Wednesday August 13 , 2014
LIFE'S A BEACH
So today we are up early. We all love the beach and can't wait to get there on this gloriously warm, sunny day. Up to this point, it has been mostly sunny but quite chilly but somehow today it is perfect sand between the toes weather. Rob goes to pick up the rental car, as we are not crazy enough to lumber around the narrow country roads to the beach in our behemoth. Rob returns with a you-know-what-eating grin on his face. Our car is an exact replica of the one on Breaking Bad. I have to be told this by my husband and son because I can't watch that show; I'm too much of a lover for that kind of violence.
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| Walter White Skrzypczak |
It's a pleasure to ride in something so compact for a change. The winding roads meander through fishing villages that are quite pretty. I'd like to tell you about the conversation we have in the car, but both teens have their headphones in and Charlie has his head out of the window like the family dog as he struggles with carsickness. We are glad his head is out of the window. We decide to stop and procure a picnic lunch at a very shady-looking gas/convenience store. For two intelligent beings, we often make surprisingly bad decisions. It takes almost forty minutes for our order to be filled. In the meantime, we watch a parade of 'regulars' march in and out, food in hand. I was not feeling the love. But then...I found a liquor section in the back! We are out of gin (I KNOW!) in the RV and so I pick that up, as well as some local wines, just for fun. Finally, our orders are done and we head off, fish and chips in hand. Also salad because we are going to be in swimsuits and salad makes you skinny...NOT!
We arrive at Crystal Crescent Beach around noon. It is a short walk from the parking lot (past the outhouse) and onto a white sand beach, surrounded by scrub pine and huge rock formations. There are a few people there already and more making the same schlepp as us. The water is Caribbean blue. "Is it warm?" Charlie wants to know. Well, what do you think? After poking our toes in and ascertaining that we are very far north of warm, we decide to eat.
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| Is Peter aware of this impending doom? |
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| Apparently not. |
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| Do not be fooled by the color of this water. |
Fortified, we decide that we must take the plunge. Note to Mom: we do not wait 30 minutes. I stop at the edge, watching Charlie and Rob go bravely forward. It's not the cold that has me though. There are red jelly fish and lots of them. I stand and stare. Then, something amazing happens. A young girl picks one out of the water, flip-flops it back and forth in her hands a few times, then casually throws it back in. Hmmm. I surmise that these red jelly fish do not sting. Okay. Deep breath and then...oh wait. I have the waterproof case on the GoPro. It's named (adorably) the Floaty Bac. By the time I retrieve it, Rob's out of the water and Mary's going in. I run and plunge, as that's the only way to do cold water, then decide to test out the camera's underwater capabilities.
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| My own Little Mermaid. |
Pretty cool, huh? It also did video, but this platform doesn't seem to support that but if you go to a sink right now and splash around a bit, you'll get the full effect.
After our swim, the slugs tuck in for a nap in the sun while Mary and I decide to go for a hike to explore the other two beaches in the park. On our way to the third one, we meet a petite blonde lady in a killer bikini. She's gotta be at least sixty. You go girl! She stops us to ask where we are going. Good thing. It turns out the next beach is a nude beach. We don't want to know the country that intimately, so we thank her and turn back, receiving odd stares from those heading toward us. Crisis averted. Later in the afternoon, Peter disappears for quite some time. I wonder if he found that third beach?
On the way home, we stop at a market and pick up fresh haddock. The freshest, as it comes right from the Bay of Fundy. I grill it with some lemon and butter and we eat like kings. It's actually sweet! After dinner, we have s'mores by the campfire and then waddle into the RV. Tomorrow we are having lunch and a bit of shopping in Halifax and then heading to our penultimate destination: St. Johns, New Brunswick.
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| The smile says it all. |
