Monday, July 14, 2008
Vacation
With perfect, sunny, warm weather on our side, we had a wonderful family vacation and some much needed downtime. We spent the first few days visiting my family in Sackville, New Brunswick, taking in the opening days of Festival By the Marsh. It is an art-oriented festival, but the shining moment for us was the visit by Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder - Spunky was SO excited to see Bob. He is only 15 months old, but already can form a discernible "Yes We Can!"
We left our greyhound, Sprite, at her 2-acre retirement ranch (a.k.a. Bubby's House) for a little break from the kids (greyhounds, and their incredibly lazy nature, sometimes just want to be left alone!), spent the day in Pugwash with Scotian's family on the beach, and after supper, headed back to the city to repack and get ready for the next leg of our adventure: Annapolis Royal.
Scotian and I had somehow never managed to visit this little town on the Bay of Fundy. We both love heritage architecture and find history fascinating, and it was just far enough away to feel like a vacation, while being close enough that traveling wouldn't overwhelm the kids.
We booked a room at a lovely B&B called the Dragonfly Inn, which had a perfect backyard to entertain the kids: lots of room to run! The Inn itself was quite lovely and within walking distance to all of the sights of Annapolis Royal. With Scotian and I both having backgrounds in Engineering, we visited the Tidal Generating Station, a fascinating structure harnessing the power of the Bay of Fundy Tides to generate enough power to supply approximately 4,000 homes - sustainably! Not bad for a town of 400!
After Supper, on the advice of our guide at the generating station, we took the kids to the Fort Anne National Historic Site, in the centre of town.  This is a star-shaped earthen fortress, with lots of rolling hills to help burn off the extra energy the kids had! Standing overlooking the Bay of Fundy, I got the same sense of a place with an intense history - imagining a fleet of tall ships coming up the Bay of Fundy, the Battles that took place on the very spot we were standing, and the sheer force of the breeze coming in off the water. It reminded me very much of my childhood in Sackville and visiting Fort Beausejour. It's a feeling that simply makes you feel like you've come home. I opened my arms to the wind and just enjoyed the cool feeling of wind on my face.
The next morning, we woke up to rain showers that turned into heavy rains. Despite the rain, it was still a calm, comfortable day, so we dressed in our rain coats, grabbed our umbrellas, and visited the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. The roses were in full bloom, and the low pressure made their scent linger all the more. It was an amazing morning, the fun feeling of playing in the rain puddles, just like when we were kids. And of course, the kids LOVED it!
By noon, the rain had cleared off, so after a nice lunch, we tackled the next historic site: Port Royal. The kids are a bit young to appreciate that this is the first European Settlement in North America, but they enjoyed the afternoon all the same. It was nice to revisit this place - it had been 20 years since my last visit.
After a yummy meal at the Fort Anne Cafe, we packed the kids into their jammies, snuggled them into their carriers, and hiked up to Fort Anne to take in the highly recommended candle light graveyard tour. Now, it might seem like an odd thing to do with two small children, but it came so highly recommended that we simply couldn't miss it - and I'm glad we didn't! It was a phenomenal performance by Alain Melanson, 10th generation Acadian, and a wonderful lesson in the Town's history!
We were sad to leave the little town, but I'm sure we'll be back again next year! A perfect little getaway, to a progressive yet historically-minded environmentally conscious little town Down by the Bay!Labels: family
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