Race and Picnic

After cleaning in the temple Tuesday to Thursday  and having a relaxing day on Friday, today was a very busy day.

It was the Cole Harbour Fall Festival today and in conjunction with the festival there was a 6 mile race and a 2 mile race.  All of Nathan's family and Bob were registered - all in the 2 mile except Orson.  Tara ran by herself and was the first family member to finish.  Nathan ran with Lochlan (in the stroller) and Liam while Bob and Keaton ran together.  It was a good day for a race as it wasn't too hot.  There was a cool breeze blowing.

 Keaton and Bob at the Finish Line

 Orson at the Finishing Line

 Liam After the Race

Where was Lochlan?

In the afternoon there was a Dartmouth Ward Picnic held at Oakfield Provincial Park (about a half hour from Dartmouth).  It turned out to be an enjoyable event - the park was beautiful.  The breeze was quite cool when the sun went behind the clouds.

Foggy Labour Day

September already.  Hard to believe. 

We had four days at the Temple after we returned from Newfoundland.  Jessica left on the Friday so we have the house to ourselves.  Sunday we had supper with Nathan and family and stayed with the younger boys while Nathan, Tara and Orson went to the Bishop's fireside.

The Temple is closed for cleaning for two weeks.  We were there cleaning Monday to Wednesday.  Wednesday evening we were at Nathan's while he, Tara, Orson and Liam went to the latest Harry Potter movie.  Thursday we attended Zone Conference.

Friday morning we drove to the Londonderry area looking for information from tombstones.  After taking the wrong roads and visiting Debert and Great Village we finally made it to Londonderry.  There were three graveyards that I wanted to visit (Londonderry, Acadia Mines and Folly Mountain).  Folly Mountain and Acadia Mines are still on the map but there is nothing at Folly Mountain and I am not sure about Acadia Mines.  There was a post office at Londonderry.  We visited three cemeteries, but there must be another one somewhere in the area because we couldn't find tombstones for everyone that I wanted.

The Londonderry grave yard was called Hillcrest Cemetery and was down a narrow lane through the trees next to the river.  However it was well kept.

We found  a small cemetery next to a vacant church that had had the sign removed.  I don't know if this was Acadia Mines or not.



We had given up on Folly Mountain Cemetery, but as we started for home there was a cemetery in the middle of nowhere at the side of the highway and it turned out to be the Folly Mountain cemetery.

Although it was incorporated in 1965 it had stones back in the 1800's.

We decided to go back to Dartmouth by way of Tatamagouche and see the place where my cousin, Maggie, worked when she was in Nova Scotia a few years back.  It is a gift shop and tea room.  We had lunch there and visited with Suzy Belt, one of the owners.

 Beautiful View from Sunrise Mercantile

House Where Maggie Lived

Saturday we cleaned house all day.  I usually clean on Mondays, but we had been away the last three Mondays so there was lots to do.  In the evening we went to Nathan's for supper.

We have had beautiful weather for the most part the last few weeks.  Yesterday morning there was fog which burned off in the afternoon and today there is fog again.  I plan on catching up on ironing today.

Newfoundland - Tuesday (August 23)

The fog lasted overnight and all morning in St. John's.  We spent a relaxing morning at the hotel.  After dinner we wandered around downtown and looked in some of the shops and made our way back to the hotel along the waterfront.

 

A cruise ship was in the harbour and all the ships had signs welcoming the tourists from the ship.

The fog was still lifting off Signal Hill.

 

Later we went to the airport for the flight back to Halifax.  Porter Air serves beverages  in a glass glass, serves a sandwich and salad at suppertime (no charge), has leg room and doesn't charge for luggage - at least not for one checked bag.

Now we have been in all ten provinces!

Newfoundland - Monday (22 Aug)

Monday we spent a pleasant day with Donald, Diane & Don Jr.  They picked us up at the hotel at 9:30 a.m. and Diane, Bob and I squeezed into the backseat of Don's Honda.

Our first visit was to Signal Hill.  We went to the top where we climbed to the top of Cabot Tower.  Marconi's first overseas radio signal was sent from Signal Hill to Ireland.  We also went to the Geo Center which is underneath Signal Hill.

 Macaroni's Radio Equipment (not the computers)

After looking at the displays in the Geo Center, we went downtown and had lunch at Velma's Cafe.  Our next stop was "The Rooms" which houses the Provincial Archives and Museum.  I was wishing I had some Newfoundland roots so I could go into the Archives to do research but instead I wandered through the Art Gallery and the Museum and found out a bit about Newfoundland history.

St. John's Basilica was across the road from The Rooms and it had some beautiful stained glass windows.

It was now time to visit Moo Moos to have an ice cream cone before heading off the Quidi Vidi (pronounced Kitty Vitti by the locals).  Allthough we visited there both Sunday and Monday it was the last sight of the day and pictures weren't taken.  However, here is some advertising about Quidi Vidi.

We had supper at an Asian Cafe.  It advertised Koren, Japanese and Chinese food.  The Manager had gone to university in Qingdao.

As we were driving to the hotel, the fog suddenly started to roll in.

By the time we got to the hotel the harbour was totally covered in fog.

Newfoundland - Sunday

The church was six miles from our hotel so we took a cab to get there.  The cab driver told us how expensive housing was becoming and it was difficult to find even an affordable apartment.

At church we met several young couples who were from Alberta, some of them selling alarm systems for the summer. The parents of one girl was visiting from Taber and is in the same ward as Sue-anne.  One of the men was from Calgary and had taught Lincoln in primary.  Annother couple was from Lethbridge - the son of Dave and Ann Richards.

A lady that I had met in Dartmouth last spring when she was helping her mother after an illness invited us to her home for lunch and then she and her husband took us on a three hour tour of the area.  We drove past an area that had large new homes and were told that the owners were either crab fisherman or workers from Fort McMurray.

We visited Petty Harbour, a picturesque fishing village.  There were many people there as they were having an Arts Festival that day.

From Petty Harbour we went to cape Spear - the farthest east point in North America.  The sea was a beautiful greenish blue colour that day.

We drove around the harbour.  On one side of the harbour they were getting ready to film a scene for the "The Republic of Doyle".  It was to be a car chase.  There were many police and police cars and people as we went by.