Newfoundland 2012 - Part 4 (By the Sea)

For the penultimate installment of the Newfoundland vacation, we focus on the geography of this beautiful island. Well, mostly the ocean, but there's some green stuff in there too.

Gerry and Barb's house in Holyrood is located within walking distance of the Atlantic ocean, and there are some really scenic spots all around them. These first shots show Lucas and his Poppy checking some of them out.

One of the coolest things about the bay that they are at in the above pictures is that there were whales surfacing only a few hundred feet from them. It may be business as usual for the residents of the area, but I gotta admit, I was pretty thrilled to see whales in the wild. It's one thing to see them on TV, or to a lesser extent, on a cruise designed for that purpose, but to be able to see them in the water within walking distance of the house? I think I ended up going back to that spot 2 or 3 times during the trip. I have a photo and a video of the whales below. I just wish they did a better job at showing how close the whales actually were.

For what it's worth, I have no idea what kinds of whales those are. If there are any experts in whale science reading this, feel free to comment on the genus and species.

This is just Lucas throwing a rock in the water. Not Lucas throwing a rock at a whale.

I took these next three shots to show the view I had from the bay when I looked right, straight forward, and left, respectively. I didn't think to bring good shoes during this trip, but next time, I want to hike up that hill on the right.

This video is another shot of the bay, but this time I'm standing on the left side so you can see the beach where we spent most of our time.





A couple of family shots from the Bay of Whales (I'm sure it has a better name than that)...actually, I just looked it up on Google Maps, and it's called Chapel's Cove. I like Bay of Whales better, but to each their own.

Finally, this photo was taken from the backyard of Marilu's aunt and uncle's place, which is located 30-45 minutes northwest of Holyrood. You may have to click on the photo to see the details, but I was absolutely amazed at the view. I've never been to the Scandinavian countries, but the land out there in the water reminds me of what I think fjords would look like. Or smaller versions of the White Cliffs of Dover in England. Whatever the case, I was really impressed and spent several minutes on their back deck admiring the scenery.

Next post will wrap up the Newfoundland trip. After that, I guess I'll play a little catch-up with older photos from 2012. We haven't taken many photos in the last month or two so I'll have to get on that while we explore the spring and summer.

Newfoundland 2012 - Part 3 (Around the House)

Although we did do a bit of sightseeing, a large portion of our Newfoundland trip was spent in Holyrood at Marilu's parents' house. As such, the theme of this post is "Hangin' around the house."

These first few photos were taken during the week I wasn't there so I'm not totally sure what's going on in some of them. Obviously, Lucas is playing in the backyard, and he apparently had a bucket to collect stuff with. I'm a true master of the obvious, folks.

Bored? Go down to the basement and play ball!

Bingo time with Marilu and Lucas!

What a cute smile on Lucas in this one.

Sometimes we can be serious for a photo.

Other times? Less so.

And finally, a video of Lucas playing soccer with his Poppy in the front yard. Based on Marilu's comments in the background, this is a decidedly rare occurrence for her dad.

Newfoundland 2012 - Part 2 (Signal Hill)

Since I haven't really had a chance to do the tourist thing much in my previous trips to Newfoundland, we made more of an effort this time. Of course, no trip to St John's is complete without seeing Signal Hill, which overlooks the harbor.

One of the things they do at Signal Hill is re-enact an attack by the dirty French soldiers. Below you can see some pictures of the Canadian soldiers in uniform as well as their encampment.

Rather than be lazy and drive to the top, we decided to make the short hike up the trail. You can get an idea of how much we walked via the previous picture. That's the tower up at the top of the picture.

We were able to get several nice pictures on the trail, and as you can see, there is quite a scenic view of downtown St. John's.

Finally, a couple of close pictures of the main draw, Cabot Tower.

If you look real closely at the last picture, you can see Marilu and Lucas at the top of the tower. This was our second visit to Signal Hill, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting St John's.

Newfoundland 2012 - Part 1 (The Family Photos)

This past July, Marilu and Lucas headed out to Newfoundland for their annual summer visit. What made this trip a little different is that I joined them a week or so later. Overall, we had a good time as we were able to mix relaxing around the house with some touristy stuff. I'll get to the scenic photos shortly, but I want to start off with family photos. We took some great pictures of Lucas with various members of Marilu's family, and we may as well show them off.

Not much to say here. I like to think of this entry as a mini family portrait album so feel free to download and forward these to other family members who don't check out the blog regularly.

Up next, hangin' at the house!

About time

For those of you who have been anticipating the Newfoundland photos, I've started organizing them for upload tonight and should have the first post up sometime tomorrow. 

That is all.

Best. Picture. Ever.

In the five years of Lucas's existence, this is likely my favorite picture of him. It's from a while back, March actually, and it was taken while we waited in the examination room at the doctor's office for some malady or another. None of this is staged--it was all his doing--which is what makes it so great. Rather than talk any more about it, I'll step back and let you revel in its majesty.

Halloween 2012

The fates were conspiring to prevent Halloween this year. First, Hurricane Sandy was supposed to drop a bunch of rain on us today, but all we ended up getting was a light sprinkle early in the day. Then Lucas came home from school with a fever, and it looked like trick or treating was a no go. However, some children's Advil and what I suspect was a fair amount of adrenaline gave him the push to get out there and collect chocolate bars and chips from nearly every house on our street.

Here he is costume, right before Marilu took him trick or treating. I've taken him every other year so we figured she deserved to go this time.

He did end up vomiting in bed around 10:30 PM, and I'm sure the candy he ate when he got home had something to do with it, but for now, I'm going to mainly blame his fever.

Happy Halloween!

Saunders Farm with the Grandparents

Here are the rest of the pictures from my mom and Kevin's visit last week. On Saturday, they took advantage of this unseasonably good weather (please no snow this winter, ok, Canada?) and brought Lucas to Saunders Farm.

At the gas station on the way to Saunders Farm. Gotta love the crazy new 'do.

According to this, he is now two and a half gourds tall.

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but for quite a while now (4-5 months?), Lucas has had a strong interest in jewels, stones, and anything else that could be described as "treasure." He even has a box in his room where he stores any shiny objects that he finds or that someone gives him.

At Saunders Farm, they have a water trough that emulates panning for gold (or minerals, in this case). You can buy various-sized bags of sand and then use a sifter to discover what lies within. We've never done it in past visits, but I guess it was far and away Lucas's favorite thing during this latest trip. He didn't even bother doing the bouncy pillows, which is a must do when I go.

Showing off the results of his hard work.

One of the biggest draws at Saunders Farm is their mazes. Off the top of my head, I'd say they have between 10 and 15 different types of mazes. Apparently, there is a new one this year, a music maze. I haven't been through it yet since I only went to Saunders once this year, but based on the pictures my mom took, it looks interesting. The highlight, though, is a video of Lucas playing the xylophone and singing his ABCs. You can't help but laugh toward the end where he gets overexcited and accidentally whacks himself in the head with the mallet.



The obligatory cute picture of Lucas with pumpkins. It's hard to believe that's the same kid you see here.