action?

Pilot Juniper

We just happened to be home one day when our awesome firefighter-neighbour Joe pulled up in a HUGE tactical fire truck.  It was of course incredibly exciting, and look what the kids got as souvenirs!

Waiting for a bus

The wave photoshoot: Helen and Juniper...

... Juniper takes her own shot...

... and I sort of get all 4 kids.  Eli is clearly in danger of falling asleep

Eli's awesome star pants photobomb this shot of Clark and the kids

Some much anticipated waterfront icecream

Oh look - the kids were painted into one of Maud Lewis' pieces of art!

Sketching the ferry, while on the ferry

Checking out the roiling harbour from behind the safety of the ferry window

And finally - crazy group shot!  Just before the Porters headed back home.

We miss the Porters like crazy, and wish they lived even just a little bit closer, but we were SO happy that it all worked out.  Here's to next time!  We love you, Porters!

Stayed tuned for Acts II and III later this week!

(guest post): our trip to New Brunswick

Grandpa and Linden pose for a picture

Hello! its Juniper here this week: so, on Monday me, mom, and Linden, left for New Brunswick, then mom kept going to Vancouver, while dad left to the arctic, the next day. I had to take all of the pictures this week, so, welcome!

An old bear den!

So most of the photos are from Grandma and Grandpa's, but some are from Fredericton, too.

we get a ride in grandpa's new tractor.

I KNOW! so cool right?  well, you are not seeing

anything yet!

here are two pictures of the hay baler at grandma and grandpa's

still MORE hay!

on Tuesday, august 8, we went to saint john, went to the museum,
and went on a boat ride!

this photo was, in fact, taken by grandma.

when we got to Fredericton, we went to Deb and Yvon's, and did a LOT of pottery....

And then we went to Mary and Bob's, and went to a camp at the Small Craft Aquatic Centre:

Now we are home!

my first cucumber!

Linden's first big carrot!

Madly off in all directions...

Willing the pumpkins to offer a flower

I am offering a short little post today, written from the sunroom at my parents' house in Fredericton.  This is the beginning of some rather ridiculous simultaneous adventures for all four of us: 

1) Clark leaves this morning for a couple of weeks of fieldwork in the Arctic (The Northwest Passage, to be exact).  This is one of the big projects he took over when he got hired at BIO, and he will be acting as lead scientist, collecting data from a Coast Guard ship called the Larson.  He is, as you can imagine, both excited and nervous.

2) As it so happens, this week is also when my sister Andrea, who lives in Vancouver, will be undergoing radiation treatment for a cancerous thyroid tumour she had removed some months ago. Therefore I leave tomorrow for Vancouver, to hang out with my new little nephew Jacob while Andrea is in quarantine (she'll literally be radioactive for a week or two, and therefore can't be anywhere near Jacob).  We'll be joined a bit later by our younger sister Faye, who no one gets to see all that often, as she lives in Sierra Leone.  So it will no doubt be quite the party!  

3)  This leaves the kids to get bounced around between their three sets of grandparents.  Right now they are at the farm, and apparently don't miss us at all.  Bill (ie, Grandpa) has informed me that Juniper has already had birthday party #3 (she just believes this is her due, having a summer birthday, and all), both kids have caught some fish, and have had good sleeps.  They are undoubtedly happy as clams.  He sent me this photo:

Look how happy she is!

They will head to Fredericton next week - first with Deborah and Yvon, and then with my parents.  They will also be going to a week of "adventure camp" at the small craft aquatic centre, which Linden has been talking about non-stop. I hope it lives up to expectations!

Anyway, I'll leave you with the little assortment of photos from this past week: the first two are from a short but sweet little visit we had on Wednesday afternoon with our friend Matt.  He lives in Glasgow, and is visiting the Maritimes for a bit of holiday - I picked him up from the airport, and we got a few hours with him before he headed off to New Brunswick.  Linden, in particular, took a real shining to him, quizzing him on his "favourite things" so as to make him a book:

Snuggled right up, and explaining the book

Group shot!

And finally, some pictures of the garden, in its current glory.  In particular, notice the leaf stones, with clover now growing up  in between them.  I love the result!

Juniper's cucumbers

Linden's carrots

Clark's feet for reference (that was one of the bigger stones - very heavy!)

Magical little path between the beds. So much more lovely than mud!

I may or may not be back next week, but certainly there will be some photos and stories to share when we all get back to Halifax!